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| Ungovernable Photo Credit: WWE.com |
When last we left Best Coast Bias proper, NXT was still wrapped up in the cocoon of raves garnered from their second excursion into Brooklyn back in the summer. Having once again been widely regarded as better than bigger brother's SummerSlam with the exception of the Styles/Cena rematch and culminating the card with three title matches that were all worthy of being added to the bulging list of 2016's Great Matches it seemed the black and yellow imprint's future was as glorious as the debut Bobby Roode made on that show.
Yet as any coach in popular culture will tell you, greatness doesn't come without sacrifice. You can easily make the argument that the outpour of excellence that went into making Takeover: Brooklyn Brooklyn so lauded pretty much cost NXT its September, and the hard hitting title match for the Men's World Title left both the Emperor who walked in as champion and the King who left with the crown unable to perform since.
Fortunately with the arrival of autumn, there came up on the calendar another crucial second time event to further NXT's legacy in the present by building to the future off of echoes of the past, the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic. With that being the main focus of NXT for the foreseeable future they can cruise pretty easily towards the next Takeover in Toronto closer to the end of the year without rushing into a Shinsuke Nakamura/Samoa Joe rematch or finding any woman fool enough to want to chance Death By Asuka and be seen as a viable threat to the cognoscenti while she does so.
And one of NXT's hallmarks shone in a very quiet way in their first October installment when they kicked off the second Classic, unspoken bookmarks. When the Bollywood Boyz came out for the opener the crowd was psyched, dancing and gleeful to see the Sihra brothers in NXT proper. Immediately following this, they fired up the Authors of Pain's music and Tron and the air in the arena was sucked out so emphatically quick that both Tom Phillips and Corey Graves mentioned it before the bell had even rung. There will be brighter days for Gurv and Harv ahead, Full Sail's too high on them both in stands and in the back for them not to be, but those days damn sure weren't this one, which served the emphatic purpose that maybe the only way the Authors won't walk out of this tournament winners is if they get DQed due to excessive castigo.
In the main event, the make shift team of Andrade Almas and Cedric Alexander went up against the Revival, who you'd think would be the de facto favorites... and yet the Authors loom formidably over all proceedings, as Tom brought up pre-match and Corey did his best Kellyanne Conway in getting away from. The opponents turned allies hung with the champions early, and managed to neutralize if not outright counter some of the southern boys' tricks. But the bag Dawson and Wilder pull from has more in it than Malenko's lodger of holds, and despite some early high flying success for Ciendric they went back to what they do best, isolating then destroying a body part, in this case Andrade's left arm. The Full Sailors Wanted Cedric, and after a few teases where the Revival had Cien had jeopardy, they got Alexander down the stretch. Both teams made match extending saves down the stretch, but in the end the Shatter Machine was something the darling of the Cruiserweight Classic could dodge once but not twice.
Andrade's response to this, of course, was to go 1000% rudo on the Queen City's Favorite Son. This probably has nothing to do with the fact Ced's been more beloved than he's been since literally the moment the former has shown up, or beat him in that main event last week. Also, if you believe that, please send in your bank account number and PIN. It's been hacked and the only people possibly capable of fixing that work for wrestling websites. Cien's donning of the black hat finally turned his reactions from tepidly positive to outright enmity, and the fact he did this specifically to Alexander should help him (re)establish his moustache twirling ways with a quickness. You may have been able to see this cab coming down Broadway with the doors open, but it didn't lessen the jeers in Orlando any or keep the night from ending on a lusty "You Suck!" chant.
Elsewhere in the tournament, Glorious Ten continued to establish their polar opposite personalities in a backstage segment where Bobby Roode was in danger of letting Tye Dillinger get in a double digit count of things to say, and further more waved off SAnitY's debut against them next week. Contrast that to a later segment where the victorious Rich Swann palled around with No Way Jose and it seemed like they should've been a team far before the Classic gave them the opportunity to coalesce as a unit.
So things like finally pairing together Peyton Royce onscreen with Billie Kay or Samoa Joe totally aborting the debut of the hyped Dan Matha to send his Path Of Rage message to Master Regal got overshadowed, sure. But they also got more room to breathe and take up the lesser space that evolving the narrative sometimes has to take. For the ladies, since it's quickly becoming obvious no one unarmed woman can stop the Empress of Tomorrow maybe their bond can break her stranglehold on the Women's World Title. For the former holder of the Big X, he gets more time to get his jaw located properly while still coming off as the world-destroying bad-ass that got the NXT World Championship in the first place.
For Full Sail September may have been somnabulant. but the new iteration of the Dusty Classic is already waking up Florida by spinning off new rivalries and fights to augment the clearing haziness around the World Title picture. Where we go from here until the fireworks factory goes off again in Toronto is unknown, but we know it'll take more than a hot minute to catch everyone up on what occurs.
Yet as any coach in popular culture will tell you, greatness doesn't come without sacrifice. You can easily make the argument that the outpour of excellence that went into making Takeover: Brooklyn Brooklyn so lauded pretty much cost NXT its September, and the hard hitting title match for the Men's World Title left both the Emperor who walked in as champion and the King who left with the crown unable to perform since.
Fortunately with the arrival of autumn, there came up on the calendar another crucial second time event to further NXT's legacy in the present by building to the future off of echoes of the past, the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic. With that being the main focus of NXT for the foreseeable future they can cruise pretty easily towards the next Takeover in Toronto closer to the end of the year without rushing into a Shinsuke Nakamura/Samoa Joe rematch or finding any woman fool enough to want to chance Death By Asuka and be seen as a viable threat to the cognoscenti while she does so.
And one of NXT's hallmarks shone in a very quiet way in their first October installment when they kicked off the second Classic, unspoken bookmarks. When the Bollywood Boyz came out for the opener the crowd was psyched, dancing and gleeful to see the Sihra brothers in NXT proper. Immediately following this, they fired up the Authors of Pain's music and Tron and the air in the arena was sucked out so emphatically quick that both Tom Phillips and Corey Graves mentioned it before the bell had even rung. There will be brighter days for Gurv and Harv ahead, Full Sail's too high on them both in stands and in the back for them not to be, but those days damn sure weren't this one, which served the emphatic purpose that maybe the only way the Authors won't walk out of this tournament winners is if they get DQed due to excessive castigo.
In the main event, the make shift team of Andrade Almas and Cedric Alexander went up against the Revival, who you'd think would be the de facto favorites... and yet the Authors loom formidably over all proceedings, as Tom brought up pre-match and Corey did his best Kellyanne Conway in getting away from. The opponents turned allies hung with the champions early, and managed to neutralize if not outright counter some of the southern boys' tricks. But the bag Dawson and Wilder pull from has more in it than Malenko's lodger of holds, and despite some early high flying success for Ciendric they went back to what they do best, isolating then destroying a body part, in this case Andrade's left arm. The Full Sailors Wanted Cedric, and after a few teases where the Revival had Cien had jeopardy, they got Alexander down the stretch. Both teams made match extending saves down the stretch, but in the end the Shatter Machine was something the darling of the Cruiserweight Classic could dodge once but not twice.
Andrade's response to this, of course, was to go 1000% rudo on the Queen City's Favorite Son. This probably has nothing to do with the fact Ced's been more beloved than he's been since literally the moment the former has shown up, or beat him in that main event last week. Also, if you believe that, please send in your bank account number and PIN. It's been hacked and the only people possibly capable of fixing that work for wrestling websites. Cien's donning of the black hat finally turned his reactions from tepidly positive to outright enmity, and the fact he did this specifically to Alexander should help him (re)establish his moustache twirling ways with a quickness. You may have been able to see this cab coming down Broadway with the doors open, but it didn't lessen the jeers in Orlando any or keep the night from ending on a lusty "You Suck!" chant.
Elsewhere in the tournament, Glorious Ten continued to establish their polar opposite personalities in a backstage segment where Bobby Roode was in danger of letting Tye Dillinger get in a double digit count of things to say, and further more waved off SAnitY's debut against them next week. Contrast that to a later segment where the victorious Rich Swann palled around with No Way Jose and it seemed like they should've been a team far before the Classic gave them the opportunity to coalesce as a unit.
So things like finally pairing together Peyton Royce onscreen with Billie Kay or Samoa Joe totally aborting the debut of the hyped Dan Matha to send his Path Of Rage message to Master Regal got overshadowed, sure. But they also got more room to breathe and take up the lesser space that evolving the narrative sometimes has to take. For the ladies, since it's quickly becoming obvious no one unarmed woman can stop the Empress of Tomorrow maybe their bond can break her stranglehold on the Women's World Title. For the former holder of the Big X, he gets more time to get his jaw located properly while still coming off as the world-destroying bad-ass that got the NXT World Championship in the first place.
For Full Sail September may have been somnabulant. but the new iteration of the Dusty Classic is already waking up Florida by spinning off new rivalries and fights to augment the clearing haziness around the World Title picture. Where we go from here until the fireworks factory goes off again in Toronto is unknown, but we know it'll take more than a hot minute to catch everyone up on what occurs.