The Male Champions of NXT, R-Truth VS Grayson Waller
NXT kicked-off with the return of NXT Champion Bron Breakker. Breakker took about how it was a big night for everyone at NXT Halloween Havoc before he was interrupted by the current NXT Tag Team Champions Pretty Deadly. The tag champs said that they deserve to be starting the show before the tried to diminish Breakker’s title run. The NXT North American Champion Wes Lee came out before he put everyone over, including the hair of Wilson and Prince. After giving them a nice introduction, the two good guy champs challenged the Heels to a tag team title match in the main event. Like Raw, they haven’t really earnt it but I always enjoy seeing all the champions go at it. Pretty Deadly then said that starting the show is horrible and it got even worse for them as R-Truth came out to dance with Wes Lee. This was all solid.
Grade: B
Our first match of the night saw R-Truth take on Grayson Waller. During the match, Vic Joseph said that Truth is a 54-time 24/7 Champion. That’s utterly ridiculous. The match was alright but unfortunately, R-Truth went for a dive to the outside but he sort of slipped and his fall was bad. When we came back from the commercial break, the match had to be called off due to injury. This was a shame and hopefully, Truth won’t be out for a long period of time. After this, Grayson Waller cut a promo where he said no-one is on his level. This was a good promo and if the injury was genuine, it was even better.
An interview with the Schism, Thea Hail VS Kiana James
In a pre-recorded interview, Vic Joseph sat down with the Schism. Ava Raine talked about how the only person that was there for her when she suffered an injury was Joe Gacy. Gacy then talked about how the group is stronger than ever before Raine finished off by saying that Joe Gacy is going to finish Cameron Grimes next week. The presentation of this group was great and I’m super impressed with how good of a talker Raine is. If booked right, this group could be special.
Grade: B+
Javier Bernal was then standing outside of Shawn Michaels office before he started to talk trash to Edris Enofe and Malik Blade. Bernal also said that he had texted Shawn Michaels for a match before Odyssey Jones walked out of HBK’s office. Jones then told Bernal that they would face each other in a match later on. We then saw an argument play out in the locker room between Indi Hartwell and Zoey Stark before Andre Chase was attempting to hype up Thea Hail for her match with Kiana James. However, Hail was sad at the fact that they didn’t have anyone waving the flag before Duke Hudson flew in to save the day. The match between James and Hail wasn’t that great. Hail is an ok competitor but it’s hard for her to improve when she isn’t competing against talent that can actually hold their own (like Indi Hartwell for example). An interesting part of this was when James looked to have got the win with the 401K, Hudson put Hail’s foot on the rope. This angered Mr. Chase as he doesn’t teach cheating and he sent “the Duke” to the back as a result of his actions. This didn’t affect James though as she hit the 401K again to get the win. After the match, Charlie Dempsey returned and attacked Andre Chase. Duke Hudson ended up coming out to make the save. This Chase U storyline is actually quite interesting, it’s just a shame that Bodhi Hayward is no longer a part of it.
Grade: C (because of the story)
Odyssey Jones VS Javier Bernal, The 1-Year Celebration of Mandy Rose
Josh Briggs, Brooks Jensen and Fallon Henley were being interviewed backstage and the Two Countrymen said that they wanted the next shot at the NXT Tag Team titles. During this, Kiana James’ assistant came up to Henley and gave her an envelope. Ok. We then saw Wes Lee and Bron Breakker preparing for their tag team title match before Mr. Stone came up to them and told Bron that Von Wagner was coming for his NXT Championship. It was then time for the in-ring return of Odyssey Jones. It was really nice to see him back as he has been out for over 10 months. This was basically a squash match and Jones got the win with his finishing manoeuvre. Jones has a lot of potential.
Grade: C+
The ring was then set up with pictures of Mandy Rose in NXT before Toxic Attraction came out. A video package then aired that was made by Jacy Jayne and Gigi Dolin and it was really good. It had clips from her SmackDown run before we saw how far she has come in NXT. Mandy Rose then cut a promo and it felt like it was coming from the person Mandy Rose, not the character. The best parts of her promo were her reciting lines from her storyline with Otis and then her feud with Sonya Deville. After this, smoke came into the ring and Alba Fyre attacked. She then put Gigi Dolin through a table before she promised to take the NXT Women’s Championship away from Rose in two weeks. This was all good.
Grade: B+
More backstage stuff, Indi Hartwell VS Zoey Stark
Apollo Crews cut a backstage promo where he said, “everyone wants to see Crews VS Breakker except Bron himself”. That’s a pretty good line and after this, Von Wagner walked in and said that the NXT Championship is his. I like that there are multiple people in contention for facing Bron. We then saw another one of those PC voice messages from SCRYPTS again. I still have no idea if this is a returning talent with a new character or just someone we’ve never seen before. It was then time for Indi Hartwell to take on Zoey Stark. This match was alright, these are two capable wrestlers that WWE should use more to help some of the younger, less experienced talent. The narrative in this match was Zoey Stark is still very angry about not being given the NXT Tag Team Championships last week. The anger nearly got her disqualified multiple times and she had to be calmed down by Nikkita Lyons. This anger ended up costing Stark as Hartwell managed to connect with her big boot before her new punch to the back of the head finisher to get the win. It was a big win for Indi, hopefully this means she can climb back up the card. As for Stark, I wouldn’t mind seeing her turn heel on Lyons in next week’s tag team title rematch.
Grade: B-
The NXT Women’s Division; Cora Jade VS Valentino Feroz
Another video aired and I’m 100% certain that it is for a returning Dominik Dijakovic. The most notable part of this promo was Dijak talked about his aim to become NXT Champion. Add him to the list of contenders. Valentino Feroz was backstage talking to Sanga and she asked him to be in his corner for her match with Cora Jade. I think Sanga wanted to say yes but as soon as Veer Mahaan walked in, he said that he couldn’t. Behind this, Wendy Choo got up from her nap. I like the dynamic between Veer and Sanga. We then got a confrontation between the KC'S and Lyons and Stark. Stark nearly went mental again. Cora Jade then came down to the ring looking to make a statement at the expense of Feroz. Did she do that? I’ll say she did. She looked good and got an important bounce back victory after her loss to Roxanne Perez at Halloween Havoc. She got the win with a nice-looking DDT and she continued to beat down Feroz after the match before Wendy Choo came down to make the save. I’ll give Valentino Feroz some credit, she can definitely carry her own in the squared circle. Also, I’m excited to see a Choo VS Jade feud, it could be really fun.
Grade: C+
NXT Tag Team Championships: Pretty Deadly VS Bron Breakker and Wes Lee
After a quick backstage segment between Tony D’Angelo, Stacks and Elektra Lopez, it was time for the NXT Tag Team championships to be put on the line as Pretty Deadly faced off against the NXT Champion Bron Breakker and the NXT North American Champion Wes Lee in the main event. This was a solid match that made all four men look good. Wes Lee is a great babyface who is used to wrestling in tag team matches whilst Bron is NXT’s main guy. At the end of the match, as Wes Lee was going to the top rope, Carmelo Hayes pushed Lee off whilst the referee wasn’t looking and this allowed Wilson to steal the win with a roll-up. After the match, Lee jumped straight on Hayes and the two brawled to the back. Breakker then turned around and got met with a massive boot from Von Wagner. We then went backstage and saw Apollo Crews watching this on a TV before JD McDonagh walked in to showcase that he isn’t done with the NXT Championship. The match was good but the storytelling was even better. In the last 2 minutes of this show, we established a challenger for Wes Lee, multiple challengers for Bron Breakker and gave Pretty Deadly their biggest win since becoming champions. Great way to end the show.
コメント