-The more I watch Joe Hendry, the more I believe. He’s winning me over by finessing the schticky part of the act that includes the song and entire presentation, but balancing that with some straight forward, fired up, babyface promos. He was believable in the opening segment and likable in a more meaningful way than a “Rusev Day” type of flash in the pan catchphrase.
DarkState for Trick Williams
-So, Trick Williams has to be leading this DarkState group, right? It’s just too ironic that they’d be the group to attack Hendry, while they are both essentially feuding with one another. That match hasn’t been announced yet, but all signs point to Trick vs. Hendry at Battleground.
-Another week and another win for Ricky Saints. That’s exactly how it should go for him. He’s being positioned as a signature, must-see talent on the brand and those types of talents win. A lot. Sorry, Lexis King. Thumbs up.
-Tony D’Angelo and Stacks brought it AGAIN this week. Their feud is the most compelling apart of NXT television right now and it isn’t particularly close. They both did a nice job of capturing their roots, but then stayed in their lanes in terms of being good guys and bad guys. D’Angelo was sympathetic. Stacks was overly arrogant, dismissive, and dark. They want a certain crowd reaction and they’re getting it.
See ya, Meta!
-Goodbye Meta Four! Don’t let the door hit you on the way out. Ehh, that was mean. The group was ok and got way more than it should have in terms of opportunity over the years. It’s Noam Dar, though. He holds them back tremendously. Out of all the members, look for Lash Legend to be someone we’re talking about in a couple years.
-Karmen Petrovic with a roundhouse freaking kick to the head of Ashante the Adonis? For real? That’s just cold. Look, they took a long time building up that relationship, so it heading down the path of a breakup doesn’t quite scream “we have faith” on the part of Shawn Michaels and the booking team in NXT.
-A very interesting dynamic between Sol Ruca and Zaria this week. Did you see the way Zaria looked at Ruca’s NXT Women’s North American Championship? Longingly. Later, Zaria acted like Ruca’s protecter and turned down a championship match on her behalf. These are the seeds of a heel turn, folks. Seeds of a heel turn.
Trick talks
-Trick Williams is very good with a microphone. Not only was his cadence and content good this week, but he worked the ring well as he spoke. He wasn’t only playing to the hard camera, but to the audience around the ring as well. It was hard to take your eyes off him while he spoke in that way. The promo was heelish because it focused so much on Joe Hendry, but long-term he’s a babyface through and through. Williams gets his shot to earn an NXT Championship match against Oba Femi next week in a huge Battle Royal.
-I don’t know how far they’ll go with Oba Femi and The Undertaker, but Femi taking over the yard is something I can get behind. He has the right aura for that type of talk.
-Chase University is officially back in session! All is right with the world. We did see the inmates run the asylum a bit with two students walking into class late and that’s the hook of the new story it seems. Chase was pretty awful to that kid who asked the question. As usual, this as no right being as entertaining as it is, but I can’t get enough. Guilty pleasure.
Another loss for Roxanne
-A really good tag team main event this week with Iyo Sky teaming with Jordynne Grace to take on Guilia and Roxanne Perez. The sequences with Perez and Sky were particularly fun to watch and they clearly have chemistry together. Another job by Perez, though. She’s on the main roster now and that’s great. Maybe if things were going better for her and she were positioned with more strength on Raw, this loss wouldn’t matter much. They’re adding up, though.
What did you think of this week’s episode of NXT? Let us know in the comments!
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