Dijak VS Noam Dar
NXT kicked off this week with a singles match between Dijak and Noam Dar. For me, Dijak and Noam Dar are two of the bigger and better superstars in NXT so it was cool to see them going at it. I thought the match itself was decent, Dijak being cheered is pretty cool given the character that he plays, but in the end, a smart distraction by Oro Mensah allowed Noam Dar to hit the Nova Roller to score a pretty big win for him and the rest of Meta-Four as a whole.
Grade: B-
Lola Vice VS Sol Ruca, Joaquin Wilde VS Ridge Holland, Tony D’Angelo Returns, Ilja Dragunov’s Open Challenge
Ilja Dragunov agreed with Ava to host an Open Challenge tonight before we got a great but also very creepy Tatum Paxley video! I’ve liked Tatum for a while, so I’m glad to see her getting these opportunities, and her delivery about wanting the NXT Women’s Championship was also pretty good. We then went into the second match of the night as Sol Ruca was facing off with Lola Vice. The action here was decent, it wasn’t anything to write home about, but I’m still just happy to see Sol back in action. Both women came close to winning this match at different points, but in the end, some interference from Blair Davenport paved the way for Lola to nail Ruca with a Roundhouse Kick to secure the victory. My only problem with this is it should’ve been a disqualification as the referee literally watched Blair get involved. Also, after the match, Natalya challenged Lola Vice to an NXT Underground Match which should be something!
Grade C+
Ridge Holland once again lost his cool backstage before we saw Arianna Grace preparing Gigi Dolin for the start of her makeover. This was short, and I really enjoyed it! Ridge Holland was then in the squared circle as the earlier segment tied in nicely to a match between him and Joaquin Wilde. I actually can’t remember a time where I've seen Joaquin Wilde wrestle a singles match, but I thought he did a decent job. Unfortunately, I can’t get into this whole Ridge Holland run at all. In the end, Holland managed to pick up the victory whilst Shawn Spears watched on gleefully.
Grade: C
Josh Briggs and Ivar got into a heated discussion backstage before we saw Brinley Reece training Edris Enofe and Malik Blade for their match with A.O.P. I’ll be honest, I’m not sure this was the correct strategy! Anyway, Thea Hail and Andre Chase hugged it out in a nice moment backstage before The D’Angelo Family arrived as Tony D was back! Tony talked about his loss to Ilja Dragunov at NXT Stand and Deliver before the No Quarter Catch Crew arrived to talk business with The Family. In the end, The Don demanded a shot at the NXT Heritage Cup before a brawl broke out between the six men. Out of the 7 people involved here, only D’Angelo looked good.
Grade: C
Ilja Dragunov then made his way down to the ring as the NXT Champion had issued an Open Challenge. Most of the locker room then got into a brawl trying to make it into the ring first before Je’Von Evans jumped in from the crowd to set up a match between The Czar and The Young OG. This match wasn’t very long, but I enjoyed it a lot! I could honestly watch Ilja Dragunov every day, he’s that damn good, whilst Je’Von Evans feels like my type of Superstar. There were some hard-hitting shots from both men at times, but in the end, Dragunov was able to hit Torpedo Moscow to get the win, and all I’ll say is this might have changed an upcoming article that I’m going to do!
Grade: B
Thea Hail VS Tatum Paxley, A.O.P VS Edris Enofe and Malik Blade, Ivar VS Josh Briggs
Karmen Petrovic said that she will be training Natalya for NXT Underground before Lola Vice walked in to say that she has someone in her corner also. Sol Ruca then demanded a No Disqualification Match with Blair Davenport for NXT Spring Breakin’ and it was later confirmed that they will face off next week in a “Beach Brawl”. This is why NXT is the best thing on television! Anyway, Thea Hail then made her way down to the ring to go one-on-one with Tatum Paxley. I’m a fan of both Thea and Tatum so I was excited to see this match, and I thought it was pretty decent. However, it was also quite short and suffered from some late interference. After Jazmyn Nyx distracted the referee, Jacy Jayne pulled the rope on Hail which allowed Pax to sneak the victory. For me, I would’ve just had Tatum win clean here.
Grade: C+
Roxanne Perez got very annoyed at Ava backstage after the NXT General Manager booked a Triple Threat Match between Roxanne, Lyra Valkyria, and Tatum Paxley for NXT Spring Breakin’. I honestly don’t blame The Prodigy for getting mad here! The Final Testament then arrived as The Authors of Pain had a match with Edris Enofe and Malik Blade. However, this wasn’t much of a match as A.O.P destroyed Enofe and Blade before they delivered a Super Collider to score the easy 3 count. Axiom and Nathan Frazer then showed up after the match, making it clear that that’s our next NXT Tag Team Championships feud.
Grade: C
Arianna Grace and Gigi Dolin were back as Arianna found a fancy green dress for Gigi to wear. However, Dolin edited it and honestly, it looked a lot cooler! Also, both of these Grace-Gigi segments were just fun (and that’s all they need to be)! It was then time for Ivar and Josh Briggs to collide in a “sort of” Number 1 Contender’s Match. Both Ivar and Josh Briggs have been showing out these past few months, and they also did a good job here. Briggs did especially well at selling his injured ribs, but in the end, that ultimately cost him as a nasty Doomsault from the Viking scored Ivar the win to the delight of Oba Femi backstage (who once again ran over Oro Mensah).
Grade: C+
Carmelo Hayes VS Trick Williams: Steel Cage Match
And in the Main Event, after another great video package, Carmelo Hayes and Trick Williams collided again, this time inside of a Steel Cage! The action here was decent, it got better as it went on, and Trick was still super over with the crowd. However, it also felt a bit pointless. NXT Stand and Deliver was the perfect end to the Trick-Melo story (at least on NXT anyway), so why they decided to do a rematch that didn’t feel nearly as big makes little sense to me. Towards the end of the contest, Melo’s security tried to get involved which gifted Hayes a Steel Chair. However, Williams was able to nail Melo with the Trick Shot (who was holding the chair) to score the victory before the show went off the air with Trick and Ilja Dragunov staring at one another. For a Carmelo Hayes run that has felt almost perfect in NXT, this was a bit of a disappointing end.
Comments