Guys, I know I should start this redux off with my typical hey there, hello type shtick and welcome you all to another fun filled week of NXT, but I’m a little terrified this week. You see, this week I get to recap a match involving…. *Jaws music begins* The Bella Twins! Now don’t take this as an insult to them because while my loyalties have and will always lie in whatever team involves Mother Naomi, I’m definitely team Bella as well. Who says you have to just pick one?
The reason I’m terrified is because I’m going to have to correctly identify them throughout this recap. Now, I can always tell them apart in pictures when they’re next to each other easily (and please no enhancement jokes… they’ve been easily distinguishable since their debut to me), but when it comes to them wrestling where their hair could easily cover their face or they could make 25 quick tags in a match leaving me gasping for the pause button in order to collect myself, I’m already panicking at the sheer thought.
Let us all take a moment of silence in order to wish luck upon myself as I venture into Bella territory upon their first visit to NXT since the glory days of season three. Okay, please tell me none of you actually did take a moment of silence because not even I did. But truth be told, I am a little worried to step up to the Bella plate, however we must all face our fears so bring it on Bella Twins. Give me everything you’ve got up your identical sleeves.
Wow, this intro is getting long. Okay, this week on NXT, in case the past three paragraphs of my blubbering didn’t give it away, we have the Bella Twins, Brie and Nikki in action as they face off against Naomi and Cameron. This was actually the first match the Bellas had since their WWE return I believe, but due to the taping schedule, we’ve already seen them battle the Funkadactyls about two and a half times thus far. However, am I one to ever shy away from getting Naomi involved in another match? Absolutely not.
P.S. – we also have interviews from Summer Rae and Emma, but I really don’t want this intro to equal the length of my usual redux in its entirety so we need to get started. I’ll post more about them below so no need to fret!
Ugh… Tony. The man who I believe is being trained three days a week in a discreet California based warehouse by my arch rival, Maria Menounos to fulfill her duties on a weekly basis when she can’t be around to engage in typical arch rival behavior. Thankfully, he’s standing by with Summer Rae so I can simply look at her instead. She immediately stops him from speaking, cementing my love for her to grow 1000 times more within the first five seconds of this video, and demands him to address her correctly! The first lady forces him to redo the intro and he somewhat does it right.
From there, he asks of Senator Rae (excuse my random nicknames but It’s late and I’m mildly incoherent) why she ran away last week in the midst of her tag team match. Summer’s not having any of these assumptions though, and reveals to us the breaking news that TMZ failed to put out in that she accidentally left her curling iron on and had to run back to turn it off or else Full Sail may have burned to the ground in which case she could very well have been charged with arson and definitely made TMZ.
Summer believes Paige owes her a thank you for saving our benevolent Anti-Diva from an embarrassing loss/beatdown last week, but once she finishes, he who shall not be named incorrectly addresses her once again. And much like the first time, Senator Summer instructs him to correctly identify her as the first lady. His reply?
“The first lady of NXT… Summer Rae.”
But that’s not important. What is important, is Summer’s masterpiece of a reply:
“…Damn straight I am”, as she flips her hair in his face and forces me to rewind the video a good five to six thousand times. Summer Rae, thank you for existing.
Yes everyone, no need to gasp in shock, we’ve got a second interview because NXT loves us as if we are it’s children so we should be thankful and realize this before it’s too late and we’re left continuing to mourn the loss of it a year down the road. (#YellowRopesForever) Emma pops into the picture like the captivating ray of Australian sunshine she is, which sparks Renee Young to question who Emma feels she has mirrored in her experience thus far since becoming a Diva.
Emma’s choice? Lady Gaga. That’s it. No explanation, just a blank expression from Renee and probably all of you as well. The silence disturbs Emma, who changes her answer to Madonna because well why not? Emma could certainly headline a Superbowl halftime show, so I see the comparison. Miss Young lets our friend, Emma know that the general sentiment from the fans is that she is kind of a klutz. First off, which fans were surveyed? Where’s the top 100 answers ala Family Feud? I certainly didn’t wake up to find Renee standing on my porch with a pen and paper asking me what I thought of Emma, because if she did she’d probably have stayed for a good four hours as I discuss why Emma is the one who will guide us all to the light and see that in order to experience life to its fullest, we must all cleanse our souls by partaking in the Emmalution dance craze at least once a day.
Oh yeah, we have an interview going on. Ahem, Emma downplays this klutz talk and shrugs it off as kids these days just being too obsessed with the electric slide and the Macarena. Every popular dance simply pales in comparison to the Emmalution, and YES ladies and gentleman, she has the arms out. Emma begins busting a move or two, but Renee simply refuses to join her when asked which sparks an international outcry of anger at Renee and makes me rethink whether or not this injustice has put her in need of a visit from The Shield. However, I’ll save my anger for the thoughts portion of this, so Renee… you’ve been warned. Oh, and Emma sadly yet hilariously falls as she tries to exit the interview area. She is not a klutz though, I still stand by my ruling.
…Oh my. We go from Summer Rae to Emma to Naomi and Cameron so clearly this is all the info we need to determine that this episode of NXT is brought to you by me and only me. The Funkadactyls dance their way out from the back, as Kendall Skye announces them to the ring (and does a really great job). Following some ring moves, they toss the pom-pom’s into the air as commentary informs us this will be a “WrestleMania rematch” of sorts stemming from the bad blood between the four from the grandest stage of them all. So there’s that. The Bella Twins enter up next, and we’re told that Brad Maddox is solely responsible for their safe return by the sheer sound of him uttering the words, “Come on back girls.” I believe it.
The bell sounds as Naomi and *gulps* Nikki(?) start off. Well, they attempt to, but Nikki runs over to Brie for cover and flaunts her booty at Naomi. The two lock up, as Nikki gets a kick and throws Naomi into the corner. They look to sort of fall, but alas it’s a trick! Naomi begins shaking her bottom in Nikki’s face, before hitting an awesome kick to send her flying backwards. She follows it up with the rear view (which will always be known as “The Booty Call” to me and nothing else) and attempts a bodyslam, but Nikki escapes and shoves Naomi into the ropes. The Funkadactyl charges back with one of her trademark flipping clotheslines that continue to leave me wondering how on earth anyone’s body can actually do that, but I don’t question Mother Naomi. She makes the tag to Cameron as the duo hit a double split leg drop, but Brie runs into the ring to stop a potential count. Nikki (I don’t care what you say commentary) then attacks Cameron and hoists her into the corner.
A boot chokes her out, as the tag is made to Brie. Tag back to Nikki who continues the ambush of boots, and then tags in Brie once again because they just want to get me confused and that’s their top purpose in life. Brie hits a set of wrist lock flips, before nailing a legdrop over the arm and stretching it out in a submission. The crowd starts to get behind Cameron, who rolls out and hits a really awesome neckbreaker as both women are down. The crowd charges them up, but Brie knocks Naomi off and drags Cameron to the corner. Nikki tags in as the two hit their… how am I supposed to describe that? They hit their rolling leg trap maneuver, as Brie slides outside and holds Naomi back while Nikki makes the cover for the three count! Brie and Nikki (for sure 100% right on that one) celebrate in the ring and up the ramp as Naomi and Cameron plot their revenge on the twins.
Thoughts: Okay I have a lot I want to say about pretty much everything we got here, but I’ve run into a crossroads so to speak. On one hand, I do have some points I want to make that aren’t as positive, but I feel like if I say anything poor after being given so many Diva related things it’s going to look like I’m unappreciative and taking them for granted which isn’t the case at all. However, I also don’t want to just be overly positive when I do have something to say, therefore I’ve decided to split my thoughts into both pros and cons to provide a fair balance.
PRO – Would I be remiss to start off with anything but the shock in my eyes at how much we got tonight? Two interviews – completely unrelated at that – and a match which actually got a good amount of time? I know we tease that the Divas should all be called up to NXT, but my God if that wasn’t made evident tonight I don’t know what is. There’s been what… two Raw Diva matches since January that involved just the women and were not a mixed tag? And if you factor in the mixed tags that brings us to a resounding what, four? Why would any female want to be brought up to that when NXT is essentially the division we clamor for on the main shows? I mean sure, wrestling in front of millions of people is probably the reason, but it’s insane how different NXT is (and quite frankly always has been even before the conversion with FCW) when you look at it in comparison to Raw and even SmackDown.
PRO – I love that we’re continuing to get focus on the Summer Rae and Paige storyline. This feud has been on pretty much every week in some way, shape, or form since it began. It wasn’t dropped after one, two, or even four to five weeks of build, nor was it simply ended by Paige and Summer’s first match together. It’s probably the longest continuous week to week Divas feud we’ve had in a while, which is sad considering there’s so much talent on the main roster that deserve just as much as the females in NXT are getting, but alas we can still hope that one day the powers that be look at NXT and perhaps implement the successful strategies into the top two brands.
PRO – “Damn straight I am” – Summer Rae
PRO – We’re finally getting spotlight on Emma! It seems like most of the Divas tend to start out losing a few matches here and there, so I wasn’t really concerned with Emma’s lack of victories thus far because I had hoped that soon it would be her time like it’s been with Paige, Sasha, Audrey, and Summer. Thankfully, this looks to be the start of capitalizing on the Emmalution, and I couldn’t be more thrilled. It’s no secret she’s my favorite in NXT, and that was even before the entire dance craze began so you can only imagine how much my admiration has grown since then. I think she’s so needed in the division, and whether or not we each like her persona due to what I call the “Jillian Hall Factor” where she might be relegated to a comedy character, I kind of look at it as this at least gives her an edge in the sense that she won’t be just a face in the crowd. When you think of the NXT Divas, or at least when I do, Emma is one of the first to come to mind because her dance is so infectious and memorable. She may not have many wins so far, but after this week, let’s hope it starts to turn around for the Madonna/Gaga inspired Australian.
PRO – This was overall my favorite of all the Funkadactyl/Bella matches we’ve gotten so far. I wouldn’t say it was perfect, which I’ll hit why in the CON section, but overall I thought they all meshed really well together. Some high points for me include Naomi’s corner booty shake move, Cameron’s neckbreaker, and The Bellas overall teamwork including the quick tags and double team assaults specifically in the corner. I know the Bellas aren’t insanely popular with the Internet crowd as a whole, but I’ve always really liked them and never felt bored by them throughout their original run if that makes sense. I like that we have actual Diva tag teams that look alike and perform moves together for some reason, so you can imagine my enthusiasm when getting to finally cover a match between them. (Still not over WrestleMania by the way, but that’s another story for another day that I’ll likely keep bottled inside for fear of engaging in a rant that cannot be stopped spewing from my hands to a nearby word document.)
PRO – One last pro regarding the match, I have mixed feelings about the ending, but I will say that I liked how it was a little different from the Funkadactyls past matches where one of them gets beat up for the most part until they make the hot tag to the other. Change is good, and I have to say I really didn’t think it would end where it did. That being said…
CON – The ending of the match. Alright, since seeing SmackDown, I have lost a bit of my general wtf-ness at the ending of this match because this was way better than that. But having said that, I still didn’t like this one much either mostly because we’ve seen the Bellas do the same move in a lot of their matches before as just a usual thing so it didn’t really feel finisher-y to me if you catch my drift. Had this been the first time, then I probably would’ve felt differently, especially since I’m all for the twins finding a combo finisher instead of having separate facebusters. I’d personally like a move where one hits a backstabber which leaves their opponent flinging forward into a facebuster, but that’s probably not Diva friendly enough for the WWE to allow so maybe a double DDT or something more creative since I’m the worst when it comes to creativity and imagination.
CON – Okay, please don’t take this the wrong way. I love that we’re getting so much interview time to hype this Paige and Summer feud, but I really really want to see some variety. The interviews are kind of starting to blend together for me since we’re getting so many with Summer which makes me want them to either just give Summer Rae her own backstage weekly segment like when The Beautiful People had those thrones and what not, or have her engage in some creative segments with Paige, or perhaps with another Diva which could lead to a match later on. She can make fun of Emma’s dance leading to a brawl, pick on the height difference between she and Sasha Banks, or even debut Charlotte and have her go after Charlotte’s legacy. It doesn’t have to start a new feud entirely, but it would be fun and different to see for a week or two.
CON – Renee Young I’m really growing on you, but when asked to do the Emma dance, you DO NOT say no. Do you know how many of us would kill to be asked by Emma if we want to do the Emmalution with her?
CON – Commentary. I like the commentators we have for this week, but every single time they made it a point to tell us which Bella was in the ring, it was the opposite. This more cracked me up than angered me or anything because you could legitimately have them say “Brie’s in the ring right now”, then two seconds later the Bella on the apron screams “COME ON NIKKI” and nobody picks it up, but for now this counts as a con. Let today’s lesson be that you all need to study your Bella Twins because I’m going to give everyone a test involving photos of one of them and if you state it’s the incorrect Bella I will subject you into giving William Regal a foot massage. (Come on, I had to throw in one Redemption reference…)
CON – Tony Dawson.
Okay guys, that’s all for this week. Let me know if the thoughts portion of this completely drained you out due to the length, or if any of it made sense considering I’m writing this on no sleep. If you have any pros and cons, list them as well in the comments section because I’d love to get your input. The same goes if you want to comment on any of mine listed, or if I pissed you off and made you want to scream “shut the heck up you hack because you don’t know what you’re talking about”, no hard feelings will be taken. See you next week!~
