NXT recap & reactions (Feb. 24, 2021): No Regrets

NXT returned last night (Feb. 24) from the Capitol Wrestling Center (CWC) in Orlando, Florida. You can find all the results at the live blog here.

No Regrets

Adam Cole: Still a prick.

This week’s episode closed with the explanation for Adam Cole’s betrayal. But we never really got it. Instead it was Cole pretending he was remorseful only to predictably reveal that he most definitely was not.

Kyle O’Reilly, who they told us is out 4-6 months (but surely will be back sooner), did not show up tonight. It was too soon for any of that. Instead Roddy Strong confronted the former leader of Undisputed ERA. At first, he didn’t buy Cole’s BS. But after an interlude where NXT Champion Finn Bálor tried to confront Cole but got put down by a brief alliance between Roddy and Adam (a bit reluctant on Strong’s behalf), the Panama City Playboy turned on the waterworks, suckered Roderick in, and punched him in the nuts.

This all made for enough drama that it was fun following along, but it didn’t make much sense to me when I really thought about it. Who was Adam trying to fool? He knew Kyle wasn’t there. Was he trying to lure Roddy out just to attack him? Would have have kept the ruse up until he had the chance to punch someone in the balls if Strong didn’t interject?

We’ll see what he does next, if he continues to pretend he regrets his decisions or if this week was a one time thing. It feels like the type of segment that was entertaining but doesn’t hold up to any real scrutiny. But that’ll depend on how they play it as this goes forward.

Best Effort

I’ve never seen Karrion Kross sell as much as he did this week.

I don’t watch Triple A, but I watched his full run in Impact and obviously all he’s done in NXT, and this match featured more selling then maybe all of those combined.

OK, that’s obviously hyperbole, but Kross spent maybe 90% of tonight’s no-DQ match getting his left shoulder worked over by Santos Escobar. It started with their brawl in the parking lot when the Cruiserweight champ dropped a truck door on it. Combine that with a constant three on one threat, Karrion found himself in a situation he rarely ever does.

Even though it was often a handicap match, it still left the lasting image of Santos Escobar doing something no one has done to this dangerous man. The reason doesn’t matter. What matters is it happened, that Santos dominated Kross at times, despite the fact Escobar eventually lost this match.

The bout itself was… fine. There was some fun spots, such as Kross tossing both Joaquin Wilde and Raul Mendoza through a fan pod barrier and staring at a worried Escobar. But mainly, it was a one sided beat down. Then when Kross did eventually fire back up, he didn’t really sell the arm that was worked the prior 20 minutes. Sure, you can write some of that off as him being superhuman, but if that’s the case, it undercuts the idea of Santos working the prior injured shoulder.

In the end, they accomplished what they needed to. Kross over came the odds to assert his dominance while Santos gave the big man the biggest run for his money he’s had. It just felt like it dragged to get there.

The Rebellious Stage

The Way is experiencing a bit of trouble.

Dexter Lumis has started to drive a wedge between the parents and the kids. Austin Theory has not been right since being kidnapped by Lumis at TakeOver: Vengeance Day. That sounds like a pretty obvious statement. Being kidnapped for days is going to mess with anyone. In this case, it’s closer to Stockholm Syndrome as he feels he had a great time with Uncle D (my nickname, not his).

He’s also off in general. He tried to high five Johnny Gargano with the wrong hand. He always played the clueless member of the Way, but it’s more now that he went on vacay with Dex.

This possibly cost Johnny his match against Lumis this week. After a fun match (Gargano has great matches with pretty much everyone), the leader of the Way distracted the referee. Candice instructed Theory to attack Dexter with a chair. But when the creepy Lumis made eye contact, Austin smiled, pretty much saying “What’s up?” and not using the chair as a weapon. When Gargano tried to rush his foe from behind, he accidentally hit his protege and then got caught in the Silence, losing by submission.

Oddly enough, Indi Hartwell is a bit infatuated with Dexter as well. The announcers made sure to point out she was smiling during a moment where Lumis was beating Johnny Wrestling. And backstage later, she admitted she found the aloof wrestler “hot.” No matter what, Johnny and Candice need to get their house in order.

(Said backstage segment is embedded above because backstage segments with the Way are one of…