Ilja Dragunov VS Trick Williams
NXT Heatwave 2023 kicked off with a intro from the NXT Tag Team Champions The D’Angelo Family who hyped up tonight’s matches. This was fine, but it’s never going to be as good as Toxic Attraction’s one from last year’s Spring Breakin’ (this year’s Spring Breakin’ one was also pretty good). We then went straight into the first match of the night as Trick Williams looked to prove that he could be a star on his own against Ilja Dragunov. Ilja Dragunov has been on an absolute tear since returning to NXT last September/October and he did a really good job here at making Trick Williams look like a threat. Trick already feels like somewhat of a star, but this match will definitely help “raise his stock”. Williams hit a superb knee strike earlier in the match and he also managed to kick out of Dragunov’s patterned flying punch which stunned me. However, Dragunov, who was clearly angry about this, went to the middle rope and hit it again and this time, it was enough for The Czar to get the victory. This was a good start to the show, both men brought it and Ilja Dragunov continues his run as one of the best wrestlers in 2023.
Grade: B-
Ava VS Ivy Nile, Nathan Frazer VS Noam Dar: NXT Heritage Cup
Nathan Frazer found Tyler Bate who meditating and asked him to be in his corner for his NXT Heritage Cup match against Noam Dar. Bate agreed before we cut to The Judgment Day who were planning a strategy for their mixed-tag team match with Dragon Lee and Lyra Valkyria. Mustafa Ali then walked in and told Dominik Mysterio that he hopes he breaks his leg (that seems a bit extreme) so the NXT Universe can have a North American Champion to be proud of. That definitely isn't the right way to go about it and then, Women’s World Champion Rhea Ripley warned Ali he had 10 seconds to leave so he did. It was then time for Ava to make her NXT singles debut when she went one-on-one with Ivy Nile. Ava looked decent here as she dominated Ivy Nile for about 90% of the match, but unfortunately, that was less than 2 minutes as Ivy Nile just locked in the Dragon Sleeper and Ava just tapped out. Nile then beat up a few of the Schism’s followers before two of them saved Ava and walked off with her. I don’t think this was bad at all, but it also wasn’t particularly good. It very much just happened and I have no idea if any of this made Ava look any better or worse (probably a bit of both).
Grade: C
Ilja Dragunov found Wes Lee and told him that he’s next in line for the NXT Championship. Ilja then told Wes that he doesn’t think that Lee’s capable of beating Carmelo Hayes in tonight’s Main Event. It was then time for the Heritage Cup Rules match as Nathan Frazer put his NXT Heritage Cup on the line against Noam Dar. It was a pretty even first round before we went to the ad break, and when we came back, we got a replay of Dabba-Kato Powerbombing Tyler Bate onto the ring apron before Noam Dar rolled Nathan Frazer up to go 1-0 up. This was very odd. The end of Round 3 saw Dar do his normal “elbow after the bell” tactic before convincing the referee that he didn’t hear said bell (these refs are useless). In the fourth round, Nathan Frazer managed to level up the scores at 1-all after a brilliant Superplex-Final Cut combination (only one other person has ever hit a Superplex combo that good). Most of the 5th Round took place in the ad break (nothing major happened) meaning we entered the final Round with Noam Dar needing to pin or submit Frazer to reclaim his precious Heritage Cup. And what do you know, he did just that. That’s right, Nathan missed when attempting his trademark Phoenix Splash, and this allowed Supernova 11 to nail his rival with the Nova Roller to get the shocking victory. This massively surprised and I don’t think it was a bad surprise. This was probably the best NXT Heritage Cup match since “it crossed the pond” and my only criticism of this whole thing was the first fall happened during the ad break. Still, I’m interested to see where this goes next.
Grade: B-
Tiffany Stratton Promo, The Judgment Day VS Dragon Lee and Lyra Valkyria, Baron Corbin VS Von Wagner
Ava told Ivy Nile to come and find her at the Schism’s tree before Tiffany Stratton was in the ring to cut a promo about how she’s going to be the greatest NXT Women’s Champion of all time. Interestingly, she mentioned Becky Lynch’s name and the reason I find that interesting is Becky never won the NXT Women’s Title. Anyway, Gigi Dolin interrupted all of this and said she’ll happily be Tiffany’s next challenger before Kiana James came out and basically said the same thing. Blair Davenport then arrived and made her case as to why she should get an opportunity at the Champion before Roxanne Perez arrived and just punched Stratton, starting a brawl. This was one of those segments where I would’ve been a lot harsher had it happened on the main roster.
Grade: C
Drew Gulak got Charlie Dempsey to beat up Myles Borne for some reason before we cut back to Ava who was delighted at the fact that Ivy Nile met her. However, she wasn’t for long as the two people behind the masks revealed themselves to be The Creed Brothers before Diamond Mine abducted Ava after Julius and Brutus challenged The Dyad to a Steel Cage Match. I get more and more annoyed about this every week as The Creeds should’ve just gone up to the Main Roster instead of getting themselves a match which will most likely see them get reinstated. Meta-Four were then celebrating Noam Dar’s victory backstage before he got a letter from the “Heritage Cup Committee” who announced that starting from next week, there will be a tournament to crown Noam’s next challenger. That match will take place at No Mercy and this excited Dar. What I want to know is who the hell is on the “Heritage Cup Committee” and why haven’t we heard about this before! The Judgment Day’s music then hit as the Women’s World Champion Rhea Ripley and the NXT North American Champion Dominik Mysterio made their way down to the ring as they were about to face the team of Dragon Lee and Lyra Valkyria in mixed-tag rules. I thought this was a decent match, I think Rhea Ripley and Lyra Valkyria complement each other quite well in the ring. Dominik Mysterio and Dragon Lee also had some nice spots during this one and yeah, I don’t really have anything to complain about with this one. Rather amazingly, Raquel Rodriguez returned to NXT to take out her opponent at Payback, and this allowed Lee to hit his finishing move to get the victory and pin the current NXT North American Champion. This surprised me and you would surely have to think that this sets Dragon Lee up for another shot at the North American Title. However, let’s not forget that Mustafa Ali has already called his shot and I don’t think The Disruptor’s going to be very impressed if another person jumps in his way of becoming the Champion that the people deserve.
Grade: C+
Trick Williams found Carmelo Hayes backstage and gave his buddy some encouragement before Melo’s NXT Championship defense against Wes Lee. Rather interestingly, Trick looked at Hayes’ title a few times and I really hope this doesn’t lead to anything because we don’t need a Hayes-Williams feud right now (or at all if we’re being honest). Tiffany Stratton was then interviewed by McKenzie Mitchell and I liked this because Tiffany straight away corrected her earlier mistake saying she realises that Becky Lynch never won the NXT Women’s Championship. Stratton then announced that there’s going to be a Fatal 4-Way between Blair Davenport, Gigi Dolin, Kiana James, and Roxanne Perez next week with the winner getting the next shot at Stratton’s title. I think Gigi might win that one. We then got a clip from last week where Jacy Jayne found Thea Hail and gave her some advice. This was very odd and unexpected, but I didn’t dislike it. Von Wagner then made his way down to the ring for his match with Baron Corbin, but that never ended up happening after Corbin attacked Von during his entrance. The two then brawled around ringside before Baron tried to attack Mr. Stone. However, Wagner stopped him before he was met by a devastating Spear by Bron Breakker who wearing a “Best Spear in the Business” t-shirt which made me laugh. I definitely wonder if NXT was struggling a bit for time this week as this was one of a few instances that felt a little rushed. There isn’t much more to add other than I completely agree with “Badass” Bron Breakker’s t-shirt!
Grade: C
NXT Championship: Carmelo Hayes VS Wes Lee
Schism were furious over what happened to Ava and The Dyad then agreed to fight The Creed Brothers inside a Steel Cage. Dijak then told Eddy Thorpe that he was going to break him in his next fight because he’s literally from a Batman comic before it was Main Event time as Carmelo Hayes put his NXT Championship on the line against Wes Lee. This match started off pretty evenly matched before it picked up near the end. Carmelo hit a ridiculous reverse DDT to send Wes through the announce table before Lee then hit Hayes with the Kardiak Kick. However, Melo was able to luckily and smartly (depending on what way you look at it) roll out of the ring. Wes Lee then went for this ridiculous suicide dive that saw him crash into and move the barricade. I’m not even sure if the Kardiak Kid hit this properly, but it sure looked nasty. Lee then rolled back into the ring which allowed Melo to deliver Nothin’ but Net to get the victory. Carmelo Hayes raised his title in the air before the show just ended, another hint that they maybe ran a bit too long. This was a good match that had really cool spots in it, but I can’t help but feel like it should’ve been a lot better. Both Carmelo Hayes and Wes Lee are on to go down as NXT Legends, but this isn’t a match that’s going to come close to that which is rather unfortunate because it really could’ve been. Still, I’m excited to see where both guys go from here and where Ilja Dragunov fits into all of this.
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