Blog Archives
Notes In Observance – WWE NXT 12/28/16: Osaka, Osaka
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 12/28/16)
Osaka, Osaka
– The opening video hyped up the NXT Championship rematch between Champion (at the time) Samoa Joe and Shinsuke Nakamura. Yup, they’d show the entire match again in its entirety (this was even before their steel cage match), but the good part was that we’d see the rest of the Osaka event. A two-hour NXT show on a holiday week? What a gift. By the way, to read our review of the Joe/Nakamura match, check it here.
Notes In Observance – WWE NXT 11/16/16: A Shot At Vengeance
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 11/16/16)
A Shot At Vengeance
– The Liv Morgan-Peyton Royce match was the latest installment in the chronicles of the NXT undercard, which you can gladly call its Women’s Division. Forever a “work in progress,” there has been an attempt to build things with the “Aussie Mean Girls” pair of Billie Kay/Royce, coupled with Liv Morgan – a blonde tomboy Jersey Girl – and Ember Moon – a Mortal Kombat-esque athlete who racks up wins. While Moon has been built on her own, we’ve seen Morgan entangled in a feud lately with the AMG. Where we last left off, we saw Morgan cost Kay a match, as Aliyah upset her. The aggressive start made sense given the feud’s context. Royce delivered a nice tarantula-like submission in the ropes, even though we were entirely distracted with her ring attire that screamed “The Riddler.” The memories stopped there until the finish, when we saw Kay physically assault Morgan before she could make Royce submit. The crowd chanted for Aliyah, who came out and it looked like the heels would enjoy another beatdown. This set the stage for Moon to come down and make the ultimate difference, as she single-handedly took down the AMG before her and Morgan hit stereo dropkicks. We like the idea of Moon to physically get her hands dirty with the rest of the division, but we had enjoyed her solo push and wished they kept her separate from this storyline.
Notes In Observance – WWE NXT 9/21/16: Bringing The Fight
“Notes In Observance” features random thought and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 9/21/16)
Bringing The Fight
– The opening video took us back to last week when Samoa Joe swerved everybody as he played the “nice guy” to get NXT Champion Shinsuke Nakamura to agree to a rematch for the belt before he brutalized him without remorse with help from the steel steps. With some ample time before NXT’s next TakeOver special, this was a smart way to prolong things in a way that kept the focus on Joe’s aggression.
Notes In Observance – WWE NXT 8/31/16: The Era Of Strong Style Begins
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 8/31/16)
The Era Of Strong Style Begins
– With NXT back at home at Full Sail University, it was time to see some new feuds and stars develop as the next NXT TakeOver event looms in the coming months. We started off with a backstage segment with Samoa Joe, NXT General Manager William Regal and a medical trainer as Regal was told that due to numerous injuries caused to Joe at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn II, he wouldn’t be cleared to compete any time soon. Joe, who was uncrowned of the NXT Championship at Brooklyn by NXT Champion Shinsuke Nakamura, was expectedly pissed and stormed away. Uh oh.
Notes In Observance – WWE NXT 4/27/16: The Kinshasa Swan Song
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 4/27/16)
The Kinshasa Swan Song
– We were warned about the NXT Women’s Champion Asuka-Eva Marie match from last week, so no surprises here. What should’ve been a quick, two-minute squash was instead dragged out to make Eva look “on par” with Asuka, which is completely unbelievable. An odd matchup to begin with, with little chemistry early on and the only thing that kept our interest was the crowd’s growing disdain for Eva and Corey Graves’ entertaining commentary that fanboyed all over Eva. It appeared that the bigger story was planting the seeds of an Asuka-Nia Jax feud by the way she stood by Eva’s side past the midway portion of the bout. This lasted longer than it had any business being, but seeing Eva get kicked out cold might’ve been a lukewarm consolation prize. The post-match interaction between Jax and Asuka was a bit woody, but established that Jax wouldn’t be scared of Asuka’s techniques.