NXT Episode 450: Gargano Declares "It's Worth It"
NXT Episode 450 Review
By Michael Klink
@michael_klink
Another week in the books! Welcome to the Brothers of Discussion weekly NXT Review! Which of WWE’s top prospects is climbing the charts into superstardom? Who plummeted to a future working bingo halls? Find out here!
5) Lacey Evans’ transition into the heel role is looking stronger as the weeks go by. This week she did battle with one of NXT’s top female babyfaces: Kairi Sane. Sane and Evans worked a relatively strong match for a non-Takeover event, ripping off knife edge drops that would make Hardcore Holly proud. Overall, Evans gets the nod this week for her impressive victory over the Japanese native using a fully cocked Women’s Right punch.
4) Otis Dozovic of the Heavy Machinery tag team never disappoints. This week the Dozer and his counterpart Tucker Knight traded blows with TM61, eventually succumbing to an underhanded defeat due to a pinfall aided by resistance from the ropes. Otis had the crowd eating out of his hand by bellowing “Ugh YEHH!”, flaunting the “Caterpillar” (his version of The Worm), and initiating the battering ram spot by driving one member of TM61 into the other. My selfish hope for the character is a run with the tag titles on Raw or Smackdown, but I’ll take what I can get from the American Toad Cannonball.
3) Kyle O’Reilly of Undisputed Era had the line of the night. Referencing his team’s defeat last week to Danny Burch, Oney Lorcan, and Pete Dunne, he offhandedly referred to the European Champion as “Pete Dune”. Sure it was childish low hanging fruit, but Kyle delivered it without any inflection, letting the dismissive address roll off the tongue. It was the perfect bully comment, subtle enough to get under the skin without showing any undue effort.
2) Velveteen Dream has been toeing (or gyrating) across the line of heel vs face for months now, using heelish philosophies while receiving consistent hero’s welcomes from the audience. With his actions this week the Dream character has finally made a choice, openly opting for personal gain and self-preservation over forgiveness and unity. Props to the writing team in the booking of this match. On paper the outcome looked like a lose lose situation. Would we be watching Lars squash two young up and comers, or watch as Ricochet and Dream double-teamed the only true monster on NXT programming? Luckily we didn’t get either of those. We’re instead treated to character direction for Dream, Ricochet falling against insurmountable odds, and Lars, on paper, getting a handicap match victory against two of the best and brightest that NXT has to offer. All around good scores from this writer to NXT’s writer.
1) Was there any doubt Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano would be at the top this week? Johnny the hero stirred feelings by soliloquizing about his wife, friends, and physical well-being, wondering if this was all still worth it. This is wrestling, the crowd reminded Johnny, and in response, Johnny cast aside his neck brace and prepared for war against his rival.
This week’s top 2 is a tie, since Gargano was able to conjure the best pop of the night, and Ciampa was able to inspire the most passionate boos of the night. The final bump of the night saw Ciampa driving Gargano off the ring apron and onto his defenseless wife, knocking her onto the steel ramp.
This feud deserves more Takeover payoffs and by the looks of this week’s NXT, that’s exactly what we’re going to get.
And now, the 3 head scratching moments from this week’s edition of NXT:
1) More outdoor interviews. Last week we were treated to Aleister Black coming out of the shadows, which makes sense. It was dark out and his name is “Black”…so, you know, samesies. But he had that weird purpley Aladdin vest on. Anyway, this week we got a teaser for the headline promo scheduled for the end of the night from Johnny and Candace. That’s fine, teasers help build anticipation. But what the hell were they doing outside? It wasn’t dusk out, it was BLACK outside. Were they having a smoke behind the venue? Fighting crime? Making out? Who knows? I just hope the next interviewee at least uses their flashlight app.
2) Criminal booking of Heavy Machinery. Out in the first round of the Dusty Classic, losing to War Raiders, going down this week to TM61, it’s old hat for Dozovic and Knight. Will Dozovic have to tune down the comedy before this team gets taken seriously? Will Tucker have to harness some charisma? True they don’t need victories because they’re already over (just ask this week’s guest crowd member Jonathan Coachman!), but I’m a fan of their work and I want my guys taken care of. Throw these boys a bone (though I’m sure they’d prefer to have the steak attached).
3) Women’s Championship promos. There isn’t a Takeover in the immediate future, so the next title defense for Shayna Baszler takes place next week on a TV episode of NXT. Nobody’s going to complain about getting a title match on a weekly episode, but the build for this match hasn’t been attention grabbing. Shayna is unquestionably a bully in the ring, where she’s more physically intimidating than anyone in the division (save maybe for Bianca Belair). But for whatever reason, they continue to put a mic in her face to reveal her voice sounds…a lot like Brock Lesnar. Both human beings would easily snap my limbs in two, no doubt, but neither of their voices have that Christopher Lee or James Earl Jones oomph. They come off more like Melissa McCarthy in full angry riff mode.
And on the other side of things, Kai’s scaredy cat character finally stands up for herself by saying “You’ll see…”. I wanted that line delivered like Dan Akroyd in “Trading Places”, and instead I got Doug Funnie acquiescing to Roger Klutz on “Doug”. It’s not Dakota’s fault obviously, but here’s hoping the match exceeds the promo work.
