1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:11,000 MUSIC 2 00:00:11,000 --> 00:00:15,000 Welcome to the ring, it's Richard and Adam 3 00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:20,000 Breaking down the fights with flair and passion 4 00:00:23,000 --> 00:00:26,000 Tag teams grappling belts are clashing 5 00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:33,000 MUSIC 6 00:00:33,000 --> 00:00:36,000 Hi, I'm Rich and I'm Adam 7 00:00:36,000 --> 00:00:38,000 Welcome to this week's episode of 8 00:00:38,000 --> 00:00:42,000 Finishes and Factions NXT Edition 9 00:00:42,000 --> 00:00:46,000 Available on all of your favourite podcast platforms as an Audible 10 00:00:46,000 --> 00:00:49,000 Here on YouTube where you get to hang out with us as well 11 00:00:49,000 --> 00:00:53,000 So without further ado, let's crack into NXT 12 00:00:53,000 --> 00:01:00,000 Now we have moved on to NXT's New Year's Evil 13 00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:05,000 And this was NXT's debut on Netflix as well 14 00:01:05,000 --> 00:01:14,000 Yeah, I mean, certainly for myself, this was like my very first experience of consuming NXT content 15 00:01:14,000 --> 00:01:17,000 Yeah, for me it's been a long time 16 00:01:17,000 --> 00:01:27,000 So it just, I felt like a phenomenal disconnect with the content only because I don't know who any of them are 17 00:01:27,000 --> 00:01:35,000 A lot of them were names I hadn't heard of and there were a lot of title matches at this pay-per-view 18 00:01:35,000 --> 00:01:38,000 I didn't know the storylines building up to them 19 00:01:38,000 --> 00:01:47,000 I didn't have time to be able to go back and watch multiple previous episodes of NXT 20 00:01:47,000 --> 00:01:54,000 You don't know where each storyline is starting and finishing to be able to catch the pieces together 21 00:01:54,000 --> 00:02:00,000 So for me I got very blindsided by a lot of names and a lot of people here 22 00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:04,000 But I know where to start going into next week 23 00:02:04,000 --> 00:02:07,000 Yeah, it's a base to build on 24 00:02:07,000 --> 00:02:11,000 And this is what I was telling myself throughout watching it really 25 00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:14,000 So we'll get sort of straight into it 26 00:02:14,000 --> 00:02:23,000 I mean, the opening match for NXT this week was the Roxanne Perez-Julie a match 27 00:02:23,000 --> 00:02:28,000 I mean, phenomenal match, loved it, loved the match 28 00:02:28,000 --> 00:02:32,000 Technically the wrestling in the match was fantastic 29 00:02:32,000 --> 00:02:38,000 There was a couple of areas where there was a bit of a disconnect for me where some of the moves were a little bit... 30 00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:42,000 They were too trod to be believable 31 00:02:42,000 --> 00:02:51,000 Some of the moves, especially from Roxanne Perez, just didn't blow quite as well as you'd expect them to 32 00:02:51,000 --> 00:02:58,000 But as you said earlier, neither of us have any ability when it comes to professional wrestling 33 00:02:58,000 --> 00:03:05,000 So I was just a fan that it was hard to watch some aspects of that match 34 00:03:05,000 --> 00:03:12,000 But in general it was actually a really good fast paced energetic high flowing match 35 00:03:12,000 --> 00:03:22,000 Yeah, and I know a little bit about Roxanne Perez because she has made some appearances in the main roster matches 36 00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:28,000 And she's made some appearances at PLEs, I know that she's got quite a high flying style 37 00:03:28,000 --> 00:03:35,000 And being a student of Booker T, I knew that she would be technically there 38 00:03:35,000 --> 00:03:38,000 Yeah, definitely Booker T was very technically gifted as well 39 00:03:38,000 --> 00:03:46,000 So if he's passing that gift around and down then you know some of these upcoming superstars are going to have some phenomenal technical abilities 40 00:03:46,000 --> 00:03:53,000 I mean if they hadn't mentioned the fact that Roxanne Perez was Booker T student, he definitely didn't make any big bringing secret of it 41 00:03:53,000 --> 00:04:02,000 He was a huge advocate for her on that night and it seemed to shut him up when she eventually lost the match 42 00:04:02,000 --> 00:04:09,000 A difficult thing to do, to shut Booker T up is a difficult thing to do 43 00:04:09,000 --> 00:04:17,000 100% I mean first match title match, nonetheless 44 00:04:17,000 --> 00:04:26,000 And yeah, I mean there was one bit of interference from Cora Jade but it was next to nothing 45 00:04:26,000 --> 00:04:31,000 It was minimal, she was there pushing Perez back in the ring to beat the count 46 00:04:31,000 --> 00:04:35,000 And yeah, not a... 47 00:04:35,000 --> 00:04:44,000 And like Raw, there was some stuff in NXT that didn't necessarily need to be there 48 00:04:44,000 --> 00:04:50,000 Yeah, that interference I think was one of those parts 49 00:04:50,000 --> 00:04:58,000 Yeah, definitely, that match could have gotten on exactly the same way without the interference from Cora Jade 50 00:04:58,000 --> 00:05:05,000 In my opinion, Roxanne Perez could have gotten herself back into the ring believably to beat the count 51 00:05:05,000 --> 00:05:11,000 Even if she had pushed it up to 8 or 9 on the count, she'd have got there eventually 52 00:05:11,000 --> 00:05:18,000 Yeah, exactly, but new NXT Women's Champion for the new era in WWE 53 00:05:18,000 --> 00:05:25,000 Congratulations to Julia, a phenomenally wrestled batch, can't say anything about it 54 00:05:25,000 --> 00:05:32,000 I'm going to enjoy looking to see where that storyline goes and follow Julia through her next view as well 55 00:05:32,000 --> 00:05:37,000 Just to see how well she can defend that and how often she defends it too 56 00:05:37,000 --> 00:05:46,000 100% I mean it can devalue a championship in my opinion if you're going to sort of part time defend it 57 00:05:46,000 --> 00:05:51,000 If it's not going to be... I'm not saying you have to defend it each and every week you go out there 58 00:05:51,000 --> 00:05:54,000 But make sure it's regularly defended, make sure it's regularly defended 59 00:05:54,000 --> 00:05:58,000 At least at every pay-per-view or every other pay-per-view, try and defend that title 60 00:05:58,000 --> 00:06:09,000 Don't come back for just the bane four, if you can get a fun title defence in it, TLC or some of the other smaller pay-per-views then you definitely get a crack in with it 61 00:06:09,000 --> 00:06:10,000 100% 62 00:06:10,000 --> 00:06:18,000 But we went out of that opening match and into a promo with NXT's GM Ava 63 00:06:18,000 --> 00:06:20,000 Eddie Thorpe 64 00:06:20,000 --> 00:06:30,000 Yeah, he looked like he'd been attacked on the stairs there a little bit and I got the impression, again, having not seen it before 65 00:06:30,000 --> 00:06:41,000 It sounds like this is something that he's done before and yeah, it was a bit of a precursor to the main event which obviously will come onto 66 00:06:41,000 --> 00:06:50,000 It was definitely... you could see where they were trying to lead to with different aspects of that promo 67 00:06:50,000 --> 00:06:55,000 So, I don't know, it worked some ways I suppose 68 00:06:55,000 --> 00:07:05,000 Second match going in was the Women's Fatal Four-Way, number one contenders match for the Women's North American Championship 69 00:07:05,000 --> 00:07:18,000 One thing I noticed about this NXT card is that it was sort of booking the tradition of wrestling years gone by is that they did a very female-centric card 70 00:07:18,000 --> 00:07:30,000 There were a lot of women's matches on this card, which I'm not complaining about because the women were doing an absolutely fantastic job technically wrestling these matches 71 00:07:30,000 --> 00:07:41,000 Yeah, fantastic job, but it just shows that there's such a high quality of female wrestler coming through that you can't hold them back 72 00:07:41,000 --> 00:07:49,000 So if they've got the women to make these matches and fill these rosters up, then they're going to do it and they've done it and they've done it well 73 00:07:49,000 --> 00:07:51,000 Yeah, definitely 74 00:07:51,000 --> 00:08:02,000 I mean, my biggest takeaway from this match, not glossing over it as such, but just summing it up, is that it could have worked so much better as a triple threat 75 00:08:02,000 --> 00:08:04,000 Yeah 76 00:08:04,000 --> 00:08:11,000 I mean, we had Stephanie Baker, Lola Weiss, Cora Jade and Kalani Jordan 77 00:08:11,000 --> 00:08:18,000 Now, again, having no prior knowledge of any of these apart from Cora Jade's interference in the match previous 78 00:08:18,000 --> 00:08:25,000 It was kind of a case that in my opinion, sort of Lola Weiss was a little bit irrelevant 79 00:08:25,000 --> 00:08:36,000 She was there as a bit of filler and she was there for a payday and it just didn't make sense to have her in the match for how little she had an influence on how the match played out 80 00:08:36,000 --> 00:08:43,000 Yeah, she wasn't she spent a lot of time on the outside didn't she? She wasn't wasn't a huge part of that match 81 00:08:43,000 --> 00:08:49,000 And I don't know if you picked up on it, but I think I think she might have been a submission specialist 82 00:08:49,000 --> 00:08:56,000 Because all I saw her do apart from a flurry of kicks partway through the match, which was probably the highlight of her match 83 00:08:56,000 --> 00:09:01,000 She just kept trying to go for a sleep hold 84 00:09:01,000 --> 00:09:06,000 And no shade to Lola Weiss, I mean 85 00:09:06,000 --> 00:09:11,000 You can pull it off, you can pull it off, but there was no need to put her in there, I don't think 86 00:09:11,000 --> 00:09:15,000 Girl looks like she's got a fantastic personality on her 87 00:09:15,000 --> 00:09:29,000 And yeah, but lots of high spots in the match, but Baker came out victorious 88 00:09:29,000 --> 00:09:34,000 Earning herself a number one contender spot for the women's North American Championship 89 00:09:34,000 --> 00:09:39,000 But yeah, again, sort of very inconsequential to the match Lola Weiss 90 00:09:39,000 --> 00:09:47,000 But it does give us again that basis so when we do get that women's North American Championship match 91 00:09:47,000 --> 00:09:50,000 Which I'm hoping is going to be next week 92 00:09:50,000 --> 00:09:55,000 We get an opportunity to see whether the storyline is going to continue to go 93 00:09:55,000 --> 00:09:59,000 And hoping it's not just the end of that feud 94 00:09:59,000 --> 00:10:03,000 So it'll be interesting, but no it was a... 95 00:10:03,000 --> 00:10:10,000 Yeah, it was a decent match, it could have been a lot better, definitely seen a lot worse 96 00:10:10,000 --> 00:10:12,000 100% 97 00:10:12,000 --> 00:10:17,000 From plenty of promotions, so I wouldn't worry too much 98 00:10:17,000 --> 00:10:21,000 But for what it was, it was an average match, it was good 99 00:10:21,000 --> 00:10:25,000 Then we went into a flurry of promos 100 00:10:25,000 --> 00:10:32,000 First promo was a VT, which we saw as a build up for the... 101 00:10:32,000 --> 00:10:38,000 Well no, it was a recap of a previous match between Ethan Page and Javon Evans 102 00:10:38,000 --> 00:10:42,000 Which included an absolutely visceral shot 103 00:10:42,000 --> 00:10:50,000 Like that chair shot, I remember physically gasping when I saw it because we've had some... 104 00:10:50,000 --> 00:10:53,000 Brutal chair shots in the past 105 00:10:53,000 --> 00:11:00,000 But never to the point where you're seeing somebody looking like they're spitting half their frigging jaw out 106 00:11:00,000 --> 00:11:02,000 That was... 107 00:11:02,000 --> 00:11:07,000 And Chris Masters taken nasty one a few years ago straight to the face 108 00:11:07,000 --> 00:11:12,000 Yeah, but I don't remember, as I said spitting part of his jaw out 109 00:11:12,000 --> 00:11:15,000 That was visceral and I am... 110 00:11:15,000 --> 00:11:18,000 That has got me quite... 111 00:11:18,000 --> 00:11:25,000 Immediately invested in that sort of build up to that feud where Javon Evans is going to be coming back 112 00:11:25,000 --> 00:11:29,000 I like a good blood match as well 113 00:11:29,000 --> 00:11:33,000 I like it when I love watching wrestlers get bloody now 114 00:11:33,000 --> 00:11:37,000 Gotta be getting a bit of colour, they overused it a little bit at one stage 115 00:11:37,000 --> 00:11:43,000 But every now and again, yeah, cannot really add to a story 116 00:11:43,000 --> 00:11:48,000 It did with the punk Rollins match on Monday Night Raw 117 00:11:48,000 --> 00:11:52,000 But it was brilliant 118 00:11:52,000 --> 00:11:57,000 But next promo was the NXT GM 119 00:11:57,000 --> 00:12:02,000 It was a lot of Ava to be fair, it was nice to see her on regular TV 120 00:12:02,000 --> 00:12:07,000 Do you know, I actually felt... 121 00:12:07,000 --> 00:12:09,000 We saw a little bit too much of her? 122 00:12:09,000 --> 00:12:12,000 Yeah, I feel like she was a bit overexposed 123 00:12:12,000 --> 00:12:18,000 Almost every single promo Ava is in some way shape or form involved 124 00:12:18,000 --> 00:12:22,000 Which made me feel like she was a bit more of a babysitter than a general manager 125 00:12:22,000 --> 00:12:31,000 Whereas when you look at Raw's GM and SmackDown's GM 126 00:12:31,000 --> 00:12:37,000 Baring in my smackdown, the GM used to be the GM for NXT 127 00:12:37,000 --> 00:12:42,000 They're there, they play a vital role but they are not overexposed 128 00:12:42,000 --> 00:12:48,000 Whereas I feel Ava on this episode of NXT was really overexposed 129 00:12:48,000 --> 00:12:53,000 I hope she got a bloody good payday for it, let's put it that way 130 00:12:53,000 --> 00:12:56,000 She wouldn't be there if she wasn't, I suppose 131 00:12:56,000 --> 00:12:59,000 It's NXT after all, it is the developmental stage 132 00:12:59,000 --> 00:13:05,000 So babysitting maybe not quite, more of a just remember 133 00:13:05,000 --> 00:13:09,000 You know, keep your hands out of your pockets and say please and thank you 134 00:13:09,000 --> 00:13:15,000 Yeah, but yeah, we had Alba Fire and Isla Dawn 135 00:13:15,000 --> 00:13:20,000 Discussing a match with Fatal Influence for a number one contender spot at the Tag Strap 136 00:13:20,000 --> 00:13:24,000 Which might be interesting later on down the line again 137 00:13:24,000 --> 00:13:28,000 I'll keep prefaceing it, I have no clue who any of these women are 138 00:13:28,000 --> 00:13:34,000 And it's such a shame, I really wish I'd a little bit more understanding 139 00:13:34,000 --> 00:13:36,000 But then we would 140 00:13:36,000 --> 00:13:41,000 Actually this time next year we will have a lot more understanding with who these women are 141 00:13:41,000 --> 00:13:44,000 And we might even see some of them move up onto the main roster sometime soon 142 00:13:44,000 --> 00:13:46,000 Definitely some of them have got about a billy 143 00:13:46,000 --> 00:13:51,000 Oh 100%, I am so looking forward to them joining main roster 144 00:13:51,000 --> 00:13:56,000 But we switched gears immediately to an update on Eddie Thorpe 145 00:13:56,000 --> 00:14:00,000 We saw previously laid out on the stairs 146 00:14:00,000 --> 00:14:07,000 And yeah, biggest thing with that was Big Oba Femi 147 00:14:07,000 --> 00:14:12,000 Who basically admits to kicking the living daylights out of Thorpe 148 00:14:12,000 --> 00:14:18,000 It was me, I wouldn't pick a fight with a guy, he's a big fella 149 00:14:18,000 --> 00:14:23,000 100%, he says it's Tuesday, it's Tuesday even if it's Wednesday 150 00:14:23,000 --> 00:14:26,000 I'm not going with a guy 151 00:14:26,000 --> 00:14:39,000 But yeah, so after that we had the third match of the night was Fatal Influence vs Tate and Paxley 152 00:14:39,000 --> 00:14:45,000 And Shotsy, we've seen Shotsy a few times on the main roster 153 00:14:45,000 --> 00:14:48,000 So it was nice to see somebody I actually recognised 154 00:14:48,000 --> 00:14:53,000 It was like going to a family reunion, you see that cousin that you like 155 00:14:53,000 --> 00:14:56,000 You haven't seen in ages but you actually know who the hell they are 156 00:14:56,000 --> 00:15:04,000 Yeah, it was like watching, it was strange 157 00:15:04,000 --> 00:15:08,000 It was kind of like watching, like being back in high school and watching the playground 158 00:15:08,000 --> 00:15:14,000 All the Fatal Attraction girls were all very pretty, proper and one-sided 159 00:15:14,000 --> 00:15:21,000 And then you've got Shotsy that's got more tattoos and I think I've got absolutely covered 160 00:15:21,000 --> 00:15:25,000 And just bright green hair and it's like the goth group in the corner 161 00:15:25,000 --> 00:15:30,000 It was definitely a bit of a rivalry between those ones 162 00:15:30,000 --> 00:15:34,000 It was nice to see Shotsy pick up a win in this one 163 00:15:34,000 --> 00:15:39,000 It was a very high-fly match again 164 00:15:39,000 --> 00:15:44,000 She straight pinned the current North American women's champion as well 165 00:15:44,000 --> 00:15:47,000 Which was a clean pinned in the ring for the win 166 00:15:47,000 --> 00:15:51,000 So that boosts her push obviously quite drastically 167 00:15:51,000 --> 00:16:00,000 Definitely and it's a key component in that is that Shotsy pinned the current North American champion 168 00:16:00,000 --> 00:16:04,000 Because that I think feeds into something that happens later on as well 169 00:16:04,000 --> 00:16:09,000 But yeah 170 00:16:09,000 --> 00:16:13,000 It was a great match, technically it was a good match 171 00:16:13,000 --> 00:16:17,000 I like the high-fly and the fast-paced matches that they kind of get you 172 00:16:17,000 --> 00:16:22,000 If it's dragging you towards the end of your seat you get a few near falls and stuff like that 173 00:16:22,000 --> 00:16:25,000 It definitely helps 174 00:16:25,000 --> 00:16:30,000 Definitely, I mean especially when you're looking more so at women's wrestling in my opinion 175 00:16:30,000 --> 00:16:33,000 Is that you tend to see a lot more high-flying from them nowadays 176 00:16:33,000 --> 00:16:42,000 Because again a ground and pound style is more suited to somebody that's got the mass to be able to do it 177 00:16:42,000 --> 00:16:53,000 And these girls are so slight and they don't have the mass to be able to pull off a ground and pound style realistically 178 00:16:53,000 --> 00:16:55,000 So... 179 00:16:55,000 --> 00:17:01,000 The aerial way I find is a lot more elegant and a lot more... 180 00:17:01,000 --> 00:17:04,000 It's a lot nicer to watch 181 00:17:04,000 --> 00:17:06,000 Yeah, it's very elegant 182 00:17:06,000 --> 00:17:11,000 You don't have the blokes that have got the body type past a certain size to be able to do it 183 00:17:11,000 --> 00:17:16,000 And well you haven't got a lot, the smaller guys that can jump around 184 00:17:16,000 --> 00:17:20,000 Otherwise we'd still have the Cruiserweight division in 205 185 00:17:20,000 --> 00:17:23,000 So... 186 00:17:23,000 --> 00:17:26,000 Yeah, that died to death for a reason though in my opinion 187 00:17:26,000 --> 00:17:31,000 It just wasn't booked, it wasn't billed, it wasn't booked, it wasn't promoted 188 00:17:31,000 --> 00:17:33,000 It was... 189 00:17:33,000 --> 00:17:35,000 Poor excuse but... 190 00:17:35,000 --> 00:17:38,000 Yeah, it wasn't WWE's best showing 191 00:17:38,000 --> 00:17:43,000 But coming out of that match we went into another promo with... 192 00:17:43,000 --> 00:17:47,000 Guess again, it's Ava, then NXTGM 193 00:17:47,000 --> 00:17:49,000 And the page again 194 00:17:49,000 --> 00:17:51,000 Ethan Page 195 00:17:51,000 --> 00:17:59,000 Discussing the BT we saw earlier on, the brutal chess shop for Javon Evans 196 00:17:59,000 --> 00:18:04,000 And the final boss himself comes and weighs in on it all 197 00:18:04,000 --> 00:18:09,000 Which I don't know about you, I saw the possible beginnings of maybe a feud in the future 198 00:18:09,000 --> 00:18:17,000 They've certainly teased it, it's possible that we might get a rock match in NXT sometime soon 199 00:18:17,000 --> 00:18:20,000 It's a tease but... 200 00:18:20,000 --> 00:18:27,000 I mean, like I said on social media this week, rocks made more appearances this week on... 201 00:18:27,000 --> 00:18:31,000 On WWE programming than he's made in some of his own feuds 202 00:18:31,000 --> 00:18:36,000 So I don't really think there's going to be a huge amount to that story 203 00:18:36,000 --> 00:18:39,000 They might tease it, it's just an interest, a hype moment 204 00:18:39,000 --> 00:18:42,000 Because it was the debut of NXT on Netflix 205 00:18:42,000 --> 00:18:46,000 But I don't see anything coming from it in the long run 206 00:18:46,000 --> 00:18:51,000 Why would rock want to jump down to NXT and go and wrestle in smaller venues 207 00:18:51,000 --> 00:18:55,000 When he can make more money off the bigger arenas or the main roster at all? 208 00:18:55,000 --> 00:19:00,000 I mean, let's face it though, I don't think the rock is really wrestling for the money anymore 209 00:19:00,000 --> 00:19:01,000 No, but... 210 00:19:01,000 --> 00:19:04,000 The guy's minted beyond minted, let's face it 211 00:19:04,000 --> 00:19:07,000 He's made more money than anyone of us will learn 212 00:19:07,000 --> 00:19:15,000 But he's not quite at that point and he's not the sort of wrestler that's going to get too much back too quickly 213 00:19:15,000 --> 00:19:17,000 He's going to want something first 214 00:19:19,000 --> 00:19:23,000 Normally with rock it involves a WrestleMania main event appearance 215 00:19:23,000 --> 00:19:25,000 But I digress 216 00:19:25,000 --> 00:19:26,000 Yeah 217 00:19:28,000 --> 00:19:32,000 Moving swiftly on from there, we had a heritage cut match 218 00:19:32,000 --> 00:19:36,000 Which I understand that this didn't follow its normal format 219 00:19:36,000 --> 00:19:39,000 Although I don't fully know what its normal format is 220 00:19:39,000 --> 00:19:43,000 I think they do it in like very short, sharp bursts 221 00:19:43,000 --> 00:19:46,000 There are breaks in between the rounds and things like that 222 00:19:46,000 --> 00:19:49,000 Whereas this one was done on a singles match 223 00:19:49,000 --> 00:19:52,000 It was standard singles match format 224 00:19:52,000 --> 00:19:54,000 Was it a first in the wind? 225 00:19:54,000 --> 00:19:56,000 Yeah, pretty much 226 00:19:56,000 --> 00:20:04,000 They build it as a sudden death match, I viewed it as a one on one one full count 227 00:20:04,000 --> 00:20:07,000 And it was Lexus King versus Charlie Dempsey 228 00:20:07,000 --> 00:20:15,000 And not names that I'm tremendously familiar with, although there was one eerily familiar face in there 229 00:20:15,000 --> 00:20:17,000 Is Lexus King 230 00:20:17,000 --> 00:20:25,000 Who more tenured wrestling fans will know better as Brian Pillman Jr 231 00:20:27,000 --> 00:20:33,000 Who for the longest time, he's really struggled to get into WWE 232 00:20:33,000 --> 00:20:35,000 They weren't going to let him in 233 00:20:35,000 --> 00:20:37,000 I think Vince put a block on him 234 00:20:37,000 --> 00:20:40,000 What's something to do with his dad though? 235 00:20:40,000 --> 00:20:44,000 It was, I can't quite remember what it was 236 00:20:44,000 --> 00:20:50,000 But Brian Pillman Sr, one of his biggest claims to fame 237 00:20:50,000 --> 00:20:59,000 Was the fact that he was a former tag team partner of a slightly more well known wrestler 238 00:20:59,000 --> 00:21:05,000 Who otherwise goes by Stone Cold Steve Austin 239 00:21:05,000 --> 00:21:12,000 Wrestled both parts of the Hollywood Blonds in WCW 240 00:21:12,000 --> 00:21:16,000 A little bit, can we hear that? 241 00:21:16,000 --> 00:21:24,000 I mean Charlie Dempsey's not without his own pedigree 242 00:21:24,000 --> 00:21:28,000 He's the son of William Regal 243 00:21:28,000 --> 00:21:32,000 That on its own is a quite a big statement to be fair 244 00:21:32,000 --> 00:21:42,000 One of the best British wrestlers to definitely come out in the last chunk of time 245 00:21:42,000 --> 00:21:47,000 And I mean, Charlie Dempsey's no stranger to NXT either 246 00:21:47,000 --> 00:21:51,000 He was actually formerly of the UK leg of NXT 247 00:21:51,000 --> 00:21:55,000 Which seems to have died a bit of a death unfortunately 248 00:21:55,000 --> 00:21:57,000 You don't really hear much of it, which was a shame 249 00:21:57,000 --> 00:21:59,000 Because I remember when it was first announced 250 00:21:59,000 --> 00:22:01,000 I was actually really excited by it 251 00:22:01,000 --> 00:22:03,000 I remember discussing it with you 252 00:22:03,000 --> 00:22:10,000 Yeah, we were both excited at the fact that we in theory have an opportunity to see a lot more local talent 253 00:22:10,000 --> 00:22:15,000 Coming up and through and being able to progress further into WWE 254 00:22:15,000 --> 00:22:19,000 Which I know is something a lot of the guys want to do when they're out wrestling 255 00:22:19,000 --> 00:22:23,000 And WWE is the end game for a lot of them 256 00:22:23,000 --> 00:22:27,000 The NXT UK brand had an opportunity to push that and it didn't quite work 257 00:22:27,000 --> 00:22:29,000 But you never know what's going to happen in the future 258 00:22:29,000 --> 00:22:32,000 Something else might come around the corner 259 00:22:32,000 --> 00:22:38,000 Again, I think it was just underfunded, underfunded, underpromoted, underutilised 260 00:22:38,000 --> 00:22:42,000 And yeah, it just didn't get the airtime it needed 261 00:22:42,000 --> 00:22:47,000 But yeah, Lexus King came out of that match with the victory 262 00:22:47,000 --> 00:22:50,000 Picked up the Heritage Cup, he's now the Heritage Cup Champion 263 00:22:50,000 --> 00:22:54,000 So fantastic, loving the work of Brian Pillman Jr 264 00:22:54,000 --> 00:22:56,000 Really doing his dive proud 265 00:22:56,000 --> 00:23:01,000 All came from some incidental contact 266 00:23:01,000 --> 00:23:05,000 Well, no, the commentary team, the class that is incidental contact 267 00:23:05,000 --> 00:23:14,000 I believe it may have actually been a head to the plums that ended that match rather swiftly 268 00:23:14,000 --> 00:23:20,000 I took a head to the plums, I probably was doing rather swiftly 269 00:23:20,000 --> 00:23:22,000 Well, yeah, this is it 270 00:23:22,000 --> 00:23:30,000 But yeah, we went into yet another promo with everybody's favourite GM, Ava 271 00:23:30,000 --> 00:23:36,000 And yeah, this was all based around the North American Women's Champion 272 00:23:36,000 --> 00:23:46,000 So we had Fallon Henley, current women's US Champion 273 00:23:46,000 --> 00:23:56,000 And Stephanie Vaker, who is the now number one contender from the Fable Fourway earlier in the evening 274 00:23:56,000 --> 00:24:03,000 And as I alluded to earlier on, this was where Shotzi threw a hat in the ring and said, hang on 275 00:24:03,000 --> 00:24:09,000 I had Champion laid out on the mat, one, two, three, and I think that gives me the right 276 00:24:09,000 --> 00:24:15,000 I think there's a triple threat coming at the next NXT PPV for that title 277 00:24:15,000 --> 00:24:19,000 It'd be interesting to see how they work it through 278 00:24:19,000 --> 00:24:29,000 They've certainly left room for it, and I mean, yeah, that promo ended with Ava basically sticking 279 00:24:29,000 --> 00:24:36,000 Stephanie Vaker and Shotzi in a singles match for overall number one contender next week on NXT 280 00:24:36,000 --> 00:24:42,000 So that's something else to look forward to 281 00:24:42,000 --> 00:24:46,000 And then fifth and final match of the evening, I mean, this was interesting 282 00:24:46,000 --> 00:24:53,000 I found this interesting only on the basis that NXT managed to work in one more match than Raw Main Show 283 00:24:53,000 --> 00:25:00,000 Raw Main Show only had four matches altogether 284 00:25:00,000 --> 00:25:06,000 And NXT managed to work a fifth match in there with less time 285 00:25:06,000 --> 00:25:12,000 And it shows what they're working with if they can push it through 286 00:25:12,000 --> 00:25:19,000 Well, this is going to feed into a takeaway that I got from NXT in general 287 00:25:19,000 --> 00:25:26,000 Just on initial first impressions, but yeah, the fifth and final match was the main event 288 00:25:26,000 --> 00:25:35,000 Triple threat match for the NXT title, Trick Williams current champion versus Oberfemi and well 289 00:25:35,000 --> 00:25:40,000 I thought, well, it was supposed to be Eddie Thor, but he got laid out at the beginning of the show 290 00:25:40,000 --> 00:25:44,000 And then Oberfemi admitted to laying them out 291 00:25:44,000 --> 00:25:51,000 Yeah, so it started off looking more like a singles match between Trick Williams and Oberfemi 292 00:25:51,000 --> 00:25:58,000 I mean Oberfemi was really over with this crowd 293 00:25:58,000 --> 00:26:01,000 They were really, but they really wanted him to win 294 00:26:01,000 --> 00:26:09,000 And I'm not sure this was an initial hatred of Trick Williams, I just think Oberfemi was more popular 295 00:26:09,000 --> 00:26:14,000 You know, Trick's been a half decent champion from what I've seen on social media and online 296 00:26:14,000 --> 00:26:19,000 So I've not really watched a lot of NXT, but I do get snippets pop up on my Facebook and stuff like that 297 00:26:19,000 --> 00:26:21,000 And other social media 298 00:26:21,000 --> 00:26:29,000 So he looks like he's been having some fun with it, but yeah, Oberfemi was all over him from a majority of it 299 00:26:29,000 --> 00:26:38,000 Definitely not a squash match, but it did feel like you could tell from the start where it was going 300 00:26:38,000 --> 00:26:42,000 I just don't think anybody could have predicted how it went 301 00:26:42,000 --> 00:26:45,000 I mean, we knew that it was Bill as a triple threat 302 00:26:45,000 --> 00:26:49,000 We knew, I mean, I sort of called it quite early on 303 00:26:49,000 --> 00:26:52,000 Eddie thought, yes, he was laid out earlier in the night 304 00:26:52,000 --> 00:26:57,000 They laid it on really thick to say, oh, we don't know if he's going to be able to wrestle or anything like that 305 00:26:57,000 --> 00:27:03,000 Maybe he was going to make an appearance at some point as an interference or something along those lines 306 00:27:03,000 --> 00:27:11,000 It just, as a main event, it was a bit underwhelming for me 307 00:27:11,000 --> 00:27:16,000 We walked out of that match with a new NXT champion in Oberfemi 308 00:27:16,000 --> 00:27:21,000 Which means that both major titles on NXT changed hands on their Netflix debut 309 00:27:21,000 --> 00:27:25,000 Which was, you know what, I didn't not... 310 00:27:25,000 --> 00:27:28,000 Fresh start for a fresh story to be fair 311 00:27:28,000 --> 00:27:38,000 Yeah, props to both of them, but yeah, Eddie thought seemed to act as more of a hindrance to Trick Williams 312 00:27:38,000 --> 00:27:44,000 I mean, he wasn't there to help him, but he really did seem to just get him away 313 00:27:44,000 --> 00:27:50,000 I felt like if I was... 314 00:27:50,000 --> 00:27:56,000 I felt more so for me that Eddie thought 315 00:27:56,000 --> 00:28:02,000 I've related to Eddie Thorpe in the sense that he did just feel like he got more in the way than anything else 316 00:28:02,000 --> 00:28:08,000 And I have moments in my life where I feel like I'm more in the way than anything else 317 00:28:08,000 --> 00:28:09,000 More under people's... 318 00:28:09,000 --> 00:28:15,000 Every shift I go to work at the moment, and it's just me there half the time 319 00:28:15,000 --> 00:28:23,000 This is it, but yeah, we got obviously... 320 00:28:23,000 --> 00:28:28,000 We finished this show with both new champions stood up with their titles didn't we? 321 00:28:28,000 --> 00:28:32,000 Yeah, and I mean... 322 00:28:32,000 --> 00:28:38,000 The last segment on this show was the Rocks address to NXT 323 00:28:38,000 --> 00:28:41,000 Which they've been teasing all night 324 00:28:41,000 --> 00:28:43,000 And yeah, not one of them 325 00:28:43,000 --> 00:28:45,000 You cut that close didn't you? 326 00:28:45,000 --> 00:28:48,000 Didn't have much time left 327 00:28:48,000 --> 00:28:52,000 He didn't, and in fairness, I mean the Rock does as the Rock does 328 00:28:52,000 --> 00:28:56,000 He trotted out a lot of his standard lines 329 00:28:56,000 --> 00:29:00,000 It was all, look at me, I'm the Rock, he didn't really do much 330 00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:03,000 No, he didn't have a plan going into that promo 331 00:29:03,000 --> 00:29:05,000 And I mean, in fairness, earlier on... 332 00:29:05,000 --> 00:29:09,000 He did tell Ava that in one of the first promos of the day 333 00:29:09,000 --> 00:29:15,000 So, and she did explain to him that he'd understand, you know, what to do when he felt the crowd 334 00:29:15,000 --> 00:29:21,000 And he bigged himself up and he blew some smoke and everyone loved it and the pop was huge 335 00:29:21,000 --> 00:29:25,000 But I picked up on some real nervous energy from him 336 00:29:25,000 --> 00:29:28,000 I could feel the nerves from him 337 00:29:28,000 --> 00:29:34,000 And that was... that's unusual, that's a side of the Rock we don't see very often 338 00:29:34,000 --> 00:29:41,000 Again, it's... I think the Rock's not done with NXT 339 00:29:41,000 --> 00:29:48,000 I think there's definitely room there for them to sort of work their way through 340 00:29:48,000 --> 00:29:54,000 But I don't know, maybe it's just some... it's just sort of... 341 00:29:54,000 --> 00:29:59,000 It's just smoke blowing smoke up themselves and... yeah 342 00:29:59,000 --> 00:30:05,000 But any big takeaways from NXT for you? What are your thoughts? 343 00:30:05,000 --> 00:30:11,000 I think, like, overall in general, it was a reasonably decent program 344 00:30:11,000 --> 00:30:24,000 Like, as a whole, I'd say without knowing the storyline, it does make it a little bit harder to differentiate 345 00:30:24,000 --> 00:30:27,000 What is going on and why that is happening 346 00:30:27,000 --> 00:30:31,000 But I think within a couple of weeks and a couple of episodes I'll be more clued in 347 00:30:31,000 --> 00:30:38,000 And I've been able to do more research into previous episodes to try and catch up and get myself more aligned 348 00:30:38,000 --> 00:30:42,000 But it definitely left me wanting a little bit more 349 00:30:42,000 --> 00:30:44,000 I will give it that one 350 00:30:44,000 --> 00:30:50,000 One of the good things about WWE storytelling in general, whether it's main roster or NXT 351 00:30:50,000 --> 00:30:54,000 Is that they are very good at recapping over what's happened with the story 352 00:30:54,000 --> 00:30:59,000 I know that's the role that the commentators generally tend to fill 353 00:30:59,000 --> 00:31:02,000 But we will be able to catch up pretty quickly 354 00:31:02,000 --> 00:31:09,000 But one of the big takeaways from... I had a few takeaways from NXT 355 00:31:09,000 --> 00:31:13,000 One of them was Ava's overexposure 356 00:31:13,000 --> 00:31:17,000 I just don't think she needed to be in every promo personally 357 00:31:17,000 --> 00:31:20,000 Again, babysitter over GM 358 00:31:20,000 --> 00:31:24,000 And everything felt rushed 359 00:31:24,000 --> 00:31:29,000 It felt like they got a lot of content and they had to try and squeak 360 00:31:29,000 --> 00:31:34,000 They were various little production mistakes 361 00:31:34,000 --> 00:31:38,000 I think to remember at one stage they were changing the ring 362 00:31:38,000 --> 00:31:41,000 I think they were changing something in ring 363 00:31:41,000 --> 00:31:44,000 And we had a camera shot of them 364 00:31:44,000 --> 00:31:50,000 It was almost like turning the lights on and having cockroaches scurry in different directions 365 00:31:50,000 --> 00:31:52,000 Everyone ran 366 00:31:52,000 --> 00:31:55,000 They were all like, oh shit, I'm not supposed to be here 367 00:31:55,000 --> 00:32:04,000 And yeah, it felt like WWE had put their B team in production 368 00:32:04,000 --> 00:32:10,000 It wasn't just the up and comers that aren't quite ready for the main roster 369 00:32:10,000 --> 00:32:12,000 That are wrestling in the ring 370 00:32:12,000 --> 00:32:17,000 It felt like there was a lot of up and comers coming in the production side of it as well 371 00:32:17,000 --> 00:32:20,000 And yeah, it just wasn't... 372 00:32:20,000 --> 00:32:24,000 That to me wasn't a fantastic experience personally 373 00:32:24,000 --> 00:32:30,000 Let's see if they can pick up on their mistakes and work through it for next week 374 00:32:30,000 --> 00:32:32,000 It's a smaller show 375 00:32:32,000 --> 00:32:37,000 I think I tried to compare it possibly to Raw the previous night 376 00:32:37,000 --> 00:32:40,000 Which was very polished, very... 377 00:32:40,000 --> 00:32:43,000 Any mistakes on that I think heads would have rolled 378 00:32:43,000 --> 00:32:49,000 I think they relaxed a little bit, a little bit too much maybe 379 00:32:49,000 --> 00:32:53,000 It'd be interesting to see what they do with SmackDown 380 00:32:53,000 --> 00:33:00,000 Well, mentioning SmackDown, we may as well bolt straight into our thoughts 381 00:33:00,000 --> 00:33:03,000 Our thoughts from SmackDown this previous week 382 00:33:03,000 --> 00:33:06,000 So what do you say? 383 00:33:06,000 --> 00:33:09,000 Well, that's it from me 384 00:33:09,000 --> 00:33:12,000 And from me too, thank you all for watching 385 00:33:12,000 --> 00:33:18,000 Remember, if you've enjoyed this episode and want to be notified when another one goes live 386 00:33:18,000 --> 00:33:23,000 You can click subscribe and click the notification bell to get notified every time we upload 387 00:33:23,000 --> 00:33:28,000 Remember, like the video and leave any feedback you have in the comments 388 00:33:28,000 --> 00:33:32,000 And we'll see you next time on Finishers and Factions 389 00:33:32,000 --> 00:33:48,000 Goodbye