7 Ups And 2 Downs For WWE NXT (Feb 17)

1. Everyone's A Winner, So Who Cares?

Vengeance Day may have been a glorious night for Johnny Gargano personally, but The Way were still left reeling in the wake of the shocking disappearance of Austin Theory at the hands of the disturbing Dexter Lumis.

A few missing person posters would have to do for now, though, as Candice LeRae and Indi Hartwell were faced with a familiar obstacle in the form of Shotzi Blackheart and Ember Moon in the opening bout of the night. Taking it to The Way straight away, the babyface pair wasted little time dominating LeRae out of the gates.

The pressure only dialled up as Moon and Blackheart nailed their opponents with a senton/kick combination on the ropes. Finding their Way back into the contest, though, Hartwell and LeRae successfully isolated Moon from her green-haired partner for a significant portion of the contest.

Sadly, despite the action in the ring being fairly compelling in its own right, most of the attention was focused on a white van in the NXT car park for much of the bout. Gargano, vacating his position on commentary, eventually scoped out the vehicle in search of Theory and eventually recovered their lost boy, but this distraction would ultimately lead to a Moon roll-up on Hartwell for the victory.

In the end, though, The Way shrugged off their chance at "Revengeance", as Gargano put it, the minute Theory was revealed to be safe, leading to the rather surreal visual of both teams celebrating despite only one unit earning the victory.

More focus on the Women's Tag Team division (as we'll see again later on) is a good thing. Overshadowing and undoing the solid work of all involved with goofy, abduction angles is not.