 |
| Yup, this never stops being awesome (gif courtesy of the Doomsday 519 Tumblr) |
I'm sure the Germans have a word for this, but the Germans have a word for anything. I'm sure Abed/Dan Harmon would have some sort of pop culture reference that'd fit, but they're all escaping me. The third NXT of the year started off with hope, promise, and a really good match culminating in Adrian Neville earning his ready for prime time shot at Bo Dallas and the Big X with the always scintillating Red Arrow. However, it was all downhill from there to the point that the usually receptive Full Sail contingent was doing the wave during the main event.
So, this leaves a dilemma: do you use the trainwreck as a starting point to inveigh on possible missteps or the highlight as an underscore of the potential that got left on the table?
Let's start with the trainwreck, since that seems harder to explain and unpack. Kofi Kingston got his rematch against Alexander Rusev, and while it may've left the crowd cold there was no gaping error or Take On Me moment where one could say "Well, that's where the whole thing went up in flames". One small gap in the lacunae here was that even when it was building on the prior match they'd had, while that was being plainly echoed in places it seems that despite Tensai on commentary providing a nice cover story leading into the match that both Bulgarian and psuedo-Jamaican had failed to learn some basic physics.
Rusev shouldn't have missed that many corner splashes even if that did lead to the payoff of him getting hurricane kicked and losing, and Kofi shouldn't've been trying to Irish whip a man the size of a Prius. Again, the match wasn't horrible -- I liked it better than it's lead-in where Bo Dallas beat Mojo Rawley with a tights enhanced rollup after a lot of stalling and almost no offense from the guy who's the longest reigning Champion the minor league's ever had against a guy with fewer than 10 matches under his resume, and even that was better than Ugh C.J. Parker's two-move squash of Jason Jordan--but when a crowd is chanting Ryback's chant the skin is starting to curdle on the pudding. If they were planning to make this another trilogy, perhaps they shouldn't. Let the Turn Kofi Heel Or Something Interesting HAWT TAKES begin anew! What win on Monday Night RAW?
As the COO came out and mentioned NXT going live on the Network come 2/27, what happened next was an easy reason as to why people will be laying down their tenners a month. Neville's lined up for another title shot on that program against the man who in the midnight hour makes them scream Bo, Bo, Bo (that one's for free, Scott Stanford!) and to justify that love he avenged the King Of Vain Tyler Breeze costing him his shot against Dallas a few weeks ago with a clean win here. It started off flashy with Neville pulling out ranas from Parts Unknown and a handspring backflip feint that was so good it almost would make one forget Sami Zayn is slightly injured right now, and culminated in a multi-minute fight in which Neville had to fight off Breeze twice before he could Red Arrow Prince Pretty and stop his winning streak. In the middle, Breeze got to show off his hitting-someone-in-the-face-is-fine-when-I-do-it offense and going full Jericho on a springboard dropkick, and Neville looked as fluid as he has besides the match where he won his #1 contendership at the tail end of last year. If they're all going to be as fresh dollar bill crisp as the one he pulled off here, he needs to fire off a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker way more often.
If you're a Boliever or a WannaBreeze (and why wouldn't you be?), then certain parts of this show were for you. If not--hey, the launch of the Network is coming, and putting the amount of main event NXT matches featuring the Wave is probably 2 and you wouldn't be remiss in taking the under.
Seriously, though, Germans, what's the word for this already?
So, this leaves a dilemma: do you use the trainwreck as a starting point to inveigh on possible missteps or the highlight as an underscore of the potential that got left on the table?
Let's start with the trainwreck, since that seems harder to explain and unpack. Kofi Kingston got his rematch against Alexander Rusev, and while it may've left the crowd cold there was no gaping error or Take On Me moment where one could say "Well, that's where the whole thing went up in flames". One small gap in the lacunae here was that even when it was building on the prior match they'd had, while that was being plainly echoed in places it seems that despite Tensai on commentary providing a nice cover story leading into the match that both Bulgarian and psuedo-Jamaican had failed to learn some basic physics.
Rusev shouldn't have missed that many corner splashes even if that did lead to the payoff of him getting hurricane kicked and losing, and Kofi shouldn't've been trying to Irish whip a man the size of a Prius. Again, the match wasn't horrible -- I liked it better than it's lead-in where Bo Dallas beat Mojo Rawley with a tights enhanced rollup after a lot of stalling and almost no offense from the guy who's the longest reigning Champion the minor league's ever had against a guy with fewer than 10 matches under his resume, and even that was better than Ugh C.J. Parker's two-move squash of Jason Jordan--but when a crowd is chanting Ryback's chant the skin is starting to curdle on the pudding. If they were planning to make this another trilogy, perhaps they shouldn't. Let the Turn Kofi Heel Or Something Interesting HAWT TAKES begin anew! What win on Monday Night RAW?
As the COO came out and mentioned NXT going live on the Network come 2/27, what happened next was an easy reason as to why people will be laying down their tenners a month. Neville's lined up for another title shot on that program against the man who in the midnight hour makes them scream Bo, Bo, Bo (that one's for free, Scott Stanford!) and to justify that love he avenged the King Of Vain Tyler Breeze costing him his shot against Dallas a few weeks ago with a clean win here. It started off flashy with Neville pulling out ranas from Parts Unknown and a handspring backflip feint that was so good it almost would make one forget Sami Zayn is slightly injured right now, and culminated in a multi-minute fight in which Neville had to fight off Breeze twice before he could Red Arrow Prince Pretty and stop his winning streak. In the middle, Breeze got to show off his hitting-someone-in-the-face-is-fine-when-I-do-it offense and going full Jericho on a springboard dropkick, and Neville looked as fluid as he has besides the match where he won his #1 contendership at the tail end of last year. If they're all going to be as fresh dollar bill crisp as the one he pulled off here, he needs to fire off a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker way more often.
If you're a Boliever or a WannaBreeze (and why wouldn't you be?), then certain parts of this show were for you. If not--hey, the launch of the Network is coming, and putting the amount of main event NXT matches featuring the Wave is probably 2 and you wouldn't be remiss in taking the under.
Seriously, though, Germans, what's the word for this already?