Iron Moose

A very good friend of mine (lawyer, feminist, swing dancer, LOVES Bayley) whose exposure to NXT I've been curating, found Charlotte instantly unlikable. From R-Evolution: <Her> Wait is Charlotte's deal just that she's basically creepy and Aryan? <Me> daughter of Ric Flair which gets her a pass from fandom. (but yes. ) <Her> Wait so who is supposed to be the face in this match? <Me> Charlotte, but only because Sasha Banks hates everyone. <Her> I feel like I should not have to fight so hard to figure out who is supposed to be the good guy in the pre-match teaser. It's clearer-cut that Nikki is supposed to be booed, since we get arrogance plus shenanigans, but a soft double-turn (or, god help us, a Paige heel turn to help Nikki retain) is not inconceivable.

A friend of mine did some analysis on this phenomena. http://allthingslinguistic.com/post/68785911207/what-makes-an-effective-synonym-for-benedict Also: Bram Sharonlois.

It wouldn't feel complete without a Dusty finish. Maybe we get something like Corbin/Rhyno and Jordan/Gable in a double count-out to set up an elimination triple threat with whoever sneaks through the inevitable Joe/Balor implosion?

Making Sting the WCW avenger was itself staggeringly foolish. His appearance at Suvivor Series could have been framed solely as anti-corruption, anti-authority, and the angle probably wouldn't have suffered for it.

"Former NXT Champion, beat Neville clean and Owens' arch foe" is at least a little mystique.

Idea: Rusev/Owens v Joe/Balor in the Dusty Invitational. With bonus marks for florid Rusev monologues about his broken heart and laconic Owens responses.

WWE = all of sports entertainment itself, so I guess that they are. I had a horrible moment of fear that she would say "Evolution".

I think they can delay Dana-Bayley by giving Dana an Owens-Riley thing with a fed-up Jojo. (...Devin?)

rewatching: (I didn't care much for Sasha's attire here -- very busy. ) Sasha's sitting on the top turnbuckle, Bayley runs up with a forearm Bayley climbs to the top rope, (at this point Sasha has an arm around Bayley's leg) jumps as if to deliver a top-rope Frankensteiner, but: Bayley seems to overjump, misses getting her legs around Sasha's head, and at the same time Sasha: shoves or tosses Bayley a bit with her left arm, while she (Sasha) holds on to the rope with her right arm. I like Tracy's interpretation.

The NO MEANS NO chant, directed at Blake and Murphy when they were sleazing at Carmella, is up there.

You guys. What if Bayley loses?

THAT WAS AWESOME.

I could see it maybe main-eventing the December NXT Takeover, which it won't, because... reasons.

Orton not waiting until the bell had rung on the cash-in was so, so dumb.

The bigger problem there would have been that the fact Becky got the promotion and Bayley didn't would have telegraphed the answer there just as much- best case, it's clear Bayley's getting the win to keep the NXT Women's Title in NXT. Worst case, you have to really make the change and have endgame be "Dana Brooke or Eva Marie become the mega-heel by swooping in and taking the title shot, and thus the win, from under Bayley's nose", and give a firm chase that can either lead to Bayley winning the big one or prep the other to be the star for a Bayley promotion. I must respectfully disagree with Gregg as well. I think there's a lot of risk to both Bayley and Becky from setting up the story he's put forth: if we have Bayley and Becky coming at Sasha from two directions, Bayley's title shot more explicitly comes at the expense of the rematch for Becky. It hurts Bayley to stop us from Lynch-Banks II; it's also bad for Becky to get her rematch by having to get past Bayley to do it. I think the en passant is a better way to do it- lower stakes.

A promo by Sasha that demeans NXT now that she's moved on up could also turn the crowd. Also, if she spends a few moments throwing shade on Bruce Springsteen, or if she brings out Naomi and Tamina as backup.

I would be more interested in watching this if there would be a divas match. (My Summerslam fantasy booking is Sasha/Nikki as non-title champion / champion, but have Sasha lose at Takeover so she has storyline justification to win extra-vicious and set up a title match later on. )

...I think it might have been Rollins' flying knee from the turnbuckle.

I'm interested to see how awkward the voiceovers get in next episode's main event.

Disappointed that the NXT women were collectively dropped into the show by Steph Ex Machina. Would really have preferred a slower build aligning Naomi and Tamina with Fox and the Bellas before Sasha et al came up to wreck the place. (I get that Sasha's made enemies of the other NXT women, but I was hoping that NXT would serve as a sufficient bond to overcome that. )

Poor Sasha.

Two quick points: 1) I really liked Dana's sell of the Backstabber. Something about how she flipped and landed flat made it look much more devastating than usual. 2) Sasha recently did a twitter Q&A where she said her dream opponent was Sami Zayn. I'm pretty sure that would be an easy MOTDC?

I was unhappy about how Cena was suddenly spry enough after that epic to AA Owens.

Kidman/Mysterio v World's Greatest Tag Team was also great fun.

Depending on her politics, you might want to avoid Banks/Charlotte. A lady-friend of mine watched it and just after the video package, asked if Charlotte's thing was "being creepy and aryan"... and then was not happy when she ended up retaining.