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 2/10/16)

A Friendly Battle

– NXT continues to make moves in 2016, this episode taking place in the CFE Arena in Orlando, Florida, a packed house ready to make themselves heard. The opening video did a good recap of hyping the NXT Women’s Championship match between Champion Bayley and #1 Contender Carmella. This was your “bestie relationship” being tested with a grand prize thrown in the middle.

– We had a good opener with Baron Corbin and Johnny Gargano battling. This played into Corbin being angry over decisively losing his chance to stay in the running for the NXT Championship and taking out his aggression on Johnny Wrestling, who worked a stiff, aggressive offense. The size difference between the two was noteworthy itself and made the match more entertaining. This was your “good Corbin,” as we had a nice back-and-forth bout. Gargano got thrown around like a rag doll at times, but got in an impressive superkick on Corbin that had him reeling, but it only led to a sudden End Of Days to finish it out.

– Sami Zayn’s backstage promo hyped his match with Samoa Joe the following week to officially decide the #1 Contender for the NXT Championship and stayed true to his underdog character, expressing slight disappointment that he wasn’t chosen over Joe and they’d have to fight it out, but this was the story of his career and he embraced it, showing no resentment towards General Manager William Regal’s decision. After all, his “story” is becoming the first two-time NXT Champion and he actually has a good shot at it.

– That same “sinister silent” hype video for The Vaudevillains aired. Bright, mustachioed grins turned into bitter frowns and anger.

– The Hype Bros. continue to be one-dimensional despite the hope it gives us for a Zack Ryder career resurgence. The only entertaining portion of their match with John Skyler/Corey Hollis was Corey Graves’ constant rips on the “frat boys.” The match was average overall and Mojo Rawley was lucky to be over with this crowd and that might be the only good thing here. His offense is repetitive, offering us nothing fancy. That said, at least the Hype Ryder double-team finisher was slick.

– The backstage segment with Bayley and Carmella did more solid hype to the main event, as they each said their thoughts headed in. The general consensus was that they were great friends headed in, business time would allow them to put that to the side and they’d be great friends after. We always hear these same lines going into a match of this kind and end up seeing a turn angle afterwards, so it was smart of them to play up on this. We had doubts of a turn here though, since Bayley was immensely over with the fans and Carmella was finally starting to carve her own identity.

– The Alexa Bliss-Cameron match wasn’t pretty, but at least it was established that Bliss rode her mean streak to the moon. Cameron was utterly irrelevant here and tripped up on some spots, with the crowd letting her know at points, actually cheering for Bliss afterwards. There was a decent storyline explanation of why the match took place, stemming back from Bliss eliminating Cameron from that #1 Contender Battle Royale a while back, but this was pretty eh. Couldn’t wait for it to end. Luckily, the Sparkle Splash put a glamorous finishing note on an otherwise unglamorous effort.

– The backstage segment with American Alpha and Enzo Amore/Colin Cassady showed the two babyface teams going head-to-head in their goal to be “NXT Tag Team Of The Year” before getting along in showing their mutual disdain for the NXT Tag Team Champions Dash Wilder/Scott Dawson, as AA revealed they’d be taking on Dash/Dawson next week. The final line at the end was pretty funny with Chad Gable setting up his catchphrase and no one actually saying it.

– Another week, another Elias Samson squash and no development on his “Drifter” character. He’s got a good look and intriguing aura about him, but his moveset is densely limited and the crowd saw right through it, chanting “Drift Away” (we initially mistook it for “Triple H” chants) and it was more of the same here as Samson barreled through Jesse Sorenson with basic maneuvers. Eh.

– Apollo Crews’ backstage promo fit his positive character, expressing slight disappointment that he didn’t beat NXT Champion Finn Balor the previous week, but he had an answer to a question he had for a few months beforehand. Liked his lines about knowing what it took to become the best and that we’d see a “new” Crews from this point forward. Curious to see what that develops into.

– The NXT Women’s Championship match between Carmella and Bayley stuck to the “best friends doing battle” dynamic, as they went back-and-forth for some decent standoffs. Things picked up slightly once Carmella hit two nice suicide dives, garnering a good reaction from the crowd. That was probably the highlight there, as it dwindled down beyond that point, ending after a brief exchange of submission maneuvers and pinfall attempts. Bayley won a surprise roll-up there and the emotional impact of losing hit Carmella immediately. Uh oh, best friends about to turn enemies? Nope. They hugged and embraced. The post-match angle is what everyone would talk about, as Eva Marie/Nia Jax attacked Carmella on the ramp and took down Bayley who tried to save her outside. Clear seeds were planted for a Carmella-Eva Marie feud, which makes sense since Eva was the person Carmella eliminated to win the match. The even better feud planted here was between Asuka and Bayley, as the two had a nice staredown once Asuka came down to help out the faces. Jax/Eva backed away to keep the heat. Oh yeah and the crowd didn’t like Eva, but was that a shock to anybody? This was a great way to get the future rolling on the NXT Women’s Division and the best it still has to offer.

– We ended things out on a classic fierce Joe promo, that staked his claim that being NXT Champion was inevitable for him and that after saving Zayn upon his arrival, he’d take away the most important thing from him now.

Quick Results

• Baron Corbin def. Johnny Gargano via pinfall
• The Hype Bros. def. John Skyler/Corey Hollis via pinfall
• Alexa Bliss (w/Blake, Murphy) def. Cameron via pinfall
• Elias Samson def. Jesse Sorenson via pinfall
• NXT Women’s Championship – Bayley (Champion) def. Carmella via pinfall to retain