Gooooooood day ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to this week’s nautically rad NXT recap!~
Last week was quite the big showing for our Divas, as Blue Pants scored the surprise upset of the century when she defeated Carmella. In addition, we also got a brief promo featuring Charlotte, Natalya, Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch.
Also, my Oprah Winfrey of wrestling based broadcast journalism, Devin Taylor, competed on the whatever number season of The Bachelor it was, where she was radiant, perfect, and too good to receive one of those cheap, plastic roses from a man who would have likely wanted her to give up her career and move to some farm town in Idaho. Or Iowa. I don’t remember.
Point is, you’re not taking this ball of journalistic sunshine away from me, so let’s dive into this week’s action which sees The Boss do battle with Alexa Bliss, who I largely miss.
Out first is the plucky, glitter kiss blowing, Alexa Bliss! Ahh, the sound of JoJo announcing her is music to my ears… but for real, can you guys let her wrestle in 2015? Please and thanks.
Alexa spins and skips down the entrance ramp, entering the ring and removing her tutu as we get a rundown of Sasha breaking Alexa’s nose the last time they fought. This is something I very much appreciate as it makes the match, which like most, has been done a few times, seem a bit more intriguing as it paints Alexa as wanting revenge against Sasha.
Speaking of which, my favorite theme song in all of the world hits and I immediately break out into my usual out-of-tune rendition. Sasha and Becky then make their way out to the ring together, as Banks steps inside and gets ready for a rematch war (featuring Alexa Bliss death stare… which is still adorable.)
Sasha teases Alexa and shoves her back, as Bliss fires up quickly! She sends Sasha into the corner and lands that wonderful corner powerbomb for a two. Headscissors takedown follows… oop, nevermind. Sasha counters into a backbreaker and attains a near fall. Banks screams insults out about Alexa’s nose, as she continues to beat her down. Bodyslam countered into a small package! Just a two. Crucifix! Another close call. Bliss is sent into the corner and met with a pair of Sasha’s brutal knee strikes. She then screams out that this is too easy, before dropping Bliss with a backstabber and transitioning into the Bank Statement as Alexa taps out. Sasha keeps it locked in to cause added pain, as Becky then celebrates with The Boss.
Thoughts: A pretty small week this week, which I think one can look at with one of two mindsets.
The first is that after all we saw last week, highlighting multiple feuds and attaining both a match and a segment, it is kind of a letdown. But the second, which is the one I take, is that I understand it. Maybe because I completely get the whole NXT taping schedule and how you probably shouldn’t have these women putting on three matches in a row as it could increase the chance of injury and potentially overwork/overexpose them. So in that sense, I get it and I’m completely okay with their choice to not really highlight much of what happened last go around.
The match was fine, and the work was solid, but it just felt too short to really have a lot to say about it. I really do wish Alexa Bliss could find a stable role though, but I guess maybe it makes sense that she’s been missing for a while since they played up her busted nose. I think she has sooo much potential, and is legitimately improving with her transitioning and repertoire every time she steps foot in a ring. Unfortunately, because she is the least experienced aside from Carmella who is off doing her own thing, the role of being that background Diva pretty much falls on her. I’m sure in time it will change and she will move up the ranks, but I definitely want to see more of what Alexa can do and see her get some longer matches.
Sasha and Becky… I just want to like them together so much, but it doesn’t flow for me. I think they have the look of a tag team down in terms of hair and appearance in general, but I can’t lie — they just don’t feel like a believable duo in the way any combination of the BFF’s did. I feel like we’ve seen enough to the point I am confident in saying they give off the vibe of being two people who would shine more as their own entities, at least in terms of their character. Maybe it’s the gear, since both have kept their original styles and it’s not really matching, but that’s also the thing… it really can’t match… because they are both so different from one another character wise and seeing Becky wearing something similar to Sasha or vice versa is just not logical.
I completely think this has raised Becky Lynch’s prominence up loads, and that is a great thing because she was kind of in that Alexa Bliss spot for a while until this came along. She would put on great matches, but always lose them and never really be involved with a long-term feud. In that sense, I love the two together. But I just can’t get past the fact that a head swinging rocker and the HBIC who gets “ratchet” chanted at her are two different identities no matter how similarly great they look. Can they mesh in the real world? Well sure, anyone can no matter what your interests are. In wrestling though, I feel like a team has to give off the certain vibe that they’re a unit… whether it be in movesets or promos or gear or everything.
To their credit, NXT has never given them a promo together (to my knowledge), and they also barely give them matches as a tag team so that part might come down the line. I’m not giving up hope though because I think both Sasha and Becky are phenomenal. If anyone can transition this to work over time, it’s them. We just need to see them in promos together, in my opinion, to see how they bounce off each other given the chance. Let’s get some Team BAE interviews beloved Devin Taylor!
That’s it for this week!~ Join me again next time as we make the move to Wednesdays for all to enjoy.
