The NXT Women's Division is a powder keg
We are officially on the road to Las Vegas. With WrestleMania 41 looming over the desert on April 19 and 20, the entire wrestling world is finalizing their dance cards. That includes Shawn Michaels and the crew down in Orlando.
NXT Stand & Deliver is traditionally the wildest show of the weekend. It is the appetizer that sometimes accidentally outshines the main course. But looking at the women's bracket this year, the internet wrestling community is currently locked in a bitter civil war.
Sol Ruca versus Zaria is officially set for Stand & Deliver. If you listen closely, you can hear the keyboards clacking from here.
On one side of the aisle, you have the pure spectacle fans. These are the people who watch wrestling to see comic book superheroes do physically impossible things. They are thrilled. Sol Ruca has the Sol Snatcher, which is easily the most viral finisher in the entire company. Zaria is a walking brick wall who throws humans like lawn darts.
But the diehards on Reddit are absolutely furious. They think the match is a mistake.
"You cannot put Zaria in a high-profile singles match at the biggest show of the year when she hasn't even worked a 15-minute televised match yet. They are rushing her to the moon and she is going to get exposed by a gymnast who also barely knows how to chain wrestle."
That is the prevailing sentiment among the purists. And honestly? They are not entirely wrong. Zaria has been protected heavily since she debuted. Ruca is wildly athletic but heavily dependent on scripted spots. If they miss a cue in front of 15,000 screaming people in Vegas, it could get ugly fast.
My take? The casuals win this argument. Stand & Deliver does not need to be a methodical catch-as-catch-can classic. Let Zaria hit three massive powerbombs. Let Ruca hit a springboard cutter out of nowhere. Go seven minutes, hit the big moves, and get out. You do not need to call spots in the ring when the spots are this cool.
The Contender's Match Nobody Asked For
Then we have the actual championship picture. Jacy Jayne is currently sitting on the NXT Women's Championship, and her reign has been a complete drag. I said it. Someone had to. She is doing the classic opportunistic heel routine, but the matches have been bogged down by endless ringside interference and flat finishes.
Now we have to figure out who fights her in Vegas.
Kendal Grey and Lola Vice will go one-on-one next week to determine the number one contender. The winner gets Jacy at Stand & Deliver.
This is where the booking falls apart for me. This feels like Shawn Michaels realized he needed a title match four weeks out and threw a dart at a whiteboard. The fan reactions are incredibly mixed, mostly because neither woman feels properly heated up for a title program.
The MMA crossover fans are firmly in Lola Vice's corner. They argue she has actual mainstream appeal. She throws heavy hands, she dances, she has a recognizable brand. "Lola should squash Grey in two minutes," one Twitter user posted this morning. "She is the only one who feels dangerous. Grey is boring."
The amateur wrestling fans violently disagree. They point out that Lola's spinning backfist misses by a foot half the time, and her cardio looks suspect in matches going past ten minutes. They want Kendal Grey. Grey has the collegiate background. She can actually wrestle on the mat.
Here is the painful truth. Neither of them is ready to carry a WrestleMania weekend title match. Grey is mechanically sound but has zero character definition. Vice has all the swagger in the world but is sloppy between the ropes. Whoever wins next week is walking into a messy, overbooked title match with Jacy Jayne that will almost certainly feature three referee bumps and a brass knuckles finish. It is the weakest part of the Orlando pipeline right now.
The Grappling Nerds Get Their Dream Match
Let's step away from the corporate umbrella for a second. The beauty of WrestleMania weekend is that the independent scene invades the host city. Every VFW hall and convention center in Nevada will feature sweaty people dropping each other on their necks.
The sickos and the tape traders got the best news of the week today. Zack Sabre Jr. is officially set for Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport XV.
If you are not familiar, Bloodsport is the promotion that uses a ring with no ropes. You can only win by knockout or submission. It is worked, but it looks like a grimy underground fight club. It is the absolute perfect environment for an English guy who wrestles like he hates human joints.
The internet reaction to this was universal joy. The purists are weeping. "Zack in a ropeless ring is going to be pure art," one forum poster wrote. Another added, "He is going to stretch a heavyweight into a pretzel and I am going to buy the pay-per-view just for that."
There is always a tiny, loud minority of contrarians who hate Bloodsport. They call it fake MMA. They complain about the lack of Irish whips. They are currently getting dunked on by everyone else online. ZSJ doing Bloodsport is a massive win for the weekend.
The Boogie Woogie Man Refuses To Quit
Finally, we have the most baffling news item of the day. A headline that literally made me do a double-take at my screen.
Jimmy Valiant’s final match is set for next month.
Jimmy Valiant. The Boogie Woogie Man. He is 83 years old. He debuted in 1964. Lyndon B. Johnson was the President of the United States.
The reaction online is split right down the middle between horror and amusement. Half the fans are begging the promoters to cancel the show. "Why is an octogenarian taking bumps? This is genuinely depressing to read," one highly upvoted comment stated. They are terrified the man is going to disintegrate if someone looks at him wrong.
The other half understands the fundamental carny nature of professional wrestling. Nobody ever really retires. Terry Funk retired seventeen times. Ric Flair nearly died in the ring during his last match and still talks about doing another one.
A veteran fan on a message board summed it up perfectly: "Guys, calm down. It's going to be a six-man tag match. He's going to stand on the apron for fourteen minutes, tag in, throw one punch, kiss a girl at ringside, and pin a guy who trips over his own feet. Let the legend get his final payday."
That is the reality of the business. You ride until the wheels fall off, and then you ride on the rims. Valiant getting one last pop from a bingo hall crowd is weird, slightly dangerous, and completely on brand for this sport.
