NXT Minus 6: Io Shirai Makes History

The Dusty Cup might be over, but the women’s division is still making history. 

6. It’s the Smackdown Six 2.0. We have the NXT Six (catchy). You can mix & match Oney Lorcan, Danny Burch, Pete Dunne, Roderick Strong, Kyle O’Reilly and Finn Balor however you like. The end product will be amazing. No part of my brain understands how someone could be a wrestling fan and not love watching these six do their thing in the ring. 

5. Pissed off Swerve Scott is intense. Dude is crazy. Watching him grab poor Leon Ruff by the jaw was almost as ugly as watching him throw Ruff into the turnbuckle. Not gonna lie. It was a touch uncomfortable. But since I’m such a fan, Swerve gets a full ⅓ of my column this week. Cue fantasy booking music… 

4. Instead of getting throttled by Doomsday Saito, Santa Claus Ice Cream Bar forfeits the Cruiserweight title. After an outstanding 8-man tournament, the new king of the stateside cruisers is…Swerve Scott. This leads to a best-of-seven series between Scott and Jordan Devlin to unify the cruiserweight titles. The seventh and deciding match co-main events NXT UK Takeover with WALTER versus CESARO for the NXT UK Title. 

3. L.A. Knight? L.A Night? L.A. Nite? I don’t care how you spell it, that name siggity sucks biggity big time. He should be teaming with Max Moon to take on Tug Boat and Irwin R. Schyster. I guess he got stuck with L.A. Night because Dolph Ziggler was already taken. Can’t wait to hear what the L.A. stands for. Lawrence Arabia. Lance Archer. Legitimate Anus. 

 2. Congratulations to Io Shirai for being the one millionth wrestler in NXT history to get jumped backstage. After so many back stage jumpings, you’d think they would beef up security. It’s like NXT doesn’t even care about the wrestlers’ safety. 

1. This week’s That’s Why I Love Wrestling goes to…MSK! Dakota Kai and Raquel Gonzalez celebrating their Dusty Cup victory? Glorious. Shayna Baszler’s music playing one more time on NXT? Scintillating. MSK in the background, chomping on popcorn & loving the front row seats? Solid gold dipped in gold. I have a soft spot in my heart for anybody living the dream, and these two most certainly are.