Movies

NXT Recap and Reactions (September 27, 2022): Steiner’s Mathematics

September 28, 2022

Guess what? NXT is taping from Florida this week, but I’m live and in color. Claire too, blogging up a storm as only she can.

Let’s talk NXT!

Threats

When NXT kicked off this week, Ilja Dragunov bathed in the glow of the crowd and declared her reason for being: Bron Breakker. Ilja doesn’t want to stand in line because he never lost his title, nor is he concerned with the current number one, JD McDonagh. Which I get because this cat is a whole mess. Dragunov sees a lot of Gunther in Bron and thinks he can work his magic once more.

Long story short, JD came to the ring, Bron came to the ring, used Steiner math, and called for a triple threat match at Halloween havoc. Every time a Steiner does math, it’s always an adventure. And I can understand, because me and math go together like Cleveland and winning sports teams. There’s a reason I’m a writer.

Dragunov’s arrival meant that the guy who thinks he’s the cock of the march, Xyon Quinn, is feeling a little insecure. Quinn walked into Ilya’s face, challenged him to a match, and a match we had.

Quinn is a puzzled cat right now. Months ago, at the height of the 2.0 days (remember those?!), it looked ready to explode. Now he’s a running punchline. Quinn is the guy who talks about his quality and how he has the “X factor” but loses big game after big game. Which includes that match with Dragunov. And it was a good game with the result never really in question, but it’s hard to get excited about anything Quinn these days. It’s fun to watch Ilya do his thing, but I wish his first NXT match in many moons involved someone who is truly worth caring about.

Extracurricular activities

Puff the magical dragon

So it was weird. Mandy Rose battled Fallon Henley, her of “Yee-Haw, bitch” fame, and Henley held her ground. It was a solid match between the champion and a young challenger who showed she had enough talent and character to go far in this business-ah.

But Mandy won and that’s when things got weird for me. Mandy has a date with Alba Fyre, so naturally she called her next challenger after he fired Henley. Fyre appeared on video, bat in hand, and lit fire on a screen that read #AndNew. This shocking display of fire and calligraphy sent Toxic Attraction into a frenzy.

Eh? Is that the big problem? She lit a few words with her bat because she prefers to let her actions do the talking? Meh. And that’s what intimidates the champion? No, sir, I don’t like that.

Pub crawl

I’m not even going to try to recap this Pub Rules match between Briggs & Jensen and Gallus. Just know that it was fun, violent, an absolute mess, and the country boys won. Oh, and Gallus was “arrested” after the show.

Move on

Wes Lee qualified for the ladder match at Halloween havoc due to the referee stopping the match. A drop toe hold sent Tony D’Angelo into the middle turnbuckle, and Tony D immediately grabbed his knee (check out those rhymes). So yeah, not much to say here other than Wes didn’t want to win that way but he did.

Beginning Ground

Sol Ruca made his NXT debut in a match against Amari Miller. All I can say is that Amari deserves better. Sol has some interesting moves using his gymnastics training, but it was a tough first game. More tread on its tires might help and put some steak behind the sizzle.

Hard to see Amari taking the L here as she has more potential and feels destined for development hell at this point. Or maybe I’m taking it the wrong way since I’ve been hard at painting black women. Raise your shoulders.

Nice workouts

Pretty Deadly’s video this week might be the funniest thing I’ve seen wrestling in a while. Just watch this gif for a tease. That’s all I can say.

On the carpet

Look, everyone. I’m sorry, you know I can’t get into Joe Gacy for the most part. And it is to recognize that the man can also step into the ring. But this thing between him and Cameron Grimes has been going on for too long now and with Gacy winning tonight, thanks in part to the Dyad, it shows no sign of ending. Which means I’m showing no signs of being less bored.

hear me roar

Kayden Carter and Nikkita Lyons put on a solid and entertaining game this week. Both women showed off their athletic ability, agility and other assets in a few fun spots. the story on that was whether Lyons and Zoey Stark even knew how to be tag partners. Especially compared to the NXT Tag Team Champions. If Stark and Lyons are Carter and Katana Chance’s next challengers, then Lyons’ win here is the right move. Establishing Nikkita and Zoey as worthy challengers for the champions is paramount. Color me interested.

I can’t lie to you, ladies and gentlemen. It was a tough sight to get through. There were some solid matches, most certainly, but few things caught my eye and demanded my eyes. It wasn’t one of NXT’s best outings and just didn’t connect me to the levels I was hoping for. That said, Halloween havoc promises to be a real event, which is my light at the end of the tunnel.

Rating: C

This is my note and I stick to it. Your turn.