Lyra Valkyria VS Jacy Jayne
After a recap of what went down at NXT The Great American Bash, Gallus attacked Tony D’Angelo and Channing “Stacks” Lorenzo in the parking lot. It was then time for Lyra Valkyria and Jacy Jayne to settle their differences in the opening match of the night. This contest was totally fine, but there wasn’t really much to it. Both women still need a bit of training in the ring (particularly Jacy) and the match also had a slow pace. In the end, it was Lyra who delivered a Roundhouse Kick and a giant Splash to the Rockstar to get the victory. Valkyria definitely feels like the type of wrestler who benefits a lot more from facing more talented and experienced opponents whilst Jayne has been pretty lost since the Toxic Attraction era ended.
Grade: C
Rhea Ripley and Dominik Mysterio, Dijak VS Eddy Thorpe, Elektra Lopez and Lola Vice VS Valentina Feroz and Yulisa Leon
Trick Williams and Carmelo Hayes had a “heart-to-heart” chat where Trick Willy told Melo that he needs to do things on his own for a bit so people stop seeing him as just a “sidekick”. I actually think this is a good move, particularly as Trick is actually pretty good and if booked right, Williams could well be the one to dethrone Dominik Mysterio. Tony D’Angelo and Stacks were in the trainers’ room before Tony D challenged Gallus to a 6-man tag team match. D’Angelo then said he had to make a call. Women’s World Champion Rhea Ripley and the NXT North American Champion Dominik Mysterio then arrived and they talked about how dominant they are. Dragon Lee then arrived and said that the greatest Luchador of all time is Rey Mysterio before Lee challenged Dom to a match for the NA Title. Mysterio accepted and said it would take place next week before Rey Mysterio appeared on the titantron to say that he would be here next week to be in Dragon Lee’s corner. This clearly bothered Evil Mysterio. I thought this segment was fine, Dom was quite funny at parts and Dragon should be able to give the Champion a good match. However, I wouldn’t have Lee beat Mysterio next week.
Grade: C+
Wes Lee stormed into the locker room and got all angry at Carmelo Hayes when he told him to chill. Meta-Four’s Noam Dar and Oro Mensah then showed up and this set up a tag team match for later in the show. Chase U were then interviewed by McKenzie Mitchell and you could tell that Thea’s heart had been broken after what happened on Sunday. Baron Corbin then walked in and mocked all of them and this set up a match between Corbin and Mr. Chase. Dijak then made his in-ring return as he went one-on-one with Eddy Thorpe. This was another fine match, there wasn’t anything wrong with it, but it also wasn’t great. I like Dijak, I think he has a cool presence about him, but I still can’t get into Eddy Thorpe. Dijak ended up picking up the win with a lovely Roundhouse Kick and the overall grade deserves an upgrade just for that.
Grade: C+
Tony D’Angelo got off the phone and told Channing “Stacks” Lorenzo that he (the guy who D’Angelo phoned) was heading to NXT right now. Dana Brooke then talked about how she was happy to find a “killer instinct” last week and she told Kelani Jordan that she needs to do the same. I agree, Jordan should take out Dana. Valentina Feroz and Yulisa Leon were then in the ring as they were about to face the team of Elektra Lopez and Lola Vice. I like the team of Feroz and Leon, they very much feel like the new version of Katana Chance and Kayden Carter (Booker T even said as such), but the one problem that the KC’s had is they lost for years before they became Tag Team Champions. I also like Elektra Lopez, but she isn’t the best wrestler whilst the match wasn’t long enough to really get a read on the ability of Lola Vice. What I do know is Vice picked up a shocking debut victory after nailing Leon with a kick. This was a typical “just happened” match on NXT, but I did think the commentary team not mentioning the fact that Lopez and Feroz were sort of teaming whilst Leon was injured was a bit odd.
Grade: C
Carmelo Hayes and Wes Lee VS Meta-Four, Andre Chase VS Baron Corbin, Schism Interrogation
Tiffany Stratton talked about her match with Thea Hail on TikTok and said she’ll be returning to NXT next week. The NXT Champion Carmelo Hayes then arrived as he and former NXT North American Champion Wes Lee teamed up to take on Meta-Four. This was a solid match and it was cool to see the two greatest NA Champions team up to take on a team that is still yet to fully prove themselves. You could tell that Wes Lee had no interest in being the “sidekick” in this match as he was aggressive from the start and was always pretty reluctant to tag. I do have to mention how bad this referee was as at one point, Lash Legend tried to clothesline Carmelo Hayes in front of the ref and he did nothing and there was another moment where Jakara Jackson literally just stood in the middle of the ring. It’s safe to say that that referee isn’t getting called up to the main roster anytime soon, and the same can be said for the team of Melo and Lee as Wes accidentally hit Hayes with the Kardiak Kick before Noam Dar hit the Nova Roller onto Wes to pick up a huge victory. The more I’ve thought about it, the more I like this finish. This sort of protected Carmelo and Wes in defeat, but it gave Meta-Four the big win that they’ve been needing since the group first formed. Melo didn’t seem bothered by the kick, but Wes certainly was bothered by the NXT Champions response and all I can say is Melo-Lee for the NXT Championship is money.
Grade: B-
Bron Breakker had an interview where he talked about Von Wagner. What I liked about this is this promo started out with Bron talking as himself, but then eventually turned it around into his Heel character. The craziest thing about all of this is this got me invested in the Breakker-Wagner feud and I never thought I’d be saying that. Women’s World Champion Rhea Ripley and the NXT North American Champion Dominik Mysterio were leaving NXT before Axiom came up to them. Dominik “hilariously” thought that this was Dragon Lee and after Dom asked “who the hell are you”, Rhea Ripley responded by calling Axiom a “Power Ranger”! Mustafa Ali then ran over as he wanted to talk to Dominik, but Axiom kept trying to interrupt. When Ali asked Axiom for one minute, he turned around and Dominik and Rhea had already left. Axiom then told Ali that he didn’t like being disrespected like that which prompted Ali to say “Try being disrespected for 6 years” which was definitely the line of the night. Axiom and Ali will have a match next week and that could be sensational. Andre Chase then arrived with a rather depressed Thea Hail watching on as Mr. Chase was about to face Baron Corbin. The crowd were negative towards Andre Chase which has not happened for a very long time so either they are furious with what went down at The Great American Bash, or Baron Corbin is now super popular. The best part of this match came near the end as Thea Hail threw the towel whilst Corbin had Chase locked in a submission, but The Lone Wolf brilliantly grabbed the towel and chucked it out of the ring whilst the referee wasn’t looking which prompted the 19-year-old to completely walk off. Baron then hit the End of Days to pick up the victory and this is certainly a story that I’m interested in. Also, whilst Baron Corbin gets a lot of flack, some of the stuff he does is absolutely amazing, and chucking the towel back out of the ring is right up there.
Grade: B-
We got a video of Roxanne Perez’s time in Texas during the weekend of NXT The Great American Bash. This was really well done and another example of why Roxanne is really likeable. Meta-Four were then celebrating backstage over their big win before Tyler Bate made his return to NXT and said he’s been away on some sort of meditation course. Tyler then brilliantly played up to Noam Dar’s belief that he’s the NXT Heritage Cup Champion by challenging Dar to a match for the Cup for next week. This is the type of thing that makes Tyler Bate so good because I would never have expected this to happen, but it makes so much sense now that it has. Schism were then in the ring as they were about to try and find out who attacked the Dyad last week. One by one, people took their masks off, and Rip Fowler and Jagger Reid didn’t care at all as they were looking for The Creed Brothers. The Dyad then attacked two men in masks and they were obviously revealed to not be Julius and Brutus. Speak of the devils, the Creeds then appeared on the titantron and basically took the mic out of The Schism by changing their background like you would on Zoom. Joe Gacy then told all of The Schism’s followers to find The Creed Brothers and bring them to him so this is fully turned into Star Wars/Marvel now. I didn’t get this, the humour from The Creeds wasn’t that funny and they shouldn’t be on this show to begin with. They lost to The Dyad a month ago meaning they had to leave NXT so why are they back on the show? It feels like a massive mistake, especially as that match was a special way for The Creeds to bow out of NXT. The only reason this rating isn’t as bad as it could’ve been is because Ikemen Jiro revealing himself to be one of The Schism’s followers genuinely made me laugh as I’ve missed that guy.
Grade: D+
The D’Angelo Family and ? VS Gallus
After Cora Jade grabbed all her stuff and said she’s leaving NXT, it was time for the main event as Gallus took on the new NXT Tag Team Champions The D’Angelo Family as well as a mystery partner. That mystery partner was none other than Santos Escobar and he got a big ovation from the crowd. This kind of felt like a “house show” type of contest where the Babyfaces were beating up the Heels whilst the crowd were having a good time. There’s really not much more to say about this match other than Tony D and Channing “Stacks” Lorenzo hit “Bada Boom, Bada Bing” to get the victory. When you really think about it, it makes no sense why Santos Escobar would want to help Tony D’Angelo as he made his last few months in NXT a living hell. However, it was really cool to see Santos back in NXT as I firmly believe he’s an all-time NXT icon. It’s just a shame he came out to the LWO music as it’s not that great and the pop would’ve been so much better if “Legend of the Ghost” started playing. The show then ended with Ilja Dragunov cutting a freaky promo about how he’s going to get revenge on Trick Williams. The fact that Dragunov is so good at everything he does is insane.
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