CRYSTALIZED WORDS

The Voice and Soul of NXT respectively, Vic Joseph and Booker T always do a fantastic job of elevating NXT characters. Most of the NXT roster is still in a learning phase, so they may fail to properly convey some of the story beats TV-ready wrestlers easily can. This is why commentary is so important, and both Joseph and Booker understand the characters to a fundamental degree.

The match was kind of sloppy after the first two minutes or so, with Braun dominating most of it as I assume they didn’t plan on fleshing the story out. It was like when Brock worked with Omos, they opted for a simple storyline: Brock is a monster, but there are taller and bigger monsters. The appeal came in Brock being in a rare underdog role. 

Taking on Humberto Carillo of Los Garza, Royce got a chance to show off the mix of athleticism, mobility, and strength which makes him such a coveted prospect. The match featured Beto trying to outwit Royce using his speed and finesse. While he would sometimes catch Royce off guard, he’d eventually get slammed by a variety of creative moves. 

What makes Cap such a beloved babyface comes from the fact that he starts off hot with the crowd — holding the coffee cups up — and only builds on that throughout the match. He can sell any type of offense and turn it into numerous sub-stories. Whether it’s the resilient babyface who won’t go down or the fired-up, angry babyface who genuinely wants to slap the smugness off the heel.

The winner for my best match of the night was Mina Shirakawa versus Thekla for the AEW Women’s World Championship. I loved the versatility of Mina, who looks to be slotted into the top of the women’s division to fill the vacuum left by “Timeless” Toni Storm’s injury. She’s a great pick, as the crowd already loves her and she constantly makes others look good in matches. Mina’s selling ability is really underrated, she’ll give strong reactions while simultaneously delivering h

Paul: “You had 3 weeks—3 whole WEEKS—since the offer was extended to challenge Brock Lesnar, yet you were busy spending your precious time beating up Kit Wilson and 5-year has-been Johnny Gargano? You, you you you call yourself the RULER? But it took you all this time to muster up some courage… just to catch my client when he was distracted by that weasel Seth Rollins. Someone else could have taken that WrestleMania open challenge in those 3 weeks...

But then we wouldn’t get him at his full potential. To win championships, Ciampa must tap back into the Psycho Killer. For a guy whose latest theme song echoes the words “My shadow knows my story”, this is a welcome return to roots. 

Gunther is called The Ring General, but his understanding of crowd psychology and character work extends beyond just the ring. His in-ring character would be nowhere near as effective if he didn’t perform actions like this. The underdog story he crafts for his opponents — like Goldberg, Cena, and CM Punk — would not resonate as well emotionally without this towering wrestler wanting us to hate him.

Matt Cardona recently put forth a backstage revelation on Chris Van Vliet’s podcast. He revealed that originally, he wasn’t even supposed to be in the Intercontinental Championship ladder match from WrestleMania 32, let alone win it. The original winner was supposed to be Pac, then known as Adrian Neville, which many of us suspected following his high profile matches.  Included in that was a WWE Title Open Challenge match against Seth Rollins, one of the first matches my youn

Thankfully, in the void that now feels greater after watching Cena leave his gear in the ring on Saturday, it was alleviated a bit by CM Punk on Monday. Punk delivered — in my opinion — one of the best promos of his second WWE stint and there couldn’t have been a more perfect time to do so.