Allo, allo, allo! Davie Portman here requesting all of your feedback for tonight’s episode of NXT featuring Adam Cole vs Finn Balor for the vacant NXT Championship, Rhea Ripley vs Mercedes Martinez in a Steel Cage Match and more!!
Join us LIVE on YouTube at 10:30PM EST for “upNXT” or download later today from wherever you get your podcasts.
Paul from New Jersey
Really solid title match even though the winner was telegraphed. Can’t really get into Balor, but with the sudden injury to Kross, I give them the benefit of the doubt. Let’s talk about the elephant sized tank in the room. Shotzi Blackheart is a bully. Robert Stone was simply admiring her tank & Shotzi caused a domino effect of sadness. Be a star ball pit. Skipped the velveteen match because fuck him. I know many have been split on the Gargano heel run, but I think he’s been fantastic. He & Candice are so funny. Gargano has great comedic timing. Gargano & Candice have even helped Tegan show more personality. Great main event, but I wanted Martinez to win. Like Finn, I feel as though Ripley lacks personality big-time. Still, a tremendous worker.
This weeks Kona streak-Kona is the fourth longest tenured NXT superstore behind Denny Birch & Breezango. Cream rises to the top and stays there like a stale white claw. Dear Kona, please come back as I miss you & I’m starting to have to reach to the depths of my ass for these facts. Epic watch along this past Saturday. Davie Vs. BRAYD was my second favorite match of the night. Be proud, you almost beat out the entire all out shit show. Respect.
NXT opening with the title match was somewhat of an apology for last week’s non-finish. Finn Balor and Adam Cole put on a Takeover-worthy match and Finn becoming the third 2-time NXT champion justified his existence. Now, we wait for Karrion Kross to get cleared. Rhea Ripley and Mercedes Martinez brought the violence in the steel cage main event. It’s another example of how strong NXT women’s division has been since moving to USA. Kushida needs to be on TV more and a feud with Velveteen Dream could what he needs to gain traction (the dark cloud over his head is hard to ignore, same goes for Austin Theory). Bronson Reed ruled and it’s cool to see TPTB get behind him. 8/10
Hiya!
Congrats on Balor winning the NXT Title. Figured it would only be a matter of time before he won another title. Wonder what that means for Cole though.
WWE really needs to get the goddamn memo and stop giving Velveteen Dream any sort of time on the screen. He has no value, and his match tonight was absolutely awful. Just cut him already.
Speaking of problematic people, Austin Theory getting airtime was also disgusting.
Io vs Shotzi will be good, but I can’t help but think that Shotzi is gonna get a shock victory next week to possibly give her an excuse to be in the eventual Takeover title match, whether its 1 on 1 or Triple Threat (more on that in a bit)
Rhea vs Mercedes was good, but I’m not a fan of NXT branding Rhea as the biggest badass in the NXT Women’s Division now. It makes the actual CHAMPION feel second rate, and I have a bad feeling (at least for me) that Io is gonna be dropping the title back to Rhea right before Survivor Series, and I’m not a fan of it. Also Mercedes should have won that cage match. She needed the win far more.
Overall, outside of the sexpest stuff, I enjoyed this week’s episode of NXT way more than last week. I would even go as far to say it was better than All Out, which was massively underwhelming.
Question of the Week: How do you guys feel about Asuka vs Mickie James next week on RAW? I don’t think Mickie has much of a chance, but she’s been pushing heavily (and there has been pockets of the internet being very vocal about it) to get one last title reign. Do you think its a good idea for Mickie to get a run? Because I don’t think she really needs another one.
MJ
You know it’s a WWE product when the guy who appeared at WrestleMania is getting jobbed out on TV.
For a few minutes I expected the Balor Cole match to go 90+ minutes. It should have.
Love Teagen, don’t want her near the Gargano household.
UE needs to split up and form a Balor Club turning on Cole.
So they know we hate Dream, book him as a heel, can they please remove the guy from TV. His character is forever tainted.
Watched NXT for the second week in a row same night. I enjoy it. Just hard to not see glaring WWEisms in it compared to the glory days.
Charbel the chosen one
After that iO and shotzi segment “ how the hell is bray d still alive and recording this pod can someone plz check this man DNA “
I don’t know why but I may be the only one on this , gargano answering the door was so funny I love them both in their house segment ! I feel Tegan so much as all of my wifes friends are annoying little bitches who think they live in a perfect house with their perfect car and that their so above everybody else … telling me their wine cost 100$ while I brought a pack of white claws !! Seriously this was awsome !! I’m cheering Tegan af
To answer your question, if we’re being honest, as much as a lot of would like for Mickie to have one last run as Women’s champion, the reality is that right now, anything Asuka is doing is a placeholder until they do the WWE Draft in October when they’ll re-shuffle the deck so we can get a clearer picture. I’ve always believed recently that they’re only waiting to pull the trigger on an Asuka/Shayna program and are probably waiting for Shayna & Nia to drop the women’s tag titles to the Riott Squad before doing so.
Correct choice for champion but it was obvious that he was going to win as Adam Cole was his opponent. Cole’s reign feels too fresh for them to go with him right now which is why I thought the opponent should’ve been Ciampa. Looking forward to Finn as champion though, his time in NXT before this didn’t really mean much other than him saying how he used to be the guy around here, was doing much to show that he is going to be that guy again until now.
I’m wondering if they could bring in someone from the main roster for one of the defences on TakeOver. Would love to see Finn/Cesaro. Would love for Roderick Strong to step up to the plate as well. Then you can get to Ciampa or Kross.
No selling moves is bad. Overselling is just as bad. Austin Theory reminded me of Dean Ambrose selling the Stomp like a frog. He was absolutely ridiculous in his match with Reed.