5 Ups And 3 Downs From Last Night's WWE NXT (May 4)
7. Strange Promos
There were two backstage promos on NXT this week, and even though both involved talent who can talk, they were flops for different reasons.
First up was Alex Riley, who was announced as competing in a match with Shinsuke Nakamura next week. Riley was cocky in his put-downs, but he took it a bit too far, saying Nakamura was one-tenth as strong as him and had zero athletic coordination. Heels lie, but lines like that are so blatantly false that they remove all sense of credibility from the situation and the match. The Riley bout is just going to be another match where Nakamura sells too much.
Next up was Austin Aries, who cut a promo about how he's been overshadowed, but he planned on finding a way to the top of NXT. That was fine, if a bit odd, but what really hurt the interview was when Aries "congratulated" interviewer Cathy Kelley on looking good. It was sexist and unnecessary, and even though the whole promo made it seem like Aries was turning heel soon, WWE should still know better.