What’s up Diva fans and welcome to this week’s NXT Redux! It’s semi-final time in the NXT Women’s Champion tournament and this week sees the clash between The Flair and The Bling as Charlotte faces off against Alexa Bliss. Will Alexa cause yet another upset or will Charlotte squash the fairy?
TO THE VIDEO!
Our first Diva sighting of the night is Conchita Wurst… oh no wait, it’s Eden. A shame how a joke with no malice behind it can be taken so seriously!
Eden bursts into singing ‘Rise Like a Phoenix’ introduces the first Diva who will be wrestling – Alexa Bliss. Alexa doesn’t rise from sitting on the apron in-time with the shining sound effect in her theme song, yet I’ll let her off as the entrance is cute as!
The Queen City Slayer, Charlotte is out next and she’s got The Boss, Sasha Banks by her side. The girls switched it up and stood on opposite sides to walk down the ramp this week. I still find the tandem click cheesy though regardless of where they are stood!
The match begins with Alexa grabbing onto Charlotte, trying to lock in a sleeper hold. Charlotte squeals for the ref to “get this fairy off me” yet Charlotte just decides doing the job herself will be more effective… and painful. Alexa quickly recuperates from the ramming she took as she wallops Charlotte with a back elbow and a stiff kick. She then 450s over Charlotte and tries to make lightning strike twice with the same athletic small package she won with last week. A sloppy cover attempt ensues before Charlotte powers out and then takes control with a knee to the stomach.
Charlotte bosses the referee around and gets two near falls which shows it’s going to take more than a piercing knee to keep Alexa down. The BFF leader(?) chokes Miss Bliss out on the ropes before throwing her neck all over the shop during a rough abdominal stretch. Alexa eventually manages to wriggle free and hit a schoolgirl but Charlotte kicks out and clotheslines Alexa hard to regain control.
Alexa then meets the Tree of Woe for the first time as Charlotte goes to work on clobbering her belly with kicks. Following another near fall, Charlotte locks the abdominal stretch in again, making Alexa do her best ragdoll impression. Lightning strikes twice (in a less important, match-winning way for Alexa) as the sparkplug fights out and hits another schoolgirl. This time though, Alexa doesn’t get dropped straight back to the mat and hammers Charlotte with some elbows and kicks. The feisty five footer hits a sunset flip for a close encounter with her second win before attempting a crossbody. The key word being attempting as although she flies in on Charlotte and things are looking good, the second generation gymnast cracks Alexa with a backbreaker.
Charlotte then drapes Alexa over her knee, performing a simple yet very effective and realistic looking submission. Alexa shows some real spirit and clubs her way out, yet she keeps getting her wings clipped, this time with a knee to the gut. Charlotte chokes Alexa and hits another backbreaker before hitting ‘Bow Down to the Queen’ (LOL, ok) for the three count. Charlotte has reached the finals!
Thoughts: I have severely mixed feelings regarding this match. The longer, it was going, I was enjoying Charlotte’s physicality and the realism her moves exuded and I was excited to see a flashy comeback from Alexa, and then there wasn’t one. Two words came to mind after seeing the finish –
GLORIFIED. SQUASH.
Charlotte went into the finals looking well, and as a finalist, that is of most importance to the tournament. However, Alexa got hardly any offence in and was built up quite well, only to just take a length beating. Ok, she kicked out a lot, yet she was kicking out of basic moves, and that sadly doesn’t make her look impressive. I’m disappointed as I feel that this match could have done way more for Alexa, even with her losing, yet the finish just felt flat to me.
By no means was the match bad as I was enjoying it until it finished and then I got a feeling of severe MEH. This match would have been fine to establish a Charlotte who has just won the title or if Alexa wasn’t a new character, yet with Alexa being so new, I think she needed to look better here. I would have even preferred to see Sasha get involved so then we could get behind Alexa more as she was cheated out of a win, yet alas, we didn’t see that.
Also, Bow Down to the Queen? A bit long-winded and pretentious. It fits Charlotte’s character then I guess! =P
Next week will see Sasha versus Auntie Natalya. Will Nattie win with a Sharpshooter, by boring Sasha to sleep, by drowning Sasha in her incontinence or by scaring her to death by drawing a portrait of her? Or can Sasha win? Nah, I doubt it!
And with that, stay tuned, Jack will be back!
