NXT Women’s Championship: Roxanne Perez VS Giulia
After Shawn Michaels and Triple H welcomed NXT into their new era (which included showing off new Championship Titles), NXT on the CW Network properly kicked off with Roxanne Perez putting her NXT Women’s Championship on the line against Giulia! You could tell that this match was a big deal for both competitors, but also for the brand as a whole. That’s why it was smart to start with this match, and I thought the action was good! Roxanne Perez is so good at what she does, and Giulia seems to be the next big thing on Tuesday Nights! Interestingly, a desperate Perez grabbed onto the new NXT Women’s Championship and this distracted the referee which opened the door for Giulia to get dropped by someone in a hoodie! Roxanne then delivered a second Pop Rox onto The Beautiful Madness to score the surprise win as Cora Jade revealed herself as the “mystery” attacker! NXT has had THE best Women’s Division for a while now, and the Main Event scene is starting to get stacked! Whilst Giulia losing was a surprise, it continues what has been an excellent reign for The Prodigy!
Grade: B
Wes Lee VS Zachary Wentz: Street Fight, Miz TV (Featuring Oba Femi and Tony D’Angelo), Fatal Influence VS Lola Vice and Jaida Parker
Axiom and Nathan Frazer were losing in WWE 2K24 because of Frazer’s anger issues before Lexis King had an interesting chat with CM Punk about whether he should do the “Right or Wrong thing”. Lola Vice and Jaida Parker were then arguing at each other as Kelani Jordan teased a “backup plan” before Wes Lee and Zachary Wentz went one-on-one in a Street Fight! This match was bonkers, some of the bumps that both guys took were ridiculous! Wes Lee in particular had some nasty spots where he landed back-first onto steel chairs and wooden door things (I’d never seen them before), but there was also a bit where Zachary Wentz went flying out of the ring and bounced off of a table instead of crashing through it! This was definetly the match of the night, and was very fitting to both Lee, Wentz, and MSK in general! Emotions also played a big factor as Wentz’s reluctance to strike Lee with a Steel Chair allowed Wes to deliver a low-blow followed by a Meteora (with chains around his knees) onto a steel chair to finally pick up the win. I actually think it’s very poetic that Wes Lee had the best match on the CW’s debut given everything he’s done for/on NXT!
Grade: A-
The Miz was out next to a chorus of boos as it was time for an NXT edition of Miz TV! Miz’s guests were Oba Femi and Tony D’Angelo as both men staked their claim as to why they’re going to leave St. Louis next week as the NXT North American Champion. Tony D’Angelo seemed very confident that this was going to be his time to finally win singles Gold, but Oba didn’t buy The Don’s act one bit and said he will happy break D’Angelo again! There was no fighting here, which I liked, and it was effective in the sense that it not only hyped up next week’s encounter, but it also got new eyes on both men, which is especially important for Oba Femi! I do actually think Tony D might win next week, but whether that should happen is another thing entirely.
Grade: C+
Roxanne Perez and Cora Jade had an interesting interaction backstage before Lola Vice and Jaida Parker attempted to team up to take on Fatal Influence. This went about as well as you might have expected as Parker kept shouting at Vice despite Lola saving her multiple times. This just allowed the veterans of Fallon Henley and Jacy Jayne to work over their opponents before Miss Parker had had enough and just left. Ironically, this left Lola Vice to get picked off alone as Fatal Influence scored the win before they set their sights on Kelani Jordan. However, the NXT Women’s North American Champion activated her backup plan which came in the form of Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill, who just wiped out Henley and Jayne for no real reason! Okay!
Grade: C+
NXT Championship: Ethan Page VS Trick Williams
After a video hyping up next week’s clash between Randy Orton and Je’Von Evans, it was Main Event time as Ethan Page put his NXT Championship on the line against Trick Williams as CM Punk took charge as the Special Guest Referee! This felt like a proper Main Event, like the two biggest guys on the brand colliding for the biggest prize with a great crowd to boot! However, I’m not sure the action itself landed in the same way. For most of the match, Ethan Page was far too focused on CM Punk, and in a way he was right to be angry as Punk wouldn’t count following an Ego’s Edge through the announce table! Page then delivered a GTS to Trick, but that only resulted in a 2 count before Punk and Williams kind of got in each other’s way! What happened next was even stranger as Trick moved out of the way of a diving Page and dropped All Ego with a Trick Shot to score the win and become a 2-time NXT Champion! After the match, the crowd was celebrating in force as Punk dropped Page with his own Go To Sleep! I don’t know, I don’t have a problem with Trick Williams being Champion again, I thought Ethan Page was doing a great job, but this was a big show so I get they wanted to have a big ending. However, I feel like CM Punk played way too much of a role in this outcome, and the ending was kind of anticlimactic.
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