Weekly Wrasslin' Wroundup (NXT)

Way more interesting than mean Aussies

NXT is really firing on all cylinders lately. ANother really good week packed with stuff that made the filler tolerable.

Could there be a tag team more in line with Full Sail's sensibilities than Rich Swann and No Way Jose? They both dance. They both have singable entrance themes. And their singable entrance themes even combine to form a complete paragraph. Can you handle this? No way, Jose! They're a pretty good pairing, and they have a fun, competitive match with Raw's Beardy Colluders, Nece and Gulak. Team Pants Off Dance Off picks up the win, but they face the Authors of Pain in the second round, so they are almost certainly fucked.

In very disappointing news, Hideo Itami is injured again, landing on his neck in a botched powerslam from a jobber on a live event. Return estimate is "months", and he just barely har regained a fraction of the heat from his last injury. They're pulling TJ Perkins in to be Ibushi's partner for presumbly two rounds of the tourney. Sucks for everyone.

Bobby Roode is out to try out yet another new finisher (a lifting DDT, a definite improvement) on first round Cruiserweight Classic contender Sean Maluta. Post-match, Roode hypes the just-announced revenge match against Tye Dillinger at Takeover Toronto (second match added to the card, after Joe-Nakamura) and reminds Full Sail that he's a heel no matter how much they like his entrance. Dillinger drives the point home by rushing out and brawling and chasing Roode off.

The Aussie Mean Girls beat up Liv Morgan backstage, drag her out to the entrance ramp, beat her up some more, and talk shit about Asuka, so I wonder if a tag match is in the cards. Not sure why we haven't seen Ember Moon in weeks, though.

Austin Aries has been teasing his mystery partner in the Dusty Classic for a while now, and it's revealed as RODERICK STRONG. If you don't know Roderick Strong, he is probably the single best boring guy in black tights wrestler in the world. He's the boring blacktight that all the other boring blacktights model themselves on, and it's lovely to see him in NXT. They defeat the debuting team of Fatty and Boombalatty, or, as NXT decided to call them, Tucker Knight and Otis Dozovic.

In other news, Heel Cien has a bit of a manbun going on and speaks almost entirely in Spanish with a lady translator he uses to deliver the usual Just Turned Heel Because I Wasn't Getting Over promo.

Sanity comes out, walking slightly faster and with slightly less fog than last week, so that Nikki Cross can murder Danielle "Already In The Ring" Kamela. In one match and post-match beating (which caused the referee to reverse the decision, so technically Kamela "won"), Cross became my favorite part of Sanity and the most interesting thing to happen to the Women's division in months. She actually punched Eric Young so she could continue her beatdown. She's playing the character to the hilt and beyond, and it's awesome.

Finally we have Nakamura out to address the crowd. As he's telling us he doesn't give two shits what Joe brings to Toronto, he's interrupted by Patrick Clark and his horrible Prince gimmick. Nakamura dispenses him with two kicks like he was getting his mail, it's so casual. And it's so fast that Joe doesn't have time to hit the ring, so he backs off while Nakamura hits Clark with a Kinshasa just as an exclamation point. Goddamn, I love Nakamura.