-Von Wagner just might be the worst wrestler on any of the major rosters across the world. He’s a big guy and will get opportunities, but there just isn’t any touch or feel for what his character is. Yelling “surprise attack” like my five year old is bad comedy to begin with, but even if it was good, it wouldn’t fit for a guy who is a monster like Wagner is. None of it works.
-Wagner and Mr. Stone against Meta Four wasn’t much better. It had it’s moments with a decent hot tag to Stone, but then Meta Four won and the Stone/Wagner duo will continue to toil away.
Chase University is back … yay?
-So, Chase U is back, eh? Ugh. I wanted to like this. You guys know. I’m in on this story. More than anyone really should be. The Chase U return was incredibly flat, though. Obnoxiously flat. Jacy Jayne saves the day with a calendar? That’s it??? I don’t know. We’ll see where it goes and based on body language and facial expressions, we could be nearing a Jade vs. Thea Hail feud. That said, there was more emotion to be squeezed out of this return and almost none of it was tapped into.
-Sorry, but I’ll say it again. Ridge Holland being a pro wrestler that is too dangerous isn’t a gimmick and may be a worse character than Von Wagner. Wrestlers are SUPPOSED TO BE dangerous. They are supposed to be vicious. They are supposed to want to maim their opponent and beat them up when they get to the ring. Why on earth is Holland concerned about this???
-Lola Vice vs. Tatum Paxley was fine. Nothing special, though Vice got another win, so it doesn’t look like her push is slowing. They are working to build a deep relationship between Paxley and NXT Women’s Champion Lyra Valkyria, but it hasn’t clicked yet. It’s still early, but for this to work, the audience has to understand how much Valkyria really cares for Paxley. Until that is properly defined, the story is a bit stalled.
Carmelo Hayes with an “A” grade
-Carmelo Hayes with an “A” for his heel work this week. He seems to already understand that he needs to remove a lot of the babyface game out of the new act, so he can be fully embraced and hated as a heel. They are doing a nice job building up to an eventual return for Trick Williams. If Melo can keep generating the kind of heat he did this week for a few more weeks, the Trick return is going to get a major reaction.
-We’re getting more of Dijak vs. Joe Gacy? More? Really? Nobody deserves this.
-Ok look. Oba Femi can bring it on the microphone. He’s a little raw right now, but man does he have a presence. He looks comfortable talking and speaks in a way that lines up with his size and imposing look. He was great and outside of the main event tag match, the promo and encounter with Lexis King was the best part of the show. Sidebar. By positioning Femi against King, it appears HBK has finally seen the connection between Femi and the audience and is showcasing him as a babyface. Smart move.
What are we doing?
-Woo boy, the Brinley Reece stuff is bad. Awful. A character that’s entirely unfazed by losing matches on a show where the entire premise is to win them is truly befuddling. It’s stand out bad even with show stocked with Von Wagner and Ridge Holland.
-A very strong main event. The Wolfdogs vs. The Family was hard-hitting and action packed on a very enjoyable level. Because of Bron Breakker flirting with the main roster recently, it was interesting to see him and Baron Corbin with the tag titles here. Breakker and Corbin have found something together, but it didn’t appear to have a long shelf life. With the title win, look for them to stay on a roll until a team like Chase U or another up and coming babyface group can take them down as sympathetic underdogs.