Smark Hen-XT (11/29/17): The Lull Before the Storm

¡Hola! This is Ardelle and you’ve probably seen my name around here, as I have reviewed a bunch of other stuff. From here on, I will be taking over (heh) the Smark Hen-XT column from Jocs Boncodin for the meantime!

More than a week removed from the glorious chaos that was the TakeOver: WarGames, I can’t blame you if you’d expect something explosive from this week’s episode but was kind of let down. Let’s not beat around the bush here and it is what it is: a filler episode before things kick off toward the build to TakeOver: Philadelphia.

But hey, at least we got a really good tag team match from the UK lads!

*****

The rest of the show

• Street Profits def. Tino Sabbatelli and Riddick Moss: I love the Street Profits very much, and I’m glad that the San Antonio crowd is well behind the duo too! We got a much longer rematch from the two teams after they squared off the first time some few weeks ago. Nothing new to see here, but we got a lot more Montez Ford in this match which was a treat. 

Now that their feud is over, it’s just fair to say that with Street Profits’ momentum, they are on their way to their first opportunity for the tag team title gold. On the other hand, Moss and Sabbatelli are good heels, but I can’t help but wonder what’s in store for the moneyed duo after this.

• Kairi Sane def. Peyton Royce (with Billie Kay): This isn’t in any way related to the match, but why on earth did they change Kairi’s entrance theme?? And while we’re at it, why isn’t there any Iconic Duo merch on WWE Shop dot com??

Anyway, this match was just OK. Just like Kairi’s match with the other half of the Iconic Duo some few weeks ago, it was expected that the Pirate Princess was going to take the W here despite Peyton dominating a huge bulk of the match and the numbers not favoring her. I appreciate Mauro Ranallo and Percy Watson’s efforts of providing lip service into the match, saying that that this could determine Ember Moon’s next opponent for the title, but if this were the case then maybe the match could have gone longer?

I am also still looking for that one opponent that will spark something out of Kairi. Personally, her match against Shayna Baszler at the Mae Young Classic finals was her last memorable win for me. But to be fair though, she still only has three or four matches on NXT TV. Maybe if more women make their debut, perhaps?

• Moustache Mountain (Tyler Bate and Trent Seven) def. Pete Dunne and Mark Andrews: This is nothing new, but I’m still going to say it: man, these UK lads are so damn good, you guys. They definitely deserve a lot more spotlight to develop more stories. 

And speaking of developing more stories, remember when The Undisputed Era interrupted a tag match between Moustache Mountain and Wolfgang and Pete? Trent and Tyler were not happy about how Pete acted after the beat-up, so they were back last week to issue a challenge after Pete's successful UK title defense against Johnny Gargano (which you should go see right now, if you haven’t yet). I’m not sure what took them this long for that to have a pay off, but we got a really fun match out of this so I’m not one to complain. Pete found a tag team partner in Mark Andrews, who said that he could be his tag team partner under one condition: he should be the number one contender for the UK title, should they win.

This 10-ish minute affair was just loads of fun to watch. Pete and Mandrews played off the reluctant tag team really well with a bunch of innovative tandem offenses, but the centerpiece of this match was the Tyler-Pete rivalry for the UK title. And Tyler’s opportunity was out of the question when he pinned the champion with a Tyler Driver ‘97. Andrews’ demand for a title opportunity was met with a Bitter End, since they lost the match.

I’m going to say this again, and I will never get tired of saying this: the UK boys deserve so much more.

*****

WWE also confirmed on this week’s episode that Drew McIntyre was hurt during his NXT title match against Andrade “Cien” Almas at TakeOver, which was a long time coming since they could have made any sort of update on last week’s episode.

This week’s episode can be safely skipped, tbh (except for the main event). The real deal starts next week. I give this episode a B-.

What do you think of this week’s NXT episode? Hit us up in the comments section below!

December 01, 2017