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Howdy and welcome to this week’s NXT! Last week saw the progression of a long standing feud between Alexa Bliss and Carmella, two women with a lot in common and a history that spans both their debuts.
The parallels are uncanny. Carmella, a plucky baby face with an attitude who began as a valet for Enzo and Cass, the hottest tag team in NXT and one of the most successful up and coming acts out of developmental, and Alexa, who found herself and spiteful side when she met up with Blake and Murphy.
Now both find themselves on their own with something to prove. With each one out to show who’s the better woman, who will come out on top and begin her journey to meet the NXT Women’s Champion? Let’s watch the fight!
Both girls tie up and chain wrestle, out maneuvering the other with holds until Alexa gains control. She stomps on Carmella, trips her, and both exchange pin attempts. They create distance between each other before a stand off ensues. Carmella runs the ropes, catching Alexa with a flying headscissor and planting her with a drop kick.
They begin trading submissions again and Carmella successfully grounds Alexa before she begins to fight back and reverses a corner top turnbuckle headscissor attempt by pushing Carmella off the mat and to the outside. We go to a commercial but when we come back Alexa is dominating Carmella in the ring. She works Carmella’s arm over performing the newly named Insult to Injury and attempts a pin. When Carmella kicks out Alexa throws a fit.
Carmella makes a come back, slapping Alexa before finally pulling off another headscissor and putting her down with a super kick into a bronco buster. Alexa powers through though catching Carmella in a sunset flip. Carmella breaks free and grabs Alexa, planting her with a frankenstiener. Alexa fights back by grabbing Carmella in her signature chokehold, slamming her down and performing the Twisted Bliss to get the win.
After the bout, we meet up with Cathy Kelley who is standing by with Bayley.
Bayley says she feels amazing and is ready for her rematch with Asuka. Alexa interrupts and calls Bayley out, telling her she doesn’t deserve another title shot. She says she wasn’t pinned in that triple threat and her time is now. She puts forth a challenge to Bayley, telling her she has to “go through me to get that title shot.”
A match is then set up between the two as Corey Graves highlights this upcoming bout as the beginning of Bayley’s path to redemption.
NEXT WEEK: It's @ItsBayleyWWE vs. @AlexaBliss_WWE on @WWENXT on @WWENetwork! pic.twitter.com/ncx0aQG9mR
— WWE NXT (@WWENXT) June 30, 2016
Thoughts: The match was really heating up before…it got cut short with the newly named Twisted Bliss. Even so, it was a solid outing by both women! They have both come a long way since their debuts on NXT and are very evenly matched. Although sometimes women’s matches can become plagued by basic rest holds, they work here because both Alexa and Carmella worked a faster paced match. It was executed well with both trading blows consistently, there wasn’t a dull moment.
After reading spoilers for the upcoming weeks, unfortunately I can see Carmella getting the call up. I think we’ve barely scratched the surface on what she could do in the ring though. I enjoyed her headscissor variations and I’d like to see more high flying moves like hurricanranas, frankensteiners, maybe some tilt a whirl back breakers or ddt’s from her. I think it would incorporate into her move set nicely and compliment her scrappy yet technical style. You can tell she wants to improve and become more sophisticated in the ring.
Meanwhile, Alexa continues to show great promise. She’s extremely close to being able to lead the match/become a ring general. When she was dominating Carmella, you could tell she was comfortable leading. She’s going to be a star and I still feel either of the two would make great NXT Women’s Champions and they deserve it!
Onto Bayley, I am interested in seeing how her next rise plays out. We’ve seen her in this very situation before and now that her opponents abilities have grown, I am intrigued in the match ups. Bayley has the ability to get the best of her opponents and next week’s match should continue to show Alexa’s strengths and Bayley’s “never say die” spirit.
What did you think of this week’s NXT? Who do you think deserves to face Asuka? Who do you think will ultimately overthrow her? Sound off in the comments below.
