As mentioned with Raw, this is a new column looking at five things on my mind after this week’s WWE NXT.
Let’s jump in.
1. The TNA invasion was nicely done.
I liked the setup with Ava traveling and Robert Stone and Stevie Turner running things for a night, which opened the door for pure chaos on this episode. That’s what we got with TNA wrestler being seen throughout the show, and finally, it culminated with a pier six brawl to interrupt the Title vs. Title Match between Trick Williams and Oba Femi. Which leads us to number two…
2. Should we be upset Trick vs. Femi had a cheap finish?
Probably not. We’ve come to expect it at this point in professional wrestling, as a huge match between the TNA Champion and NXT Champion on The CW isn’t going to give you a clean finish. We knew that when they set it up on NXT Homecoming last week. It served its purpose of furthering the Trick vs. Mike Santana feud ahead of Bound for Glory, and you also had the stare down between Femi and Ricky Saints to end the show ahead of their match at No Mercy. It’s not my favorite trope in wrestling, but I understand it.
3. What’s next for Fatal Influence?
I’m writing this on Wednesday, and Jazymn Nyx has revealed that she chose not to re-sign with WWE. The write-off for her on Tuesday’s NXT was rather abrupt, and Jacy Jayne and Fallon Henley shrugged off her backstage attack as nothing more than an inconvenience before Jayne stated that it was “probably for the better anyway, since only the strong survive.” Brutal. I thought Nyx was fine in her role, but this added wrinkle figures to further the long-running theme of dissension between Jayne and Henley. And what happens if Jayne loses the NXT Women’s title to Lola Vice at No Mercy?
4. The NXT video packages are a treat.
Speaking of Vice, Shawn Michaels and company took a page out of their playbook with her and used it for Saints on this show. I thought the New Orleans-based video feature on him was excellent. They did the same with Vice in recent weeks, and it adds a personal touch that makes them easy to root for entering their title matches.
5. Should NXT fans believe in Joe Hendry?
I find Hendry to be in a curious spot at the moment. He’s basically but officially on the NXT roster, and it sounds like he’s going to sign a long-term WWE contract at some point. The question is, what role does WWE envision for him? Most of the stuff he’s been doing on NXT in recent weeks has been comedy-based, but is he a future NXT Champion? He was positioned as such during the summer, and it should be fascinating to how this situation plays out for Hendry in WWE.
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