Wes Lee vs. Charlie Dempsey should be an intriguing title match
This week’s episode of NXT produced a couple of newsworthy moments For starters, Bron Breakker took the next step in progressing his heel persona, though it would’ve been nice if he achieved this without blaming the fans or devaluing the NXT Championship. Then, we saw Grayson Waller win a Fatal-4-Way match to become NXT Champ Carmelo Hayes’ first challenger.
WWE also announced a pair of title matches for next week’s show. One f them will feature NXT North American Champion Wes Lee defending his belt against Charlie Dempsey.
The match should make for an interesting clash of styles, as the two alluded to on Tuesday.
What makes Wes Lee vs. Charlie Dempsey so fascinating?
On Tuesday, Lee joined McKenzie Mitchell for their customary interview segment. After a few minutes, Dempsey and Drew Gulak interrupted the proceedings to boast about the superiority of their mat-based style compared to Lee’s crowd-pleasing acrobatics. Lee then challenged them to test this theory in the ring. With that, the title match was set.
With the oversaturation of over-the-top storylines in NXT (though things have tempered since the “2.0” era), it’s nice to see a wrestling story premised around “my style of wrestling is better than yours, and I’m going to prove it when we face off”. Every wrestling story doesn’t need to be complex, and the soft build to this one gives us another example as to why.
The plot provides Lee with a unique challenge to overcome. To this point, we’ve seen Lee repel the challenges of brawlers, powerhouses, pro wrestling unicorns (Dijak), and fellow high-flyers. The unique challenge that the technically-sound son of William Regal brings buttresses the narrative that Lee will defend his title against anyone and, most importantly, keeps the champ’s reign feeling fresh.
Plus, the match could serve as a nice appetizer for Gulak’s eventual title shot, centered around the teacher showing the student how it’s done (before failing, too).
Additionally, this is a good chance to see Dempsey, who has produced some good showings in shorter matches, in a longer outing. Recent episodes of NXT have made sure to feature at least one really good bout per show, and Lee vs. Dempsey should continue that trend.
Next. Cody Rhodes losing to Roman Reigns is the biggest story coming out of WrestleMania. dark
Even if it doesn’t (it will), WWE has at least positioned it as the most interesting match of the upcoming episode.