4 Ups & 2 Downs From Last Night's WWE NXT (Feb 28)

Downs...

2. A Painful Promo

With the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic set to return next week, WWE hyped the competition (and the first round's biggest match - AoP vs. TM-61) by having The Authors Of Pain and Paul Ellering cut a promo in what looked like an office stairwell. It wasn't awful, but it wasn't particularly good either, and we're fortunate for its short runtime.

Ellering is becoming increasingly redundant. He came off like a bewildering end-time preacher in an '80s horror movie here, with his delivering coming off flat rather than foreboding. The Authors suffered, too. They work best when screaming uncontrollably in their native tongue, but when they barked "war is our peace" to close the skit, they felt cartoonish.

Later on, the Street Profits hit the, well, streets to interview each other ahead of the tournament. Ford and Dawkins are charismatic, but it wasn't half as funny as the writers intended, and added little to the show.

Not a good week for the tag teams. Let's hope they fare better in the Dusty Classic.

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Channel Manager
Channel Manager

Andy has been with WhatCulture for eight years and is currently WhatCulture's Wrestling Channel Manager. A writer, presenter, and editor with 10+ years of experience in online media, he has been a sponge for all wrestling knowledge since playing an old Royal Rumble 1992 VHS to ruin in his childhood. Having previously worked for Bleacher Report, Andy specialises in short and long-form writing, video presenting, voiceover acting, and editing, all characterised by expert wrestling knowledge and commentary. Andy is as much a fan of 1985 Jim Crockett Promotions as he is present-day AEW and WWE - just don't make him choose between the two.