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Welcome to this week’s NXT review! This episode sees the debut of Sanity and furthers Billie Kay and Peyton Royce‘s dubious alliance.
For weeks now we’ve been seeing video packages hyping anarchy and destruction from someone or something called Sanity. Well, last night during the first round of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic the team made its debut against Bobby Roode and Tye Dillenger.
Alexander Wolfe and Swayer Fulton would represent the team and completely decimate Tye as Bobby abandoned his partner. After the match the other two members of the pack were revealed to be Nikki Cross, formally known as Nikki Glencross and Nikki Storm, and Eric Young! Nikki layed into Tye before being stopped by Eric.
It's official: @SFulton_WWE + @TheWWEWolfe + @TheEricYoung + @NikkiCrossWWE = #SAnitY!!!!! #WWENXT #DustyClassic pic.twitter.com/bsXP76Hsr9
— WWE (@WWE) October 13, 2016
After the match an NXT interviewer is standing by with Billie and Peyton. She asks Billie what she thinks about Liv Morgan since she’ll be facing her next. Billie and Peyton mock Liv’s clothes and her loss to Asuka. Billie says she’ll enjoy beating her up and Peyton says she’ll enjoy watching it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9zs5xm38Rk
Next up is the match. Let’s watch!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7w7Y-YEckGs
Both women make their entrances and the two tie up. Liv quickly backs Billie up into the corner before the ref separates them as Billie yells at Liv to get off her. They tie up again and Billie reverses it with a slam. Liv then trips her and drops Billie with a shoulder block. They engage in a slow backslide which Billie reverses.
Billie hits Liv with a mid-section breaker and knocks Liv down with huge punches. She chokes Liv in the corner with her boot and continues punishing her with hits to the neck/head. She then gets Liv in the modified torture rack hold where she works Liv’s head before slamming her into the turnbuckle.
Liv fights back with a modified STO which stuns Billie. Liv hits her and grounds Billie with a clothes line. She dropkicks her and then goes to run the ropes but Peyton trips her, distracting Liv. Liv then turns around and gets a big boot to the face by Billie. Billie puts her away.
Thoughts: I’m intrigued by Nikki’s role in Sanity. When I read the spoilers that Sanity was going to be a stable I immediately laughed and thought this is WWE’s attempt at having The Decay. This is still up to debate for now.
With that beat down by Nikki on Tye though, we’ll see an intergender match yet…maybe someday, I won’t hold my breathe even though I am always hopeful.
The one thing I’m kind of turned off by is the fact that they are ignoring Nikki’s debut as a face during the summer. This can be rectified, however, since they just debuted, I’m sure there’s more back story to be told. There are endless possibilities I can think of to allow her to run roughshod over the women’s division with her teammates. They could be what BAMF was supposed to be with Alexa Bliss, an overpowering force that leads to Nikki dominating the division.
Onto our match, I enjoyed it. I thought both women looked good and there was a lot of back and forth. Liv continues to push on as an underdog and she’s coming along nicely with her skills. I’m still not overjoyed at her character though. She needs something more to put her over the edge. Heck, she can even channel her inner foodie with her love for pizza, just do something different because right now she definitely gets lost in the shuffle.
Billie continued to shine. Her and Peyton have the mic skills and the ring skills, they just need to let loose now. I am hoping they are both up as Asuka’s next feud. They are on her level and they just need the chance to prove it. With tapings later today, I believe they will start laying the foundations for feuds for Asuka and other matches at TakeOver.
Though pretty basic right now, I am relieved that NXT is forming stories outside the title picture. Billie and Peyton will be the next gatekeepers for feuds within the division and we need to see the development of more women. With a group coming up the ranks, more will get a chance to shine. It’s up to NXT now to capitalize on it.
What did you think of last night’s NXT? What do you hope is next for the division? Excited for Nikki’s role in Sanity? Sound off in the comments below.
