Good day loyal readers, and welcome to this week’s NXT Redux! Going to start you off with a little warning… I just watched the series ender to one of my all-time favorite shows, Parenthood, and so this redux might be a big fat mess since I’m all in the feels right now.
Regardless, I will try to control myself and wipe away the ugly crying to bring forth the Diva goodness from our second to last episode before their next live special, NXT TakeOver: Fatal-4-Ba[y]e on February 11th.
Tonight, we see the four women who will square off against one another team up, as Bayley and Charlotte look to knock Sasha and Becky down a peg heading into the enormous title match. As a bonus, we also might get a little surprise to follow suit.
Without any further ado, let’s get started!
Out to the ring we travel, as Charlotte and her newfound bangin’ straight hair step out from the back. She tosses her T-Shirt off to a presumably young fan, then proceeding to flip inside the ring as her tag team partner follows suit.
It’s probably my Parenthood wreckage taking me over, but I’m already about to collapse in a fit of tears because I want Bayley’s dream to come true in two weeks so badly. And it would mean watching my longtime dream of Sasha as champion not come true. I am so conflicted.
Nevertheless, Bayley walks out to her addictive theme song as the crowd claps along and her wavy tube men flail about. Charlotte doesn’t look too impressed, but the crowd is 100% here for her. Up next come their opponents, Sasha and Becky who are, of course, collectively known as Team B.A.E.
Commentary states that Sasha claims Becky cost her the title last week, which makes this an interesting match to see if they can work together with their identical hair colors and all. Bayley and Sasha kick things off with a lock up, followed up by a battle for advantage. Bayley with a nice lucha armdrag! She slips up on a second attempt, allowing Sasha to pick things up and tag Becky in. Lynch with some shots, as Sasha re-enters. Charlotte now tags herself in and executes her beautiful pin attempt for a near fall. Sasha rolls out of a chop attempt and tags Becky back in, that of whom feels the effects.
Snapmare followed up with a knee drop, as Bayley blind tags herself in. Ruh-roh. Bayley with a little combo work as Becky rolls outside and eats a baseball slide. She scurries back inside and distracts the ref as Sasha rakes Bay’s eyes on the rope. Lynch with some leg drops, but just for a two. Sasha is now legal, as BAE takes Bayley down.
Deceased. Sasha imitates Bayley’s wavey nature, complete with added “wooooooooo” to add insult to Charlotte as well. God she is wonderful.
The crowd disagrees about Sasha as usual, but it doesn’t affect Banks who continues the assault. She tags Becky in, who targets the knee. Bayley counters a suplex attempt and both women tag out! Charlotte goes crazy on Sasha, nailing some chops and clotheslines. Suplex into a neckbreaker! She goes for it… yes! Bridging figure four! Becky breaks it up. Charlotte takes Lynch out, allowing Sasha to hit The Bankrupt! Bayley runs in to break the pin up, but Sasha moves and she collides with Charlotte! Charlotte looks furious, as she shoves Bayley! NO MA’AM.
Bayley decks Charlotte and the two go at it! Charlotte unloads on Bayley as BAE tries to destroy both and everything breaks loose causing the DQ. BAE is now thrown out, as Bayley goes psychotic on Charlotte. Referee’s break it up as the crowd chants for them to fight. Charlotte gives her a death stare as we continue on the road to a Fatal-4-B.A.[Y]E!
Blessed be! We head backstage to see the one and only Ruth Bader Ginsburg of wrestling broadcast journalism, Devin Taylor, as she stands alongside her guest… Emma! She reveals that Emma is returning to NXT next week, which Emma replies that her run on the main roster hasn’t exactly worked out as planned. But that’s why she’s back! And next week will be a fresh start as she gets a rematch against Carmella.
Plucky lovable little Devin then asks if this means we’ll get the Emma dance, but Emma stops her and claims the dancing queen will show her how it’s done next week.
Thoughts: NXT, you’re spoiling me these few weeks. I love this storyline continuation between the four, and I’m not sure I want it to ever end because it’s very, very interesting. And they are handling it great by coming up with ways to keep all four seemingly against one another.
I still don’t know who I want to win between Sasha and Bayley (which means neither probably will knowing my luck), but I thought all four ladies worked really well tonight. Bayley had a little slip up early on, but I liked how commentary quickly mentioned her injured knee she’s been working with soon after, allowing the miscue to fit into the story and add to the overall picture of Bayley fighting through the pain to get what she wants. I mean this is essentially her last chance at the title if Charlotte retains. I don’t see how she can justifiably go for it again after getting what will be three chances. Same goes for Sasha. Bayley wants this so badly, and after pretty much being forgotten about on the last taping, it’s a (very needed) miracle we’ve gotten her back into the spotlight this soon.
I just love her story so much. It’s starting to overtake my need for a Sasha title reign because I feel like this is the culmination of Bayley’s NXT journey. Would it be even better for her to win it from Sasha considering that has been her arch rival for the past 90 years? Yes. But I don’t want Sasha to have a short transitional reign and I’m not sure I want her to hold it for a long time if it means she can’t go to the main roster. This is where I’m starting to get conflicted (call it the Emma ArRIVAL syndrome), but honestly I just think this needs to be Bayley’s night. She has come so close, building herself up time and time again without getting much accolade from the company to show for it.
One can argue the same goes for Sasha, but I think even Sasha has gotten a little more than Bayley in terms of the match on main event, working WWE live events, etc. That’s not to say Sasha doesn’t deserve it because I’ll be the first one lining up to buy a ticket if she’s booked for a show, but I feel like this is the justification for all of that hard work that Bayley deserves. Charlotte has gotten a lot, Sasha is starting to finally get a lot, but Bayley still feels like she hasn’t gotten even a minor payoff for essentially keeping this division alive in all of its four-five-six woman glory.
Okay venting over. As far as the match goes, I enjoyed it. I kind of like not seeing them go all out just yet because I think it will make the fatal-4-way that much sweeter and more impressive if we don’t have anything on a recent episode of NXT that can compare, and so I like seeing these DQ finishes and scuffles between them. I’m hoping next week we get some visible Becky/Sasha tension since tonight was more Bayley/Charlotte focused. We did get that sly little line on commentary that Sasha felt Becky cost her the title last week, but I want to see them at least have a stare off or shove one another before the big day.
As far as Emma goes, I’m mixed. I’m not one of those people who like when Divas return to developmental. I like to focus on the future, and women’s divisions are so small as it is that I feel like when someone comes back, it just means the other 250 developmental Divas will continue to have a reason as to why they can’t enter the fray. If it’s just for one week, though, then why not? I’m not going to complain about seeing another Divas match.
Like I’ve said before, with the men it’s just different. I love having Tyson Kidd come here, but that’s also because there are countless spots and opportunities for the guys. The women usually get one slot per show, and somehow we’ve managed to have a tiny division continue on for almost a year now. I think, to me at least, the live specials have helped immensely because they’re sort of quarterly triggers to remind ourselves just how talented these women are. On regular episodes though, I want to see fresh faces and get more of these unique match types as opposed to singles and an occasional tag. I mean, those newer Divas can’t get any better and more experienced if you’re not giving them an opportunity to. This is why I have slight minor issues with their system, but that’s another place and time.
The fact is, what we’ve got going right now is great. And it’s interesting! I want to see these kinds of segments and character driven stories continue on after TakeOver, but if they don’t I’m going to at least enjoy seeing them for now.
Bring on the Fatal-4-B.A.[Y]E!
