Jordynne Grace VS Stevie Turner
After Ethan Page arrived at the NXT Performance Center, NXT kicked off with TNA Knockouts Champion Jordynne Grace taking on Stevie Turner. This was what you would expect, Stevie got barely any offense in as this was simply done to showcase Jordynne off to people who may not have seen her before. To be fair, Grace is an impressive performer that does a good job of making things look effortless. In the end, the TNA Knockouts Champion delivered her finisher on Turner to score the win before Roxanne Perez scuppered away after The Prodigy originally shoved Grace. They’ve had two shows to build this match, and it’s easily the biggest one on the card!
Grade: C+
NXT Women’s North American Championship Summit, Jazmyn Nyx VS Thea Hail, Tony D’Angelo VS Damon Kemp: NXT Heritage Cup
Lash Legend told Trick Williams that whatever was going on between them had to end which was honestly heart-breaking before Shawn Spears got into the head of Josh Briggs. Booker T was then in the ring as he was tasked with hosting the NXT Women’s North American Championship Summit. Michin, Jaida Parker, Fallon Henley, Kelani Jordan, Sol Ruca, and Lash Legend all got to say their peace which honestly wasn’t much before a brawl broke out and officials had to separate them. Mr. Stone then arrived to announce a Six-Woman Tag for later in the show! I feel like a video package would’ve served much better than this, but I do think Kelani Jordan did well here and at least it set up something to get excited about.
Grade: C
We got a genius bit of camerawork where the No Quarter Catch Crew were talking to each other through a mirror (it was genuinely quite creative) before Duke Hudson and Riley Osbourne told Thea Hail that they weren’t going to be at ringside for her match with Jazmyn Nyx. This was a decent match, it was very technical which felt different from the usual pacing of matches, and this only furthered my confusion as to why Thea Hail’s not in the Ladder Match on Sunday. Anyway, Thea was rolling until she got distracted by Duke Hudson and Riley Osbourne (I have no idea what they were doing) and this allowed Nyx to nail Hail with a Pele Kick to score the victory. A Pele Kick as a finisher is alright by me!
Grade: C+
Ethan Page made it clear to Ava that he held all the cards when it comes to contract negotiations before we got a video of Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson attacking Axiom and Nathan Frazer at the merchandise truck! Shawn Spears then attacked Josh Briggs with a steel chair which led to Spears having a brawl with Je’Von Evans around ringside. In the end, Evans managed to stand tall after a wicked Springboard Cutter! The D’Angelo Family then cut a backstage promo about being one step ahead of the No Quarter Catch Crew before it was time for Tony D’Angelo to put his NXT Heritage Cup on the line against Damon Kemp. This was a uniquely paced Heritage Cup Match as Tony D scored the first fall with Forget About It inside 2 minutes in Round 1 before Round 2 took place entirely through the ad break. In Round 3, it was much closer and Damon had The Don beat if it wasn’t for the bell ringing one just before the ref counted to 3. This angered Kemp who charged at D’Angelo to start Round 4, only to get dropped and pinned for the 3 count meaning Tony D’Angelo is still the NXT Heritage Cup Champion! This was actually a pretty short match, but I didn’t mind it.
Grade: C+
Izzi Dame VS Natalya, Gallus Promo, Fallon Henley, Lash Legend, and Kelani Jordan VS Michin, Sol Ruca, and Jaida Parker
Trick Williams made it clear to Ava to give him whatever he wants in order to sign a deal with NXT before Jordynne Grace interacted with Michin, Sol Ruca, Arianna Grace, and Tatum Paxley. Despite Chad Gable’s brilliance yesterday, Arianna very much wins the award for best line of the week when she told Jordynne that they “share the same surname, but aren’t related!” Miss Grace is the best! Anyway, we then got a pretty good Inside Look into Lola Vice and Shayna Baszler’s upcoming NXT Battleground Match before an unfortunately injured Karmen Petrovic came down to ringside to support Natalya in her match with Izzi Dame. This was a fine match, but I was confused by the outcome. Raw made it seem like Natalya needed to change something, and it felt like NXT wanted to push Dame as a bit of a machine. However, that didn’t happen and The Queen of Harts just scored a roll-up victory. Okay!
Grade: C
Axiom and Nathan Frazer made it clear that they will beat Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson on Sunday before Tyson Dupont and Tyriek Igwe made their way down to the ring. However, when we came back from the ad break, they’d been attacked by Gallus who cut a promo about not being treated fairly in NXT and how they only care about fighting. This brought out Oba Femi who made it clear he will retain his NXT North American Championship no matter what before Wes Lee arrived to say he’s made a whole career out of being the underdog. In the end, it was actually Gallus and Joe Coffey who managed to stand tall after flooring Femi and Lee. This was fine and it accomplished it’s mission of making Gallus look like an actual threat.
Grade: C+
Lexis King and Dante Chen started a brawl that had to be separated in the back before it was revealed that Wendy Choo will be returning next week. However, this didn’t seem like the same Wendy we last saw well over a year ago. We then got a Six-Woman Tag Team Match as Fallon Henley, Lash Legend, and Kelani Jordan teamed up to take on Michin, Sol Ruca, and Jaida Parker. At first, I was massively confused by this, until I realised that this was part of Mr. Stone’s plan to make it more interesting. In fact, I loved this idea as it felt different, and having one Babyface team up with two Heels and 1 Heel team up with 2 Babyfaces added an interesting dynamic. The crowd were well behind Sol Ruca here which was awesome, and of course, in the end, a massive brawl broke out between all six women before Ruca nailed Lash Legend with the Sol Snatcher to score the win. As someone who wanted Sol to become the first-ever NXT Women’s North American Champion, her winning here wasn’t a good sign. However, it could turn out to be a good thing for Lash.
Grade: B- (Because it was Creative)
Ethan Page’s Contract Signing
After Stevie Turner tried to speak with Ava and Eddy Thorpe got a video promo, the NXT General Manager was in the ring ready to get Ethan Page to sign an NXT Contract. Page did a good job here of playing with the crowd before he made it clear that he can have whatever it is he likes because Ava has to sign him given all of her top stars left in the Draft (I’m glad someone brought this up). Trick Williams then arrived to make it clear that Ethan had to sign the contract before it was revealed that if Ava does agree to the terms of the deal, Williams and Page will collide for the NXT Championship this Sunday! In the end, Trick convinced the NXT General Manager to make it all official and yeah, we now have an NXT Title match at NXT Battleground! To be honest, this did feel very sudden, but I am intrigued, and I was very impressed by Mr. All Ego here as he played the crowd perfectly. So yeah, nicely done!
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