>>18916235It is obvious that Jade's Abyss-slam was never supposed to be the finish. Nia motions to kick out of the move right after the ref counts to one. Tiffy didn't miss any cue to break it up, The dropkick to Jade was simply to transition to the next spot. Based on what comes next, I think what happened was that Nia chose to listen for the ref's count without looking at her. Then she made the simple mistake of failing to hear the first count. When the ref halted before slapping the mat for a third time, Nia was confused because she was listening for what she thought would be the second count. Based on her immediate reaction, it looks like Nia is aware that she F'd up. She asks the ref a question I can't make out (it doesn't look like she used the word "finish?" though), gets "No" for an answer, then responds with "Oh, it wasn't?" You can then see Jade get into position for what must have been the final spot involving the three of the them, so I don't think she missed a cue to breakup this pinfall attempt. The ref then runs over to Tiffy to relay the message she received in her earpiece from Gorilla to simply hit her finish and go home.
Nia fucked up. Then the ref fucked up. Then Nia fucked up even more by having a casual conversation with the ref about it before rolling over with that lazy delayed kickout. Even though both Nia and the ref deserve some kind of punishment, I have a hunch that HHH will come up with something that will make everything worse for everyone involved -- like the usually good hot black female ref will end up losing her passion, and the usually good monster heel Nia Jax will be underutilized. Vince would have found a way to simultaneously put the fear of God into both of them while also convincing each that they can still thrive in their roles.
