TAGGERIFIC
It turns out these last few weeks of NXT have been pretty interesting. Bookers being forced to use talent that aren't the top two guys in the singles division has made a couple of good things pop up as well as a couple of... lame things... as well. One of those good things though...
JASON JORDAN & CHAD GABLE vs. STEVE CUTLER & ELIAS SAMSON
Two NXT weeks in a row Gable has been in my headline picture. I've been hyped to see him since I heard a lot of good stuff from house show reports. A smaller, more underdog-esque version of Kurt Angle that doesn't seem like an awful rehash, but a still somewhat unique wrestler inspired by him. That's a much better description of Gable than "Kurt Angle clone" to be honest.
I do remember him having a match some months ago and getting a nice reaction from the nerds in the crowd, but that wasn't a proper debut like this, which was done very, very well throughout the last few weeks. Good job bookers, now if only you actually did care for more than just one or two non-indie talents... Or at least more than one tag team.
Anyway, enough of Gable, there were three other guys in the match. I'm still cold on Jordan. He has some freakish strength and that's interesting enough but sadly for him he's gonna need more than just that and his amateur wrestling skill to get over, as he has already taken a backseat to Gable. Steve Cutler is jobbing again, but I haven't heard shit about him and he didn't look good in the match at all so he's just there. Samson still getting some props from commentary and still looks like he could have a genuine shot at being someone, so here's hoping he works out.
The toss-over bridging back suplex (or "aided back suplex" I guess) was fantastic. The camera definitely has to be placed right for it to look good though. If it's too far away and not in a good position it'd just look like Jordan is passing the opponent over, as opposed to completely throwing him a couple feet. Lovely bridge too. Close to Darren Young for 2nd best bridge behind Alicia Foxx.
SAMOA JOE vs. AXEL TISCHER
Someone needs to explain to me the point of this match. Samoa Joe, star-studded, world-renowned, Samoa Joe, so big he didn't need to change his name, has to showcase his lack of a moveset against a jobber? And that jobber isn't even surprisingly large to make Joe look strong? Yea I don't see the point at all. Waste of TV time and a waste of Joe too. Inexcusable.
BARON CORBIN IN A NON WRESTLING APPEARANCE
Before I got behind Bo Dallas as a character, I really hated the idea that the bookers would just flat out turn a guy based on their negative reaction instead of trying to fix the faults. But, I realised for Bo Dallas as well as CJ Parker, it was the right call. They went from uninteresting (and in Parker's case, completely unsalvageable) shitty faces to entertaining heels.
Whether this is the right move for Corbin is questionable though. He was definitely over as a face at one point, but, like I always say, clearly the nerds at Full Sail got pissy because he didn't have a good match with Bull Dempsey of all people. Bookers should be tackling this awfully retarded expectation people have, instead of taking advantage of their misplaced anger, because that's the stuff that can kill careers.
At least the execution is okay though. Sheamus-ish in the sense he just hates everyone the crowd likes, but maybe he'll do it better than Sheamus. Probably works better that Corbin isn't a good wrestler, whereas Sheamus is.
BLAKE & MURPHY (w/ ALEXA BLISS) vs. SAWYER FULTON & ANGELO DAWKINS
THE entrance is still a thing so I still can't believe anyone can hate the dubstep cowboys ayyy.
No point to this match either. Ask me why the Ascension were shit, other than their lack of fucking wrestling ability, and I'll say because they just squashed jobbers. BAM are doing less than that. They're having competitive-ish matches with jobbers. There's no goddamn point.
And then the end of the match shows how Bliss is clealy more of a priority than the tag team champions. She gets the "COOL!" moment. Far out.
SAMI ZAYN UPDATES EVERYONE ON INJURY
Bayley kept it to like twenty seconds. Why couldn't Zayn? For fuck sake that promo took forever. Kinda speaks volumes when not even the women - who are booked exceptionally well on NXT - can't get the length of time one of the big indie names gets just to update people on their injury. I'm not against the idea of someone telling everyone they'll be out for ages, but damn, no need to take up so much time talking the same shit everyone already knows either.
ANOTHER RECAP OF BALOR vs. OWENS
THIS IS A WASTE OF FUCKING TIME!
CHARLOTTE vs. SASHA BANKS (c)
For the NXT Women's Championship
'pretty good'
Me liking a Sasha Banks match? Colour me surprised, etc etc.
I wouldn't put this match up against any of the past four divas matches. Bayley vs. Charlotte, Sasha vs. Charlotte, the Fatal Four Way and Becky vs. Sasha were all better than this, but this was still a great example of what these women can do even in a random throwaway episode. It's nice that we can still see a decent match outside of the BIG FIVE(+/-) on a non-TakeOver episode of NXT.
Some very nice submission work in this match, but it's far from Becky vs. Sasha. And I think Charlotte is becoming very formulaic in her matches already. There are some spots that are repeated a lot in every match of hers and I feel a very Cena-ish vibe from it. Where Sasha has a handful of spots, they're very unique, whereas Charlotte has way more spots she does regularly, barely any are unique.
Overall the biggest problem I had with the match was the reliance on the use of corners for the first half or more. It seemed as if half of the match for the first half was confined in corners, which kinda sucked and dragged, but it picked up later on.
Regardless, Charlotte had a great powerbomb spot I definitely didn't expect from her, despite Sasha probably weighing like 100lbs. It looked great. The only gripe I have is that Sasha seems to take big bumps the same way all the time, but at least they always look good because of the effort.
I lol'd at Charlotte's extensions falling out.
And I grimaced at the torque put on the BANK STATEMENT as well. Shit was intense.
Great finish with Charlotte yet again tapping out. It's lovely to see that a strong face character can deal with actually tapping out and giving up. None of that Cena nonsense.
Also fuck the hug, god damn it. They knew they were going to debut on Raw and they did that? And they televised it afterwards? Come on, it's not an alternate universe. Jeez. (This is where the title comes from. They forgot they were on Raw. Which is the MAIN roster... Right?!)
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