Oba Femi Starts the Show, Stephanie Vaquer VS Shotzi: NXT Women’s North American Championship Number 1 Contender’s Match
After a recap of NXT New Year’s Evil, NXT kicked off this week with Oba Femi as the brand-new NXT Champion basked in his glory! Oba said it was always destiny for him to hold the NXT Title before Tony D’Angelo made a surprise interruption to say that when the time is right, he’d happily beat Femi again and be known as “The 2-Title Don”! Ridge Holland then arrived to get under the skin of D’Angelo which started a brawl between the two before Eddy Thorpe attacked The Ruler from behind with a strap! To be fair, this was effective as it set up challengers for both of the Men’s Singles Champions on NXT!
Grade: C+
Ethan Page was trash-talking the rest of the NXT Men’s locker room which didn’t sit right with Dante Chen before it was time for the first match of the night as Shotzi and Stephanie Vaquer collided to earn the right to face Fallon Henley for the NXT Women’s North American Championship in two week’s time in Atlanta! This was a tale of two halves for me because I actually thought the in-ring action was good. It’s the best I’ve seen Shotzi perform in a long time and I think that was very helped by how good Stephanie Vaquer is. However, after Jacy Jayne’s interference distracted the referee, Fallon Henley arrived and nailed Stephanie in the back with her Women’s North American Title before Shotzi rolled up Vaquer to steal a surprise victory! This honestly made no sense, it makes the Number 1 Contender’s Match from last week look even more stupid than it already was, and why is Stephanie Vaquer suffering her first loss to Shotzi, like that’s not good enough!
Grade: C
Ethan Page VS Dante Chen, Meta-Four VS Unholy Union: WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships Number 1 Contender’s Math
Sol Ruca was trying to hype up Kelani Jordan backstage whilst Zaria also gave out some of her own advice, only for Cora Jade to arrive and call Kelani a “little girl”! Oba Femi was not impressed with Ava not giving him a match with Eddy Thorpe to the point where he picked up Mr. Stone before it was time for Ethan Page to clash with Dante Chen! Whilst Dante got in a bit of offense, this was once again all about Ethan Page being more ruthless, attacking his opponent before the bell and just being nastier! After Page got the win with a neckbreaker, All Ego attempted to break the foot of Dante Chen before Je’Von Evans ran down to make the save, only to get laid out by Page also! I’m still very intrigued to see how long this all lasts in terms of Ethan Page.
Grade: C+
Dion Lennox told Oba Femi that he’ll challenge him for the NXT Championship one day (Oba laughed) before Shawn Spears was once again annoyed Adriana Rizzo! This annoyed Izzi Dame who got involved before Ashante “Thee” Adonis gave Karmen Petrovic a rose which Karmen followed up with a kiss. I can’t lie, this was very anti-climatic given how long that story’s been going on for! We then got a great video showcasing Giulia’s crowning moment last week before DIY were backstage as they were in the house to see what all this “FRAXIOM” fuss is about! It was then time for another Number 1 Contender’s Match as Meta-Four and Unholy Union clashed for the right to face Bianca Belair and Naomi for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships! This was a decent match, I rate Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn as a pairing highly, and Lash Legend is very good at what she does! To be fair, Jakara Jackson also goes under the radar as she continues to improve, and I really think it might be time for Meta-Four to head to the Main Roster now. After a close battle, it was Lash and Jakara who nailed their Tag Team finisher to get the win, and I would honestly love it if they won the WWE Women’s Tag Team Titles!
Grade: B-
Cora Jade VS Kelani Jordan, Axiom and Nathan Frazer VS OTM: NXT Tag Team Championships
Lexis King was delighted about winning the NXT Heritage Cup whilst Wren Sinclair believed that Charlie Dempsey deserved a rematch! Ava seemed on board with this until a brawl broke out in the Parking Lot between Tony D’Angelo and Ridge Holland before it was time for Cora Jade to go one-on-one with Kelani Jordan! This was totally fine, it was pretty normal action, a little slow at times, and honestly not much happened. Kelani was a bit more aggressive, showing a bit more anger as the match went on, but in the end, it was Cora who outsmarted Lani with a rack to the eyes before The Mean Girl of NXT dropped Jordan with Jaded to get the win. The definition of mid!
Grade: C
Eddy Thorpe was delighted with himself for getting another NXT Championship shot before Josh Briggs and Yoshiki Inamura made it clear that they’ve got next when it comes to the NXT Tag Team Championships! Speaking of the NXT Tag Team Championships, it was then time for the Main Event match of the night as Axiom and Nathan Frazer put their Titles on the line against OTM! This was definitely the match of the night as both teams put on a good display and could’ve easily walked away as the victors! DIY were watching on from the Podium/Platform area, and if I was them, I’d be very cautious about picking a fight with Axiom and Frazer! After a close back-and-forth battle, Nathan Frazer delivered a superb Frog Splash from the top rope to the announce table before Axiom nailed the Golden Ratio to get the win and retain their NXT Tag Team Titles! Clearly, FRAXIOM are not planning on slowing down just because it’s a new year!
Grade: B
Roxanne Perez Addresses Her Future
In the final segment of this week’s NXT, Roxanne Perez appeared in the ring to address her future! Roxanne talked about how great her run as NXT Women’s Champion was and that NXT had very much built itself up as the Best Women’s Division in all of Professional Wrestling! However, with Roxy as Champion, the Division will become lost and all of that hard work will be for nothing! Before Perez could say anymore, Bayley made a surprise appearance on NXT to make it clear to The Prodigy that the Division will be more than good enough without her before a brawl broke out to close the show! Honestly, I don’t know what the point of this was. Like, my one big issue with NXT is their top stars stay around for longer than they should, and it happened again here, like there was no need for Roxanne Perez to be on this show, and I don’t get what Bayley coming out had to do with any of it honestly!
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