What’s up Diva fans and welcome to this week’s NXT Redux. It’s time for part two of your double dose of me today, or as I like to call it… ‘JACK THURSDAYS’! Ok, I really to come up with a more catchy title for that. Does the french for Thursday begin with J? I need to find some form of alliteration to make it work!
Moving swiftly on, although there was no match this week, we were treated to an arena Diva sighting in the form of Lana, who took to the mic and spoke a language that frankly, I never knew existed. Answers on a postcard please for what she was speaking! In addition to Lana loveliness in the arena, we also saw her backstage. Aswell as that, we also saw the BFFs, Sasha Banks and Summer Rae clash with Bayley and Charlotte in the locker room area and speaking of clashing, Emma and Paige get in each other’s faces in a new flashback segment. With a surprising amount of talk time to get through, let’s get cracking. *X Factor voiceover man voice* TO THE VIDEO!
Our first Diva appearance of the night comes from Lana, who is speaking backstage with Sylvester LeFort, the former manager of Alexander Rusev, the man Lana has had her eye on over recent weeks. Alexander explains that he always paid Alexander well, so why has he now sided with Lana? Lana retorts in a foreign language and I assume she says “Get lost you hairy creep” or something along those lines. LeFort says he doesn’t speak Russian yet I’m not even sure that is what Lana is speaking. I thought she was American! Whoops, I’m breaking kayfabe!
Lana is back after the opening credits and she introduces her new client Alexander before his match with his former manager, Sylvester LeFort. Although I have no clue of what she was saying, I preferred it to her wanting to be Dusty Rhodes‘ lapdog. Good job that gimmick was scrapped! On commentary, Renee Young says that she’s done a little investigative journalism on Lana, and then proceeds to say absolutely nothing else on the matter. You can’t be about to spill the beans Renee and then just not spill them! WWE can’t get the staff nowadays it seems!
Our next backstage segment sees the BFFs, Sasha and Summer, interrupt a conversation between the most unlikely friends ever, Bayley and Charlotte.
Seriously, Bayley and Charlotte as best friends is about as believable as seeing Lorde become Maid of Honor at Selena Gomez’s wedding. Just no. The segment starts with the dodgy duo discussing Bayley’s fixed hairband. Question: Tell me what you think about me? Who took so long to do such a shoddy job of fixing Bayley’s hairband? Let’s hope it wasn’t Sandra’s responsibility and someone spiked her drink…
Bayley lets out a Ric Flair-esque “Woo” and Charlotte doesn’t look at all impressed. Sasha and Summer then make their presence felt and Charlotte is also not impressed with them either. The Beautiful, Fierce Females say that they are really sorry that they broke Bayley’s hairband and as they feel so bad about it, they decided to get her a new one. Bayley is over the moon by the fact it has kittens on yet Charlotte is having none of it. Summer asks what Charlotte’s problem is and says that although she knows Charlotte has a few personal issues going on, don’t take it out on her. How does Summer know about Charlotte’s issues? Hmmm. Renee Young, here’s another line of inquiry you can delve into and then subsequently not tell us what you’ve discovered!
Charlotte says she hates how Sasha and Summer act like they run NXT. “News flash: you don’t.” News flash: is it bad I’m laughing at Charlotte’s attempt at sass? Summer bigs up Sasha before declaring that they could “use” someone like Bayley. Like how Summer is using Sasha I guess? The segment ends with Summer referring to Charlotte as trash and Charlotte gets all angry and moody. She then tells Bayley to stop touching her, something Bayley must hear about 979077398 times a day.
Our final backstage segment is exclusive “WWE.com footage” that wasn’t on WWE.com at all, showing what happened between Paige and Emma after Emma accidently hit Paige last week. Take a look.
Thoughts: I’ll start with my take on Lana. Lana definitely has charisma and I’m intrigued to see why she and Alexander are now together. I hope WWE give us a genuinely good reason and don’t leave it unexplained like who The Shield were working for when they joined the main roster. I’m not a fan of bad explanations! But back to Lana, she has a great look that is unique from anyone else on the roster so fingers crossed WWE keep up the momentum with her story.
Next, I enjoyed the backstage segment with the BFFs, Bayley and Charlotte? The BFFs exude bitchiness with their characters and I am believing them more and more as a unit with every appearance. I also think that Bayley’s character is so strong right now. Although she eventually tried to calm Charlotte down, it was funny to see how gullible she was and how easily she was nearly drawn in by Sasha and Summer, and just because they bought her a new hairband. The whole hairband fixing thing was illogical and silly yet those three girls performed well.
Charlotte also did well, but I just don’t get her character at all. One minute, she’s wooing in the ring and lapping up her famous heritage. The next minute, she hates any mention of Ric Flair. Her new hairstyle and her mannerisms come off as massively heelish and I think seeds may have been planted with her reaction to Bayley at the end of the clip. Time will tell!
Finally, my favorite segment was the backstage argument between Emma and Paige. “WHA WAS THA OUT THERE EMMAARR?!” Paige’s stroppiness is epic to me and Emma’s reaction was equally as entertaining. The two clearly respect each other yet both don’t want to admit that what they did in the heat of the moment was wrong. “There is definitely something wrong with that girl.” Says Emma, the girl who jives around like an epileptic lobster…
In closing, recapping NXT is certainly a treat every week. With 7 active female characters all getting time to showcase their characters, there are so many things going on and it’s incredibly exciting. We have the BFFs clashing with Emma, Paige and Charlotte, Charlotte’s tension with Bayley, Emma and Paige’s volatile relationship, Lana’s strange pairing with Alexander and we even have a woman doing a stellar job on commentary. This week goes to show that although the spoilers don’t look up to much, NXT still delivers. And with that, stay tuned, Jack will be back!
