NXT HITS & MISSES 5/9: War Raiders vs. Heavy Machinery gets a miss, Ciampa and Ohno get a bit, plus Dakota Kai vs. Vanessa Borne

HITS

Dakota Kai vs. Vanessa Borne: The match wasn’t really a hit itself, but more so for the story that it told. Vanessa Borne is showing signs of becoming a great heel through the way that she wrestles with such aggressiveness and disregard for her opponents. She could probably use more “heel tactics” in her arsenal such as gauging and cheap shots, but she definitely has the mannerisms down. Dakota Kai is definitely as sweetheart and that adds to the story behind her budding feud with the NXT Woman’s Champion Shayna Baszler. As shown for weeks, Kai is afraid and intimidated by Baszler as the latter is taking full advantage of it. There is not a place where Kai is safe from the presence of Baszler as she can barely function at the very mention of her name. After picking up the win, the Queen of Spades comes out to do some more of her intimidation tactics by staring Kai down and putting Borne in the Kirfuda Clutch. Kai was still shaken up after the match while she delivered a promo and was once again approached by Baszler. Up to this point, one is anticipating when Kai will eventually stand up for herself and have a breakout moment that will not only take Baszler by surprise, but also the NXT universe. It will be a glorious day to see someone take the bully out on the playground, but will it be Kai?

Tomasso Ciampa vs. Kassius Ohno: Tomasso Ciampa is the epitome of a true heel, from his entrance with no music to the way that he soaks up the heat from the crowd. Its as if he relishes it, even feeds off of it. This can be seen also during the match as he constantly rolled out the ring and used the referee at one point as a shield. Ohno was decent during the match with his usual barrage of hard hits and kicks. He even managed to be sinister in his own right with some “beard” pulling, open knee strikes and jamming his elbow into the injured eye of Ciampa. But it was Ciampa picking up the win and to add insult to injury, attacked Ohno after the match with his knee brace all the while taunting him. Ciampa must be the most hated wrestler on the roster right now, but it is great to see a true heel in action, something that has not only been missing from NXT, but from wrestling. It is like a breath of fresh air.

MISSES

War Raiders vs. Heavy Machinery: There are a lot of reasons why this match was a miss. For one, at the beginning of the match, one would have thought it was going to be a good one since both teams looked evenly matched, but that was definitely not the case. Heavy Machinery were basically squashed as they only getting minimal offense in as the War Raiders dominated basically the whole match. The other main reason for this match being disappointing was the length. This match was too short. There is no way that a team like Heavy Machinery should have been squashed in that short amount of time. I know that NXT wants to War Raiders to look strong, but with a team so evenly matched with them it would have been ideal for it to be a little more competitive. In addition, its not like Heavy Machinery are jobbers, they are one of the premier tag teams on the roster to date, so it does not bode well for them to lose in this fashion, it only hurts the division.

NOW CHECK OUT LAST WEEK’S COLUMN: NXT HITS & MISSES 5/2: Funny moment when a wrestler loses his shoe, Candice LaRae vs. Briana Belair, Pete Dunne vs. Roderick Strong