The Bandit With Missing Hand
Leon Slate is your new number one contender for Absolute Swerve Strickland…I mean, Oba Femi’s championship. Props to him for finishing that match on what looked like one good knee, but he’s an odd choice considering he just took a pinfall at Saturday Night’s Main Event. Even more puzzling that he pinned Myles Borne when Dion Lennox right there (I
know Joe Hendry is protected). Leon vs. Oba at New Year’s Evil sounds fun and may even give a little intrigue once/if we find out how Je’Von Evans feels about his homeboy getting this shot after Ricky Saints took it away from the Young OG. All that said, I want to talk about Tony D’Angelo because I have no idea what they’re doing with this story. At times I wonder if even they do.
Tony came back at Deadline and delivered a hellacious Spinebuster to Je’Von. Did Je’Von get mad? Did he even search for the former Don? Nope. He went straight to Oba and acted like it never happened. For his part, Tony seemingly didn’t care either. Rather than explain either with words or fists why he went after Je’Von and if that was a message for the champ, he set his sights on Ethan Page. Why? No clue.
Now this week he’s back to Oba…possibly. That’s him lurking in the rafters like a broke ass Sting as NXT went off the air. No black gloves in sight. Or whatever those are that he drops on his dispatched foes. Which is exactly the point: What are they doing with Tony D’Angelo?
As of late, WWE as a whole has a problem with drawn out mysteries that end rather anticlimactically. NXT in particular has so much going on weekly that consistent storytelling sometimes suffers. New Year’s Evil is a few short weeks away and they’ve done nothing to address the mafia elephant in the room. Ava, who they usually make the focal point for such things, seemingly doesn’t care. The only person who cared was the North American champ and if you keep reading, you’ll find out what happened when he dared show interest in a little payback.
Wrestling is still a television show, meaning it’s still bound by basic TV show dynamics. When a character commits a pretty big action one week, it demands a concerted effort for a follow-up the next week. No one treats this thing with Tony, whatever it is, like it’s a big deal. He’s attacked two of the territory’s biggest players and only of them said anything about it before they quickly distracted him with an elephant of a different breed.
NXT’s main issue for me is that inconsistent storytelling. Things that seem like mountains one week are treated like molehills the next. And when the follow-up happens, the momentum is gone, which renders the whole thing moot.
I hope they’re giving Tony something big to do after all that time. I hope it involves the NXT Heavyweight Championship since he’s one of the few cats to defeat The Ruler. But I have no faith in any of that based on prior evidence.
Or maybe I’m hoping for something NXT just doesn’t do well. At least not anymore. Maybe I should do the one thing, Manolo said in the Cageside offices when Geno and I said they need to give an explanation:
Fuggetaboutit.
B-Sides
- So we have a new Women’s North American Champion. But that clearly wasn’t the plan, right? There’s no way they meant for Thea Hail to win that title. Besides the fact that Blake Monroe’s theme played after a very awkward pause followed an equally awkward three-count. The bottomline from my vantage point was Thea came down a bit too hard on her springboard Senton. Rather landing the proper way, she landed right on Blake’s chest, which knocked the air out of her. Blake barely got her shoulder off the mat at the last second but it was too late.
- Ricky’s heel turn got a proper follow-up. I’ve always favored heel Ricky over face Ricky, and his promo this week showed why. He’s much more confident when he’s talking trash and not aiming for likes. That mode just comes more naturally for him. His explanation passed muster for me too; he’s the one who gets to dethrone Oba, not Je’Von Evans. And he’s willing to do anything to do it, which is something he believes Je’Von can’t say. Je’Von, who wanted Ricky as soon as he stepped in the building, ran in during Ricky’s promo. Which means he avoided all the big security guys posted at every angle of the ring except right in front of the hard camera. You’d think that would be the first spot they’d protect. Go figure. But to further establish bad guy Ricky’s bonafides, The Revolution got the better of Je’Von. He Roshambo’d (real word) Je’Von through the announce table. Je’Von sold the pain beautifully and made Ricky look dastardly. More of this guy right here, please.
- Kendal Grey is the real deal. I’m not saying anything new but she takes advantage of every chance in front of her. She teamed with Wren Sinclair for the next chapter in her battle for the NXT Women’s Championship. That meant Fatal Influence, repped by Lainey Reid & Fallon Henley, stood across the ring from them, while Jacy Jayne did commentary. I do love the way almost every heel comes to that table and treats Vic Joseph like he has the plague. But I digress. This came down to Kendal and Wren overcoming the odds with Jacy sitting ringside and occasionally poking her nose where it does belong overall but not at the moment. What surprised me is that Fallon tapped. She’s a champion and Lainey isn’t so why not let Lainey take the fall for the team?
- I like Hank & Tank and OTM. They’re two physical teams who understand how to use their size effectively and look like they really fight. That’s what we got here. OTM is getting a bit of a rebrand while Hank & Tank are fresh off their Japanese exchange, so both teams are looking for a fresh start in the territory’s tag division. Nothing wrong with the match at all but I think it missed DarkState in the crow’s nest or being ringside just to remind everyone they’re the tag champs. With so much focus put on Leon & Je’Von facing AJ Styles & Dragon Lee at Saturday Night’s Main Event, one might forget that NXT’s actual tag champs exist. But that gets to a larger issue this week, and with NXT in general: too many wrestlers and not enough time. The only glimpse of DarkState this week came when they showed Dion getting ready for the main event. Hank & Tank scored the victory but it’s always a good to remind people what that victory means.
- Speaking of too much happening on one show, Ethan hit the ring and called out Tony D’Angelo but got Stacks instead. The TNA International champ and his fiancé (Arianna Grace) want more gold. What they got was Moose, who surprised the hell out of me with his appearance in Orlando. He swerved Stacks and Ethan when he made it seem like he wanted the former when it was all about the latter. Now, I will say there’s a disconnect between Moose saying how much he dislikes seeing an NXT cat hold a TNA title only to then go after the NXT North American champ. I understand Moose vs. Ethan Page is the bigger match but if it bothers Moose that much, then do something about it rather than saying other people in TNA will do something about it while he does something different.
- From one TNA rep to a former one, Kelani Jordan moved back into the women’s locker room this week. She and Lola Vice immediately clashed as Vice City debated Kelani’s toughness because gymnastics has nothing on MMA. Their reasoning aside for making it happen, I’m looking forward to this feud. They’re on opposite ends of the face heel spectrum now, and I’m hoping that gives a new spin on this thing between them.
- Tatum Paxley is picking off Culling members one by one. She got to Niko Vance, and possibly Shawn Spears. Her calling card? Their respective action figures. That’s perfect for Tatum and also a bit creepy.
- Sol Ruca vs. Chelsea Green next week? Sign me up.
This wasn’t my favorite episode of NXT. It started on the rough foot with the opening championship match and felt disjointed the rest of the night.
What say you, Cagesiders? Does Leon defeat Oba or is this just his flirtation with NXT greatness?
