NXT Review: 22/04

WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships: Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez VS Gigi Dolin and Tatum Paxley

The NXT after Stand and Deliver kicked off with a Championship match as Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez put their newly re-won WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships on the line against Gigi Dolin and Tatum Paxley! This was decent for what it was, it’s always quite cool to see Raquel back in an NXT ring after her strong stint in NXT (quite a while ago now), and Liv Morgan is just so great at what she does. Gigi and Tatum also did a decent job here, I like Paxley, but I also felt like Dolin stepped up a bit here which was both needed and an overall positive thing to see! In the end, it was Morgan and Rodriguez that managed to come away with the win following ObLIVion, and this was all solid stuff!

Grade: B-

Ricky Saints Promo, Lexis King VS ?: NXT Heritage Cup, Fallon Henley VS Thea Hail

Lexis King was finally given his NXT Heritage Cup back by Penn and Teller, but only on the basis that he defends the Cup against a mystery opponent tonight! DarkState then got into the face of Myles Borne which led to Je’Von Evans coming to the aid of Myles, setting up a Tag Team Match for later in the night before Ricky Saints made his way down to the ring. Ricky talked about how he has delivered on every single one of his promises since he made it to NXT, and he then talked about how important his victory over Ethan Page was! This brought out Lexis King who wants to add the NXT North American Championship to his collection, which is when both men agreed to a ”Winner Takes All” match for next week! This was a segment setting up something for next week’s show, there’s nothing really to speak about!

Grade: C

Thea Hail was delighted for both Hank and Tank and Sol Ruca backstage, but neither Jaida Parker, Kelani Jordan, nor Fatal Influence were particularly happy to see Thea’s bubbly personality back! It was then time for an NXT Heritage Cup Match as Lexis King put his Title on the line against a mystery opponent! That mystery opponent was revealed to be none other than the returning Noam Dar, a guy that we haven’t seen since May last year! It was good to see Noam back because he improved a lot before his injury, but he definitely didn’t seem on it here. Now, that’s understandable given he’s been out with an injury for such a long time, but it meant the match itself wasn’t that good. Also, Supernova 11 just won following an elbow strike meaning Dar is already back to being the NXT Heritage Cup Champion, and that too seems like an odd decision!

Grade: C-

After Roxanne Perez said she was leaving Las Vegas as a record-breaking 3-time NXT Women’s Champion, Fallon Henley was out next to go one-on-one with Thea Hail! I’ve viewed Thea and Fallon as two of the best performers in NXT’s Women’s Division for a while now, I think they both have massive upsides, and there were parts of this match that showed that, especially in the transitions. However, this was another match that felt off at different points, and it was more about the dissension between Fatal Influence as Jacy Jayne accidentally kicked Henley right into the steel steps. This then opened the door for Hail to lock in the Kimura Lock to get the win, and it definitely feels like Fallon Henley’s dropped massively down the pecking order in someone’s estimations!

Grade: C+

Trick Williams Interrupts Oba Femi, DarkState VS Je’Von Evans and Myles Borne

Oba Femi was out next to a good reaction as the NXT Champion wanted to talk about the Main Event of Stand and Deliver! Oba said he was wrong about Je’Von Evans, that he underestimated him, and that the future is bright for The Young O.G.! However, Femi doesn’t have any respect for Trick Williams, he really doesn’t like the guy, and this brought out Trick who said he wants another shot at recapturing his NXT Championship because he hasn’t had a fair crack yet! This is when Joe Hendry made another surprise appearance as the TNA World Champion called out Williams for all of the whining and complaining he’s been doing over the past few months, and that he’s only here to speak to the actual Champion! Trick Willy wasn’t impressed by this, but this just led to him being taken out by both men as Hendry and The Ruler stood face-to-face to end the segment! I’m intrigued to see where this leads over the next couple weeks!

Grade: B-

Luca Crusifino met Channing “Stacks” Lorenzo in the most deserted desert ever, and I’m pretty sure Stacks killed him! Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez then laughed off Zaria and Sol Ruca’s claim that they could potentially capture the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships off of them down the line before Trick Williams started throwing a fit for some reason! We then went into a Tag Team Match as Myles Borne and Je’Von Evans teamed up to try and take down DarkState! I actually didn’t mind the pairing of Myles and Je’Von, especially because the dynamic between Evans and Wren Sinclair has been strong in the past. They’re also both talented in-ring competitors, Borne should probably be doing more whilst Je’Von Evans is one of the absolute best on the brand! DarkState were also here doing there thing, I’m still not particularly sold on them mainly because they’re not that good in the ring, and that massively takes away from the idea of them being an intimidating force. The duo of Dion Lennox and Osiris Griffin were able to eventually pick up the win as the rest of the No Quarter Catch Crew watched on, but this was just here honestly.

Grade: C+

Shawn Spears spoke to Ava about wanting to help his friends before Yoshiki Inamura pretended to get emotional in order to trick Ava into giving him and Josh Briggs another shot at the NXT Tag Team Championships! Amazingly, it worked! Tony D’Angelo met up with Adrinna Rizzo in her hotel room to tell Rizz that she needs to go to the safe house for a while (what on earth) because he doesn’t know what Channing “Stacks” Lorenzo is going to do next! Ricky Saints was then attacked from behind by Lexis King as Ethan Page walked in before Andre Chase said that Chase University is back, and I am so confused about that!

NXT Women’s Championship: Stephanie Vaquer VS Roxanne Perez

And in the Main Event, the NXT Women’s Championship was on the line as Stephanie Vaquer went one-on-one with Roxanne Perez! I thought the action itself here was solid, decent in fact, both women are very, very good at what they do, and I feel like this only scratched the surface of that fact, like I feel like these two could’ve had a banger on a different stage. It’s a weird one as well because this was the final match of WrestleMania Week, so you could argue that it was a big stage, especially as it was happening in Las Vegas, but I don’t know, it just didn’t feel big enough to me. I also think the fact that the result was pretty obvious didn’t help things either, and it of course ended with Vaquer dropping Perez with the SVB! After the match, Giulia arrived on the stage to make her intentions clear whilst Jordynne Grace was watching on in the crowd. One last thing, Roxanne Perez has to go up to the Main Roster now, she cannot stay on NXT any further!