NXT Heritage Cup: Noam Dar VS Akira Tozawa
This week’s edition of NXT kicked off straightaway with a Championship match as Noam Dar put his NXT Heritage Cup on the line against Akira Tozawa. Tozawa was in control of Round 1 but couldn’t score a pinfall or submission before early in Round 2, Dar rolled up his opponent whilst holding the tights to score the first 3 count of the match. After the bell rang, Noam blasted Akira with a righthand and I really don’t know how or why he keeps getting away with this stuff. Round 3 then took place in the ad break before in Round 4, Akira Tozawa levelled the match up at 1-1 after he forced Noam to tap out (which was a smart move by the Heel). In the 5th round, Tozawa was rolling, but unfortunately for him, Meta-Four and Alpha Academy were getting into an argument outside the ring which caught the referees’ attention. This meant that when Tozawa went for his Flying Senton, Lash Legend was able to pull Noam Dar out of the ring before Supernova 11 got back in the ring and dropped Akira Tozawa with the Nova Roller to get the victory. After the match, Chad Gable and Otis laid out Oro Mensah because why not? In terms of the match itself, I thought it was totally fine and continued to show why Noam Dar and Meta-Four as a group works.
Grade: C+
Lyra Valkyria Appears, Fallon Henley VS Tiffany Stratton: Women’s Iron Survivor Challenge Qualifying Match, Bron Breakker VS Von Wagner
Mick Foley appeared on the screen to tell us that he’d chosen Fallon Henley VS Tiffany Stratton and Dijak VS Tyler Bate as his two Qualifying matches for the NXT Iron Survivor Challenge before we saw Elektra Lopez and the winner of the 2023 NXT Women’s Breakout Tournament Lola Vice trash talking Kelani Jordan before Roxanne Perez walked in to warn Vice not to make enemies within the women’s division. Karmen Petrovic was also here to join in on people being rude to Arianna Grace. Speaking of the NXT Women’s Division, the NXT Women’s Champion Lyra Valkyria made her first appearance since beating Becky Lynch for the Championship at NXT Halloween Havoc (Night 1) to address her “kingdom”. Lyra talked about how much it meant to her to defeat someone she admires in the form of Becky Lynch before Xia Li appeared out of nowhere to get in the ring and make it clear that she wants the next shot at the NXT Women’s Championship. That’s probably fair enough and Valkyria seemed to agree as well. Also, there were two annoying security guards in this segment, but one of them sold Li’s Roundhouse Kick perfectly.
Grade: C+
Tyler Bate said that people shouldn’t be fooled by his fire/ability inside the ring just because of his calmness outside of it before Josh Briggs and Brooks Jensen wished Fallon Henley good luck for her upcoming match. Before that, though, we got a backstage segment where “The Gang of Gulak” tried to poke fun at Alpha Academy. This set up a match between Otis and Drew Gulak for later in the show. A referee then came out of Shawn Michaels’ office as Ava went in before it was time for the first Qualifying match for the Women’s Iron Survivor Challenge as Fallon Henley looked to get revenge on Tiffany Stratton for last week’s attack. I actually thought this was a decent match that had a genuinely hilarious spot where Tiffany just decided to chuck Fallon out of the ring in a move that must have hurt. This match showed that Henley probably deserves a bit more TV time, but it also showed that she’s still nowhere near on the same level as Stratton who is more than capable of being an established Main Roster act. In the end, The Center of the Universe nailed Fallon Henley right in the face with the Prettiest Moonsault Ever to stamp her ticket to NXT Deadline. Stratton winning was definitely the right choice.
Grade: B- (Mainly for that one specific spot)
Wes Lee seemed delighted to be back hanging out with McKenzie Mitchell before Baron Corbin came in and called Wes a loser. It really was as simple as that. Bron Breakker then said he couldn’t wait to fully end Von Wagner’s career before Dijak questioned Mick Foley as to why he’d put Tyler Bate in a match with him. Von Wagner then got a really good pop as it was time to see if Von could get his revenge on the man who literally tried to kill him, Bron Breakker. The action in this match wasn’t amazing, but I thought the story that was told was good as at the end of the day, Bron Breakker is better than Von Wagner. Even with Mr. Stone trying to rally Von on, it didn’t make much difference as a Spear on the outside as well as one back inside the ring was enough for Bron to pin Von for the 3 count. However, after the match, Breakker looked to attack Mr. Stone after Stone hit Bron with a chair in the back, only for Von Wagner to send Breakker crashing through the announce table to presumably end the feud. This meant that whilst Bron won the fight, Von won the war and I feel like that was quite an important message to put out given how this feud/story has been told.
Grade: B-
Elektra Lopez and Lola Vice VS Roxanne Perez and Kelani Jordan, Drew Gulak VS Otis, Dijak VS Tyler Bate: Men’s Iron Survivor Challenge Qualifying Match
Carmelo Hayes wasn’t impressed with McKenzie Mitchell’s questions surrounding Trick Williams before we got a ridiculous Brawling Brutes video package where they fired back at O.T.M. and talked about their roots. It was then time for some Tag Team action as Roxanne Perez and Kelani Jordan teamed up for the first time ever to take on Elektra Lopez and Lola Vice. This was an alright match all things considered, but it was slightly hurt by the fact that despite Lopez and Vice being a decent Tag Team, they couldn’t handle the make-shift team of Perez and Jordan, and in the end, Roxanne dropped Elektra with Pop Rox before Jordan hit her Split-legged Moonsault onto Lopez to get the victory. This was very much done to give Jordan a win back after last week’s Women’s Breakout Tournament Final defeat. I should also mention that Arianna Grace cut a funny promo both before and after this match before she was eventually dropped by Karmen Petrovic.
Grade: C
Joe Gacy cut another eerie video promo before Ilja Dragunov talked about his battles with Carmelo Hayes and how he’s going to get revenge on Baron Corbin sooner rather than later. Baron was watching this on a screen before he decided to take a shot at Edris Enofe and Malik Blade as well as Hank and Tank (who were watching with him) because Corbin’s funny. Speaking of funny, Otis made his way down to the ring as it was time for Chad Gable’s Number 1 Guy to go one-on-one with Drew Gulak. This match really was the definition of sports entertainment as Otis just danced in between him dropping Gulak who sold all of this like the great performer that he is. Also, the crowd absolutely loved Otise which made it even better and the former Money in the Bank Winner ended up getting the victory with a pretty devastating and nasty-looking Powerbomb.
Grade: B- (It was good fun)
Tiffany Stratton and Kiana James were talking backstage and it became clear that Tiffany doesn’t have a problem with Kiana (and vice versa) which makes a change. Also, in the background, Boa was speaking to Dante Chen again before Chen walked out to reveal that half of his face was covered in face paint. This stuff is very odd, but if it leads to them both getting more TV time, it’s a good type of odd. Speaking of odd, we then got a Chase University segment where Jacy Jayne looked through an envelope that was given to her by members of the D’Angelo Family. Andre Chase then got annoyed at Jacy for looking through his things before they both seemed to panic about what was inside the envelope. Duke Hudson and Thea Hail then walked in and Jayne told Duke that him and Mr. Chase would be defending their NXT Tag Team Championships next week against Tony D’Angelo and Channing “Stacks” Lorenzo. This was all very odd, as was the fact that they were in a different classroom than normal (I’m guessing they were teaching Geography or something like that). It was then time to see who would qualify for the first spot in this year’s Men’s Iron Survivor Challenge as Dijak and Tyler Bate clashed in the final match of the night. I thought this was a good match between two very talented individuals, and it was very unclear as to which man was going to advance to NXT Deadline. There was one point in the match that particularly impressed me as after Bate went for a Suplex, Dijak landed on his feet before he delivered a big boot to the Big Strong Boi for a close 2 count. In the end, despite Tyler’s fighting spirit, Dijak nailed Bate with Feast Your Eyes to get the well-deserved victory. I’m happy that Dijak’s going to be in the Men’s Iron Survivor Challenge because his efforts this year have certainly earned him a place in it.
Grade: B-
Carmelo Hayes and Trick Williams Come Face-to-Face
After a video telling people how the Iron Survivor Challenge works, Carmelo Hayes was out in the middle of the ring as he asked Trick Williams to join him so they could go over some things. Trick came out to a big pop and he was a bit confused as to why Melo didn’t/won’t have his back when it comes to going for a Championship considering that’s all he’s basically done for 2 years. In an interesting turn of events, Trick then got angry at Hayes for not being there for him when he was attacked a few weeks ago before he questioned whether his so-called “Best Friend” was there the whole time and he just never saw his face when he got dropped. Before Carmelo could say anything more, Lexis King’s music hit as Lexis came down to the ring to tease that a newcomer may have attacked Williams in order to rise up the rankings in NXT (something that would make total sense). This angered Trick Willy who went to punch King, but all he did instead was connect with the face of Carmelo Hayes. Williams then picked Melo up as the two hugged, but Carmelo Hayes’ face whilst looking at the camera showed one of anger and annoyance. This was good stuff from everyone involved and whilst Lexis King just showing up was slightly odd, it’s clever to make people believe that there are other options than just Carmelo Hayes when it comes to who attacked Trick Williams. Also, Melo’s facial expressions whilst looking at the camera at the end was something that was not only great, but also something right out of the Roman Reigns playbook which is both a massive compliment to the former A-Champion, but also something that’s worth remembering for a future date.
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