Wes Lee, Tyler Bate and Mustafa Ali VS Schism
NXT kicked off with Schism in the ring as they looked to tackle the trio of NXT North American Champion Wes Lee, Tyler Bate and “Free Agent” Mustafa Ali. This was a fun little contest that got plenty of time which really helped the wrestlers showcase their craft. Joe Gacy has majorly improved since he first started in NXT whilst the Dyad (Rip Fowler and Jagger Reid) are excellent tag team wrestlers. Tyler Bate is a fantastic, well-rounded wrestler whilst Wes Lee pulled off some amazing dives in this match as he continues to build his claim to being the greatest NXT North American Champion. Finally, it’s so nice to see Mustafa Ali getting to showcase his ability and the crowd loving him only makes it better. At one point, Wes Lee tagged in Tyler Bate whilst the referee’s view was blinded which meant he didn’t see the tag before Joe Gacy hit a really good-looking assisted powerbomb. However, another referee rolled in to stop the 3 count from taking place which was both cool and interesting. Ali then took Reid out with a tornado DDT before Lee dived onto Fowler which left Tyler Bate in the ring to hit the Tyler Driver 97 onto Gacy to get the victory. I was surprised that the Big Strong Boi got the winning pinfall, but that’s not a bad thing. The only slightly sad thing about this match was Schism lost again.
Grade: B-
Seth “Freakin” Rollins accepts Bron Breakker’s challenge, Cora Jade VS Thea Hail
Thea Hail wasn’t getting along too well with Drew Gulak and Charlie Dempsey at Chase University so Duke Hudson kicked them all out. He then called Mr. Chase to try and find out when he’s going to be back. Bron Breakker then made his way down to the ring in all black which looked cool before he said “everyone’s going to pay for the mistakes they make” before he called out Seth “Freakin” Rollins. Ilja Dragunov then arrived, but was quickly pulled back by referees before Seth Rollins appeared on the titantron. The Visionary said he respects Bron for aiming straight at the top and he wouldn’t mind returning to where it all began. Because of this, Seth announced that he will defend his World Heavyweight Championship against Bron Breakker next week! That’s pretty cool, but Seth’s got to make sure he retains his belt on Raw first.
Grade: B-
Dana Brooke got a video package before she talked to McKenzie Mitchell about how she’s happy to wrestle on any show including NXT Level Up which is interesting. Cora Jade then walked in and blamed Brooke for her losing a shot at the NXT Women’s Championship last week before she slapped her. This leads to something later on. Wes Lee, Tyler Bate and Mustafa Ali were all talking backstage and Wes and Tyler agreed to fight for the NXT North American Championship next week after some influence from Ali. The Heart of 205 Live then said he’d be the special guest referee for next week’s match and I definitely now know that something’s going down next week. What that is, we’ll just have to wait and see, but I will say this, Ali’s one of my favourite wrestlers in the world, but I wouldn’t trust that guy at all! We then went into the first women’s match of the night as Cora Jade battled Thea Hail who was riding off the back of her biggest victory in her young career. This match wasn’t long, yet it got more time than I expected it to and whilst it wasn’t the best technical match, there were some good things to it. Thea Hail is a likeable and believable underdog whilst Cora Jade plays the “mean girl” role well. Dana Brooke arrived and threw Jade into the steps after the referee took Cora’s Kendo Stick away which furthered that storyline and Thea Hail got her second successive victory, but this time, she did it with a Kimura Lock which makes perfect sense given the fact that she’s been working with technical masters in Drew Gulak and Charlie Dempsey. Duke Hudson looked happy with Hail’s performance whilst Gulak and Dempsey clapped from the entranceway.
Grade: C+
NXT Heritage Cup: Noam Dar VS Nathan Frazer
Shawn Michaels announced that “NXT Gold Rush” will take place over the next two weeks with Seth Rollins VS Bron Breakker main eventing Week 1 for the World Heavyweight Championship whilst Carmelo Hayes will defend the NXT Championship against the winner of tonight’s main event (Baron Corbin VS Ilja Dragunov) in Week 2’s Main Event. Noam Dar was in the ring on crutches before he was meant to defend the NXT Heritage Cup against Nathan Frazer. Dar said Frazer attacked him in the parking lot which was interesting before he said that Oro Mensah would take his place in the match. This didn’t work out to well for Supernova 11 early on as Nathan Frazer scored a fall in the first round with a roll-up. However, Mensah was able to fight back and a little help from Lash Legend and Jakara Jackson allowed Mensah to level the match up at 1 fall each. Neither man could find a clear chance of winning in Round 3 before Legend and Jackson tried the same tactic they tried in Round 2. However, Valentina Feroz and Yulisa Leon arrived in what was payback for last week’s Battle Royal which then allowed Nathan Frazer to hit his amazing Phoenix Splash to get the victory. I’m assuming that Noam Dar is genuinely injured which does suck for him given the fact that he’s come over from the UK to defend his trophy. However, Nathan Frazer winning was really cool as he has deserved to be a champion for a while.
Grade: B-
Dabba-Kato VS Axiom and Scrypts, Edris Enofe VS Malik Blade, Roxanne Perez VS Tatum Paxley
Lyra Valkyria had a video package where she said she had to have “short-term memory when it comes to her failures” before Jacy Jayne took the mick out of Elektra Lopez for being eliminated by Valkyria in the Battle Royal last week. Lola Vice then walked in and reminded Jayne that she was also eliminated by Lyra last week and it now seems like Elektra and Lola are going to be a new team going forward. I’m fine with that, but I feel like that’s been Elektra’s whole gimmick since she left Legado (that was a mistake). Von Wagner was then talking to Mr. Stone about his therapist before Dijak walked in, mocked Wagner and put his sunglasses on. I later found a clip from months ago where Wagner told Dijak to take his “sunglasses off because we’re inside” so fair play to them for doing this. Mr. Stone asked Von whether he’d spoken to the therapist about the picture which Wagner responded by saying “no because it needs to be someone I trust”. The point of this interaction was Wagner trusts Stone. Dabba-Kato was then looking to get some revenge on both Axiom and Scrypts and he got the chance to do that in a 2-on-1 handicap match. Last week’s match/segment between these 3 guys was absolutely terrible and this week it was also pretty bad. Axiom and Scrypts were comfortable against the former Commander and Axiom ended up picking up the victory with the Golden Ratio. Dabba-Kato went from being a dominant force two weeks ago to a complete and utter joke. I really can’t see how he recovers from this (if you have a wrestling brain like me). However, this segment was better than last week due to the aftermath of the contest as Angel and Humberto arrived and attacked the superheroes from behind. I like Los Lotharios, I think they’re really good.
Grade: D+
Channing “Stacks” Lorenzo had a board with a bunch of different suspects in regards to who got Tony D’Angelo arrested. Some of these were absolutely excellent like Tommaso Ciampa (whose subheading was missing), Legado del Fantasma (whose subheading was name changed), the Italian guy that used to hang out with them back in the 2.0 days (I don’t know his name) and the best one of all was a picture of two dimes with the subheading “Alive?”. Fair play to whoever came up with this. Duke Hudson was congratulating Thea Hail backstage and told her that he believes she has what it takes to become NXT Women’s Champion in 2 weeks' time at NXT Gold Rush Week 2. Tiffany Stratton then walked in and told Hail that she has no chance of winning before Drew Gulak and Charlie Dempsey told Thea that she still has a lot of work left to do. It was then time for another one of those weird tag partner V tag partner things NXT likes doing at the moment and this time it was between Edris Enofe and Malik Blade. Booker T rightly pointed out that this makes no sense given they’re a genuine team, but these two are also the best two in-ring workers compared to Josh Briggs and Brooks Jensen as well as Hank Walker and Tank Ledger. The match didn’t go to long, but it had some alright spots and Blade managed to sneak the roll-up victory. After the match, Enofe and Blade hugged before Booker T announced that those 3 teams will battle one another next week and the winning team gets a shot at Gallus and the NXT Tag Team Championships. The teams then brawled whilst Los Lotharios watched on.
Grade: C
After Damon Kemp trash-talked the referees, Eddy Thorpe agreed to fight Kemp again and he also offered Damon the opportunity to pick the stipulation. I 100% know for sure that he’s not going to pick an Ambulance Match. Blair Davenport then toured the grounds of NXT to show where she attacked Nikkita Lyons, Wendy Choo and Sol Ruca which is pretty sickening when you think about it before it was time for Roxanne Perez to try and get a little bit of revenge on Tatum Paxley. This match didn’t go very long, but I thought they did a good job with what they had. Roxanne Perez is clearly one of the stars of this division whilst I really think Paxley has a lot of potential. However, they did make a small mistake at the end which meant Perez beat Pax in a rather flat way. After the match, Roxy cut a promo about how she’s not scared of Blair Davenport. I would assume that that match is going to take place in two weeks' time at NXT Gold Rush Week 2, but we’ll have to wait and see.
Grade: C
NXT Championship Number 1 Contenders Match: Baron Corbin VS Ilja Dragunov
Gigi Dolin seemed incredibly annoyed that she was eliminated by Kiana James last week before Fallon Henley walked in and the two agreed that they can’t stand James. Ok. Lucien Price and Bronco Nima then got a video package and I’ll be honest, I’d never heard of these two before. However, that’s not a bad thing and I’m intrigued to see how they get on. After this, it was time for the main event of the night as Baron Corbin and Ilja Dragunov battled for the right to face Carmelo Hayes for the NXT Championship at NXT Gold Rush Week 2. This was a fine contest, but it also wasn’t special by any means. Dragunov strikes well and he also did a decent job at selling his injured ribs whilst Baron Corbin showcased his mean streak by attacking Dragunov’s ribs repeatedly. However, the match just didn’t feel as good as it should’ve and the Czar would’ve got the victory if it wasn’t for Bron Breakker running in and taking the Torpedo Moscow for Corbin. This allowed the Lone Wolf to hit End of Days to pick up the victory. Bron Breakker and Ilja Dragunov then brawled to the back as Carmelo Hayes arrived and laid out his newest challenger with Nothin’ but Net. I don’t really get why Breakker felt the need to cost Dragunov when he’s meant to be facing Seth “Freakin” Rollins next week (unless he wants to form an alliance with Corbin). It’ll probably mean that Dragunov repays the favour next week before the two go on to have a feud for a bit. I do think Hayes-Corbin is an exciting match, but I also feel like Corbin needs to bring his A-game to match the A-Champion.