@WWENXT
NXT returned tonight (Mar. 25) from the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida. You can find the results at the live blog here.
The last time... maybe
Triple H led the closing segment between bitter rivals Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa. Why Haitch? Well his reasoning was sound enough. He knows what it’s like to go to war with a man he once considered his best friend. He and Shawn Michaels has been through this.
Plus, Regal apparently wanted to fire them. He was tired of their actions, especially after destroying the Performance Center last week. But Triple H wanted a resolution.
And being Triple H, he felt this should be on the biggest stage of them all. It sounded like he wanted to put this on WrestleMania. But Gargano cut him off every time he was about to complete that thought. Because this isn’t about the biggest stage. This is a deep, personal rivalry that just needs the bare essentials.
So Triple H said he’d find an empty building and put a ring in it, despite at that moment standing in the middle of ring in an empty building. And then he’d text them the address and they show up in two weeks.
It was a bit corny or action movie-esque, but I appreciated that little detail. They have to get creative given, to borrow a phrase from WWE, the prevailing circumstances. This is creative. In fact, I want to see both men in their apartments getting that text and then traveling to whatever spot they find. Make this kind of like a movie.
It sounds like this is almost a loser leaves town match, though the only stip really given is if they keep up the hostilities afterwards, they’re both gone from NXT.
The closing moment was a Killer Kross video playing, this time leaving no doubt as Kross’ face was shown throughout.
It is likely hinting that Kross will interrupt this empty building match, extending this feud until maybe the final match can actually happen in front of a crowd. Because this feud is snake bitten. Last year, Johnny Gargano finally getting that big title win over Ciampa was denied to us due to Tommaso’s neck injury. This year, they can have the match, but no one is allowed to be there to see it. That being said, they’re doing very well with what they have to work with.
Take that L
Tyler Breeze defeated the upstart, brash Austin Theory.
It was the opening match so it was our first look at how NXT was going to book their empty arena matches.
They didn’t overdo it on commentary in thismatch. In fact, Todd Philips and Byron Saxton gave the match plenty of time with no words. (This is something they corrected throughout the night as the silence is jarring given fans are trained to hear silence and think a match is bombing.) However the competitors leaned into the trash talk, with Austin Theory especially making sure to run his mouth the entire time. This also fit with his arrogant personality.
This really worked at the end when Theory decided to showboat and insult Breeze, allowing the veteran Tyler to pick up a win. The silence added a bit of awkward to that situation which augmented it.
I mentioned it a couple weeks ago, but I’m really coming around Theory’s character. He’s talented but way too raw and his ego gets in his way. Watching the journey of him figuring it out, even as a complete douche, should be fun.
The return
It didn’t get a pop from the crowd, but I popped at Io Shirai’s surprise return from my couch.
This was a good play. NXT had been making sure there’s a workhorse in every legit match without a crowd. But Xia Li and Aliyah could have been a tough match without any crowd to react or play off.
So instead, they ran the Xia knee injury angle, putting a little mystery to it and drawing out the program between Aliyah and Xia Li given their history from months back. Who did it? Was it Vanessa Borne, Aliyah’s old bodyguard? Was it the woman who she’s been teaming with on the Florida house show loop, Taynara? We’ll have to see. (It also could have been Io, but Aliyah being behind the attack would serve that program more.)
While William Regal having a backup ready immediately was a bit silly, Io Shirai is a much better choice for a ladder match spot than either Aliyah or Xia.
New tag team
Malcom Bivens finally debuted on NXT TV this week managing a new tag team. He sent the new duo to beat up Matt Riddle after the Bro defeated Roddy Strong. With his tag team partner Pete Dunne stuck in England, this was the perfect time to strike.
This is good overall. Bivens is very entertaining and NXT can use all the tag teams they can get. This would bring their total up four.
I don’t know much about these guys. And my man Sean looked to see if he could find their signing but just found a signing with a few different wrestlers from India. So we’ll have to wait for Malcolm to fill us in.
All the rest:
- The North American title continues to barrel towards a triple threat, now officially announced for next week. The big point of note from this segment was Keith Lee confirming his attack on Dominik Dijakovic was mistake, thinking his frenemy attacked him. DD just cares about the title now. And Priest pretty much the same. Commence brawling.
- In the other ladder match qualifier, Candice LeRae defeated Kayden Carter. It’s surprising that she’s still using her heel husband’s finish.
- Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch picked up a win against the new team of Shane Thorne and Brendan Vink. Though it really seemed like this match was all about selling the size of the big man Vink more than building up #1 and #2. I was almost surprised the veteran team picked up the win as it looked like they wanted to showcase Vink and Thorne more.
- Killian Dain defeated Tehuti Miles in an extended squash. The UMD alum (who I don’t recall playing on the football team who I sadly root for yearly) didn’t get much offense, but lasted longer than I thought he would.
- Cameron Grimes beat Tony Nese in somewhat of a filler match. It ended up being a good match, but Grimes without the crowd is just a dude who can work well. The crowd was finally getting into booing him incessantly, finally bolstering his character. Losing that sends him back to where he was until he can work in front of a crowd again.
I don’t know what it was, but this episode of NXT didn’t go with trying to simulate crowd noise, and it was still more enjoyable than the main roster WWE programs. The announcers did move to start filling in the gaps, but I think the good wrestling and strong storytelling just holds up with or without crowds. (I also think we’re just getting used to it.)
This was a good first empty arena show.
Grade: B
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