NXT (4/19)

Ten! Ten! Ten losses, one win!

Good news, everyone! NXT has a new theme, and has gone from having the best theme (I know, low bar) of all the WWE shows to the worst. It's fucking awful. It's like Kid Rock's cousin fucked a Hot Topic dumpster.

Catching up after three weeks - the show after Mania was the usual clip show and dark matches snoozefest, and we've discussed EL VAGABONDO in other post. Last week was a bunch of squashes to remind you who people were (Aleister Black, DIY, Ruby Riot)  and a competitive main event to reintroduce Drew McIntyre to NXT. McIntyre is fine, I guess. He's a guy. Not an awful guy, not a special guy, just one of those guys they're bringing back as part of their hiring spree.

Bobby Roode opens this show as he has opened so many others, having to turn heel on his own entrance. It's hard work, and he has to do it EVERY SINGLE TIME he walks out. Roode manages, mostly by being a sort of budget HHH. Which is mostly a compliment. He's interrupted by the Once Again Returning Hideo Itami, forever destined to be the Less Interesting Nakamura. Itami's still not much of a talker, it seems, so he slaps the taste out of Roode's mouth and gives him the GTS without saying a word. I expected McIntyre in this role and prefer Itami, but I hope Itami developed a character while he was out.

Until the UK show starts, it looks like the UK belt will be defended on NXT from time to time. Next week we get Tyler Bate vs. Jack Gallagher, which, you know, fine, but Gallagher's not gonna win it and why pull him off of 205 just because he's British?

Andrade Cien Almas, he of the Unshotenable Name, got a win over Danny Burch so he can lose to Drew mcIntyre next week, one of those matches caused by NXT's newest trope, Performance Center Confrontations.

Speaking of which, Women's Midcard action - the Aussie Mean Girls tag against Liv Morgan and Aliyah after a PCC last week and a dunking. The faces win, yay.

But this week was all about the main event, and Tye Dillinger, recently called up to Smackdown, getting his win over Eric Young in a perfectly booked and excellently executed steel cage match. Dillinger won by barely escaping the numbers game and locking Sanity in the cage, which gives him the much needed win but kept Sanity strong for future feuding with, I assume, Strong, Ohno, and Jose.