Alrighty, just finished up watching NXT.
Great opening promo by Keith Lee. Played the crowd like a fiddle. Got in all his catchphrases. Vince is gonna love that. The Undisputed ERA are great, but man, attacks like these got old a long time ago. Lee should definitely win the North American Championship next week.
Man oh man. Dunne and Riddle vs. Andrews and Webster was exhausting to watch. They really tore the house down and I'd dare to say that tops anything the NXT tag division gave us all year in 2019. Closest matches I can think of would be Viking Raiders vs. Ricochet and Black, or maybe TUE vs. The Revival, but I think this tops those. Dunne and Andrews especially had amazing chemistry against each other.
Again… the TUE ambushes are played out. And DIY have been crossing paths so much over the last two years that I really didn't care when Johnny's music hit. But DIY vs. Moustache Mountain will surely be a banger if they go through with that.
The moment I was most looking forward to. Alex Shelley's out of the blue NXT debut. Loved seeing him getting his proper recognition from Full Sail. Can't believe Mauro referenced Patek in this match. Real shame that Time Splitters went out in the first round but hopefully this isn't the last we've seen of them.
That Finn Balor promo on Ilja was some lowkey fire. Loved the directing of that. Loved Finn's delivery.
Cruiserweight match was incredibly fun as everyone expected. I like that Lio Rush is the first guy to figure out that you don't have to run directly back at the person who throws you on an Irish Whip. Very happy Scott came away with the win here. Rush is super over now and can probably focus on other things. Scott is still trying to get there so challenging for the Cruiserweight Championship is a good place for him.
The women's battle royal was excellent as well. Lots of highlights. Shayna winning woulda been a GOAT level troll job but I'm thankful it didn't go that way. Noteworthy that Kacy Catanzaro was in this match. Had she wrestled since those retirements rumors a few months ago? If she has, I missed it. Anyways … I for one am all for Bianca Belair getting the win here. For one, because it's very unlikely she beats Rhea for the title and it only makes sense to let Rhea get a few successful defenses in. And two, she's an incredible athlete and one of the only women who legitimately matches up with Rhea in terms of physicality. They should have an awesome match. Io Shirai will get her moment at some point this year. I wish the fans would stop chanting for her though. I always feel like if you like a heel act, you should boo them, but maybe that's just me.
An absolute banger of an episode this week and next week will surely be more of the same.
