Welcome to NXT Future Five on Last Word On Sports, where each week we analyze the latest episode of World Wrestling Entertainment Network’s hottest program, NXT and rank the five performers who made the biggest impact.
Moving forward, we’re taking the Future Five in a different direction. With NXT superstars and divas now making an impact outside of just their weekly Wednesday battles, I have decided that the Future Five will now expand to a larger universe – the WWE Universe. Some weeks, that influence will be felt more than in others, but it will still play a part in deciding the weekly Future Five.
The Future Five: Week of October 26th
- Tyler Breeze – Tyler Breeze is number one this week due to the sheer volume of involvement on WWE programming this week. In addition to competing in a stellar main event with Samoa Joe, Breeze spent lots of time torturing Dolph Ziggler on both RAW and Smakdown along with his new partner in crime Summer Rae. This new feud is instantly more entertaining than Ziggler’s last feud with Rusev and with Tyler managing to seemingly one up Dolph outside the ring at every turn, it makes me anxious to see what these two can do once they lock up inside the squared circle in a regulation contest.
- Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa – Even though I praised the NXT main event between Samoa Joe and Tyler Breeze, it was still not the best match on this week’s episode of NXT. That honor belongs to four hungry guys tearing it up, maximizing their minutes and sending the crowd on a roller coaster ride contest that was skimpy on psychology and story telling, but very high on thrills and action. That match belonged to both the duo of Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa as well as their opponents Jason Jordan and Chad Gable. Obviously, both of these teams had something to prove on Wednesday, because once their war between the ropes was over, it was all me and my friends could talk about. So why Tommaso and Johnny over Jordan and Gable, especially since the amateur duo was victorious? Despite having some tremendous performances since arriving at Full Sail University, Johnny Wrestling and the Sicilian Psychopath have been seen as underdogs. Each week that they go out and attempt to steal the show they get ne step closer to proving that theory incorrect. This week was their biggest step forward yet. Jordan and Gable are an established team. Winning against two relative unknowns is no big accomplishment for them, even if it took everything they had to put away their opponents.
- Samoa Joe – Samoa Joe continues to impress in NXT with a successful winning streak that continued on Wednesday with a victory over Tyler Breeze. The main event was a fantastic match and Joe proved once again that it isn’t a good idea to get on his bad side, even if you’re on your way to the WWE main roster. It will be interesting to see where Joe goes from here now that he has slayed the dragon that fueled his vengeance for the last few weeks. Will he turn his attention to the NXT Championship match between Finn Balor and Apollo Crews? Time will tell, but I have to imagine that the answer is yes.
- Dash and Dawson – Winning isn’t everything, and the duo of Dash and Dawson demonstrated that on NXT this week by being victorious without ever hearing an opening bell. The two were set to take on Enzo Amore and Big Cass in a rematch from last week, which saw the roughneck duo unexpectedly get rolled up by the self-proclaimed Certified G to lose in surprising fashion. This week, the only thing on Dash and Dawson’s mind was revenge. As Amore and Cass walked down the ramp, their scheduled opponents charged them from behind, leaving them laying. What proceeded was a vicious attack that left Enzo down and Big ass out with an injured knee. It wasn’t classy or pretty, but it sent a solid message: Dash and Dawson are not to be taken lightly. Their underhanded tactics likely put them further away from a Tag Team Championship match with the Vaudevillians, but it also made them a more fearsome team than ever before.
- Emma – The Evil Aussie Emma has had a touch and go career since returning to Full Sail University. I thought her change in attitude would lead to bigger opportunities for her, but instead she has been assigned the role of sidekick to Dana Brooke. While that has given her more exposure, it hasn’t given her the chance to show what she can really do against a new crop of divas that weren’t around when she and Paige were lighting the division on fire a few years ago. She had a moment of glory at NXT Takeover: Brooklyn when she won a four way match against Charlotte, Becky Lynch, and Dana Brooke, but since then she has been an afterthought again. This week on NXT she might have only defeated a fellow Aussie and newcomer Shazza, but it was a reminder to the rest of the NXT Universe that she is still a viable threat to NXT Women’s Champion Bayley and her championship.
Honorable Mentions & Final Thoughts
James Storm showed that he can talk the talk as well as walk the walk with a promo that easily told who he was and entertained me…The NXT video production team deserves kudos as well for some very entertaining packages this week highlighting both Apollo Crews and Finn Balor heading into their Championship match next week…While I praised Gargano and Ciampa earlier, Jason Jordan and Chad Gable were their dancing partners and helped make that match incredible…Baron Corbin was the stand out for me watching the new NXT focused reality show Breaking Ground. He came off even more unlikable than he already is, which will likely lead to dollars for him and the company down the line.
NXT was the brand to watch this week. They debuted Breaking Ground which offered the kind of show that I think many fans were hoping Tough Enough would be. If you haven’t watched the pilot yet, I recommend that you do so as soon as you can. NXT was a great show this week as well. An excellent mixture of great in ring action, slickly produced videos, and interviews that allowed us to see more of the wrestler’s personalities. If every episode of NXT could be as good as this one, it would be must see television each week. Rumour has it that comparatively the morale in NXT is quite high. If that is the case, it is definitely showing in the work.
