Trick Williams Starts the Show, Oba Femi VS Ivar: NXT North American Championship
NXT Spring Breakin’ 2024 Week 2 kicked off with the brand-new NXT Champion Trick Williams making his way down to the ring to a massive ovation. Trick talked about his journey before he put over Ilja Dragunov’s impressive skill. Lash Legend then arrived as the two superstars went back and forth with one another before Lash told Trick that she had an envelope that would reveal all! This was very odd, but for whatever reason, Williams and Legend work so well together that it doesn’t even matter!
Grade: B-
After Arianna Grace and Gigi Dolin properly previewed Night 2, Oba Femi made his way down to the ring to defend his NXT North American Championship against Ivar. These are two proper big men, and I had good fun with this. Ivar put Oba through the barricade at one point, and The Viking Raider also crushed Femi with a superb Doomsault! In the end, though, this was all about Femi continuing his Breakout Year as the Champion retained with a really impressive Powerbomb before the North American Title scene was shook by the return of none other than Wes Lee. I really like Wes, I’m delighted to see him back, but I’m also amazed as he should’ve been out for way longer! For me, you have Oba beat Wes at NXT Battleground before Lee heads to the Main Roster.
Grade: B (Overall)
Jacy Jayne VS Thea Hail, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson VS Tyson Dupont and Tyriek Igwe, Ava Makes an Announcement
We then headed straight into the second match of the night as Thea Hail entered through the crowd before her match with Jacy Jayne. I enjoyed this match, Jacy is a veteran nowadays, whilst Thea is now in the Top 3 of the NXT Women’s Division given the recent WWE Draft (in my opinion). The moves were clean for the most part, but my only negative about this whole thing was the ending, as Hail scored a somewhat anti-climactic win after forcing Jayne to tap out almost instantly in the Kimura. After the match, however, things got interesting as Andre Chase accidentally bumped into Fallon Henley and this made Fallon snap as she took out Thea Hail in a genuinely surprising but also cool moment! I was pretty certain that Fallon was going to beat Roxanne Perez for the NXT Women’s Championship, but I’m not against a Henley Heel run against a strong Babyface like Thea.
Grade: B-
Tyson Dupont and Tyriek Igwe talked about how they first met in a decent video promo before Karmen Petrovic was seen training Natalya. Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson then entered the arena as they were about to take on the debuting Tyson and Tyriek. This was a totally fine match, I thought Dupont and Igwe looked pretty decent which is always a good thing with new talent, but you could argue having The O.C. score the win with the Magic Killer was slightly odd. However, I don’t have a problem with it, because I vividly remember Carmelo Hayes losing to Adam Cole earlier in his NXT run and it didn’t turn out to bad for old Melo! However, it is difficult to properly compare Cole with Gallows and Anderson.
Grade: C+
We got a great video package talking about what it was like for the NXT Superstars to get drafted to the Main Roster before Ava was in the ring to announce that the inaugural NXT Women’s North American Champion will be crowned in a Ladder Match at NXT Battleground! To get there though, a Combine (!) will take place next week to determine the 12 women who will compete in Qualifying Matches! Jaida Parker, Sol Ruca, and Arianna Grace all then appeared and made their cases for why they’re going to be Champion before Michin made her return to NXT to call her shot at the Gold! This was very odd, I’m not sure Michin should be eligible for this Title, but a Combine should be fun!
Grade: C
Ridge Holland VS Shawn Spears, Axiom and Nathan Frazer VS The Authors of Pain: NXT Tag Team Championships
The Street Profits showed up to give their support to Axiom and Nathan Frazer before Lola Vice was training with Shayna Baszler. Ridge Holland then made his way down to the ring as he was about to go one-on-one with Shawn Spears. This was okay, but I’d be lying if I said I cared about it that much which is really saying something for NXT (especially). Ridge did hit a couple of nice moves to be fair to him, but Holland dropping Spears with a DDT to score the win felt a bit out of place give what their feud has been about.
Grade: C
Wes Lee told Josh Briggs and Ivar that he’s got the next shot at the NXT North American Championship (they disagreed) before Tony D’Angelo asked Channing “Stacks” Lorenzo to find him some footage from previous Heritage Cup matches. It was then time for the second Championship match of the night as Axiom and Nathan Frazer put their NXT Tag Team Titles on the line against The Authors of Pain. AOP dominated this to begin with, using their size advantage to keep Axiom and Nathan grounded. However, Frazer was eventually able to use his speed to get things rolling before Scarlett tried to interfere. However, she was spotted meaning her, Karrion Kross, and Paul Ellering were sent to the back, and whilst this was going on, the New Catch Republic showed up and took out AOP which allowed Axiom and Frazer to retain via roll-up. This was good, but given the talent involved, it probably should’ve been a lot better.
Grade: B-
Andre Chase, Duke Hudson, and Riley Osbourne were trying to comfort Thea Hail backstage before Mr. Chase had a somewhat nice conversation with Ridge Holland. What this means I don’t know, but it was certainly interesting! Meta-Four then invited Trick Williams to be a guest on Supernova Sessions next week before Kelani Jordan questioned Fallon Henley over her actions earlier in the night. Edris Enofe was then clearly paranoid whilst talking to Malik Blade backstage before Brinley Reece came over with a couple of black cats. This was very odd, but I like cats so I wasn’t complaining!
Lola Vice VS Natalya: NXT Underground
And in the Main Event, Lola Vice and Natalya collided in the first-ever Women’s NXT Underground Match. If you’ve read my stuff in the past, you would know that I’m really not a fan of these types of matches. It just doesn’t work for me, and I find them to be quite dull. That was the case here as well, however, this was the best NXT Underground Match I’ve seen simply because it had a story. Towards the end, Natalya had Lola Vice in the Sharpshooter, but Nattie was forced to let go of the hold as Shayna Baszler had Karmen Petrovic in the Kirifuda Clutch. When Natalya got back in the ring, Lola floored The Queen of Harts with a lovely back fist to score the Knockout Win! At the end of the day, Vice won and that was the critical thing here! Also, after the match, Ava told Roxanne Perez that next week, she will be defending her NXT Women's Championship against none other than Chelsea Green!
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