WRESTLING REVIEW: NXT World’s Collide III
A triple threat was held on the usual PPV time slot during NXT World’s Collide – an event that has gained notoriety for top-notch wrestling in the past; but this Worlds Collide was perhaps the most important one within the noted events history, given that this year’s World’s Collide was used to unify both NXT 2.0 and NXT UK titles across the board. And yes, that included the continuously captivating women’s division.
Starting things off was the main single title with champions Mandy Rose and Meiko Satomura locking up against each other in contention with Blair Davenport, who honestly seemed like a random choice. But for someone who did not watch NXT UK weekly, I can understand why she was included. Somebody had to take the fall, and Blair did, but not before putting over a picture perfect northern lights suplex into a bridge pin attempt that would make Alicia Fox blush.
Other than that, there was nothing else really that made Davenport truly important to this match. Mandy Rose came in arrogant as ever to the UK dressed in an U.S. flag inspired outfit (looking like something out the Darwyn Cooke vault for DC’s Bombshells) to emphasize her heelish nature, while Satomura was dressed in her regular red and yellow, as it was a day that was business as usual for her on WWE programming. I would be hard pressed to designate an actual workhorse during this program since each competitor showed out with a fluidity that eventually made a case for why they each belonged in the match. Satomura’s moveset focused on her leg strikes were a thing to behold.
To finally see Satomura actually kick Mandy Rose’s ass for the better half of what felt like a twenty minute match was a pleasantry I was glad “World’s Collide” acquainted the WWE Universe with. Rose, ever-improving, displayed some entertaining taunts and some devastating spears and shots on her opponents when they got caught up either outside or on the turnbuckles. And both the ingenuity of Satomura and Davenport during various pin attempts where they piggybacked off of each other while Rose followed suit, really showed the type of truly elite wrestling that NXT UK has proudly represented. It was a disappointing decision to see Davenport eat the pin to Rose. Satomura is a legend, and I really cant see Mandy Rose ever becoming a HOF’er or anything truly recognizable in the future. Like the demographic she represents, Mandy Rose is a million to one – not the other way around. Had Satomura taken the win, she could have extended her legacy, which doesn’t exactly need the accolades, but who wouldn’t want to see Cena beat Flair or Backlund’s esteemed records?
To have her lose the unification match puts a blemish on her career in the eyes of the WWE Universe. And then the promos following the match to set her up as disappointed in herself for the loss, like she’s in a slump, is not dissimilar to the same god awful booking that WWE Creative unleashed on Sarray once she graduated from 205 Live, and what Creative also did to Asuka when she had her call up.
WWE Creative needs to show more respect to it’s Japanese exports, because there isn’t many of them, (especially for the female division) in comparison to other promotions that openly work with NJPW, while WWE seems determined to ignore the “Global” in the NJPW title.
Satomura’s loss at World’s Collide is a tragedy, because chances are (like Sarray and Asuka before her) bad booking is the future for this global pro-wrestling legend. I would recommend that she get out of her contract while she can, because from the very first shot of this NXT merger, WWE has mishandled her character in favor of rotten apple pie.
The tag match that followed was not on the scheduled card from my recollection, but Doudrop and Nikki ASH returned back to what was once the black & gold … in black & gold! Not much respect has been had for these two wrestlers since their respective call-ups and given their much more ferocious styles that were toned down since their call-ups, it was only right these Euro natives challenged Carter and Chance for their tag titles in the UK. There was some things I never want to see again, like Doudrop truffle-shuffling in the middle of the match as if Speilberg wrote the script and a Lizzo fan in the writing wing approved it, but overall the match was a quick sprint and fun enough to capture grins by the end of the program.
The most notable spots belonged to Chance who took to the sky backwards, barely landing on her feet, while every other time she did, those feet ended up on the abdomen of one of her opponents followed quickly by some form of pin attempt. Though the heels controlled the situation for a duration of the match, Chance still managed to shine throughout the entirety of the match, while Carter mostly played the enforcer – a big difference to prior matches featuring this pair where I have always been biased to Carter’s workmanship, at World’s Collide, Chance truly stole the show.
Score : 3/5
NOTE: It took place on September 4, 2022, at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida
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