Ilja Dragunov Starts the Show, Kiana James VS Kelani Jordan
NXT kicked off this week with Ilja Dragunov as the NXT Champion quickly called out Carmelo Hayes. Melo appeared, but not without 10 security guards standing between the two men before Hayes made it clear that he’s only going to interact with Dragunov once a contract for an NXT Championship match is in place. This was a short opening segment to build hype for later in the show which is fine by me.
Grade: C+
Ava booked a match between Gigi Dolin and Jaida Parker after the two got annoyed at one another before it was time for the first match of the night as Kiana James looked to put Kelani Jordan in her place. If you’ve read my blog from the beginning, you will know that my view on Kiana James has changed a lot and I very much now see her as one of the top names in the NXT Women’s Division. I also think Kelani Jordan will be in that position within a year or two’s time. As for this match, it was totally fine, but it probably could’ve been better. Izzi Dame constantly trying to get involved didn’t help the action flow, but it did help Kiana who hit the Deal Breaker to get the victory. Not much to add other than cool!
Grade: C+
Edris Enofe and Malik Blade VS Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson, Jakara Jackson VS Roxanne Perez, Dijak VS Luca Crusifino
Roxanne Perez was shown getting in a fight with Jakara Jackson backstage (this was a replay from last week) before it was time for Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson to make their NXT debuts against Edris Enofe and Malik Blade. It’s crazy that due to Gallows and Anderson never being used on SmackDown, you forget how good of a Tag Team they actually are. It also helped that they were facing the always entertaining Blade and Enofe, and in the end, a Magic Killer was enough for The Good Brothers to get the W. After the match, Chase University and Axiom and Nathan Frazer arrived to try and take out The O.C. before The LWO arrived to properly wipe them out. What I loved about this is Frazer literally joked about The LWO beforehand saying “at least The LWO don’t jump people from behind”!
Grade: B-
Oba Femi wanted to speak to Ava about his next challenger before Ilja Dragunov walked in as he also wanted to talk with the NXT General Manager. In 5 seconds, NXT has made me want to see Dragunov-Femi in a Winner Takes All match! Anyway, it was the time for Jakara Jackson and Roxanne Perez to go at it in singles action. I don’t have much to say about this match, but what I will say is Jakara Jackson looked pretty decent. Despite this, Miss Jackson was never going to win here and Roxanne ultimately scored the victory by making Jakara tap out. I’m liking Roxy’s new character at the moment.
Grade: C+
Thea Hail seemed really disappointed over Riley Osbourne only wanting to be friends before Jacy Jayne told her that the old Thea sucked, as do Mr. Chase and Duke Hudson. Jayne then walked off with Kiana James and Izzi Dame, and yeah, Jacy’s Face run didn’t last long huh? Anyway, Baron Corbin and Bron Breakker ran into Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson backstage and not only would that match be good fun, but the fact that the NXT Tag Team Champions were basically wearing matching outfits was pretty funny. Dijak was then in the ring as he was about to take on Luca Crusifino. I very much expected this to be a squash match and I was wrong! Luca got in quite a bit of offense and actually broke out a little bit here which is always great to see. Of course, Dijak got the win in the end with Feast Your Eyes, but still, fair play to Mr. Crusifino. Also, Joe Gacy arrived at the end to start a brawl with Dijak after “Mr. Cool” got hit in the back with a crowbar (by Crusifino).
Grade: B-
Lyra Valkyria Promo, Lexis King VS Von Wagner, Gigi Dolin VS Jaida Parker, Noam Dar VS Charlie Dempsey: NXT Heritage Cup
Tony D’Angelo told Channing “Stacks” Lorenzo that after he takes care of some business, he wants him to go and get him Luca Crusifino. A nice little bit of foreshadowing here. Noam Dar then remained as confident as ever whilst talking to Kelly Kincaid backstage before Lyra Valkyria came out to talk about retaining her NXT Women’s Championship last week. Lyra firstly sent her best wishes to Shotzi before she told Tatum Paxley to come down to the ring as she had a surprise for her. Honestly, this was a genuine surprise as Valkyria revealed that her and Tatum Paxley would be teaming up next week at NXT Roadblock to take on The Kabuki Warriors for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships! Awesome, and also, I loved Tatum’s selling of this. Ridge Holland then weirdly interrupted as he wanted to apologise to everyone for reasons I still don’t understand. Anyway, the lights then went off and the mystery guy that’s been appearing over the last few weeks dropped Holland with a steel chair to the back. The mystery man then took off his hood to reveal himself as none other than Shawn Spears (aka Tye Dillinger). I talked about Lyra’s announcement being a surprise, but this was an incredibly left-field move that’s left me very excited, especially considering Spears isn’t coming back to do his silly “Perfect 10” gimmick.
Grade: B (Overall)
Brooks Jensen stepped up to Oba Femi in the NXT Parking Lot so fair play to him for not getting injured before Kelly Kincaid entered Carmelo Hayes’ locker room which was surrounded by loads of “Melo’s Security”. Melo once again reiterated the fact that he’ll come out in the Main Event as long as there’s an NXT Championship contract and I’ll be honest, this Melo might be my favourite yet (which is saying something)! We then got another match between Lexis King and Von Wagner, and to me, this was a bit odd. Von was in control until he got distracted by an injured Mr. Stone (who’d been bumped into by King) before Lexis took advantage, only to get distracted by Stone himself before Wagner scored the win with a roll-up. After the match, King attacked Von from behind before he dropped Mr. Stone with the Coronation, and yeah, this was very odd.
Grade: C
We got a brilliant video package highlighting both Asuka and Kairi Sane’s run in NXT before Lyra Valkyria told Tatum Paxley that they have their work cut out for them next week. Jaida Parker then took the mick out of the odd tandem before Arianna Grace tried to create peace. I actually think Arianna made things worse! Anyway, Joe Gacy then attacked Dijak whilst “hiding” as a cameraman before it was time for Gigi Dolin to go one-on-one with Jaida Parker. The action here was fine, it was a slightly better-than-normal Gigi match simply because Parker is actually a decent wrestler. Weirdly, Arianna Grace arrived to scream at Gigi to “keep the peace” which ultimately cost Dolin the win. On paper, this sucks. However, Arianna Grace is so good as a character that this was actually quite funny.
Grade: C+
We saw a clip from a beach that teased a return of someone so I’m really hoping that’s going to be Sol Ruca before it was time for the Main Event match of the night as Noam Dar put his NXT Heritage Cup on the line against Charlie Dempsey of “No Quarter Catch Crew”. Dempsey quickly took a 1-0 lead with a lovely crucifix pin before Damon Kemp blasted Dar in the back of the head behind the referee's back. Towards the end of Round 3, Noam floored Charlie with a strong elbow which ultimately helped Dar make it 1-1 earlier in the 4th as Dempsey was all over the place. However, in Round 5, Kemp, Myles Borne, and Drew Gulak all got involved a little too much for Supernova 11 which ultimately allowed Dempsey to score the win to become the brand-new NXT Heritage Cup Champion! What I liked about this is Dar lost his Cup in the same way that he’s basically held onto it for so long. However, my only negative towards this is I wasn’t sure whether I’m supposed to have sympathy for Noam or not so I guess we’ll have to wait and see!
Grade: B-
Ilja Dragunov and Carmelo Hayes Come Face-to-Face
After Shawn Spears said he knows that Ridge Holland is lying to himself, Carmelo Hayes arrived with all of his security to chat with Ava and Ilja Dragunov about an NXT Championship match at NXT Roadblock. Both Carmelo and Ilja cut good promos here on one another before Tony D’Angelo’s music hit in a pretty surprising moment. Tony D then got in the ring and revealed that Melo’s Security actually belonged to him before Ava announced that instead of Dragunov defending his NXT Championship next week, it’s actually going to be Hayes-D’Angelo and the winner will get The Mad Dragon at NXT Stand and Deliver. Ilja seemed happy about this, but the same could not be said about Melo who sent Tony D crashing through the table before he signed the contract to close the show. This was another twist on both this show and this NXT Championship story in general. I’ll be honest, I’m a little bit disappointed as I was really intrigued to see Dragunov-Hayes 4 whilst it’s now pretty obvious that Tony D’Angelo is going to beat Carmelo next week. However, Dragunov-D’Angelo for the NXT Championship does make sense for NXT’s biggest show of the year whilst this proved that Melo is right when it comes to only trusting HIMself.
