Bayley vs Eva was AWESOME. Absolutely loved that!
It's ironic that after I went on those paragraphs of logical vent-ranting in the Rate Raw thread, we get a match like this. Survivor Series had an open door for a ton of interesting possibilities and they picked the worst one. This had the door open for disaster and Ryan Ward just said "nah bruh, I'm good" and drove off.
Yeah, if you're going to use Eva Marie (and with that kind of heat she gets, despite it taking so much effort to get anything good out of her it's all worth it) you've gotta book around her. Make her the Corporate Reigns we wanted but never got. Think of any way you can to get this over... and still don't let her win.
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I cannot BELIEVE the job they're doing with Bayley. Somehow, even with the title at the top of the mountain, NXT Creative knows EXACTLY what to do with this woman. They keep finding ways to make sure we're behind her, whether she's being the dorky nemesis to the chick we always loved to hate in high school, or now when she's playing Daniel Bryan damn well as well as the original and legitimately overcoming the odds and the system and even... someone who isn't even a wrestler, right? And Eva's upside is pretty much that terrible version of Randy Orton who's facing Big Show in the middle of hour 2 of Raw, so it fits perfectly!
But who gained the most was clearly Triple H and his little e-fed he's running down here. NXT has so much credibility right now that they promoted EVA FUCKING MARIE GETTING A TITLE SHOT a week in advance during the worst week in WWE in quite some time, and people had this look of dread but still tuned in, and were rewarded for doing so. The timing was perfect, too, because NXT delivering an in-touch show now after Raw and Survivor Series pissed us off was key timing. Hunter 2:16 said GTFO Vince. NXT put enough effort into it to make this a lot of fun, making this was a TNA main event that, as long as it's not overused, is nice to have every now and then. I'm looking forward to the next one. Also looking forward to next week's show, and have no doubts that Bayley vs Nia Jax will be infinitely better than Charlotte vs Sasha at TLC or Mania or whenever, because that's how you've taught me to think. And if you've created a world when I'm not looking forward to a Sasha Banks match, Vince, you're literally the devil.
Anyway as for the rest of the show, there was so much breaking of the mold here. The Mechanics vs the Vaudeheroes was a blast for me, seeing all the counters to the tag moves was quite badass and something different. Yay.
A unique contract signing kicked ass with Joe just signing the damn thing and leaving before the sneak attack. Marked. Asuka shrugging off Emma's attack from behind was awesome, too. Also LOL at that getting a video package, haha
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