NXT North American Championship: Tony D’Angelo VS Ridge Holland
NXT kicked off this week with the NXT North American Championship on the line as Tony D’Angelo looked to retain against Ridge Holland! This was a decent way to start the show, the action was fine for the most part, and a lot of it actually centred around Shawn Spears who was hanging around at ringside! Towards the end of the match, Shawn jumped onto the apron which resulted in The D’Angelo Family getting into a brawl with Brooks Jensen and Niko Vance before this distracted the referee, allowing Izzi Dame to come out of nowhere and blast Ridge in the head, leading to D’Angelo hitting his Spinebuster to get the win! I will say, I liked Izzi Dame’s inclusion here, especially as it’s very unclear what her true intentions were!
Grade: B-
Bayley Cuts a Promo, Wes Lee VS Dion Lennox, Lexis King VS Charlie Dempsey: NXT Heritage Cup
Wes Lee trash talked both Dion Lennox and Trick Williams backstage to the point where Trick just struck Wes with a right hand! Bayley was then out next as she cut a promo about her love for NXT and how Roxanne Perez isn’t needed anywhere! Giulia then arrived to show some respect to The Role Model, but this was quickly interrupted by Roxanne Perez and Cora Jade who got absolutely booed out of the building! Whilst not much was said, a big brawl broke out which the security guards did a terrible job of breaking up, and this was all to set up a Tag Team match for next week’s Atlanta show! Please, please, may that be the end of The Prodigy in NXT!
Grade: C+
After Jaida Parker got in the face of both Kelani Jordan and Karmen Petrovic backstage, it was then time for more in-ring action as Dion Lennox took on Wes Lee! Whilst this wasn’t a squash match, it’s the closest I’ve seen to one in a long time on NXT! Wes dominated Dion, barely letting the youngster hit any offense before Lee just won with the Kardiak Kick! After the match, Wes Lee called out Trick Williams which started a brawl, and honestly, that was the only part of this segment that I didn’t like!
Grade: C
After a Lexis King video package, Stephanie Vaquer made it very clear that she’s coming for both Fallon Henley and Shotzi, and most importantly, the NXT Women’s North American Championship! It was then time for more Championship action as Lexis King put his newly won NXT Heritage Cup on the line against Charlie Dempsey! Round 1 was pretty even, with the bell coming to Lexis’ rescue at the end whilst in Round 2, King was able to make it 1-0 with a sneaky roll-up! In Round 3, Charlie Dempsey was able to make it 1-all, and this seemed to both Lexis King who got tempted to use a pair of brass knuckles. However, The King refused to do that so the match continued, but after the referee got caught up, Lexis went low and then followed it up with the Coronation to get the win over Dempsey and retain his NXT Heritage Cup! Whilst it felt like the low blow at New Year’s Evil was accidental, this was definitely on purpose, and shows that Lexis King could stay a good guy for long!
Grade: C+
Jaida Parker VS Karmen Petrovic, The D’Angelo Family VS Brooks Jensen and Niko Vance
Bianca Belair and Naomi cut a promo before Andre Chase told Hank and Tank that they might as well split up before he once again made it clear that Chase U is dead! Jaida Parker then arrived with brand-new entrance music as it was time for Miss Parker to go one-on-one with Karmen Petrovic! This was a fine match, there wasn’t much great about it, but there also wasn’t anything bad which is always a positive, especially with newer Superstars! Ashante “Thee” Adonis was supporting his new girlfriend at ringside, but in actual fact, the person that played into the finish was actually Kelani Jordan as Lani got onto the apron and distracted Jaida Parker, allowing Petrovic to sneak away with the victory. Whilst this could’ve been executed better, it’s nice to see Karmen getting a victory for once!
Grade: C+
Sol Ruca, Zaria, Gigi Dolin, and Tatum Paxley made it clear to Meta-Four that it’s important for them to bring the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships back to NXT before it was time for some more Tag Team action as The D’Angelo Family took on the duo of Brooks Jensen and Niko Vance! The action here was fine, it was standard stuff, and it was another match that was more about the outside of the ring than the inside. See, Shawn Spears was out there to try and help his crew, but the same could not be said about Tony D’Angelo, and this is ultimately what allowed Brooks and Niko to get the win!
Grade: C
Axiom and Nathan Frazer were trying to talk about TNA before Josh Briggs and Yoshiki Inamura interrupted them, only for them to get into a brawl with OTM! Dion Lennox then stormed off after throwing some things over before Izzi Dame was seen talking to Tony D’Angelo! The rest of The D’Angelo Family then asked where Tony D was, but The Don made it very clear that The Underboss should be able to handle things himself. Tony’s not wrong! Ethan Page then had a video package as he continues to turn into the devil with each passing week before Ava told Je’Von Evans that he’s not cleared to compete, but Cedric Alexander is! That match will take place next week in Atlanta (against All Ego)!
NXT Championship: Oba Femi VS Eddy Thorpe
And in the Main Event of this week’s edition of NXT, Oba Femi held his first defense of the NXT Championship against Eddy Thorpe! A-Town Down Under were in attendance to watch as they’d agreed with Ava to host the winner of this match next week on a special edition of The Grayson Waller Effect, and the action itself was decent, there were some good moments, Eddy Thorpe definitely picked his pace up which he needed to do whilst Oba Femi is always impressive! Despite Thorpe’s best attempts to take the big man down, eventually, Oba was too powerful as he floored Eddy with the Fall from Grace to get the win before Oba came face-to-face with Trick Williams to close the show. Why?!
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