-I’ll tell ya what, I was surprised to see Fallon Henley just beat Thea Hail the way she did to start this week’s NXT. Given the time and storyline that Hail had with Chase University and Jacy Jayne, she should be a focus of the women’s division right now and she isn’t. Now, maybe they don’t want her in this ladder match because the bigger plan is for her to dethrone Roxanne Perez and win the big NXT Women’s Championship prize at some point. I can buy that, but if that’s the plan there has to be more protection for Hail than she got.
A-Kid who?
-Hey, NXT writers, nobody knows who A-Kid is. It’s silly to reference that gimmick even if it was formerly Axiom. Nobody knows it, so don’t play into things nobody knows. Pretty simple.
-Gallus had an excellent week on the microphone. They present as a very tough and dangerous team. The result is promos that command attention. Really good stuff from them. Joe Coffey as a potential NXT Championship contender in the near future for Trick Williams gets more interesting by the week and will continue to do so if Gallus keeps this level of work up.
-A genuine question here — do people find Mr. Stone likable? It appears NXT is treating this guy as a likable and sympathetic figure, but I don’t buy any of it. Because of the inability to believe that he’s that guy, every single segment with him falls flat — including everything this week.
-Another multi-person match for Oba Femi on PPV? An interesting call. It’s fine, but he really is a guy that needs reps to hold his own in singles matches — especially with the upside he has. Wes Lee vs. Joe Coffey vs. Femi works, but buries the lead with Lee in particular. This is his big return match and he may not be involved with the finish one way or the other. Lee vs. Femi straight up made a lot more sense.
And new!!
-Jaida Parker is still being booked like a star and she’d be at the top of my list to win the NXT North American Championship. She’s got an aura about her and has stood out in the ring too. She’s got a long way to go in that department, but seems to have progressed more than others from her class.
-I’m curious to see what Shawn Michaels thinks he can do with the Wendy Choo act. I won’t believe it can be successful until I see it be successful, but I’m here for the ride — or train wreck.
-Dante Chen is beating Lexis King now??? Ok, who did King piss off? That is the only real explanation for this happening. Yikes.
-I liked the in-ring promo from Trick Williams a lot this week. The top segment on the show for sure. Williams was likable, but also tough in responding the claim that he was the man who attacked Noam Dar from behind. Williams denied doing it, but not in a chicken shit way. He was honest, open, and very credible in saying that had he attacked him, Dar would have ended up a lot worse. This was good and though Williams is certain to beat Dar at Battleground, it was able to lend a little storyline background to why the match is happening outside of the championship being on the line.
Roxanne Perez vs. who?
-So, who do you think Roxanne Perez will face for the NXT Women’s Championship at Battleground? Given the tease by Ava, it’s somebody from the main roster. I wouldn’t it bet on being anyone relevant from the main roster, though. I’ll take Indi Hartwell as my guess.
-The main event of Natalya & Karmen Petrovic vs. Lola Vice & Shayna Baszler pretty much existed to get to the Vice vs. Baszler Battleground match. And to that match, I’ll say this in my Ron Burgundy voice … “that got out of hand fast.” From friends to, we have to destroy each other in NXT Underground. That’s like six chapters of story in one night. So, a lackluster way to get to the match, but inevitably a match that will work to get Vice over.
The focus on Lola
-What is with the Lola Vice focus? To this point, I haven’t seen anything that points to her getting the push that she’s getting outside of that she looks good. I know she has MMA experience, but that experience doesn’t carry over to great in-ring work. Worse than that, the character is all over the place. She isn’t playing the lethal, gorgeous, killer very well.
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