NXT TV - 04/17/19 (SPOILER FREE)

[RIPPA]

Advertised for tonight

Shayna Baszler vs. Kairi Sane - NXT Women's Championship. If Kairi loses, she can never challenge for the title again

Velveteen Dream vs. Buddy Murphy - NXT North American Championship

Johnny Gargano will make an appearance

[Eivion]

Dream/Murphy was so damn good as expected.

Dug the Gargano/UE segment. Also dug the setup for Street Profits vs. War Raiders.

I'm happy to see Aliyah, Borne, & Candice in their current feud. Feels like its been too long since have seen any women built up beyond the title.

Dijakovic's squash and promo was interesting.

Kairi//Shayna was decent while it lasted, but they have had better matches. The finish was better than reports made it sound though it probably would have worked better had it ended due to referee stoppage. Io costing Kairi the match was just a weird choice, especially when they were clearly building the idea that Kairi was already too hut to continue.

[Ramo2653]

In a vacuum it's a good way to write a character off TV/territory and give her next challenger motivation, but the execution was way off in reality. Plus if you happen to be a NXT and main roster viewer, it's going to be odd seeing Kairi wrestle in 6 days (just guessing).

I'm just glad Candace is getting something to do. I haven't seen much of her, so I'm excited.

Pumped for Street Profits vs. War Raiders. I don't if they'll overdub the introduction on next week's episode.

[The Natural]

4 hours ago, Eivion said:

Dream/Murphy was so damn good as expected.

Yes, yes it was. Hope Velveteen Dream gets a long run as NXT North American Champion.

[The Natural]

 

[The Natural]

[Dolfan in NYC]

That was quite a fine episode of NXT.   Velveteen-Buddy was a very nice TV title match.  Dream is going to be fucking hyper over when he gets time on the main roster, it's going to be terrifying. 

Gargano with the NXT Title is just weird. As Jack said on 30 Rock, "It's like seeing a dog wearing clothes."  I mean, I know this is the big culmination of his years long quest(TM, Titan Sports)... but it's just so odd seeing him as champ.  Fun of him to push all of Cole's buttons at once by challenging Roddy instead of him.  

Shayna's such an evil bitch, it's terrific.  She needs to never, ever be a face.  Although, when she loses this time, it should be to move up.  And I don't think that should happen before the post-SummerSlam timeframe.  Frankly, I'm glad Lacey got called up instead of her, let Lacey get crushed by Becky and leave Shayna down on NXT as the "dish best served cold."  

[Nice Guy Eddie]

Before she gets called up, I want to see Shayna vs. Rhea Ripley. I don't need any kind of angle for it beyond NXT vs. NXTUK. 

Edited April 20, 2019 by Nice Guy Eddie

[Go2Sleep]

I was totally underwhelmed by Dream/Murphy. Dream gave up way too much control and both guys looked worse as a result. Dream's got the right idea outside the ring, but once the bell rings, I don't get the impression that he knows what his character is at all. Is he a face or a heel? Is he supposed to be actually good, or an overachiever? Is he supposed to be tough? Crafty? Arrogant? Who the hell knows? At Takeover, he's taking a vicious beating from a guy with indy/MMA cred and pulls out a gutsy win despite being out-classed. A few months ago, he was working even with the NXT champ. This week, he's giving 90% of the match to a smaller guy who should be well below him in status.

Riddle/Gulak was right there a few weeks ago as a template for a 205/NXT special attraction match where both guys look good, but the NXT star is put over strong in front of the NXT audience. Dream/Murphy went for the "worst matches of John Cena's 2015 open challenge series" layout, where the champ looks worse because he can only hit 5 moves in a 15-minute match and the challenger looks worse because he actually lost to the only 5 moves he took and his 13 minutes of offense did jack shit.

[Phil4126]

I laughed my ass off at Ivar and Erik(you win, Vince)coming out of Regal's office with their WAR RAIDERS tshirts, mentioning that next week will be Street Profits vs War Raiders(yes, please) and then they immediately have that highlight package of the Shakeup announcing that the Viking Experience made their Raw debut.

[MORELOCK]

6 hours ago, Go2Sleep said:

Dream's got the right idea outside the ring, but once the bell rings, I don't get the impression that he knows what his character is at all. Is he a face or a heel? Is he supposed to be actually good, or an overachiever? Is he supposed to be tough? Crafty? Arrogant?

Yes.

I am a little confused about what you're expecting regarding the nuances of "actually good" vs. "overachiever."

And why wouldn't Buddy, the heel, dominate on offense? You act like he's some scrub. He's main roster, just had a months-long title run, and was called up well before Dream. He's certainly higher on the ladder than Dream is now.

[Dolfan in NYC]

7 hours ago, Phil4126 said:

I laughed my ass off at Ivar and Erik(you win, Vince)coming out of Regal's office with their WAR RAIDERS tshirts, mentioning that next week will be Street Profits vs War Raiders(yes, please) and then they immediately have that highlight package of the Shakeup announcing that the Viking Experience made their Raw debut.

Oh right... And whoever produced this segment needs to be flayed. Because the angle of the shot made TVE (ugh) look like they were 5'9" at best.  

If they're shorter, then shoot that shit from an angle that doesn't make them look teeny tiny next to their opponents. 

[Go2Sleep]

3 hours ago, MORELOCK said:

Yes.

I am a little confused about what you're expecting regarding the nuances of "actually good" vs. "overachiever."

And why wouldn't Buddy, the heel, dominate on offense? You act like he's some scrub. He's main roster, just had a months-long title run, and was called up well before Dream. He's certainly higher on the ladder than Dream is now.

Actually good = Someone who can consistently win at the main event level in fair/convincing ways
Overachiever = Someone who can only occasionally win at the main event level in less than convincing ways (Ogawa being the all time example, someone like Adam Cole now)

Totally disagree about the relative ranks. NXT is a way bigger deal than 205 Live at this point. Dream holds the secondary title and pinned the current main champ clean a month ago. No way he should be giving the whole match to anyone who's fringe main roster (which all of 205 is), especially when he has a very noticeable size advantage against a guy who by definition hasn't competed against a significantly larger opponent in months. Dream got more offense on Riddle and the story of that match was that Riddle was an undefeated buzzsaw who everyone expected to out-class Dream once the bell rang. I'm not saying Dream should've squashed Murphy, but not showing more offensive ability here was a disservice to his own belt.

And while we're talking about the NA title... Dijak's promo, woof.

[Ramo2653]

I don't have an exact memory of all of Dream's matches, but I feel like he spends most of his matches getting beat and selling with hope spots here and there so the Murphy match doesn't really stick out to me.

[EVA]

My guess is they will fuck up Dream's main roster run the same way they've fucked up so many others: by bringing him up in his current iteration, instead of resetting to his original form and letting the main roster crowds grow to like him organically like the NXT crowd did.  They'll force this version, no one will get it, and he'll get Breezango-tiered within a year.

[Go2Sleep]

1 minute ago, Ramo2653 said:

I don't have an exact memory of all of Dream's matches, but I feel like he spends most of his matches getting beat and selling with hope spots here and there so the Murphy match doesn't really stick out to me.

He worked a lot more even with Gargano and Ciampa. He controlled most of his match against Ricochet. Even in his matches with Black and Riddle, he got more offense than he did on Murphy. Dream worked Murphy like Murphy was Lars Sullivan.

[MORELOCK]

Murphy is SmackDown now, so hardly "fringe main roster." There's a 20 pound difference in their billed weights. It's not like it's Punk going 50-50 with Brock out there.

[John from Cincinnati]

One of the guys who Murphy beat in a high profile title match in the fall immediately went on to push the WWE Champion to his limit.

Murphy isn't "fringe" anything. He's a potential top guy. 

[JonnyLaw]

59 minutes ago, West Newbury Bad Boy said:

One of the guys who Murphy beat in a high profile title match in the fall immediately went on to push the WWE Champion to his limit.

Murphy isn't "fringe" anything. He's a potential top guy. 

I kind of want to save this quote for when yo-yo’s roomie gets to the Blake and Murphy team in his NXT project.