Aaaand just like that, Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano once again held my heart hostage. I was honestly disenchanted with their segment with Candice LeRae a few weeks ago because I think it could still be executed better (or maybe I had a hard time accepting that she was knocked out by her husband who's the same size as her). But after giving it a break and seeing a bunch of tweets and Fallout videos, I’m now convinced that this feud is still far from over. And it’s still going to get better.
The past few weeks have been about the Psycho Killer getting inside the head of Johnny Wrestling, because why not? If Gargano bested him in a straight-up brawl, how about driving him to insanity? His game plan has been effective so far. From ignoring Candice’s wishes to interrupting a match just to tell Ciampa and the NXT Universe that he has signed the contract for their Street Fight at TakeOver: Chicago, Gargano has indeed lost it.
You all know how I hate Ciampa so much, but hey, I'm going to give this to him. That slimy, sly of a human being.
*****
Rest of the show:
- Shayna Baszler is shaken AND stirred: Nikki Cross is now officially the #1 contender to Shayna Baszler's NXT Women's title. In last week's affair, Dakota Kai braved through her nightmares and challenged Shayna for the championship. Dakota was unsuccessful (for now), but maybe the real championship is the new friend she gained in Nikki?
The entire segment was loads of fun. Temperamental and explosive Nikki is an excellent foil for the calculating and technical Shayna. This segment alone already hyped me up for their match in Chicago.
- TM61 def. Robbie Grand and Mike Hughley: This was a breath of fresh air from the typical heel shenanigans and typical squash matches. Obviously, Nick Miller and Shane Thorne aren't Braun Strowmans or the Bludgeon Brothers, but giving them matchups with easy, clean finishes is a way of making them even more credible. Sure, they're a bunch of douchebags who cheat, but they are also world-class athletes who can easily dispatch you if you're nothing special.
- Lars Sullivan trains at the Performance Center: No Aleister Black and Lars Sullivan sighting in this episode after their first face-off last week. Instead of a physical confrontation, they aired a video of Lars murdering all his fellow trainees at the Performance Center. It was too long for my liking that I was actually a bit uneasy at one point, especially where he kept on forearming one guy into oblivion. But I guess that was the entire point of his video.
They're doing a great job in making Sullivan a credible threat to the champ, but I'm still personally not buying him beating Aleister. He's still a freaking monster, though.
- Roderick Strong def.
DanielDanny Burch: Roderick Strong and his shitty little boots found its way to one half of the BritAm Brawlers (that isn't their official name, BTW) Danny Burch. I expected a hard-hitting, technical match, and we got that. But it wasn't about the wrestling this time; it seemed that the match was only made to further solidify the Undisputed ERA as the typical heels who never get clean wins, and it was successful in driving that point further. We also got a some sort of comeuppance from Pete Dunne's side after Roddy betrayed him, so that was a nice moment.
- Ricochet and Velveteen Dream continue to trade tirades: Aside from the NXT Championship match, Ricochet and Velveteen Dream also got an excellent vignette that basically summarized their Twitter tussle. It even included the last shot fired by Ricochet when he called out Dream for getting eliminated on Tough Enough, to which Dream only responded with "I have no memory of that." It was great.
- Kairi Sane def. Lacey Evans in a rubber match. Their feud seemed to depend heavily on Lacey's character work, and while she has done a great job with it, the best thing in this angle is definitely an angry Sane, where she turns up to 11 and becomes a scary, tiny lady who can kill with her forearms and flying Kabuki elbows.
*****
Would you believe TakeOver's already next weekend?! While this isn't as hyped as TakeOver: New Orleans (yet), the black and yellow brand just keeps on doing what it does best: consistent storytelling. A-.
Photo from WWE.com
*****
Ardelle Costuna works at a news organization somewhere along EDSA whenever she's not watching wrestling. As someone who just recently turned to Japanese wrestling (full-time ish), she is a sucker for no-sold German suplexes, kick-outs at one-count, and whatever the hell Tetsuya Naito is doing right now. Send her your (joshi) puroresu match recommendations and watch her swoon over Kenny Omega, and Jake Lee at @aandthejets.