It’s Mine
Tatum Paxley’s time is now.
Tatum survived the women’s battle royal to become the #1 contender for Jacy Jayne’s
NXT Women’s Championship.
Me thinks this spells the end of Tatum’s time with The Culling.
Before the match even started, Lyra Valkyria showed up looking for Tatum. Izzi Dame showed her usual jerk behavior because she doesn’t want Tatum having true friends or looking to anyone but her. It’s not quite as wild or emotional as Asuka & Kairi Sane, but it’s at least in the same ballpark. Then Tatum took her mask off for a bit when Lyra mentioned that Tatum might win the battle royal. Izzi scoffed as loudly as one can scoff and essentially said it’s ridiculous for anyone to think Tatum has a shot at winning the championship, much less the battle royal. So it’s fitting that it came down to Tatum, Izzi, and Jordynne Grace. If you ask me, Tatum is clever like a fox. She knew what she was doing holding Jordynne up like a red sash in a bull fight. She knew Izzi would charge and that her momentum would carry her over the ropes. All Tatum had to do was duck. Pretty sneaky, sis.
Tatum celebrated her victory with her true friend while her supposed one watched outside and didn’t even clap.
Even with Lainey Reid officially joining Fatal Influence and the group recommitted to each other, I like the idea of a Tatum championship reign. There’s a lot of story there with Izzi and Lyra, plus she’d get a chance to shine and do more with her character. Tatum is cast as the ultimate underdog, so why not give her a big moment with the big belt? The women’s division needs someone else at the top of the card for the sake of variety. While I like the idea of a new version of Fatal Influence, there’s still nothing that differentiates them from Toxic Attraction. And even if they stumble onto something to fix that, the stories and matches with Jacy seem pretty set in stone at this point. Let the “weirdo” be champion and see how much juice she gives everyone around her.
B-Sides
Selfish
Is Sol Ruca using Zaria? We’ve gotten teases about these two breaking up for quite a bit now. But rather than go with the initial idea when it looked like Zaria was the jealous type, it’s now about Sol holding back her best friend and taking advantage of her love. It’s something Blake Monroe raised and now it’s all in Zaria’s head. To wit, Zaria asked why her friend wasn’t accompanying her to the ring for her match against The Glamor. Well, it turns out Sol was prepping for the big women’s battle royal to determine the next contender for Jacy Jayne’s championship. Zaria raised a good point: The woman has two championships already, does she really need to be Thanos? And is prepping for that more important than having her best friend’s back? During a solid match between Blake and Zaria, we got our answer.
Sol showed up in the third act to stop Blake from using wrapping a chair around Zaria’s head. But tying up the ref for that brief moment helped homegirl Blake pull her hair clip behind the ref’s back. The outcome was obvious at that point, so Blake got a very underhanded W. What’s really interesting, at least for me, is how these two are acting like true adults. Postmatch, Sol admitted that she’s been type selfish. She gave up her position in the battle royal to her partner with the idea that they both should have all the gold. That’s an outcome that doesn’t happen much in wrestling.
They took it a step further during the battle royal when Zaria eliminated herself when Blake attacked Sol as the North American champ lent moral support to her friend. Zaria was torn between continuing or helping but she chose the latter. That’s a big deal for the relationship but also potentially sows dissension seeds. Does Zaria look at Sol differently now? The woman she wanted by her side earlier turned into an emotional liability later. And those heart strings cost Zaria big time.
This is a refreshingly complex relationship and story that I’m really into.
Album Cuts
- Lexis King is quickly becoming NXT’s favorite punching bag. After insulting El Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. the last time the Performance Center hosted NXT, he ended up in a match with the good Dr. This was all about giving the NXT faithful, including the at home audience, a glimpse at the man challenging Ethan Page for his North American Championship at Halloween Havoc. I’d have pity on the guy if he wasn’t so detestable, but that’s just Lexis doing his job really well. And I really like Lexis’ old school heel tactics like going for fake handshakes. I have no idea what his future is in WWE but he’s certainly getting his heel behavior down pact. But like I said, this was about making El Hijo look good and get a W over someone the crowd already doesn’t like as he preps for someone the crowd really doesn’t like. After defeating The King, Dr. Wagner found himself front and center with Ethan of course. After a verbal back and forth where the champ exemplified the ugly (North) American, we got the news that their Halloween Havoc contest is dia de los muertos. Google Translate will tell you that’s Day of the Dead. No only one of my favorite phrases but one of the few things about Spectre that I like. But I digress. This is now an anything goes match which we know Ethan is very equipped for even if he fronts like he’s not.
- On that same note of challenges, Ricky Saints is tired of the talk; he wants Trick Williams at Halloween Havoc. Wish granted, but that didn’t stop Trick from jumping Ricky later in the episode, then skating to avoid the payback. Ricky is hot so I’m guessing we’ll see that boil over at next week’s contract signing.
- I’m usually not a fan of multiple “jumping” angles but that’s what we got here. DarkState attacked the Hardys and said they won’t quit until they get back their property. This comes after they interfered with Je’Von Evans’ and Leon Slater’s match at Bound for Glory. Yeah, I’m just not a fan of these guys despite how much NXT is trying to make them fetch.
- Speaking of tag teams, we almost crowned number one contenders for the NXT Tag Team Championships. At least that’s what it seemed like was the plan. Hank & Tank, Chase U, and The Culling argued over who should get a shot at The Hardys. Ava scheduled a triple threat tag but they never mentioned again whether it was for anything. Alas, it didn’t matter since OTM wrecked the entire match for everyone almost as soon as it started. The bell rang for a presumed no contest but why? These triple threats are usually no DQ, so t in theory the match should’ve kept going until someone forced Out the Mud into the darkness.
- It’s always great watching Matt Cardona get some love from NXT. The man last wrestled in the territory about a decade ago and here he is soaking in all that adulation. Gone but never forgotten. I wish he got the win over Josh Briggs but I guess they just wanted to let him get his love. I didn’t dislike the match at all just bummed by the finish.
NXT felt more compact this week and more meaningful. The show is still inconsistent when it comes to the rules it enforces and when, and the men’s division still feels stale compared to the women’s side of the locker room. Halloween Havoc isn’t far away and this show laid a lot of groundwork to get us there, even with some of its faults showing.
What say you, Cage siders?
