MUSIC
Welcome to the ring, it's Richard and Adam
Breaking down the fights with flair and passion
Tag teams grappling belts are clashing
MUSIC
Hi, I'm Rich and I'm Adam
Welcome to this week's episode of
Finishes and Factions NXT Edition
Available on all of your favourite podcast platforms as an Audible
Here on YouTube where you get to hang out with us as well
So without further ado, let's crack into NXT
Now we have moved on to NXT's New Year's Evil
And this was NXT's debut on Netflix as well
Yeah, I mean, certainly for myself, this was like my very first experience of consuming NXT content
Yeah, for me it's been a long time
So it just, I felt like a phenomenal disconnect with the content only because I don't know who any of them are
A lot of them were names I hadn't heard of and there were a lot of title matches at this pay-per-view
I didn't know the storylines building up to them
I didn't have time to be able to go back and watch multiple previous episodes of NXT
You don't know where each storyline is starting and finishing to be able to catch the pieces together
So for me I got very blindsided by a lot of names and a lot of people here
But I know where to start going into next week
Yeah, it's a base to build on
And this is what I was telling myself throughout watching it really
So we'll get sort of straight into it
I mean, the opening match for NXT this week was the Roxanne Perez-Julie a match
I mean, phenomenal match, loved it, loved the match
Technically the wrestling in the match was fantastic
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...
They were too trod to be believable
Some of the moves, especially from Roxanne Perez, just didn't blow quite as well as you'd expect them to
But as you said earlier, neither of us have any ability when it comes to professional wrestling
So I was just a fan that it was hard to watch some aspects of that match
But in general it was actually a really good fast paced energetic high flowing match
Yeah, and I know a little bit about Roxanne Perez because she has made some appearances in the main roster matches
And she's made some appearances at PLEs, I know that she's got quite a high flying style
And being a student of Booker T, I knew that she would be technically there
Yeah, definitely Booker T was very technically gifted as well
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
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
He was a huge advocate for her on that night and it seemed to shut him up when she eventually lost the match
A difficult thing to do, to shut Booker T up is a difficult thing to do
100% I mean first match title match, nonetheless
And yeah, I mean there was one bit of interference from Cora Jade but it was next to nothing
It was minimal, she was there pushing Perez back in the ring to beat the count
And yeah, not a...
And like Raw, there was some stuff in NXT that didn't necessarily need to be there
Yeah, that interference I think was one of those parts
Yeah, definitely, that match could have gotten on exactly the same way without the interference from Cora Jade
In my opinion, Roxanne Perez could have gotten herself back into the ring believably to beat the count
Even if she had pushed it up to 8 or 9 on the count, she'd have got there eventually
Yeah, exactly, but new NXT Women's Champion for the new era in WWE
Congratulations to Julia, a phenomenally wrestled batch, can't say anything about it
I'm going to enjoy looking to see where that storyline goes and follow Julia through her next view as well
Just to see how well she can defend that and how often she defends it too
100% I mean it can devalue a championship in my opinion if you're going to sort of part time defend it
If it's not going to be... I'm not saying you have to defend it each and every week you go out there
But make sure it's regularly defended, make sure it's regularly defended
At least at every pay-per-view or every other pay-per-view, try and defend that title
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
100%
But we went out of that opening match and into a promo with NXT's GM Ava
Eddie Thorpe
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
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
It was definitely... you could see where they were trying to lead to with different aspects of that promo
So, I don't know, it worked some ways I suppose
Second match going in was the Women's Fatal Four-Way, number one contenders match for the Women's North American Championship
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
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
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
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
Yeah, definitely
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
Yeah
I mean, we had Stephanie Baker, Lola Weiss, Cora Jade and Kalani Jordan
Now, again, having no prior knowledge of any of these apart from Cora Jade's interference in the match previous
It was kind of a case that in my opinion, sort of Lola Weiss was a little bit irrelevant
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
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
And I don't know if you picked up on it, but I think I think she might have been a submission specialist
Because all I saw her do apart from a flurry of kicks partway through the match, which was probably the highlight of her match
She just kept trying to go for a sleep hold
And no shade to Lola Weiss, I mean
You can pull it off, you can pull it off, but there was no need to put her in there, I don't think
Girl looks like she's got a fantastic personality on her
And yeah, but lots of high spots in the match, but Baker came out victorious
Earning herself a number one contender spot for the women's North American Championship
But yeah, again, sort of very inconsequential to the match Lola Weiss
But it does give us again that basis so when we do get that women's North American Championship match
Which I'm hoping is going to be next week
We get an opportunity to see whether the storyline is going to continue to go
And hoping it's not just the end of that feud
So it'll be interesting, but no it was a...
Yeah, it was a decent match, it could have been a lot better, definitely seen a lot worse
100%
From plenty of promotions, so I wouldn't worry too much
But for what it was, it was an average match, it was good
Then we went into a flurry of promos
First promo was a VT, which we saw as a build up for the...
Well no, it was a recap of a previous match between Ethan Page and Javon Evans
Which included an absolutely visceral shot
Like that chair shot, I remember physically gasping when I saw it because we've had some...
Brutal chair shots in the past
But never to the point where you're seeing somebody looking like they're spitting half their frigging jaw out
That was...
And Chris Masters taken nasty one a few years ago straight to the face
Yeah, but I don't remember, as I said spitting part of his jaw out
That was visceral and I am...
That has got me quite...
Immediately invested in that sort of build up to that feud where Javon Evans is going to be coming back
I like a good blood match as well
I like it when I love watching wrestlers get bloody now
Gotta be getting a bit of colour, they overused it a little bit at one stage
But every now and again, yeah, cannot really add to a story
It did with the punk Rollins match on Monday Night Raw
But it was brilliant
But next promo was the NXT GM
It was a lot of Ava to be fair, it was nice to see her on regular TV
Do you know, I actually felt...
We saw a little bit too much of her?
Yeah, I feel like she was a bit overexposed
Almost every single promo Ava is in some way shape or form involved
Which made me feel like she was a bit more of a babysitter than a general manager
Whereas when you look at Raw's GM and SmackDown's GM
Baring in my smackdown, the GM used to be the GM for NXT
They're there, they play a vital role but they are not overexposed
Whereas I feel Ava on this episode of NXT was really overexposed
I hope she got a bloody good payday for it, let's put it that way
She wouldn't be there if she wasn't, I suppose
It's NXT after all, it is the developmental stage
So babysitting maybe not quite, more of a just remember
You know, keep your hands out of your pockets and say please and thank you
Yeah, but yeah, we had Alba Fire and Isla Dawn
Discussing a match with Fatal Influence for a number one contender spot at the Tag Strap
Which might be interesting later on down the line again
I'll keep prefaceing it, I have no clue who any of these women are
And it's such a shame, I really wish I'd a little bit more understanding
But then we would
Actually this time next year we will have a lot more understanding with who these women are
And we might even see some of them move up onto the main roster sometime soon
Definitely some of them have got about a billy
Oh 100%, I am so looking forward to them joining main roster
But we switched gears immediately to an update on Eddie Thorpe
We saw previously laid out on the stairs
And yeah, biggest thing with that was Big Oba Femi
Who basically admits to kicking the living daylights out of Thorpe
It was me, I wouldn't pick a fight with a guy, he's a big fella
100%, he says it's Tuesday, it's Tuesday even if it's Wednesday
I'm not going with a guy
But yeah, so after that we had the third match of the night was Fatal Influence vs Tate and Paxley
And Shotsy, we've seen Shotsy a few times on the main roster
So it was nice to see somebody I actually recognised
It was like going to a family reunion, you see that cousin that you like
You haven't seen in ages but you actually know who the hell they are
Yeah, it was like watching, it was strange
It was kind of like watching, like being back in high school and watching the playground
All the Fatal Attraction girls were all very pretty, proper and one-sided
And then you've got Shotsy that's got more tattoos and I think I've got absolutely covered
And just bright green hair and it's like the goth group in the corner
It was definitely a bit of a rivalry between those ones
It was nice to see Shotsy pick up a win in this one
It was a very high-fly match again
She straight pinned the current North American women's champion as well
Which was a clean pinned in the ring for the win
So that boosts her push obviously quite drastically
Definitely and it's a key component in that is that Shotsy pinned the current North American champion
Because that I think feeds into something that happens later on as well
But yeah
It was a great match, technically it was a good match
I like the high-fly and the fast-paced matches that they kind of get you
If it's dragging you towards the end of your seat you get a few near falls and stuff like that
It definitely helps
Definitely, I mean especially when you're looking more so at women's wrestling in my opinion
Is that you tend to see a lot more high-flying from them nowadays
Because again a ground and pound style is more suited to somebody that's got the mass to be able to do it
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
So...
The aerial way I find is a lot more elegant and a lot more...
It's a lot nicer to watch
Yeah, it's very elegant
You don't have the blokes that have got the body type past a certain size to be able to do it
And well you haven't got a lot, the smaller guys that can jump around
Otherwise we'd still have the Cruiserweight division in 205
So...
Yeah, that died to death for a reason though in my opinion
It just wasn't booked, it wasn't billed, it wasn't booked, it wasn't promoted
It was...
Poor excuse but...
Yeah, it wasn't WWE's best showing
But coming out of that match we went into another promo with...
Guess again, it's Ava, then NXTGM
And the page again
Ethan Page
Discussing the BT we saw earlier on, the brutal chess shop for Javon Evans
And the final boss himself comes and weighs in on it all
Which I don't know about you, I saw the possible beginnings of maybe a feud in the future
They've certainly teased it, it's possible that we might get a rock match in NXT sometime soon
It's a tease but...
I mean, like I said on social media this week, rocks made more appearances this week on...
On WWE programming than he's made in some of his own feuds
So I don't really think there's going to be a huge amount to that story
They might tease it, it's just an interest, a hype moment
Because it was the debut of NXT on Netflix
But I don't see anything coming from it in the long run
Why would rock want to jump down to NXT and go and wrestle in smaller venues
When he can make more money off the bigger arenas or the main roster at all?
I mean, let's face it though, I don't think the rock is really wrestling for the money anymore
No, but...
The guy's minted beyond minted, let's face it
He's made more money than anyone of us will learn
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
He's going to want something first
Normally with rock it involves a WrestleMania main event appearance
But I digress
Yeah
Moving swiftly on from there, we had a heritage cut match
Which I understand that this didn't follow its normal format
Although I don't fully know what its normal format is
I think they do it in like very short, sharp bursts
There are breaks in between the rounds and things like that
Whereas this one was done on a singles match
It was standard singles match format
Was it a first in the wind?
Yeah, pretty much
They build it as a sudden death match, I viewed it as a one on one one full count
And it was Lexus King versus Charlie Dempsey
And not names that I'm tremendously familiar with, although there was one eerily familiar face in there
Is Lexus King
Who more tenured wrestling fans will know better as Brian Pillman Jr
Who for the longest time, he's really struggled to get into WWE
They weren't going to let him in
I think Vince put a block on him
What's something to do with his dad though?
It was, I can't quite remember what it was
But Brian Pillman Sr, one of his biggest claims to fame
Was the fact that he was a former tag team partner of a slightly more well known wrestler
Who otherwise goes by Stone Cold Steve Austin
Wrestled both parts of the Hollywood Blonds in WCW
A little bit, can we hear that?
I mean Charlie Dempsey's not without his own pedigree
He's the son of William Regal
That on its own is a quite a big statement to be fair
One of the best British wrestlers to definitely come out in the last chunk of time
And I mean, Charlie Dempsey's no stranger to NXT either
He was actually formerly of the UK leg of NXT
Which seems to have died a bit of a death unfortunately
You don't really hear much of it, which was a shame
Because I remember when it was first announced
I was actually really excited by it
I remember discussing it with you
Yeah, we were both excited at the fact that we in theory have an opportunity to see a lot more local talent
Coming up and through and being able to progress further into WWE
Which I know is something a lot of the guys want to do when they're out wrestling
And WWE is the end game for a lot of them
The NXT UK brand had an opportunity to push that and it didn't quite work
But you never know what's going to happen in the future
Something else might come around the corner
Again, I think it was just underfunded, underfunded, underpromoted, underutilised
And yeah, it just didn't get the airtime it needed
But yeah, Lexus King came out of that match with the victory
Picked up the Heritage Cup, he's now the Heritage Cup Champion
So fantastic, loving the work of Brian Pillman Jr
Really doing his dive proud
All came from some incidental contact
Well, no, the commentary team, the class that is incidental contact
I believe it may have actually been a head to the plums that ended that match rather swiftly
I took a head to the plums, I probably was doing rather swiftly
Well, yeah, this is it
But yeah, we went into yet another promo with everybody's favourite GM, Ava
And yeah, this was all based around the North American Women's Champion
So we had Fallon Henley, current women's US Champion
And Stephanie Vaker, who is the now number one contender from the Fable Fourway earlier in the evening
And as I alluded to earlier on, this was where Shotzi threw a hat in the ring and said, hang on
I had Champion laid out on the mat, one, two, three, and I think that gives me the right
I think there's a triple threat coming at the next NXT PPV for that title
It'd be interesting to see how they work it through
They've certainly left room for it, and I mean, yeah, that promo ended with Ava basically sticking
Stephanie Vaker and Shotzi in a singles match for overall number one contender next week on NXT
So that's something else to look forward to
And then fifth and final match of the evening, I mean, this was interesting
I found this interesting only on the basis that NXT managed to work in one more match than Raw Main Show
Raw Main Show only had four matches altogether
And NXT managed to work a fifth match in there with less time
And it shows what they're working with if they can push it through
Well, this is going to feed into a takeaway that I got from NXT in general
Just on initial first impressions, but yeah, the fifth and final match was the main event
Triple threat match for the NXT title, Trick Williams current champion versus Oberfemi and well
I thought, well, it was supposed to be Eddie Thor, but he got laid out at the beginning of the show
And then Oberfemi admitted to laying them out
Yeah, so it started off looking more like a singles match between Trick Williams and Oberfemi
I mean Oberfemi was really over with this crowd
They were really, but they really wanted him to win
And I'm not sure this was an initial hatred of Trick Williams, I just think Oberfemi was more popular
You know, Trick's been a half decent champion from what I've seen on social media and online
So I've not really watched a lot of NXT, but I do get snippets pop up on my Facebook and stuff like that
And other social media
So he looks like he's been having some fun with it, but yeah, Oberfemi was all over him from a majority of it
Definitely not a squash match, but it did feel like you could tell from the start where it was going
I just don't think anybody could have predicted how it went
I mean, we knew that it was Bill as a triple threat
We knew, I mean, I sort of called it quite early on
Eddie thought, yes, he was laid out earlier in the night
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
Maybe he was going to make an appearance at some point as an interference or something along those lines
It just, as a main event, it was a bit underwhelming for me
We walked out of that match with a new NXT champion in Oberfemi
Which means that both major titles on NXT changed hands on their Netflix debut
Which was, you know what, I didn't not...
Fresh start for a fresh story to be fair
Yeah, props to both of them, but yeah, Eddie thought seemed to act as more of a hindrance to Trick Williams
I mean, he wasn't there to help him, but he really did seem to just get him away
I felt like if I was...
I felt more so for me that Eddie thought
I've related to Eddie Thorpe in the sense that he did just feel like he got more in the way than anything else
And I have moments in my life where I feel like I'm more in the way than anything else
More under people's...
Every shift I go to work at the moment, and it's just me there half the time
This is it, but yeah, we got obviously...
We finished this show with both new champions stood up with their titles didn't we?
Yeah, and I mean...
The last segment on this show was the Rocks address to NXT
Which they've been teasing all night
And yeah, not one of them
You cut that close didn't you?
Didn't have much time left
He didn't, and in fairness, I mean the Rock does as the Rock does
He trotted out a lot of his standard lines
It was all, look at me, I'm the Rock, he didn't really do much
No, he didn't have a plan going into that promo
And I mean, in fairness, earlier on...
He did tell Ava that in one of the first promos of the day
So, and she did explain to him that he'd understand, you know, what to do when he felt the crowd
And he bigged himself up and he blew some smoke and everyone loved it and the pop was huge
But I picked up on some real nervous energy from him
I could feel the nerves from him
And that was... that's unusual, that's a side of the Rock we don't see very often
Again, it's... I think the Rock's not done with NXT
I think there's definitely room there for them to sort of work their way through
But I don't know, maybe it's just some... it's just sort of...
It's just smoke blowing smoke up themselves and... yeah
But any big takeaways from NXT for you? What are your thoughts?
I think, like, overall in general, it was a reasonably decent program
Like, as a whole, I'd say without knowing the storyline, it does make it a little bit harder to differentiate
What is going on and why that is happening
But I think within a couple of weeks and a couple of episodes I'll be more clued in
And I've been able to do more research into previous episodes to try and catch up and get myself more aligned
But it definitely left me wanting a little bit more
I will give it that one
One of the good things about WWE storytelling in general, whether it's main roster or NXT
Is that they are very good at recapping over what's happened with the story
I know that's the role that the commentators generally tend to fill
But we will be able to catch up pretty quickly
But one of the big takeaways from... I had a few takeaways from NXT
One of them was Ava's overexposure
I just don't think she needed to be in every promo personally
Again, babysitter over GM
And everything felt rushed
It felt like they got a lot of content and they had to try and squeak
They were various little production mistakes
I think to remember at one stage they were changing the ring
I think they were changing something in ring
And we had a camera shot of them
It was almost like turning the lights on and having cockroaches scurry in different directions
Everyone ran
They were all like, oh shit, I'm not supposed to be here
And yeah, it felt like WWE had put their B team in production
It wasn't just the up and comers that aren't quite ready for the main roster
That are wrestling in the ring
It felt like there was a lot of up and comers coming in the production side of it as well
And yeah, it just wasn't...
That to me wasn't a fantastic experience personally
Let's see if they can pick up on their mistakes and work through it for next week
It's a smaller show
I think I tried to compare it possibly to Raw the previous night
Which was very polished, very...
Any mistakes on that I think heads would have rolled
I think they relaxed a little bit, a little bit too much maybe
It'd be interesting to see what they do with SmackDown
Well, mentioning SmackDown, we may as well bolt straight into our thoughts
Our thoughts from SmackDown this previous week
So what do you say?
Well, that's it from me
And from me too, thank you all for watching
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