By Nicholas Jason Lopez

“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.

(Aired 11/11/15)

Choices And Actions

– Coming off the heels of Samoa Joe’s turn (see what we did there?) on NXT Champion Finn Balor last week after Baron Corbin interrupted an NXT Championship match between Balor and Apollo Crews to attack Crews, we had plenty of questions and the ultimate one would be answered: Why, Joe, Why?

– We’ll rate Tye Dillinger’s entrance a perfect 10, for obvious reasons. The thought that he was about to squashed by Baron Corbin was about to receive a less-than-stellar two when Crews aggressively rushed the ring to attack Corbin for some good ol’ revenge, which was the easiest, most sensible way to follow things up. We’d only seen Crews with an undetachable grin to this point and it was a welcome change to his personality and the crowd ate it all up. Quick, short and sweet. It was obvious from last week a match between the two was being built up to.

– The Six-Person Tag Match between NXT Women’s Champion Bayley/The Hype Bros. and Alexa Bliss/Blake/Murphy had the assistance of a much-excited Full Sail University crowd that amused themselves with New Day-esque chants for Bayley and even The Hype Bros. It was cool to the point that even Bayley played to them. It was actually one of those matches where the crowd was more of a focus than the action itself and it faltered in that aspect, but it was still about Bayley and Bliss, though they were smart not to have them in direct action, as Bliss tagged in one of her boys every time Bayley got in. We thought to build Bliss up more for Bayley that the heels would perhaps win, but the finish was done in a way that still put attention on the heel NXT Women’s Championship challenger, since she took the Title and ran backstage with it, to get Bayley to chase her, which backfired when The Hype Bros. took advantage to hit their oh-so-pretty Hype Ryder finisher. Bayley’s Belly-To-Bayley on Murphy also looked pretty hardcore.

– The Ascension’s promo basically summed up them accepting last week’s challenge laid down by Chad Gable/Jason Jordan. Should be an interesting match, but we assume this is to help give credibility to the hot Jordan/Gable duo. The match was also announced for next week, to give that show something to look forward to.

– Crews’ backstage promo carried off the first segment and expressed his desire to “break Corbin” while he had this strange look on his face that was somewhere between pissed off and happy as hell. It still worked in this situation. We’ll probably see a Corbin squash next week, since we avoided one on this show. Still a good promo though.

– Another week, another Nia Jax squash against another nameless, faceless woman and we still don’t know much about her except that her new attire is more fitted for her. The woman this week was Deonna, who looked like Gianna Daddio from last week. Pretty basic squash as Jax mainly used her heavyset assets to her advantage. That Leg Drop looked fierce though and that was all she wrote there. There was a wrinkle of intrigue this week though since before the match, we saw Eva Marie take Jax for some kind of undisclosed plan backstage. Bodyguard perhaps? The Jax express will roll on next week when she takes on Carmella in her biggest test yet.

– The backstage segment with Bayley, Bliss and Jax was quite interesting. We saw Bayley catch Bliss in a photo studio taking pictures of herself with the Championship and got it back just as she ran into Jax, who stopped her and allowed Bliss to knock her down from behind. Jax holding the Title before dropping it back onto Bayley sent a clear message of the future without saying anything. On that note, added to next week’s show was Bliss Vs. Bayley for the NXT Women’s Championship.

– There was a time where Dash Wilder/Scott Dawson meant as much as Angelo Dawkins/Sawyer Fulton in the tag team division before a hard push came recently and it was here where we saw the official payoff for them. Dash/Dawson have been portrayed as diabolical heels that injure with no remorse and wear you down until you literally snap. Their promos have been carried well, but Wilder leaves a better impression on their southern aggressive style. On the other side, The NXT Tag Team Champions Vaudevillains had excelled as Champions since winning them at TakeOver: Brooklyn and this looked to be another routine defense for them. Since Dash/Dawson had upset them in the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic, it seemed like that was their moment, but apparently, there was more written in the cards. There was no flashy offense here, it was all about in-ring psychology and it was well-done. The buildup to Simon Gotch’s hot tag was great and he was getting the hang of things, until he tagged his injured partner back in too soon and ended up paying for it when he got shoved into the steel steps and was unable to prevent Aiden English from tapping out, giving us new Champions. Definitely surprising at this time, but with so many face teams emerging, it makes sense for them to be the Champions and they can also get themselves over in the process. We know a rematch is coming, it’s just a matter of when it’ll go down.

– Dash/Dawson’s backstage promo saw them talk about how they never changed their style over 12 years and they finally had what they wanted. Short and sweet.

– The final in-ring segment with Joe and Balor was logical and well-done. We got Joe’s heel explanation behind his actions, that it was because Balor didn’t put action behind the choice to give his friend a Title shot, where he did himself by “carrying Balor through the tournament and winning.” Joe was the confident, self-righteous bad guy who could kick your ass, which is a perfect role for him. In his eyes, he was lowered by having to compete in a Battle Royale and that General Manager William Regal bailed out Balor. It made sense for Balor to be irate about this view and want to attack Joe, and we got our “let them go” near-brawl portion. Did like that Joe used the Referee to shove him into Balor to be able to put his Kojita Clutch on him and lay him out. Joe can be a WWE Intercontinental Champion Kevin Owens kind of heel and it’s what NXT needs right now.

Quick Results

• Six-Person Tag – Bayley/The Hype Bros. def. Alexa Bliss/Blake/Murphy via pinfall
• Nia Jax def. Deonna via pinfall
• NXT Tag Team Championships – Dash Wilder/Scott Dawson def. The Vaudevillains (Champions) via pinfall to become new Champions