NXT recap & reactions (Oct. 4, 2022): This is their brutality

NXT is back in black and gold, and live this week!

Claire is also live, blogging away on internet.com for your reading pleasure, while I’m going to connect dots an tell you what it all means.

Let’s talk NXT!

Fight Club

It’s weird seeing Pete Dunne back in NXT as Butch. Even weirder because NXT relies heavily on continuity and not pretending the audience have goldfish memories. But, here we are. Ridge Holland and Dunne Butch made their NXT returns as challengers for Pretty Deadly’s NXT Tag Team championships.

In typical Brawling Brutes fashion, it was a banger. Pretty Deadly are no slouches either, but the Brutes just elevate everyone else’s game. Which is a great thing for them and their opponents on any given night. Butch and Ridge didn’t win this match but they did look incredibly strong going into their Extreme Rules bout with Imperium. They dominated from the opening bell. Butch broke down both members of PD like fractions, while Ridge just out muscled everyone.

And that’s fine for Pretty Deadly because they’re not the strongest tag team or the quickest. They’re heels who take advantage of situations and somehow always put the odds in their favor.

To that point, the storytelling here was pretty good. The more Pretty Deadly struggled, the more they tried to get disqualified. They tried knocking out the ref! They tried getting caught doing the silliest things that might make the ref ring the bell, but the ref either didn’t notice or moved just out of the way. It showed how desperate these two are to keep their titles and just how much they underestimated Butch & Holland.

If Imperium doesn’t interfere, then you have new NXT tag champs. But they did. And that quick instance distracted the Brutes just long enough for Pretty Deadly to capitalize with a little Spilt Milk. But the Brutes barely cared.

Their focus was all on Imperium at that point, so the four men brawled outside the ring while Pretty Deadly met new challengers in Briggs & Jensen and Edris Enofe & Malik Blade. I love that Enofe & Blade are finally doing a thing with substance. I also love Briggs & Jensen staying in the title picture. I did miss Fallon Henley by their side but I get it. This isn’t her fight.

This was a dope main event that established both teams, segued into Extreme Rules, and set Pretty Deadly on the road to new obstacles. Solid booking all around. Sometimes keeping it simple really is the right move.

Extracurriculars

Back in Effect

Carmelo Hayes needed this W over Oro Mensa. The A-Champ, despite what he says, was on quite the losing streak. And it came at the worst possible time since he’s competing for the North American championship in a ladder match at Halloween Havoc. Mensa, minus one top rope maneuver that almost ended badly, worked a smooth match against Hayes. It’s hard calling anything with Hayes less than solid at this point, but it wasn’t one of his standouts. The fact that I say that is a testament to Melo’s work.

Storyline wise, Trick Williams intervened and took another bullet for Melo, showing his worth, yet again, and setting the stage for what he may or may not do during the upcoming ladder match.

Here Comes a New Challenger!

Zoey Stark & Nikkita Lyons. Two women who want nothing more than to prove they’re a real tag team. More than just a real tag team, they want to show they’re an incredible one. Toxic Attraction want their titles back, simple as that. Gigi Dolin and Jacy Jayne did nothing but torture anyone who even got close to sniffing what they believe is their gold.

And for a moment, it looked like they were on their way to becoming number one contenders again. Toxic Attraction is a great team. These two women know each other inside out, which is always part of the storytelling. So when they wrestle lesser experienced teams, they normally triumph. They play their game while the other team doesn’t even know the name of the game they’re playing. But like I said, that almost worked this week.

Zoey and Nikkita are facing Katana Chance and Kayden Carter for the titles because they really are a team. And, more importantly, they’re the physically stronger team. Zoey & Nikkita just overpowered their opponents in the end, while playing on Zoey’s experience with tag team wrestling.

While I prefer a heel team vs. a face team for the championships, this looks like an easy way to get some gold on Nikkita. That said, I really think those belts should stay with Carter & Chance for at least a little while longer. They’ll go into this match as underdogs though, which is exactly what they like and what fits them best as champs. Bring it on.

That’s a Thing That Happened

I like Apollo Crews. I like Grayson Waller. I do not like what they’re doing with this feud right now. The fact it was the last image of a segment mostly about Cora Jade…