8 Ups And 2 Downs For WWE NXT (Apr 20)

Ups...

8. Cool Kyle Is On Cloud Nine, Grimes' Gamble Doesn't Pay Off

Coming out of a feud as intense and personal as the one he's just been embroiled in with former Undisputed brother Adam Cole, it was tough to see where Kyle O'Reilly would take his character next. Would he stick to his passionate, brooding ways or lean more into the lighter side of babyface land.

Judging from his opening promo on this week's episode of NXT, we may have just found our answer.

Equipped with a straw fedora and spring in his step, O'Reilly air-guitared to the ring and announced that he was feeling great now that he'd left Cole firmly in the rear-view mirror, throwing in a Dumb and Dumber reference just to hammer home how laid back he'd become in the wake of such a vital victory at Stand and Deliver.

Before he could state whether he'd throw himself into the hunt for either the North American or NXT Championship in the coming weeks, however, Cameron Grimes invested some time into confronting another former UE member. Once again, Grimes' attempts to capitalise on a one-time member of this dominant faction resulted in him eating a knuckle sandwich and being thrown into a bout against his potential client.

Admittedly, seeing O'Reilly fully embracing the loveable goofball role will be jarring for some after such a vicious blood war, but he had to go somewhere. Allowing him to have some fun and find his new voice as a singles character through little riffs like this sure beats reading out pages of dialogue written by a team of terrified writers in the back.