Johnny Gargano returns home, Gallus VS Pretty Deadly: NXT Tag Team Championships
After a recap package that showcased what went down on NXT Roadblock last week, Johnny Gargano returned to cut his first promo on NXT in over 15 months. Johnny said he left NXT on a cliffhanger after Grayson Waller left him laying through the announce table on his final day with the company. Johnny Wrestling said he’s coming back to “finish his story” before Vic Joseph showed him on his phone that Grayson Waller was at Gargano’s house. Johnny quickly ran backstage before he drove off in his car. I thought Johnny delivered this promo well and Grayson showing up at his house already makes it a more serious feud.
Grade: B
Wes Lee was unloading his car before Axiom came up to him and said he’s staying with him the entire night so he gets his NXT North American Championship opportunity. Speaking of championships, the NXT Tag Team Championships were on the line as Gallus defended their titles against Pretty Deadly. Both of these teams are talented and they should (in theory) be successful on the main roster once they go there. Gallus are hard-hitting brawlers whilst the boys from Essex use their genius heel tactics well to create opportunities for them. At one point, I even thought Pretty Deadly were going to pick up the win after Kit Wilson blasted Mark Coffey in the back of the neck with the tag titles whilst Elton Prince was distracting the referee, but Coffey managed to kick out at 2 (just barely). Wolfgang then sent Prince to the outside before the Gallus boys hit their tag team finisher to get the win and retain their NXT Tag Team Championships. I thought this was a good match and even though I really like PD, Gallus winning was the right call.
Grade: B-
Sol Ruca VS Zoey Stark, Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn VS The KC’s VS Diamond Mine: Stand and Deliver Qualifying Matches
Fallon Henley and Josh Briggs decided to “break into” Kiana James’ office before they found a contract for an NXT Women’s Championship qualifying match. They then found out that the flowers were from someone called Sebastian. This guy better be a wrestler and not just some random guy they found in Orlando. Shawn Michaels then announced that he may well be forced to strip the NXT Women’s Championship off of Roxanne Perez before we got a video from a doctor who said that he can’t confirm how long Roxanne will be out for. We then got a qualifying match between Zoey Stark and Sol Ruca where the winner would advance to a Ladder Match for the NXT Women’s Championship at Stand and Deliver. I like both of these women, they’re very talented and against 90% of the women on this roster, I would’ve wanted Sol Ruca to get the win. However, Zoey Stark needs to be on Stand and Deliver and thankfully, after a pretty fun match, Stark got the victory with the best move in WWE.
Grade: B-
Scrypts cut one of his uninteresting promos were he said that he knows who his next target is. We then went into a triple threat tag team qualifying match to see who would face Fallon Henley and Kiana James for the NXT Women’s Tag Team Championships at NXT Stand and Deliver. The three teams were Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn, Katana Chance and Kayden Carter and “Diamond Mine’s” Ivy Nile and Tatum Paxley and thankfully, one member from each team was legal at all times. In my opinion, all three of these teams work better together than the champions and Katana and Kayden definitely did the heavy lifting in this match when it comes to tag team offense. However, Alba Fyre is clearly the best singles wrestler out of the six. The most interesting part of this match was when Ivy Nile went to tag in her partner, Tatum Paxley removed her hand and shouted the words “we were never a team”. She then booted Nile in the stomach before Fyre and Dawn hit their tag team finisher onto Ivy to get the win. It probably would’ve made more sense for Paxley to take out Nile after the match if they lost and also, it’s a shame to see another tag team split up, particularly when after a few weeks, we probably won’t see Tatum Paxley for months (like Damon Kemp). As for Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn, they should win the NXT Women’s Tag Team titles convincingly at Stand and Deliver.
Grade: C+
Lots of segments, Apollo Crews VS Dabba-Kato
Tony D’Angelo and Stacks came up to Bron Breakker and asked the champion if he’d like them to take out Carmelo Hayes for him. Bron said no and after a bit of unfunny comedy, Tony D’Angelo told Stacks that the two should go after the NXT Tag Team Championships. Ilja Dragunov then made his way down to the ring and said that he’s had enough of JD McDonagh. The Irish Ace then came out and said he’s sick of Dragunov chasing him and the two are just destined to fight forever. Dragunov challenged JD to a match next week which McDonagh accepted. The two then brawled into the parking lot and they returned when Wes Lee was walking backstage. Pretty Deadly then seemed incredibly sad whilst being interviewed by McKenzie Mitchell before they realised that Stand and Deliver can’t deal without Pretty Deadly. Kit Wilson and Elton Prince then said that they were going to be the hosts of the show. The amount of outfits they’re going to wear is ridiculous. Tyler Bate was then teaching more coping strategies to Thea Hail before Andre Chase told Duke Hudson that even though he might not want to believe it, this university’s done more for him than anything else in his life. Grayson Waller then filmed a video on his phone where he said he was going to check to see if the door was open before Wes Lee made his way out for his NXT North American Championship Open Challenge.
The NXT locker room then once again got into a big brawl and when it looked like Axiom was going to get the opportunity, Scrypts took him out with a flying dropkick. JD McDonagh then attacked Wes Lee from behind before Ilja Dragunov came back for more. This ended with Wes Lee jumping onto all of the wrestlers on the outside and we never got the open challenge. The thing I didn’t get with this was I thought Axiom was staying with him the whole night. Anyway, Dragon Lee was interviewed backstage by McKenzie Mitchell and he said that he can’t wait to debut in NXT. We then got a video showcasing the history between Apollo Crews and Dabba-Kato before Jacy Jayne announced that Gigi Dolin separated her shoulder early on in their match next week. The Rockstar made it clear that when she returns, she’ll make Dolin suffer. Shawn Michaels then told Wes Lee that he would defend his title in a Fatal 5-Way at Stand and Deliver and Wes would have the opportunity of choosing his opportunities before we got the match between Apollo Crews and Dabba-Kato. This match ran with a lot higher tempo than I expected and both men looked pretty decent. Dabba-Kato laid out his opponent on the steel steps and even though Apollo was able to roll back into the ring, the former Commander dropped his former “Prince” with his really cool-looking finisher to get the win. Dabba-Kato was made to look like a beast in this match and that’s a good thing. Apollo losing does question why he’s come back to NXT though.
Grade: B-
Gigi Dolin VS Kiana James, Bron Breakker and Carmelo Hayes sign the contract for Stand and Deliver
Brooks Jensen asked Kiana James if she wanted support at ringside, but Kiana said she needed to go to the ring alone. She then came out for her NXT Stand and Deliver qualifying match and her opponent was none other than Gigi Dolin. Kiana James is currently holding Championship gold whilst Gigi Dolin is a former champion in NXT, but you wouldn’t know that if this was the first time you ever watched the show. What I mean by that is, unfortunately, neither of them are very good in the ring. Dolin getting the win was definitely the right call, but Gigi needs to step up her in-ring game if she’s going to ever become the face of the NXT Women’s division. After the match, Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn attacked Kiana James from behind whilst Fallon Henley was nowhere to be seen.
Grade: C-
Johnny Gargano then showed up at his house (he’s clearly moved since his days with The Way) before he was attacked by Grayson Waller. The two then fought at the front of the house before Candice LeRae walked out with Quill. She told Grayson to go, but the Arrogant Aussie didn’t listen before he broke a shovel over his back. I like that they’re trying to make this feel like a serious feud that’s not just over Waller’s annoyances at not being pushed as the “guy”. It’s fair to say that Candice’s acting wasn’t great, but it was probably because she didn’t want to scare her kid which is totally fair enough. Kiana James and Brooks Jensen were then backstage trying to call Fallon Henley and Josh Briggs before the two walked in. Before Fallon could say anything about what they found out earlier on in the night, Kiana told them that they had an NXT Women’s Tag Team Championship match at Stand and Deliver against Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn. Bron Breakker and Carmelo Hayes then made their way down to the ring for their NXT Championship contract signing. Pretty Deadly made their way down to the ring to host the signing before the champion and challenger said they wanted each others best at Stand and Deliver. Melo then said a really cool stat that this is the youngest-ever Main Event in WrestleMania weekend history. After Pretty Deadly continued to annoy the two stars, Champion and Challenger dropped the hosts of Stand and Deliver through a table before they stood face-to-face as the show went off the air. This feud is being booked in a simple manner at the moment and that’s a good thing as this is a simple story to tell. Bron Breakker and Carmelo Hayes have been the two main names on NXT since NXT 2.0 debuted in September 2021 and this feud is literally about whose the best. Pretty Deadly always make every segment better when they’re in it as well.
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