3 Ups And 2 Downs From NXT (December 14)
How to pace a professional wrestling show.
On last week’s edition of NXT, Shinsuke Nakamura recaptured the NXT Championship from Samoa Joe.
The match itself was something of a disappointment. Nakamura again played David to Joe’s Goliath in a contest which was fought between two men many thought we’d never see in a WWE ring - but was, dispiritingly, very much a WWE match. Nakamura started the year as the hottest star in all of wrestling - a status he more than lived up to in Spring - before fading into the background shortly thereafter. Last night’s rematch was something of a formality, but the novel stipulation promised a deviation from a series that all too often has blended into one linear narrative.
Elsewhere, DIY were presented with the threat of their biggest challenge yet - intra-storyline and in reality. Their work over the past two years has been so astonishingly good that many feel they are capable of anything - even eclipsing their heroes Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard. If they can drag a very good match out of the limited and dangerous-but-not-in-a-good-way Authors Of Pain, it would be far more of an accomplishment than The New Day’s hollow record reign.
The angle wasn’t followed up last night; the joy of NXT is that its streamlined structure helps alleviate the overexposure so prevalent on main roster programming.
What was advanced last night was the NXT Title picture…