What’s up Diva fans and welcome to this week’s NXT Redux! First and foremost, Happy Halloween! To celebrate the spooky festivities of All Hallow’s Eve, in addition to participating in a Halloween Bar Crawl tonight (a.k.a getting merry with 1,500 others to Halloween themed music!), I will deliver you this week’s decent edition of NXT. In the rivalry so entertaining we never want it stop, Paige vs Summer Rae clash yet again, although with the shenanigans of Sasha Banks and the unpredictable element of Emma thrown in, how will this one go? TO THE VIDEO!
NXT’s Diva goodness kicks off this week with the BFFs, ‘The Boss’ Sasha Banks accompanying ‘The First Lady of NXT’ Summer Rae to the ring. The Beautiful, Fierce Females ooze attitude and charisma and sadly, the same can’t be said for Kendall Skye. You don’t sound anywhere near as good as you did a few weeks back Kendall; what happened?! Speaking of oozing charisma, Renee Young is doing just that, and it’s great to see her back at the announce table. Renee brings up the great point in that Summer is brainwashing Sasha, something we as fans have all been suspecting for weeks. Now that it’s been semi-confirmed on camera by a character in the know, it’s great to see that WWE are not just letting fans use their own imaginations to guess what is going on, they are actually telling us it subtly through a side character on screen. Thanks for not letting us do all of the storyline work!
Out next, to the usual amazing reception, is NXT Women’s Champion and the woman I have a godly stained glass window of at home, Paige! The champ raises her belt up high as the bell rings and the match gets underway. Paige launches herself at Summer immediately, writhing at Summer’s roots as she launches her through the air several times. Summer tries to regroup on the outside and is saved from a baseball slide when Sasha pulls her out of harm’s way. Summer then uses her puppet… I mean tag partner whom are both equal in every way, Sasha as a shield! Sasha is thrown to the ground and Summer takes advantage of this by slapping Paige in the face. When Paige reaches the apron, Summer goes for Paige’s hair like Paige had done to her, yet the NXT Women’s Champ shoulder thrusts Summer in the gut and then goes for a sunset flip pin attempt – a nice rare trick from Paige on Halloween! Summer counters the pin by grabbing the middle rope, something the ref seems to completely ignore. Thankfully, Paige manages to get out of the pin and hit one of her own for a two count.
Paige is full in control now, throwing Summer around the ring like a bag of rubbish! Headbutts, throws and stomps are aplenty as Paige’s ferocious aggression is on full display. Sasha gets all ghetto in Summer’s face by demanding “Get it together, Summer” as Paige continues her assault. Summer manages to push Paige away from her and into the ropes… and into the hands of Sasha. The referee finally notices an illegal interaction and Sasha gets banned from ringside. BFF-U Sasha!
Back from the break and an incredibly outdated Bella Twins promo and Paige is still on the offensive. Paige goes to the apron ready to hit her vintage knee strikes that are somehow allowed to defy the ref’s five count, yet Summer has learned from her past mistakes, she ain’t got no time for those knees. Summer hits a gorgeous leg trip that sends Paige crashing back first onto the apron and then the arena floor. Back in the ring, Summer goes for a cover before locking in her lovely Indian Death Lock submission, which she then transitions into a death lock style submission complete with foot choke! So impressive! Summer then wraps her leg around Paige’s neck to turn the submission into a pin attempt, yet Paige is now in a position to counter that pin and get her limbs untangled!
Following a little bit of an awkward moment that looked like at least one girl wasn’t sure what was happening, Summer goes for a pin before getting massively frustrated that she is yet to get her second win within two weeks. Summer then races towards Paige and trys to hit her guillotine choke DDT, which Paige counters! Paige makes my heart beat faster than Usain Bolt’s running ability as she teases a Pampaige, the move we haven’t seen in forever, yet instead, she hits her patented fisherman suplex. You’re such a tease, Paige!
Paige gains momentum with some chain clotheslines and a stiff dropkick before going for yet another cover, something there’s been a lot of in this match, clearly both girls are desperate to win. Just when you think Paige has this in the bag, Summer retaliates out of nowhere, hitting the spinning heel kick that she has used to beat Paige with before. This time however, she can only get two, and she is fuming! All of a sudden, the tide turns yet again, with Paige hitting her thrusting shuffle side kick to the gut before walloping Summer with the Paige Turner for the win!
After the match and before Paige even has a real chance to stand up, ‘The Boss’ is back and she whacks the bejeesus out of the champion. I love how Sasha clearly forgot her Diva t-shirt earlier and collected it when sent to the back – priorities! To make the save, Emma rushes into the fray and she is more vicious than I have ever seen before, shaking Sasha around like a ragdoll! Paige attempts to get Emma to calm down, yet Emma whacks Paige, causing the two to end the segment staring one another down. If looks could kill, Paige would have just cremated Emma – what a scowl!
In addition to this match, Lana also made her second NXT appearance, looking too good in teal as she watched Alexander Rusev win his match.
Thoughts: This was yet another solid and technically sound week from the NXT roster. Summer used her long legs yet again to set herself apart from the competition. I particularly loved her foot choke whilst also applying a submission and I also loved the booking behind the leg trip in which she shifted the momentum her way. That moment made Summer look like a seasoned veteran, learning from her mistakes and finding the perfect way to counter and cause the most damage. She was the MVP of the night for me!
The three-in-one feud here of Emma vs BFFs, Paige vs BFFs and Emma vs Paige is consistently delivering and it shows no signs of slowing down. I can’t wait to see what next week will bring! And with that, stay tuned, Jack will be back!
