Looking at the latest NXT episode:
-Axiom/Apollo Crews vs. Carmello Hayes/Trick Williams-A fun, high-energy affair to start things off, plenty of fun spots showing everyone working well together and mixing it up with the various styles on display. Not too upset by the finish, it allows Apollo and Axiom to hold a little bit of weight over the loss and gets things off to a fine start so nothing much to say here.
-Tony D'Angelo makes Stacks-So after the last few weeks of dealing with Dijack, they return to the infamous bridge and have D’Angelo inform Stacks he’s become an underboss. Typical Mafia stuff, nothing more.
-Tiffany Stratton is upset-So they’re seemingly evolving Tiffany away from the ‘Daddy’s Princess’ part to more of a meta-aware type who’s overly conscious of her internet hype and using that to inflate her own ego to the detriment of the locker room as Indi Hartwell has taken issue with it and kicked her out. Firstly, this seems like a weird step for Tiffany, who was a spoiled princess who never cared for others, so taking the internet’s appraisal of her character work is an odd piece to take to evolve the character. I thought a more apropos take would’ve been to have the time off and work herself out with the best trainers possible to turn her into the best in the world, sparing no expense to do so which would’ve made a bit more sense after being taken out of action the way she did. Not hating on the change yet, it’s only been two segments but much more alarming is that Indi has no consistent alignment as she’s a heel one week and a face another without any rhyme or reason as I’m not mad at someone sticking p to Tiffany but Indi is not one I would’ve thought been the one to do that. We’ll see where this goes.
-Toxic Attraction in the ring-The two appear and brag about everything they said last week (telegraphing be damned) and start in on taking out Roxanne at the PPV when Lyra comes out to throw it back about what went on and leads to a beatdown between the three that Roxanne makes the save. Sets up a tag-match later tonight most likely and furthers the three-way feud for the belt so I’m happy all around.
-Diamond Mine working out-A brief bit discussing the group working out trying to gain the upper hand in their rivalry that the girls have to point out that they’ve forgotten themselves.
-Sol Ruca vs. Alba Fyre-It was fine for a three-minute match, the mutual respect was fine but I thought we were done with Isla and Alba so that just feels like being dragged out for no purpose. Sol’s athleticism is still overshadowing how green she is which is working for now but I’ll need more from her before I start caring, although seeing that finisher a couple more times is a fine start as that is a thing of beauty and far better than her first one from several months ago.
-Dijack Speaks-A brief bit discussing his upcoming match with Wes at the PPV.
-Grayson Waller Speaks-More about the bizarreness of last week’s match and how that interrupted his legitimate chance to win the belt which is all fair stuff and helps to build to the title match at the PPV.
-Alba Fyre is a loser-Furious about losing another match and not making much progress in her career, Alba is confronted by Katana and Kayden who tell her to relax and trust herself before Alba turns it around and threatens to go after them instead of singles gold. I’m not sure about this, we need something for them to do if they’re going to stay down in NXT so a new team to challenge them is something but I just don’t know how Alba is going to be inserted into the picture without a partner and still continuing the Isla feud if the distraction was anything to go off of.
-Gallus vs. Briggs and Jensen-A hard-hitting, if somewhat sloppy, brawl between these four that was fun to watch for the entertainment spectacle but the moves themselves were pretty sloppy. It seems like Gallus is a bit more advanced than Briggs and Jensen so they weren’t able to keep up which accounts for the sloppiness but still a fine match that sets up Gallas as the hard-hitting brutalizers they should be against game but overwhelmed opponents so I'm generally okay with this.
-Thea Hail is nervous-Pre-match jitters before Duke, trying to calm her down, is interrupted by Andre looking into a new video of him talking smack behind his back so everything is continuing nicely with him trying to undermine the university under his nose while trying to prove his worth.
Jensen stands up for the relationship-Nice bit of storyline building here with Fallon upset about Jensen talking like Kiana is more than friends which he corrects her on and confirms it by saying that after everything that's gone down and them still being together means it's the real thing and she has to accept it. At least it's going somewhere so I don't mind this too much.
-Thea Hail vs. Valentina Ferroz-Incredibly brief match that almost has as much to do with Elektra appearing to toss the knuckles to Ferroz who doesn't want them and gets defeated anyway. Thea gets her first win while Andre stares daggers at Duke to continue that, Valentina and Elektra can go somewhere (although I thought she was feuding with Wendy Choo after what happened in the Battle Royal last week) and that's all enough to overcome the general brevity.
-Apollo Crews taunts Carmello and Trick-Feels kinda odd to have the face do this in the feud after winning rather than heels as that would be a Carmelo/Trick thing to do mocking Apollo about his visions not coming true. I guess it keeps them going but I'm not sure how to feel about a face mocking heels, especially outnumbered without Axiom by his side to balance things out.
-Valentina Ferozz and Elektra Lopez talk-A brief backstage bit about why Valentina is sticking to her morals when everyone else is free to let them go and do whatever it takes to win. If this leads to a crisis of conscience for her and how to continue her career, I’m all for some character development as without Yulissa I just know Valentina as ‘The Brazilian” so that can help out.
-New Day meets their challengers-After intending to put Pretty Deadly behind them, the New Day are prepared to go forward with new challengers even if Pretty Deadly still has a rightful claim to a rematch. Gallus aren't having that and a big three-way brawl (my spidey sense says three-way at Vengeance, they're already having one for the Women's title so one more isn't that big of a deal) before everyone calms down. Standard feud-enhancing stuff, nothing too crazy or original but fun for what it is.
-Roxanne Perez and Lyra Valkyria talk-A nice bit here discussing how they're excited to team together for the first time before Javy comes by wanting to inquire about his new album. The girls' stuff is fine, Javier continues to make me laugh so I'm good with this.
-Bron Breakker Speaks-More talk about the last match and how he almost got beat which sets up the need to prove himself in the upcoming match.
-Tyler Bates vs. Javier Bernal-A quick and simple idea to get Bates reintroduced to this audience with an easy if engaging win. Nothing much else to say here.
-Fallon Henley talks with the boys-Jensen, out of the trainers' room finally, seems okay from earlier as Fallon comes to check on him which starts in on the relationship with Kiana he mentioned earlier that he's willing to put his neck on the line for with it even meaning the two women have a tag match next week. Fun angle progression in one night plus another new potential tag-team (just don't break them up by Stand and Deliver if that's the plan, I'm tired of that trope in this division) so this carries that rather well.
-Roxanne Perez/Lyra Valkyria vs. Toxic Attraction-Generally fun tag match with this one playing off the potential idea of Jacy and Gigi not being able to trust each other even though they're teammates which is a solid carryover from last week. The match got some time to let them work and even carries over the storyline from the Battle Royal with Cora Jade coming out to interfere with Lyra and brawling to the back although that does bring up a weird point with Roxanne beating Jacy and Gigi by herself with no help. While I get wanting to keep her strong in the first battle after winning, the whole point here should be that Toxic Attraction can be threats to her, especially if she doesn't have her partner so that should've led to a screwy finish of some kind. I'm not mad at the decision but I feel I would like it more in this regard.
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