What’s up Diva fans and welcome to this week’s NXT Redux! In a week in which no matches took place, I knew NXT was still going to deliver, and I wasn’t wrong! What it did deliver though, was well, a little confusing to say the least. I don’t want to waffle on on this special Thanksgiving as clearly, everyone is wanting to read this quickly and tuck right back into the food. So without further ado, let’s check out this week’s goodies to be thankful for!
The first backstage segment of the night sees a stunning Devin Taylor interview the leader of the Emmalution, Emma. Emma says that she was beaten up by the BFFs backstage so she’s medically unable to compete.
HOLD ON A MINUTE?!
Since when did WWE become a soap opera and have scenes take place off camera? I’m not here for that. Anyway, Paige walks into view and says that Emma is just making excuses and delaying their match for the NXT Women’s Championship. Emma declares that all the miscues between them were just accidents and that she does not like Paige’s tone! Emma makes Paige flinch with her praying mantis dance moves before crunking off into the background. I’m holding my tongue on what I thought of this until I uncover more evidence.
What’s that I spot? More evidence! The next backstage segment features the epic Paige once again. She is first seen using her phone, Snapchatting a photo of herself to me before Natalya ruins our moment and makes her presence felt. Nattie says that she felt that Paige was really rude to her in the locker room and didn’t deserve to be treated like that.
HOLD ON A MINUTE????!!!!!!
Did I miss something? I thought I skipped through a Tyler Breeze vs. Kassius Ohno match no-one cares about considering the latter has been released? I scrambled through the show again and I had missed nothing. Why are WWE throwing random bits of unexplained storyline at us this week? Back to the segment, Paige says that Natalya is “Miss Hollywood” now with a “new group of friends”. A list of logical things wrong with this segment:
1. Why is Nattie in the NXT locker room anyway? She’s a main roster Diva.
2. Why is Paige annoyed at Natalya having so-called “new friends”? Since when have they been major chums?
3. Why is my beloved Paige acting like a heel?
Paige continues her verbal assault on Natalya, saying she cares more about reality TV than the Divas Title.
HOLD ON A MINUTE???????????????!!!!!!!!!!!
Have you been under a rock for the last eternity Paige? All Nattie has done as of late is cry a pool as big as the Great Barrier Reef because she lost to AJ Lee. What is up this week?! Like the true champion she is, Paige declares that she’ll take Tal on for the belt. Natalya says she will happily take the chip from Paige’s shoulder and the title from her waist. Paige retaliates by telling Nat that she’ll show her where her roots are. Now those were two epic lines to finish on.
Our final backstage moment comes later in the show when the BFFs are using what seems to be a Hot or Not app and they’re bitching about the guys they see on the phone. Or they’re looking at phones with blank screens. Summer Rae notices someone is coming so Charlotte quickly scurries out of sight.
HOLD ON A MINUTE?????????????????????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Why do people always enter the shot from the left and leave to the right? How did Bayley not see Charlotte leave the room? Why are all the Divas and male Superstars too congregating in this office and not the locker room, canteen or corridor? And where is JBL to sort all of this nonsense out and tell people to get out of his blooming office?!
Bayley enters the mix and says she wants to speak to Charlotte right now. Summer says that Charlotte wants nothing to do with Bayley and she rubs more salt into Bayley’s wounds by saying that her only other so-called friends Emma and Paige hate each other, and they are “‘sorry’ about that”! Bayley won’t take no for an answer so Summer gets all fierce on her arse and tells her to go and eat some donuts in her cat t-shirt. Simple yet hilarious! Bayley responds by making a tag match between her and a friend against Summer and Sasha.
HOLD ON A….
Just kidding. Since when does Bayley have match-making authority? Or did she follow the new trend and speak to JBL off camera? Either way, Bayley is ready to bring the fight, and she’s got back-up.
Thoughts: Before I get into how bamboozled I am about what went on this week, let’s talk about how stunning Devin Taylor looked and how well she performed in her backstage role. Devin has prior journalism experience so it makes perfect sense for her to begin as a backstage announcer before transitioning to the ring. She looked fantastic and was solid in her role this week. Great job Devin!
The Paige and Emma argument really confused me. Why Paige is still going on about Emma accidentally hitting her is just beyond me. I can only explain it by saying that they plan on turning her heel as being this pent up about something so minor is petty and not expected of a babyface character, even one like Paige’s who is passionate and full of angst.
Why is Emma being written out of matches too? It would have taken 30 seconds to show her being beat up backstage by the BFFs so I don’t understand why WWE went all lazy on us and didn’t film the beatdown. NXT’s storylines always go at a snail’s pace due to the show only being an hour, yet the backstage segments are always what tie together the loose ends of stories and keep them refreshing for weeks on end. The reasoning behind Emma’s injuries lack that refreshment for me. It seems like they are holding off on Paige vs Emma to allow Bayley vs Charlotte to grow, which I’m totally fine with, yet they could have handled the explanation a little better.
Paige continued to flabbergast me in her backstage segment with Natalya. Why was she portrayed in such a moody, unlikable and bratty fashion? I am the biggest Paige fan under the sun and I very much enjoyed her heel-like behavior yet it came across as unnatural to me at this stage in her storyline and made no sense to me considering how her character has been behaving over the last few months. Although she’s always been aggressive, she’s came across looking noble. This week, she definitely didn’t. Whilst not bad if she was a heel, she’s not meant to be right now.
Natalya was hit and miss for me. She made a great comparison between her and Paige’s backgrounds and I love her dialogue about Paige not knowing what battle to fight yet other than that, she came across as again, a busybody that you would love to hate and enjoy booing as a heel character. Being a goody two shoes is annoying and I don’t want to get annoyed by a face character. I love your in-ring work Natalya yet your face character needs to woman up and to quote Lily Allen: “Forget your balls and grow a pair of t**s.”
My favorite segment of the night by far was Bayley’s encounter with the BFFs. Although I thought the hot or not part was a little childish, I really enjoyed the rest of it. Although Summer’s lines were very simple, her delivery was as usual, spot on and she delivered big time. Sasha‘s facial expressions were great yet she was overshadowed by both Charlotte and Summer. Charlotte needed to speak more at the start as it was her first time being seen with the BFFs and the fact she was leaving the segment quickly yet Sasha clearly could have spoken to Bayley first before Summer went down on her like a ton of bricks.
Finally, Renee Young, the bits I heard from you on commentary were very witty and entertaining. Another positive of Devin’s arrival means that she can grow on the mic and Renee can stay at the announce booth – woohoo!
All-in-all, NXT was good yet logically, not great. However, whether it be for the right reasons or all the wrong ones, NXT got me thinking and got me ranting talking so that is surely a positive. I may eat my hat in a few weeks when all of these new story archs begin to unfold so whilst I’m confused as to where everything is headed right now, we’ve got to be patient and have a little faith in WWE. NXT is normally the ‘A’ show and if this was the one-off week that is needed to guarantee strong showings for the next few weeks, then I’m happy with that.
I think I now have a migraine. So many rhetorical questions!
And with that, stay tuned, Jack will be back!
PS: It’s a little late in the day, but Happy Thanksgiving to all of the American Diva Dirt readers. I hope you’ve had the best day celebrating with family and friends!
