NXT Championship Number 1 Contender’s Battle Royal
NXT kicked off this week with a 25-Man Battle Royal to determine the next challenger for Trick Williams’ NXT Championship! There were a few different guys in here, with the likes of Apollo Crews, Tyler Bate, and Legado Del Fantasma’s Angel and Berto all featuring, but the big surprise was the arrival of TNA’s Joe Hendry! Hendry actually cut a pretty decent promo on the rest of the field before he got eliminated first! I don’t know enough about Joe’s character to know if this works or not, but the crowd certainly weren’t happy! In terms of this overall, I thought it was pretty good. We got storylines furthered for both the No Quarter Catch Crew and Nathan Frazer-Tony D’Angelo, and there were some strong performances from the likes of Tyler Bate and TNA’s Frankie Kazarian (who actually finished 4th). It’s also worth mentioning that Oro Mensah attacked Ethan Page at the start meaning Page technically was never eliminated. Anyway, the final three came down to Dragon Lee, Shawn Spears, and Je’Von Evans, and after Spears dumped out Lee, Evans was able to hit a couple of great moves before he chucked Spears over the top rope to score the biggest win of his young career! Good stuff!
Grade: B
Roxanne Perez and Lola Vice VS Meta-Four VS Jacy Jayne and Jazmyn Nyx, Kelani Jordan VS Michin: NXT Women’s North American Championship, Oba Femi Speaks
Fallon Henley got into an argument with the rest of the NXT Women’s Locker Room before Lola Vice told Roxanne Perez that she’s going to take out anyone that tries to stop her from getting a shot at the NXT Women’s Championship. Chase University then seemed to be getting on a bit better backstage before Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson came over and questioned them. It was then time for a Triple Threat Tag Team Match as Roxanne and Lola teamed up to take on both Meta-Four and the team of Jacy Jayne and Jazmyn Nyx. This was a totally fine contest with some decent moments. Roxanne Perez was clearly the best talent-wise, but I thought both Lash Legend and Jazmyn Nyx had decent showings! Towards the end, Meta-Four came close to scoring the win of their Tag Team finisher before they both got wiped out by Lola Vice. However, The Prodigy then tagged herself in and hit Pop Rox onto Jakara Jackson to score the win. After the match, the two Heels “celebrated” together before Perez floored Vice in an interesting twist.
Grade: C+
Ava congratulated Je’Von Evans on his massive victory earlier in the night before Ethan Page stormed in saying the Battle Royal should still be going ahead (he’s right). This ultimately resulted in the NXT General Manager booking these two to face off in the show’s Main Event. Kelani Jordan was then ready for her first-ever NXT Women’s North American Championship defense as she took on “The O.C’s” Michin. This was a solid match, both women can go in the ring, but it was definitely hurt by the fact that the winner was pretty clear. Another thing that hurt it was the closing phases as OTM arrived at ringside to get into an argument with Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson and this allowed Jaida Parker to sneak in and push Michin off of the top rope. This then set Kelani up perfectly to score the win with her Split-Legged Moonsault, and I have to say, I feel like Jordan needed and quite frankly deserved to have her first Title defense be seen as convincing, rather than like this.
Grade: C
Ethan Page made his intentions for the Main Event very clear before we got a great video package highlighting Izzi Dame. Axiom was then annoyed at Nathan Frazer for focusing on more things than the NXT Tag Team Championships before Luca Crusifino walked in and gave Nathan a contract for an NXT Heritage Cup Match. As you would imagine, Axiom was not impressed! Oba Femi was then out next to talk about his big win at NXT Battleground. Oba explained how and why he’s simply unbeatable as the ruler of this show before Wes Lee arrived and claimed that he still deserves a one-on-one shot for the Title. Femi didn’t seem convinced by this at all, but he ultimately agreed to the match simply because he’s fed up of hearing from him. Weirdly, there was something going on in the background that definitely took away from this a bit, but that’s an ongoing storyline to keep an eye on, and in terms of Femi-Lee, that should be terrific!
Grade: C+
Carlee Bright VS Fallon Henley, Chase University VS Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson
Hank and Tank are officially back and want a match with the New Catch Republic (why) before Charlie Dempsey was seen interrogating Tavion Heights about potentially joining the No Quater Catch Crew. Gallus were then attacked by Tyson Dupont and Tyriek Igwe backstage before it was time for Fallon Henley to go one-on-one with Carlee Bright. This was a match designed to get Fallon a win, but it actually did more than that as Carlee Bright looked pretty decent whilst we also got another story started when Wendy Choo appeared and just choked out Kendall Gray. This actually distracted Bright and allowed Henley to hitting the Shining Wizard for the W, and yeah, this was all decent!
Grade: C+
Eddy Thorpe made it clear that he still has intentions of becoming a Champion in NXT before Je’Von Evans and Trick Williams had a bit of fun backstage whilst also being serious. Chase University’s music then hit as it was time for Andre Chase and Duke Hudson to take on Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson. This was another decent match, both teams are very experienced, and I really found the finish to be interesting. That finish was Chase U actually managed to pick up the rather huge victory thanks to an assist from Ridge Holland. What’s interesting about this is Duke Hudson didn’t seem particularly pleased by this, but Andre Chase and Thea Hail were delighted whilst having no clue what had just happened! I will look forward to seeing how this all plays out in the next few weeks, especially as they didn’t even show a replay on the broadcast (and that can’t have been by accident).
Grade: B-
Ava was talking to Kelani Jordan about her next challenger as both Mr. Stone and Stevie Turner listened in. Arianna Grace then walked in to accept Jordan’s challenger, but Lani said she was talking about Sol Ruca. Grace wasn’t impressed by this so Mr. Stone decided to book them in a match for next week! Andre Chase and Thea Hail were still pumped backstage, but you could tell that Duke Hudson was annoyed with Ridge Holland. Again, I liked this! We also then got a very interesting interaction as Fallon Henley seemed to find some mutual friends in the form of Jacy Jayne and Jazmyn Nyx!
Ethan Page VS Je’Von Evans
Trick Williams was then on commentary to the delight of Vic Joseph for the Main Event match between Ethan Page and Je’Von Evans. This was a decent contest that continues the rise of Je’Von as a genuine big player on Tuesday Nights. That’s something that Mr. All Ego also wants to become, but he maybe needs to step it up in the ring a little before he can make claim to that. However, big wins certainly help and that’s exactly what Page did here to cast downs on the future NXT Championship Match. Shawn Spears then arrived out of nowhere to take out Evans which Trick Williams tried to stop before The Young O.G. wiped out both of the Heels with an amazing double Springboard Cutter to end the show with all four men on the floor. All of a sudden, it looks like we’re headed for a Fatal 4-Way at NXT Heatwave, and I’m all for that!
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