The NXT Thread: It Must Breakk You

[Jack-Hammer]

I thought this week's episode of NXT was a killer. Excitement and interest from beginning to end.

Io Shirai wins a squash match handily that highlights this new sadistic streak of hers. I was also glad to see Candice LeRae come out to attack her, after she'd started beating down her defenseless opponent, as this means there's more to come from them. I thought they stole the show at TakeOver: Toronto and would love to see them go at it again.

They did some really nice video segments and interviews featuring Johnny Gargano and Pete Dunne, I'm perfectly fine with Dunne staying around NXT for a while though I don't know where Gargano is going. He's done everything there is to do in NXT and while you hate the risk of him heading to Raw or SmackDown, due to fear of Vince just misusing the hell out of him, it's still probably time for him to move somewhere else.

Keith Lee vs. Dominic Dijakovic was a spectacular hoss fight featuring two big mean beating the hell out of each other and showing off some great athleticism. Dijakovic's out there doing back flips over the top rope and countering powerbomb attempts by flipping and landing, mostly, on his feet while Keith Lee overpowers him at various points during the match and actually performs a Spanish Fly on Dijakovic off the top. Pretty damn sick looking. The end comes a little before the 11 minute mark with Lee once more perched on the top rope, maybe looking to set up a moonsault, which Dijakovic hit on him earlier, while selling the effects of DD's offense. Dijakovic clips his knee and hoists him off the top turnbuckle into the Torture Rack position to deliver Feast Your eyes for the win. ****1/4

Shayna Baszler comes out with Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir but are soon interrupted by Rhea Ripley from NXT UK. Ripley rips into her for a bit, calls her a bitch, and declares that even if she has beaten every woman in NXT, which she has, that she hasn't beaten her. Works just fine for me as these two could deliver a very fun, very physical outing. Still don't believe she's dropping the title, I see them waiting on that for a while longer, possibly for Candice LeRae or someone completely new.

The main event featured the Street Profits defending the NXT Tag Team Championship against Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly of the Undisputed Era. As expected, it was a strong, energetic tag team match with all four men working hard to deliver a great bout. While not on the level of their last encounter in Toronto, it was still a helluva TV main event. After managing to hit their finisher, Fish and O'Reilly pick up the clean win and make history as the first 3 time NXT Tag Team Champions. ***3/4

So yeah, some great wrestling, some interesting stuff going on in the women's division and further ground laid for future programs. Show definitely gets an A this week in my eyes.

[klunderbunker]

NXT
Date: August 28, 2019
Location: Full Sail University, Winter Park, Florida
Commentators: Mauro Ranallo, Beth Phoenix, Nigel McGuinness

We’re down to three weeks to go before the big switch over and tonight we have what might be the last title match on the hour long version. That would be the Street Profits defending the Tag Team Titles against the Undisputed Era as the Era’s quest for all the gold continues. Let’s get to it.

Click on the link below for the full review.

As Good As It Gets

[klunderbunker]

NXT
Date: September 4, 2019
Location: Full Sail University, Winter Park, Florida
Commentators: Mauro Ranallo, Nigel McGuinness, Beth Phoenix

We’re running out of hour long shows around here with just two weeks to go before the big move to USA. Since NXT likes to cover a lot of things, we’re getting one more NXT Title match out of the old format as Adam Cole defends against Breakout Tournament winner Jordan Myles. Let’s get to it.

Click on the link below for the full review.

Checking All The Boxes

[#AbsoluteUnit]

I'm pumped to see Rhea Ripley next week!

[klunderbunker]

NXT
Date: September 11, 2019
Location: Full Sail University, Winter Park, Florida
Commentators: Mauro Ranallo, Beth Phoenix, Nigel McGuinness

This is where things wrap up for the old era of NXT, with the show moving over to the USA Network next week (for half of it at least as the second half will be airing on the WWE Network for the first two weeks). We’re going out with a champion in action as Shayna Baszler faces Rhea Ripley in a non-title match. Let’s get to it.

Click on the link below for the full review.

Please Don't Go?

[Jack-Hammer]

Last night saw the end of an era in which NXT will air exclusively on the WWE Network. It expands to two hours next week with the first hour being shown on the USA Network while the second hour is shown on the network. It'll be the same format for the 9/25 episode of NXT as well due to the USA Network showing a two part series finale of the show "Suits." Both hours of NXT will be shown on USA beginning October 2, the same night AEW debuts on TNT.

If NXT does well in the ratings, Triple H remains in control and all that other good stuff, the one slight problem is that now we'll have to deal with an NXT that has to go to commercial during matches. They have to take commercials obviously, it'll just take a little getting used to.

Some other things that are changing could involve the TakeOver specials. According to a report from earlier this week, there won't be a TakeOver during the Royal Rumble weekend. For the last few years when it comes to the original big four WWE PPVs, you'd have TakeOver on Saturday, the WWE PPV on Sunday, Raw on Monday and SmackDown on Tuesday. This time around, there's going to be a Worlds Collide special featuring wrestlers from NXT, NXT UK, 205 Live and maybe some main roster participation. There will still be TakeOver specials but the report says the new schedule isn't finalized and some reports state that WWE feels NXT TakeOver events don't really have to be part of the big four event.

[#AbsoluteUnit]

This time around, there's going to be a Worlds Collide special featuring wrestlers from NXT, NXT UK, 205 Live and maybe some main roster participation.

I'm going to take a hard pass on that. Nothing against the guys who'll be on the show, but I wasn't a fan of the first WWE Worlds Collide show.


By the way, continuing on that this is an NXT Thread, Rhea vs Shayna should've gotten more time last night, and not end in a lame DQ.

[Storm Trooper]

I'm going to take a hard pass on that. Nothing against the guys who'll be on the show, but I wasn't a fan of the first WWE Worlds Collide show.


By the way, continuing on that this is an NXT Thread, Rhea vs Shayna should've gotten more time last night, and not end in a lame DQ.

She's gonna probably be inserted intot he multi-person match for next week, and she will end up getting the shot at the Takeover. Where she wins the belt.

I was heavily debating a travel package for the Rumble, but now I'm just gonna buy everything a la carte. I highly expect this Worlds Collide to be a major event (maybe NXT vs. NXT UK with the big stars) but the lack of knowledge about this is rather disappointing.

[Jack-Hammer]

I'm going to take a hard pass on that. Nothing against the guys who'll be on the show, but I wasn't a fan of the first WWE Worlds Collide show.

My guess is that there's a strategic reason for this and that it has something to do with AEW. There's been talk of NXT doing six TakeOver specials next year and it wouldn't surprise me if WWE purposely decides to hold TakeOver specials on the same night AEW will do a PPV. The purpose in that would be to try to cut AEW off at the knees where you'll be paying $50+ for AEW as opposed to a $10 monthly fee for the WWE Network where you'll get all the TakeOver specials.

That's pure speculation on my part, I could be completely wrong but it does strike me as something I could see Vince doing. Whether AEW wants it or not, they have a fight on their hands and Vince is taking it directly to them, though it might blow up in his face if fans really just connect with AEW.

By the way, continuing on that this is an NXT Thread, Rhea vs Shayna should've gotten more time last night, and not end in a lame DQ.

NXT does a slow burn all the time, it's one of the many things that's made it so much fun to watch. They ultimately did what they meant to by establishing Rhea as someone that's gonna be hard for Shayna to deal with. In most cases, and I think Mauro might have touched on this, Shayna's not only had the technical superiority against her opponents, but also the power advantage and that's not the case here. She's got the edge technically while Rhea comes off as this hard hitting scrapper. As to their DQ ending, I would've preferred them to just be really going at outside the ring, the ref counts them out, they just keep at each other, they're separated, they break loose and keep at it, etc. but what's most important to me is that they protected both women. NXT strenuously protects its champions, you almost never see a champion get pinned in non-title matches or come off looking weak as a means of setting up a future championship match. Neither came off as having a particular advantage over the other when Shafir and Duke interfered, so it still worked just fine for me.

Since Rhea did technically lose, I'd like to see her be left out of the multi-woman match and maybe use that to build something of a chip on her shoulder. Rhea shouldn't be a "good girl" as everything about her look and demeanor screams full fledged heel or tweener. Build her up for a while longer, let Baszler, most likely, get by whomever her next opponent is and then give Rhea her moment.

[Psykohurricane]

For people living in the U.S, this will be the start of a interesting time for wrestling next week. NXT move to cable television and try to get more fans watching the product in the same way. Then in Three week, AEW start airing on TNT and try to be competition for WWE. This is a weird move as they are alienating their international fans just so they could counter program AEW.

This is the thing thought, just like the monday night wars, only U.S. wrestling fans gets to experience it as fans outside of the U.S. couldn't care less about this since we're not on getting AEW and NXT will still be playing on the Network the following day so it's just a matter of changing are viewing pattern.

As far as Takeover specials are concern, i kinda see it this way, i feel like they have the thinking that with the new mainstream exposure to the product, maybe the brand will become strong enough to not have to piggyback off the IWC audience that goes to the big 4 ppv and maybe by exposing it to another audience, they might not get a repeat of what happened in toronto for the last takeover special when they pretty much gave away ticket to make sure the arena was packed.

I don't know what the endgame is and how this will all plan out but something is for sure, while i doubt that WWE is seeing AEW as competition, they are still fighting to get the attention of the IWC audience they have and right now, that's what the wrestling business is. Their not fighting to get to casual fans or the forgotten fans to watch their show but they are fighting to keep us watching and that's pretty much why for us, it's a interesting time in wrestling but outside of our group, nobody cares about wrestling and won't for a very long time.