This week’s look at the best of the Wednesday Night War focuses on a pair of tremendously gruesome AEW segments and the treasure that is Bianca Belair.
It’s been a couple of weeks, but it’s time once again time to give some props to the three (or more) wrestlers who stood out the most on either NXT or All Elite Wrestling Dynamite. But before we get to them, here’s a look as some honorable mentions:
“Hangman” Adam Page: The Page heel turn is coming, but judging by the reaction he received in the eight-man tag team match with AEW World Tag Team Championship partner Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks against The Lucha Bros. and The Blade & The Butcher and in his backstage verbal altercation with the Bucks afterward, that won’t happen for a while. Page has developed a nice connection with the audience, so the promotion will likely milk that for a while before pulling the trigger on a turn.
Johnny Gargano and Finn Balor: In two minutes, Balor and Gargano accomplished what most non-wrestling main roster segments fail to do in 20: whip up excitement for their PPV — or in their case, TakeOver — match. The segment wasn’t flawless, but it succinctly laid out the stakes: both men want to cement their respective NXT legacies with a win.
The Undisputed Era: This week’s NXT centered around the Undisputed Era getting their heat back after Tommaso Ciampa put Adam Cole through a table last week, a goal they fulfilled with attacks on Ciampa, Bronson Reed, and Kushida, that is until…
Velveteen Dream: …the megastar that is the Velveteen Dream returned from injury to exact some revenge against the men who were kayfabe responsible for his doctor-mandated vacation. Given how much has changed since we last saw Dream, it will be interesting to see where he fits in on the NXT roster going forward, but for one night, it was just great to see him back.
Bianca Belair
Why is Bianca Belair a heel? Unless you’re the type of person who finds the idea of a self-assured black woman exuding confidence in the ring and on the microphone, she hasn’t really done anything to warrant any sort of ire from the crowd. Add in an earworm of an entrance song, a cool look, and a crowd-pleasing moveset, and it’s easy to see why most fans gravitate to her.
We got another example of this on NXT this past Wednesday when Belair verbally jousted with NXT Women’s Champion Rhea Ripley and Women’s Royal Rumble winner Charlotte Flair. The segment served to simultaneously build to Belair vs. Ripley and the inevitable Flair vs. Ripley match at WrestleMania, but Belair apparently didn’t get that memo.
Between her facial expressions when Flair and Ripley respectively brushed her aside, her accurate assertion that Flair “doesn’t even go here”, and the additional trash talk toward Flair and Ripley that we expect from her, Belair established herself as someone who belonged alongside the company’s two darlings; this wasn’t Miz playing the third wheel as WWE Champion to John Cena and The Rock in 2011.
Belair stood out so much, it almost obfuscated WWE baiting and switching on Flair announcing if she would accept Ripley’s challenge.
Britt Baker
Britt Baker’s heel turn didn’t exactly get off to the best start a couple of weeks ago; the promo she cut on Tony Schiavone and the fans could most generously be described as “shaky” as she threw out a myriad of insults to elicit heat.
To be fair, she did reel in the boos she was fishing for and it wasn’t the worst promo of all time, but it left a lot to be desired. She cleaned that up the next week with a much stronger, more focused diatribe and on this week’s Dynamite, she cemented her place as one of the women’s division’s top villains.
After getting cradled and pinned by Yuka Sakazaki, Baker retrieved the timekeeper’s bell from ringside and plastered the joshi star’s back with it. What followed was far more gruesome; Baker applied her Lockjaw submission hold to force Sakazaki to bite onto the bottom rope and once she acquiesced, Baker curb-stomped a few of Sakazaki’s teeth out.
In the long term, Baker will have to show that she can hold the audience’s attention during extended heat segments in longer matches as she continues down this path, but for now, what she’s doing is working.
Everyone in that “10 Lashes Segment”, especially Cody and MJF
You know, for all the conjecture that WWE, specifically Vince McMahon, espouses about creating a “sophisticated” television product, you haven’t seen many matches or angles over the last decade that have matched what we saw Cody — arguably the best babyface in North America — and Maxwell Jacob Friedman — arguably the best heel in North America — pull off on Wednesday’s Dynamite in terms of emotional investment, at least on purpose.
(And yes, I realize the Edge/Randy Orton closing segment from a couple of weeks ago was on par with this, but things like that on WWE’s main roster are the exception and not the rule.)
As you probably know, this was the week that “The American Nightmare” had to endure ten lashes from Friedman as part of a series of stipulations to get a match against his archnemesis at Revolution.
This plot device isn’t a new concept — Cody was even a supporting character in a similar angle involving Bully Ray and Flip Gordon in Ring of Honor in 2018 — and early on, it wasn’t hard to figure out why bookers have relied on it in the past.
Every second of this, from MJF whipping Cody with Cody’s own belt to Dustin Rhodes begging Friedman to whip him instead to Brandi Rhodes encouraging Cody to survive one more lash to Friedman kicking Cody low after Cody lasted for all 10, intensified the audiences’ desire to see Cody beat the crap out of MJF at the PPV. This was as close to a perfect angle as you’ll find.