The latest season of Who’s Next continued as Xara Grace and Vivienne took the stage.
This week we’re introduced to Xara Grace, whom Michael Kovac called the “older one”. She’s 29, and her pre-tape promo tells us that she feels the pressure that her “advanced age” brings. She’s been training since 2015, and she’s here to get feedback from experienced wrestlers. Alex Wright apparently was one of her trainers… Xara’s promo tells us she’s more intelligent than anyone else in the room and at home. I’m not on my sofa, for what that’s worth! She’s here to win, and do nothing else. Kovac complains about how she held the mic too far away, while Angelico liked her look.
Her opponent this week is Vivienne, or “the young one”, according to Kovac. She’s been training for three years, and if you watched this year’s Femmes Fatales, she had a blink-and-miss-it appearance against LuFisto. Her promo tells us that she’ll outsmart everyone, but her promo was a little too breathless for the judges’ liking. The Tale of the Tape tells us that Grace has only had 8 matches compared to Vivienne’s 9.
Xara Grace vs. Vivienne
Vivienne’s working as a good guy, Grace as the baddie, and we start with a slap from Xara.
Vivienne’s back with a headbutt and some clotheslines, but Xara just boots her down ahead of a slam. Grace comes in with a splash and a hip attack (or a “bum to the face”), before a hair pull kept her ahead as a Vivienne hit a wacky chinbreaker. A short DDT’s more effective, as was a discus lariat, before a crossbody off the middle rope was just about caught and turned into a slam for the win. They took three of their five minutes, which I’m sure the judges will pull them up for…
Post-match, Grace’s backstage comments were largely positive, while Vivienne called her performance “acceptable”. As far as the judges comments, Kovac called out Vivienne’s promo as being too fast, but the feedback was constructive. Wesna’s got similar feedback in how both women seemed to have pre-prepared their comments, before throwing in some more useful tips about their matches.
Angelico rounds it off with whatever feedback he could give about German promos from a non-speaker, before the show ended with a plea to vote… and the news that the fans voted for Kara by 72% to 28% from last week’s episode.
At ten minutes in length, you could argue that these Who’s Next episodes are perhaps a little rushed – especially the voiceover parts at the start and end of the show… but as for the actual content, these shows introduce characters, show you enough of their ability and get out without outstaying its welcome. If you’re looking for something different in your wrestling viewing you could do much worse for bite-size stuff than this!