5 Ups & 5 Downs From Last Night's WWE NXT (Dec 11)
3. False Advertising
In a pre-match promo cut earlier in the night (a solid enough promo, incidentally), Mia Yim promised to send Dakota Kai home in an ambulance.
She sought to achieve this by...throwing a few suplexes at a slightly more risky angle, and Dakota Kai responded by shrieking a bit more when she threw her kicks. That's reductive, and probably a little harsh, but the tone of this match betrayed both premise and promise. It was a solid-to-good pro wrestling match that, ultimately, felt like a slightly intense wrestling match, and when it did meet the remit, Yim hit more steps than opponent in one of the big spots.
Mia Yim did, admittedly, backdrop Kai through a table in the post-match, but this spot was doubly undermined. Firstly, it was a dreaded get-the-heat-back moment after Kai's win, and secondly, it didn't resonate as a moment of hatred-fuelled violence. The blocking and staging felt rather contrived, and the landing felt both gentle and botched, where it was meant to look brutal and be safe.
Ultimately, NXT promised a chapter in a blood feud between two women who hate one another, and delivered something co-operative and underwhelming.