The NXT Discussion Thread

[Fatty Facesitter]

👍 Wes Lee/Drew Gulak - A match you knew was going to bang from the moment it started. A great example of how two contrasting styles can mesh well together when booked appropriately and with two game colleagues - Wes brought the energy, enthusiasm and athleticism, while the esteemed Mr.Gulak provided a technical masterclass with some great psychology. Gulak is mesmerising to watch and I'm amazed he isn't more highly thought of by the top brass - everything he does in the ring, from moving limbs away from the ropes, applying extra pressure to an opponents shoulders and all the little nuggets he displays are essential viewing, but he has an underrated charisma element that doesn't get enough praise. Wes Lee has become a revelation as a singles star too. Good shit to kick off the show this week. Tyler Bate giving the North American title the ol' side-eye means we're in for a hell of a match there. 

👍 JD McDonagh/Dragon Lee - A ripper with both performers giving it some serious beans. 

👍 Trick Williams - The bloke is money. A fantastic look and always engaging on the microphone. His double act with Carmelo has brought both good fortune, but no harm whatsoever in giving him a platform to stand out on his own even if it's just for a couple of weeks for the time being. 

👍 Axiom vs Scrypts - It's been a pants storyline, but this was a fun sprint between our Poundland Marvel/DC superheroes. It was eye-catching if nothing else. 

👍 Dani Palmer/Tatum Paxley - Strong NXT debut for Palmer I thought. Not squeaky clean on a couple of spots, otherwise some good execution and a performance with a ton of spice and enthusiasm. One to watch. 

👍 NXT Women's tag titles - A good effort from all four to wave goodbye to NXT. The babyface duo in particular I think have a lot of potential - their offence is very eye-catching. Hopefully both teams will breathe some new life into their respective divisions. 

👍 Indi relinquishes the women's strap - Classy promo and nice touch with the Dexter appearance. A fun show-closing brawl to boot and some added intrigue heading into their next PLE. 

👍 Chase U - I haven't covered off every backstage segment/angle but I like where this is heading in terms of an inevitable showdown between Big Duke and Andre Chase, as much as it breaks my heart to see a great educational institution in such turmoil. 

👎 Gigi Dolan/Jacy Jane - Nothing particularly crap but when a match is built up because of an intense personal rivalry, it needs to really deliver on the physicality element when it takes place. The match itself didn't really radiate that for me. However, I'd give a thumbs up to the post-match attack afterwards. That made for a pretty good visual and was much more intense than the match itself. 

👎 Joe Gacy/Joe Coffey - Again, nothing particularly obscene but nothing that would tingle the testes either. Both groups involved in this apparent mini-feud do nothing for me. 

Overall - A positive show this week. Lots of strong action and spirited performances and nothing so terribly bad that would make your eyes water. 

 

 

[Fatty Facesitter]

👍 Bron/Trick - Decent enough main and a fun post-match interaction with Carmelo as they build towards Battleground. That springboard into the spear was a great visual. Nice to see Trick in a singles outing even if he took the L here.

👍 Big Duke/Bernal - I’m a sucker for all Chase U and Duke related activity so an easy thumbs up for the backstage segment and short but sweet in-ring encounter.

👍 Charlie Dempsey/Tyler Bate - Lovely stuff.  Effortless technical transitions that were beautifully executed throughout and very easy on the eye indeed. Bloody delightful. Plus, always a thumbs up for a Gulak sighting.

👍 Dragonov/Dijak - Both are a bit cringeworthy when it comes to their promos, but these boys can go. An enjoyable romp with a nice post-match spot with the steps.

👍 Eddy Thorpe/Damon Kemp - A good watch and a good heater for Thorpe. Sadly another match lacking any real heat or crowd interest in it for the most part, but they did ramp up the audience participation factor towards the end. It’s a missing piece of Thorpe’s NXT puzzle presently, but if they can nail that element then I think they’re onto a winner with him. Kemp has the makings of a great shithouse of a heel - very solid between the ropes and a good antagonist from a character perspective.

👎 Stratton/Dolan - I liked the strategy around Stratton focussing on Dolan’s injured arm and shoulder, and the former has bags of personality and an absolutely brilliant character that I think has massive potential. However, this had some really clunky moments including the setup for the finish, which is a shame when taking those other elements into account.

👎 Gallus/Dyad - Perfectly acceptable wrestling but totally heatless because of the heel/heel dynamic of the two teams and both trying to get the crowd behind them at different points to little response. Gallus are just such a dull act, and their inclusion in the Dyad has stripped all of the personality out of the former Grizzled young Veterans.

👎 Valkria/Henley - Again, acceptable standard but you could hear an ant pass wind due to the lack of crowd noise.

👎 Briggs/Jenson vs Walker/Ledger - Too short and meaningless to register on the Richter scale. Looks like Ledger may have lost a tooth in the process though. If genuine and as someone who’s just had a tooth removed himself, he has my sympathies.

Overall - A perplexing episode in truth. There's some good stuff in there from an in-ring perspective and only one match this week where you noticed any real clunkiness. But from a character and audience participation perspective this lacked any real must-see appeal or general enjoyment. The audience participation factor is really frustrating and it's an element I want to see them put some real focus on, because it would make the wider show much more popular, more watchable and be much more helpful for all talents involved from a character development standpoint and it would certainly broaden their wider appeal. 

Edited May 10, 2023 by Fatty Facesitter

[Snitsky's back acne]

Tony Khan had a good time...

[Jazzy G]

Matt Cardona's let himself go. 

[Fatty Facesitter]

Overall - A poor show this week that lacked a real zest about it. Nothing was comically bad from an in-ring perspective, but it was painfully average at times and felt like wrestling just for wrestling's sake. Some of the backstage content was absolutely terrible too. Overall a very easily skippable show, even if Battleground's card is looking the part. Recommendation to skip the whole thing and just watch the Top 10 Highlights on YouTube. 

👍 Carmelo/Trick vs Gulak/Dempsey - Relatively good standard. As per, all Gulak sightings get a thumbs up from me. Keep pairing experienced, talented hands like Gulak against younger, greener opponents and elevate them. A simple, effective formula. Dempsey getting Willy Wonka chants for wearing purple should warrant an immediate change in attire for next week. 

👍 To add to the above, the Carmelo/Bron build was all perfectly fine, albeit nothing memorable. 

👍 Perez/Jayne - Bad start with some really laboured covers and they look terrified of even touching each other. However, the match built gradually the physicality really ramped up and overall made for a better showing once they got over the bad start. 

👍 Creeds/Dyad - Decent enough with some good spots and a good showcase for the Creeds, plus a reminder that the ex-GYV can still go. 

👍 On the above, the Creeds leaving Vic Joseph hanging on the fist bump was hilarious (although Ivy Nile was a good egg and did it anyway).

👎 Cinematic bollocks - The bits with Dijak/Draganov and then Ton D/Stacks in the restaurant can all get in the bin. It's such such an odd juxtaposition and the acting is terrible. It's well produced from a shooting perspective - but it's a waste of the talents of the production crew. They could be shooting excellent vignette's hyping up characters and their stories - not GSCE-level drama. 

👎 Cora Jade/Falon Henley - Far too easy to telegraph Cora as the winner and a generally bland affair - not what you want from an opener and it didn't get the juices flowing. Some awkward transitions too. 

👎 Supernova Sessions - Not sure how I feel about this one. I like Dar's personality generally as a cheeky Scot, but in this instance it all felt a bit forced. However, the matches with both Dragon Lee and Nathan Frazer could be crackers. 

👎 NA title business - Again, the eventual confrontation and title match will be great but the promos are really, really tough to listen too. There's very little in the way of authenticity and that makes it tough for an audience to connect with. Joe Gacy and the whole Dyad creepy bollocks stuff is painful to watch. 

👎 Hail/James - Nothing dreadful but nothing you'll regret missing. Not quite as much animated patter from Chase U this week unfortunately. 

Edited May 17, 2023 by Fatty Facesitter

[Loki]

Trick Williams is a future main eventer on the main roster.  He's a few years away but he's big, athletic, good worker, and has a unique look and promo.  

[Nick James]

I had no hope for Trick when he first started out with Carmelo, I thought the act would split apart and Trick would disappear. Now though, he's great, really enjoy his stuff, still a bit of work to do, but he definitely has something about him. More than just a henchman. 

[Fatty Facesitter]

Overall - Some top in-ring performance at different points, some really well-executed angles and with some great build for the PPV. A much/improved episode on the whole.

👍 Bron Breakker/Carmello features - First, great vignette for young Bronson early in the show. Explained his motivation clearly, concisely, aggressively and directly. It felt authentic and you felt that he believed in every word he was saying. Then, Carmelo’s media tour was turned into a great little feature in its own right and it made him look like an even bigger star. Like Bron, Carmello’s words also had poise and it was another really well put together piece. Really good stuff - we need much more of this not just in NXT, but in the WWE at large.

👍 Noam Dar vs Nathan Frazer - Excellent standard. Big fan of this - some lightning quickness and some splendid transitions. Love that side-step rope run thing that Frazer does. A huge win for Frazer and a sensible piece of booking - he gains a big win, it also builds to Dragon Lee vs Dar at the PLE (thanks to his cameo) and then Frazer can meet either Lee or Dar afterwards. Jolly good stuff.

👍 Tiffany Stratton vs Roxanne Perez - Fair play - Really good standard here. I’ve been quite critical of NXT’s women’s division of late and I’ve had different gripes about both of them in recent times, but they didn’t put a single foot wrong here - some absolutely great sequences and a strong finish to cap things off. This could have been the final and it would have been a great payoff and a great way to crown a new champion.

👍 Dijak/Dragonov business - Now that’s how you make people want to tune in to see a scrap! A massive improvement on last week’s odd cinematic effort. The attacks and brawls are extremely intense, overtly physical and it temporarily suspends your disbelief but it looks so refreshingly real - akin to when Brock Lesnar chucks people about and you go ‘wow, he’ll have definitely felt that’ etc. Exactly how the build should be for something like this.

👍 Tyler Bate vs Eddy Thorpe - A decent watch between two top technicians. Some sensible build towards the triple threat for the NA title too in the post-match skirmish. 

👍 Axiom vs Dabba-Kato - Not bad. A fun sprint between a hoss and a courageous babyface, and nice to see a return of the Albert’s old Baldo Bomb too! Glad they’ve ditched the Scrypts business with Reggie - hopefully the start of a rebuild for him.

👍 Gigi/Jacy exchange - They have a couple of annoying, grating voices but in all fairness both of them delivered here and the weaponised cage match announcement was a decent payoff. You can tell both are improving and getting more comfortable when it comes to the microphone and projecting their personalities. I popped for “fake ass bitch” and “that’s enough emo talk for one day”. How personal!

👍 I did chuckle at the Creed Borthers’ gag about Tony D “He’s sleeping with fish!” Only for Stacks to reply with “What?! You’re doing it wrong!”

👎 Cora Jade vs Lyra Valkyria - No shortage of effort from both parties and despite an early botch they were getting a nice, slow build going. But then it just…stopped! The finish felt too abrupt - it looked like a mistake as opposed to a ‘wow’ moment, and the post-match assault was too easy to telegraph, and now consequently so did the rest of the tournament as a whole. Had ok moments if good action but a strange way to book the opening of the show.

👎 Gallus/Creeds business - Deary me, dreadful dialogue. Gallus’ softcore Scottish football hooligan act is absolutely wretched.  Get oot.

👎 Hank vs Tank - Crowd were never invested and the finish was terrible - a double-cross body where both took equal damage, but one of them immediately goes for a pin and…gets the win? Not a good execution. Bron spearing them both out of their boots was great - should have done that at the very beginning. 

👎 Luca Crusifino vs Von Wagner - Match went nowhere. I will say though that this picture business with Wagner appears to be working - it’s clearly endeared him to the crowd, and the post-match beatdown was somewhat effective. So to be fair, not a total disaster. Also, Crusifino is footballer Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s doppelgänger.

👎 Tony D in the clink - Again, not a fan of the hidden camera bollocks or the terrible acting.

[Bellenda Carlisle]

There was an NXT PLE yesterday as well which kind of went under the radar with all the other stuff this weekend. It was really enjoyable. Dijak v Dragunov was awesome. And 

Spoiler

Tiffany won the title! That was the result I cared about most out of any match on any show this weekend 

[Tsurutagun]

Was I the only one that thought Dijak/Dragunov was just fine. Ilja's only moment of decent selling was the kendo stick stuff and the finish kinda came out of nowhere. 

[Fatty Facesitter]

Thought Battleground and NXT TV this week were both distinctly average at best - as such I can’t honestly be fucked to review them. Also, Baron Corbin’s return is an immediate turn off for me. He’s so painfully boring in every aspect. 

Time to take a break from the show. There’s the odd enjoyable element but as a wider production, it’s still not a patch on the HHH pre-pandemic era. 

[DavidB6937]

With the amount of stuff you watch I'm surprised it's NXT you're giving up on!

[air_raid]

1 hour ago, Fatty Facesitter said:

Also, Baron Corbin’s return is an immediate turn off for me. He’s so painfully boring in every aspect. 

He should immediately be repackaged as a comedy character that crows incessantly about being the last wrestler to pin Roman Reigns on TV, as if this makes him one of the top guys, deluded and ignorant to his current form which is to lose every match.

[LaGoosh]

20 hours ago, Tsurutagun said:

Was I the only one that thought Dijak/Dragunov was just fine. Ilja's only moment of decent selling was the kendo stick stuff and the finish kinda came out of nowhere. 

I can't really get into Dragunov at all. His goofy over the top flailing mannerisms are too ridiculous that it completely contradicts his super serious "look how hard I hit" offence.

[Supremo]

Didn’t watch this show, but catching a clip of Baron Corbin online? Man alive. The worst look of the decade. How was he allowed to go out on national TV looking like that?! Actual PE shorts!