NXT Tag Team Championships Number 1 Contender’s “Bada Bing Bada Boom” Battle Royal
This week’s NXT kicked off with a 10-Team “Bada Bing Bada Boom” Battle Royal and the match would stay as a Battle Royal until the final two teams and at that point, it will become a normal singles match. Drew Gulak and Damon Kemp were the first team to be eliminated before Hank and Tank followed quickly after. Edris Enofe and Malik Blade, Josh Briggs and Brooks Jensen, and Gallus were also all eliminated without much hassle before The Brawling Brutes got into a tussle with OTM which resulted in Scrypts whipping them all out in a moment that made absolutely no sense. Due to the two teams brawling, the referees weren’t watching what was going on in the ring which is why they missed Humberto Carrillo getting chucked out by Julius Creed. Humberto then got back into the ring and with the help of Angel Garza, they chucked out The Creed Brothers and due to the referee’s seeing this, The Creeds were out. It then became a normal Tag Team match as Angel and Humberto, and Chase University were the last two teams, and in the end, a distraction from the Creed Brothers was enough for Andre Chase to (sort of) steal the victory and book their place on NXT Halloween Havoc next week. This was totally fine, but it also wasn’t anything special. The way the Creeds got eliminated was quite clever though.
Grade: C+
Ilja Dragunov Makes an Announcement, Jaida Parker VS Karmen Petrovic: NXT Women’s Breakout Tournament (Round 1), Lyra Valkyria VS Tegan Nox
Blair Davenport challenged Gigi Dolin to a match at NXT Halloween Havoc before Lexis King said he will be making his debut next week. Carmelo Hayes then marched down to the ring, but he could barely say anything before Baron Corbin interrupted him. Baron could Melo a “fanboy” before Dijak came out and said he’s going to beat both of them tonight before he goes on to capture the NXT Championship in two week's time. Speaking of the NXT Championship, Ilja Dragunov appeared on the screen to announce the final decision that Cody Rhodes made as the “Special Guest General Manager” last week and that decision was to make tonight’s Number 1 Contender’s Triple Threat match into a Fatal 4-Way before Trick Williams’ music hit to reveal that he’s the fourth man. Carmelo Hayes' selling throughout this was superb and so was Baron Corbin and Dijak’s ability to try and stir the pot. Whilst it didn’t work out for the Heels in the sense that they got sent out of the ring by Trick-Melo Gang, you could tell that Hayes wasn’t best pleased with his friend. Whilst the talking in this segment was mostly unnoteworthy (which is never a great thing), the reaction for Trick Williams and Carmelo Hayes’ selling made this feel worth it.
Grade: B-
Fallon Henley was trying to give positive feedback to the competitors in this year’s NXT Women’s Breakout Tournament before Tiffany Stratton walked in and dissed Fallon. I’m concerned that Tiffany’s going to be another former NXT World Champion that’s just going to stick around in NXT for the sake of it rather than going up to the Main Roster. Anyway, it was then time for another match in the NXT Women’s Breakout Tournament as Jaida Parker and Karmen Petrovic clashed in the First Round. I’ll be honest, I’d never heard of or seen either of these women beforehand and to be honest, I was actually pleasantly surprised in the fact that I was sort of impressed. Petrovic looked decent enough whilst I thought Parker looked alright. However, that didn’t matter for much as Jaida Parker ended up tapping out to Karmen Petrovic’s really good-looking Submission move.
Grade: B- (I’m in a good mood)
Natalya found Tegan Nox backstage and told her that she would have her back as it was time for Tegan Nox to go one-on-one with Lyra Valkyria. I liked this match, I thought it was pretty good. Lyra Valkyria continues to grow as a performer in my opinion whilst Tegan Nox has always been great whenever she gets the chance to show it. Some of the moves in this match were also really slick and cool, but I do have a negative with this contest. That negative came when the WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Chelsea Green and Piper Niven made their way down to ringside and them being there was enough to distract Tegan who got dropped by a Roundhouse Kick from Valkyria for the victory. The Tag Champs and Nox and Natalya then brawled to the back and the reason why I didn’t like that finish is it didn’t make Lyra Valkyria look super strong heading into her big match with Becky Lynch at NXT Halloween Havoc next week. However, Lyra made up for it with a fantastic promo about how Becky stole her dream of becoming the first-ever Irish NXT Women’s Champion. Valkyria then said “Whilst I couldn’t stop you from taking that moment from me, I can definitely make sure that I take that Title from you” which was a brilliant line before Becky Lynch appeared on the screen and she also cut a really good promo. No pun intended, but this promo really did make this feud feel “Big Time”.
Grade: B (Match and Promo Combined)
Kiana James VS Shotzi, Arianna Grace VS Brinley Reece: NXT Women’s Breakout Tournament (Round 1)
Carmelo Hayes told Trick Williams backstage that he wasn’t very happy with him joining the NXT Championship Number 1 Contender’s match which Trick responded by saying that he wants more than just the NXT North American Championship. The two shook hands and agreed that whilst their friendship will always last, they will do what it takes to get the job done in tonight’s Main Event. Gigi Dolin then accepted Blair Davenport’s challenge before she decided to “Spin the Wheel to Make the Deal” to reveal that her match with Blair next week will be a Lights Out Match. That should be quite fun, but I was really hoping for a “Buried Alive Match!”. We then got a pretty sad yet motivational video of Von Wagner struggling to do anything in the hospital, but after a pep talk from Mr. Stone, Von was able to at least achieve one thing. If done right, Von’s return is going to be huge. It was then time for Shotzi to return to in-ring competition in NXT as she had a match with Kiana James. This wasn’t that good mainly because it ended with another stupid finish with Kiana’s stupid bag! Roxanne Perez arrived out of nowhere to pull a brick out of James’ bag before Shotzi hit KJ with the bag whilst the referee wasn’t looking before she pretended that Kiana hit her (Eddie Guerreiro style). However, the referee did not disqualify Miss James and instead decided to allow Shotzi to pick up the victory after “The Ballsy Badass” delivered a senton from the top rope. This really didn’t make anyone look good whatsoever.
Grade: C-
Lash Legend and Oro Mensah were on the phone to Noam Dar asking if Jakara Jackson was okay. The NXT Heritage Cup Champion said that Jakara’s injury is so bad that “they’re going to have to remove her arm” before Akira Tozawa walked in and told Meta-Four that he’s looking for Noam. I have no words! We then saw Trick Williams laid out on the concrete floor backstage before Carmelo Hayes ran over to check on his buddy. When we came back from the ad break, a backstage correspondent (I don’t know her name) said that Trick was being taken to a “Local Hospital” meaning he would be out of tonight’s Number 1 Contender’s Match. Interesting. Nathan Frazer then decided to just attack Dominik Mysterio backstage and the most ridiculous thing about all of this was that all of the wrestlers backstage just stood there and cheered for Nathan. The brawl then continued all the way to the ring before Rhea Ripley arrived to pull the NXT North American Champion out of harm's way. I swear NXT (and WWE in general) are horrendous at keeping things in order. Shotzi and Roxanne Perez were then talking backstage before Shotzi allowed Roxanne Perez to “Spin the Wheel” so she could find out the stipulation for her match with Kiana James next week. The wheel landed on the “Devil’s Playground Match” section which is certainly interesting, but I was kind of hoping for the “Boiler Room Brawl!” Anyway, Arianna Grace then cut an in-ring promo about her unfortunate injury before Brinley Reece interrupted her as it was time for the final First Round match in the NXT Women’s Breakout Tournament. I like Arianna Grace so I was happy to see her back wrestling on NXT, but this match wasn’t great. It wasn’t terrible by any means, but there also weren’t many positives that I could take away from this. In fairness to Brinley Reece, she wasn’t even supposed to be in this tournament in the first place so I can’t really be harsh on her whilst Grace still has enough charisma to carry her through her matches. In the end, Arianna Grace got the victory with her finisher and she’ll be facing Kelani Jordan in the Semi-Finals next week.
Grade: C
NXT Championship Number 1 Contender's (Triple Threat) Match: Baron Corbin VS Dijak VS Carmelo Hayes
After Mr. Stone got into Bron Breakker's face and challenged Bron to a match at NXT Halloween Havoc (what a terrible mistake), it was Main Event time as Baron Corbin, Dijak, and Carmelo Hayes all fought for the opportunity to face Ilja Dragunov for the NXT Championship in the Main Event of Night 2 of NXT Halloween Havoc. This was probably a good match overall that had some good spots in it, but it also wasn’t as good as other Number 1 Contender matches I’ve seen in NXT. Still, Baron Corbin and Dijak are two really underrated in-ring performers whilst everyone knows how highly I rate Carmelo Hayes. In the end, after Corbin laid Dijak out with the End of Days, Melo hit Corbin with Nothin’ but Net before he pinned Dijak to get the victory. I thought Melo pinning Dijak instead of Corbin was actually quite a nice touch and I’m all for Dragunov-Melo 3 as not only is it the decider, but I also feel like the NXT Performance Center crowd deserves to see the two fight in person. We then cut backstage to Lyra Valkyria who ripped up a picture of her and Becky Lynch from 5 years ago before Jade Cargill popped up on the screen and pointed at her watch. It’s gotten to the point where Jade Cargill and Dominik Mysterio are now in a fight to see who will appear on more shows!
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