NXT Respect
(2015/10/07)
Asuka Debut Match: Dana
Brooke vs. Asuka
Kickass
debut match for the asskicker formerly known as Kana. I dunno who Dana Brooke
is, but she was a perfect foil for an all-out Asuka showcase here, and
generally she looks like a very capable wrestler. Color me intrigued then. The
match had so much nifty moments and moves despite being short, such as Asuka’s
beautiful armbar counter, then signature lethal kicks, and lastly the groovy
finish. Damn good debut showcase, basically as good as it gets.
***3/4
NXT Respect
(2015/10/07)
30
MIN IRONWOMAN for NXT Women’s
Championship: Sasha Banks vs. Bayley ©
Okay, plenty
of problems with this one. First of all, the sheer pre-match visual of Steph
McMahon standing ringside and chanting your typical indie nerd shit was
disgusting to me. Second of all, the match had major issues with logistics: the
clock kept ticking in between the falls, there was and wasn’t pause between the
falls, all that shit was clearly designed to kill some time. I felt insulted
and patronized, but what the fuck… I hate inconsistency. Also the first three
minutes were terrible, all they did was some bad stalling to steal time, those
were some piss poor attempts at creating drama and intensity. Bayley is clearly
great, but man, does she try way too hard with sad panda faces or not? Sasha
was excellent here in her own continuum, but she couldn’t go against the failed
logistics and lazy booking. They did all your usual Iron(wo)man tropes that
aren’t worth spending time on, so all in all, yeah, I was massively
disappointed with the match, whoever put this together clearly had no idea how
not to do a generic Ironman Match, and the performers just couldn’t fight it
properly, I can’t blame them really.
**1/2
