6 Ups & 4 Downs From Last Night's NXT (19 Feb)
5. Scheduling Conflicts
Some week's I adore the binary Good/Bad function of Ups and Downs. Other weeks I wish dearly that I had something a little more nuanced to help break down a particular segment. This week, and particularly this exchange between Tomasso Ciampa and Austin Theory, it's the latter.
In short, this was perfectly adequate. But if it had either opened the show or had a little more thought put into it it would have been really good. As it is though, it's underwhelming, a little confusing, slightly frustrating but, overall, a net positive. Tomasso Ciampa interrupts Theory's match, cuts a promo as the poor lad's literally standing there in the ring, and ends up decking him into the barriers for his troubles.
If Theory gets one back over Ciampa at some point (there's surely no way he can win next week's TV match but, still, he might at least look good in defeat) then this will have been good for him in the long run. If he gets poleaxed again just make Ciampa look unhinged then... well... they should have used someone else.