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DJM

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Shame it’s come to that but the right move - Gibson in particular is far better than being a random henchman. Both will have plenty of work landing in their inboxes soon and hopefully they get to showcase their skills on a big platform again before we know it. 

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Can someone explain the Gigi Dolin ladder spot to me because I watched it at the time and thought I was too drunk but she literally in a ring with nobody around her waits and puts a ladder on her head instead of climbing it to win to occasionally hit someone if they turn up?

I usually will try and find the upside of wrestling but that alone was stupid as fuck.

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As I'm off work this week, had NXT on as background noise whilst cleaning the kitchen.

Was intrigued by the (debuting on "proper" NXT, I think) Luca Crucifino attorney character.

Seems like it could be fun on it's own, but don't think it's a coincidence they have given him an Eye-talian name even though I don't think that's his actual heritage (real name Roman Macek, so assume Eastern European ancestry?), hinting then revealing that he's Tom Hagen (also not Italian, I know) to the D'angelo Family could be interesting.

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👍 Heel Bronson. I’m up for it. Surprised they went straight into the turn after the PLE and didn’t tease it for a couple more weeks, but I’m still down for it. 

👍 Dragon Lee vs Nathan Frazer was a lovely little ripper. Great showcase for the former in particular. Also, Naom Dar is a funny fellow. 

👍 Pretty Deadly are the bollocks. The gear, the personas, decent in the ring and getting better all the time. Love how they’ve taken on the ‘Ooh I’m scared!’ finger gesture from Scott Hall as well. 

👍 Wes Lee/Axiom - Fun sprint. I liked Wes’ pre-match promo as well. Very good transition into his singles role for him. 

👍 Ivy Nile gives me ‘Ronda Rousey when she used to be good and motivated’ vibes. 

👍 Looking forward to Ilja Dragonov battering the living daylights out of Von Wagner next week. Hopefully the latter gets his P45 afterwards. 

👍 Dijak’s entrance is alright actually. Also got 'Lex Luger wrestling with t-shirt vibes' with his little promo at the end. 

👎 Gallus are very, very boring. Joe Coffey returning now makes them even more boring. Two shit catchphrases as well. ‘Gallus Boys On Top’ and ‘This is OUR Kingdom!’ are properly naff. 

👎 I know all of WWE’s crew have had a long weekend and the ladies are working off the back of a ladder match, but Indi Hartwell and Zoey Stark were working with all the force of an ant passing wind. If they’re knackered, don’t put them out there and just set it up for next week instead. Not every match has to be as physical as a Gunther slapfest, but come on girls, do a Dua Lipa and let’s get physical. Pants finish as well. Cora Jade though, fair enough. 

👎 Booker T on co-comms. Fucking hell. Earsore. 

Overall, definitely some good parts. Better than Raw this week at the very least. 

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👍 Main event four-way - Action-packed from bell to bell with plenty going on to keep you hooked. Huge performance here from Duke Hudson in particular who I think just worked his best NXT bout to date - proper shift. Waller vs Mello for the NXT strap is going to be an absolutely great title feud to take the brand forward depending on how long they want to run it for. 

 👍 Chase U/Breakker business - If they’re going to keep young Bronson out of the title picture for now, this was a surprisingly effective way to further establish his turn against another popular NXT act. What a despicable bastard young Steiner is, spearing poor Andre and ripping up the chase U flag! Other highlights of the segment - Andre almost saying ‘Sorry ass motherfuckers!’ before getting cut off by his comrades mid-sentence, the sign in the crowd saying ‘Big Duke Energy’, Duke fleeing with his MVP trophy before he could get attacked by Breakker. Lots to like about this.

👍 Sol Ruca/Tiffany Stratton - Great displays of athleticism and some really nice chemistry between these two in their sequences even if they started to run out of steam a bit towards the conclusion. Both of these guys have potential to be stars on the main roster in the long term. 

👍 Women’s tag titles - Not at all terrible and I appreciated the spice and intensity they all tried to employ, the backstory of the challengers and the dissension in the ranks added some intrigue. Execution wasn’t spot on and Alba Fyre looked like she took a nasty landing on the destroyer (can we bin that move off now? See also - Poison Rana example during the main event) but a good effort. 

👍 Cora Jade and Tiffany Stratton have really come on in terms of their promo game. A lot of NXT interviews and promos come across as quite wooden and rehearsed (because they are learning and they are rehearsing, bless them) - didn’t get those vibes from their output tonight and I think they’ve got tons of potential. 

👍 Drew Gulak sighting! 

👎 Eddy Thorpe squash - Nothing wrong with the majority of the match, but something to address - his finisher looks nowhere near as lethal as some of the rest of his offense. 

👎 Regal Junior (Dempsey) sounds about as comfortable on the mic as someone trying to delicately wipe around an errant hemorrhoid. 

👎 Dragonov/Von Wanker - Dragonov looked the part and the match actually started off ok, but Von Wagner has virtually no redeeming features or qualities. The right man went over. Hopefully Von Wagner fucks off now. 

👎 Dijak’s promos are supposed to radiate intensity, but his delivery is so bad it just makes me laugh.  

👎 Joe Coffey/Tate Ledger - Did its job of re-establishing Coffey and there wasn’t anything bad here, but there simply wasn’t enough to catch the eye and Gallus in general remain an exceptionally dull act. In a fortnight where I’ve watched a mountain of excellent wrestling, an average match without much to crow about isn’t enough to get a thumbs up anymore - there are some far more interesting NXT acts that, for me, could get some TV time. 

👎 There was some tag stuff off the back of this but the tag division is pretty dull overall and a major thing for NXT to address moving forward to try and restore to its former glory. 

Overall - Watch the main event, the Breakker/Chase U bits and Stratton/Ruca, maybe Cora Jade's promo as well but skip the rest. Bit more of a mixed bag this week in terms of quality but there’s still enough enjoyment in this modern version of NXT to keep me invested. Duke Hudson was the MVP this week both in storyline and metaphorically. I’d previously written him off as a Poundshop Hugh Jackman, but he was great on the mic and between the ropes on this show. 

Edited by Fatty Facesitter
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Ruca vs Stratton was very enjoyable. Both women have got bags of talent and could see both doing really well on the main roster. Ruca especially is very fun to watch. 

I'm actually hoping Waller takes the belt and Melo moves on. Melo feels leagues above NXT at this point and Waller could do without another loss for the main one (He should have beaten Bron previously). It's a shame not many people watch NXT anymore, because it does have some really good moments and seems to have turned a corner over recent months. 

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3 hours ago, DavidB6937 said:

I'd say it’s definitely the most ive enjoyed the women's division in quite some time. There's a lot there that they could build the future on. 

Aye, some really strong personalities and some performers that have massively improved from the early days of 2.0. The next division I think that is going through a bit of a transition phase is with men’s tag ranks. It’s not so much a lack of teams but a lack of focus and without much compelling going on. The main roster is similar at the moment but the other way round - the tag titles are probably the most important they’ve ever been, but while the women’s division has some excellent athletes and we’ve had some cracking matches, the stories and PLE build-ups have been a bit scattergun. If Hunter keeps the book, that’s going to be a huge focus for him between now and Wrestlemania in Philly. 

2 hours ago, Nick James said:

Ruca vs Stratton was very enjoyable. Both women have got bags of talent and could see both doing really well on the main roster. Ruca especially is very fun to watch. 

I'm actually hoping Waller takes the belt and Melo moves on. Melo feels leagues above NXT at this point and Waller could do without another loss for the main one (He should have beaten Bron previously). 

It’s going to be interesting to see where they go. My initial impression was that they might call up Breakker for the draft and that this turn and removal from the title picture is essentially a vehicle to push towards that. He‘s been the poster child and already had two title runs since the relaunch, so unless they want him to spend a few more weeks/months really sailing down on his heel persona, you could argue he’s served his time and you can probably move him up and he’ll be relatively comfortable on the main roster. 

With Carmelo and Grayson, I actually wouldn’t mind them sticking around for a bit longer even if they’re both probably ready for a call up now. Neither of them have had a sustained crack at the title picture for the same length of time as Bron, so an extended run in the main event scene would not only make for great TV, but it could potentially further push and elevate them both to the point that they’ll actually be better placed to have a proper crack at the main roster when they do wind up getting the call. 
 

3 hours ago, Nick James said:

It's a shame not many people watch NXT anymore, because it does have some really good moments and seems to have turned a corner over recent months. 

Absolutely. I’ll admit to not having kept up with it regularly apart from checking the odd results but recently I’ve been sucked back in. Touched on this before but the standard of the show now compared to the initial relaunch is so much better, especially now some of the newer kids on the block so to speak are another couple of years into their training and reaping the benefits. I think more people are slowly going to come back to it as the standard continues to rise. 

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Nathan Frazer with the most surprising performance of the year! Bloody hell! Where did that come from?! An amazing little vignette, oozing confidence, great delivery. Super worker who can nail character work like that? The lad’s set for life, now.

Edited by Supremo
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Overall - Fantastic episode I thought. Kicked off with a frenetic pace and they kept up the energy throughout. Some matches that really tore it up and some great angle advancement ahead of Spring Breakin’. 

👍 Tag title triple threat - Absolutely fantastic way to start the show and a rip-roaring match from start to finish. Love the chaos of the brawl at the top of the show which meant they had to frantically cut from the show’s opening montage because of the madness happening at ringside - that built up a real sense of urgency and excitement and the pace never really slowed from there. The Creed Brothers looked incredible here, particularly Julius who kept nipping up after multiple suplexes including hitting a double suplex at one point - strong as an ox, this lad. None of the three acts are particularly great promos (Zack Gibson notwithstanding when he’s allowed to talk!) so they really played to everyone’s strengths here with the sheer physicality element. Really, really enjoyed this.

👍 Nathan Frazer - D’you know something, I think they’re onto something here with Nathan Frazer. He’s really, really good at talking (and wrestling!) and this sort of gimmick/platform could be the making of him. Thought he knocked this out of the park if I’m honest - not sure how they evolve it from here but I’m interested to see where it goes. If they can manifest an interesting character here to go alongside his in-ring ability, he’s very going to quickly cement himself as one to watch (you could argue he is already). He’s got a future in announcing if nothing else. Also, very interesting to see them do this sort of gimmick with a babyface - usually a heel does this sort of mock TV studio stuff (QTV I suppose is the most recent example from AEW) so that’s another interesting new direction to take. Lovely stuff. 

👍 Noam Dar/Myles Bourne - Decent showcase without showing off too many bells and whistles, which I actually don’t mind as we know we’ll see that down the line. Dar's a great wind-up merchant and I hope they keep emphasising this because he could really get under the skin of opponents and crowds in the long term. I also like how this wasn’t a direct squash - it wouldn’t make sense for him to be a squash guy like a big man and I didn’t mind this being reasonably competitive. 

👍 Bron/Duke promo - This was fun. Bron spearing Odyssey Jones and shooting in from off-camera looked mint. The promo trade-off with Duke Hudson was fun - I was actually a bit gutted that Duke pulled the swerve at the end and said it would be André Chase taking on Bron instead, but it does make sense given his character. It’s quite rare that I enjoy a tweener role in wrestling but Big Duke Energy is nailing it. I’m hoping he comes to his senses and avenges André down the line after Breakker dismantles him. Some good business here. 

👍 Roxanne/Stark - A nice steady build and really well executed throughout. NXT’s modern women’s division has some really interesting players and these two, in their role as babyface and heel respectively, are smashing their roles. Good bit of business at the end to set up the triple threat as well for next week. 

👍 Apollo/Dijak - Not a classic but still relatively enjoyable. Picked up nicely towards the end. I find Dijak to be pretty cringeworthy whenever he speaks, but he’s decent to watch between the ropes, so I’m looking forward to the showdown with Dragonov. Crews at this point might be getting close to being future endeavoured as it seems like they don’t really have a plan for him. 

👍 Lee/Dempsey - I love how Dempsey wrestles so much like he's on World of Sport to the point where it looks sort of unpolished, but in the best possible way - it's just completely rugged and like he's in an actual fight or a real wrestling match - as odd as that compliment probably sounds in isolation. I liked how Lee abandoned a lot of his traditional offense, realising he needed to get a lot more physical and had to take the fight to Regal Junior. Bit of a quirky match compared to others on the night, but nicely done. Also all Gulak sightings automatically get a thumbs up. 

👍 Mello/Waller showdown - More good business here with some good back and forth in the promo exchange. Moire intrigue added for next week. 

👎 Jade/Dolan - Too short to be anything of note and more of an angle used as a device to set up Dolan vs Jayne and Jade vs ??. Did its job but nothing particularly exciting and an easy skip. 

👎 Mixed tag shenanigans - Bit hard to get sucked into the drama of the split when it’s covered by multiple camera angles and these ‘acting’ stints. Skippey do da.

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48 minutes ago, Lorne Malvo said:

I believe our very own @BomberPat had a hand in Nathan Frazers development?

I did indeed - I always used to tell people that I refereed his first ever match, though I recently learned that I actually didn't, as he debuted on a rare Jersey show that I didn't work. So I actually refereed his second match, and every subsequent match before he moved to the US. 

I either worked with him or helped out with the school he was training at practically every week in 2015 and '16, then worked the odd match with him after that whenever he came home - he actually worked in Tennessee for a year or two before he started training with Seth Rollins' school, too. 

Love seeing him do the kind of thing he did on this show - we always wanted to get that kind of character work out of him, because we knew we had it in him, but he always wanted to be a super-serious wrestler instead, and hated having to do any kind of comedy nonsense.

 

In terms of me having a hand in his development, I tend to tell wrestlers who ask my advice now - "he ignored all of my advice, and look where that got him". 

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