Cameron Grimes VS Joe Gacy
NXT started with a rivalry matchup between Cameron Grimes and Joe Gacy. I thought this match was solid, Grimes is an excellent wrestler whilst Gacy is clearly improving his game. The pattern of this match was Grimes was on time until the numbers game got involved. Grimes managed to fight off both Jagger Reid and Rip Fowler but as the referee was distracted, Ava Raine came from behind, pushed him off the top rope and this allowed Gacy to connect with his really cool clothesline to get the win. The Schism look great at the moment and they should continue to win their matches. As for Cameron Grimes, he posted a thankyou message on social media. I’d be quite happy to see Grimes move up to the main roster, he sort of feels stuck at the moment. Overall, Grimes has been one of my favourites on NXT since the pandemic era started.
Grade: C+
The “Don’t Miss Barbers”, Sol Ruca VS Elektra Lopez
Nathan Frazer came out of the medical room to tell his friend Axiom that he still has a few more weeks on the shelf. JD McDonagh then came up to Axiom and told him that he wouldn’t have done any better than Frazer in the ladder match before the Comic book hero took the mick out of how McDonagh can’t ever quite get the job done. After this, it was time to go back to the barbers with Carmelo Hayes and Trick Williams. Hayes actually put over Lee in this segment before he said that no one has ever pinned him for his North American Championship. Melo is so good at these promo’s and he is right (if you don’t count Solo). We then came back to the arena and all of a sudden, the lights went out. Writing came on the screen’s and it told us that Scrypts is coming soon. I’m really intrigued to see who this is. Sol Ruca then got some fancy graphics before she took on Elektra Lopez. I expected Lopez to dominate this match but that didn’t really happen. Ruca got a lot of offense in but in the end, Lopez got the win with the Elekrtac shot. Her finisher is great and even though Elektra should have been more dominant, she still got the win and Ruca looked ok in the process. After the match, Indi Hartwell attacked Elektra Lopez to get some revenge for what happened a few weeks ago.
Grade: B for Melo, C- for the match
Alba Fyre sends a message to Mandy Rose, Andre Chase VS Charlie Dempsey
Chase U were getting ready backstage and Duke Hudson told Mr. Chase that he would like to come down to the ring to support him. After this, Mandy Rose and Jacy Jayne were talking over a video call before Jayne was pulled over by the “Mall Police”. It ended up being Alba Fyre and she destroyed one half of the former NXT Women’s Tag Team Champions before she told Mandy that she was going to be the last women standing next week. Charlie Dempsey then had his first match on NXT TV for over 3 months as he took on Andre Chase. Andre Chase is great because he is so over. His moves are really simple, but the crowd goes mad for all of them. Dempsey is clearly a submission guy and some of the submissions he locks in look pretty painful. The ending of the match saw Duke Hudson wanting to “cheat” to help Mr. Chase, but Andre told him not to. Duke Hudson then took a white towel out of Thea Hail’s hand and he threw it into the ring meaning Dempsey got the victory. This was good for two reasons. 1, Dempsey needed the win. 2, It’s unclear as to whether Duke did this to help Mr Chase or to cost him a match. I’m really enjoying this Chase U storyline.
Grade: B- for Alba, C for Chase VS Dempsey
Henley’s bar, Hank Walker VS Stacks
Indi Hartwell was being interviewed by McKenzie Mitchell where she talked about how you can’t have friends in this business to succeed. She also said she was betting her entire house on her success. Josh Briggs and Brooks Jensen were then at Fallon Henley’s bar before Kiana James walked in. It was then revealed that the envelope that Henley received last week was an offer to buy the land that Henley’s bar is located in. Henley said that all her family memories are here before she asked James to leave. On paper, it’s a very strange storyline. I am intrigued to see where it goes though. After this, we got a match between Channing “Stacks” Lorenzo and Hank Walker. Tony D accompanied Stacks to ringside; it’s interesting that he’s still on tele so much given the fact that he has a serious injury. This match was short and it was mainly done to give Stacks a win. Stacks dominated this match and won after a little bit of cheating. I thought this was alright because if Walker is a security guard who’s learning how to wrestle, he should be losing comfortably.
Grade: C-
The Grayson Waller Effect
It was then time for one of my favourite parts of all of WWE, the Grayson Waller Effect. Once again, he had the GWTV in the corner of the screen and he had comments running down the bottom. The best comments were: “Waller should host the Oscars”, “Roman fears Waller” and “Grayson would beat Melo on a court”. It should also be mentioned that some of the comments were being hacked by someone. It’s probably Scrypts but it could be someone else. He then invited his guests Bron Breakker and Von Wagner down to the ring and Wagner talked about how he doesn’t give a damn about what the WWE Universe thinks. Breakker then put over Wagner a bit before Grayson Waller hinted at his interest in winning the NXT Championship. After all of this, the NXT Champion slammed Mr. Stone’s face off of the desk before Breakker and Wagner stood face to face. This was arguably the best Wagner has been on the mic and he even mentioned Pete Dunne! It’s not the most exciting matchup but given it’s on next week and not being saved for the Premium Live Event, I’m slightly looking forward to it. Once again, Grayson Waller is excellent.
Grade: B
Wes Lee and Cora Jade Promos, Axiom VS JD McDonagh
Wes Lee cut a promo where he agreed with Carmelo Hayes’ point about him never being beaten. He says he will do what no one has done before and that’s make “Melo Miss”. A video promo then aired where Cora Jade talked down Wendy Choo. Like I said last week, I’m up for a Jade VS Choo feud. Vic Joseph then told us that Apollo Crews was in Nigeria looking to find the next African WWE superstar before he told Bron that he was coming for him. I expect that to be the title match down the line.
We then got a match between the other man in the NXT title picture JD McDonagh facing off against Axiom. This was superb. I’m yet to see either one of these two have a bad match in NXT with their current characters and it continued here. JD used his technical abilities to stop Axiom highflying, quick paced offense. When McDonagh got on top, Axiom managed to reverse it with some crazy bursts of quickness but in the end, he just couldn’t get away from McDonagh’s viciousness. JD twisted Axiom knee so bad that the referee had to call the match off because Axiom couldn’t stand. After the match, JD said that it was only a sprain because he’s a good guy! He then asked for someone in the locker room to get on his level. Overall, this was amazing. JD is so good right now and even though Axiom loses a lot, he looks amazing every time.
Grade: A-
Brutus Creed VS Damon Kemp, different segments
Brutus Creed came out to have his 5-minute match with Damon Kemp. The match went to about halfway before Brutus smashed Kemp with a steel chair. Even though he technically lost the match, Brutus definitely came out of this well. He needed to get revenge on Kemp for the actions that he has done.
Grade: C+
Another Dominik Dijakovic video package aired. Like the Viking Raiders ones on SmackDown, this is getting a bit boring now. I just want him to debut. After this, Roxanne Perez came up to Indi Hartwell to ask her what was going on. Hartwell told Perez that you can’t have friends in this business to succeed and that you should have learnt it from Cora. I don’t mind Indi turning heel; she needs to do something different.
NXT Women’s Tag Team Championships: Katana Chance and Kayden Carter VS Nikkita Lyons and Zoey Stark
The main event saw the NXT women’s tag team titles on the line as the KC’s defended against Nikkita Lyons and Zoey Stark. I thought this match was pretty solid, Katana and Kayden are a really good team and both Lyons and Stark are talented. The story of this match is whilst Chance and Carter are fully there for each other, Lyons and Stark is only one way. After Stark nearly caught Lyons by “accident”, Lyons took the bullet for her partner by pushing her out of the way and being hit with a double superkick. Chance and Carter then managed to hit their awesome neckbreaker/450 Splash to get the win. After the match, Stark and Lyons picked up the tag titles and whilst Lyons showed respect to the champions by giving it to them, Stark was reluctant to let go. She then smashed Lyons with the belt before she stood over her to end the show. Even though I expected this to happen, it was still really cool. The KC’s got an important victory to keep them going whilst we now have a proper feud going between an experienced heel and an up-and-coming babyface. Good stuff.
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