NXT Review: 02/06

Linus O'Howell
1 day ago
6 min read

Lizzy Rain VS Zaria

As always, this week’s edition of NXT kicked off with in-ring action as Lizzy Rain looked to score a measure of revenge over Zaria! This match has been built over the past couple of weeks, with Zaria calling Lizzy “collateral damage” a couple of weeks ago, whilst Rain attacked the Aussie on last week’s show! NXT always does the best job of any WWE product when it comes to always starting their show with a match, and I thought this was a decent way to set the tone for the rest of the night! Zaria’s good, although I do feel like she should be doing more given how she beat Sol Ruca, whilst Lizzy Rain is popular with the crowd! During the match, Tatum Paxley joined commentary, stating that she’s not worried about Zaria whatsoever, but that may prove to be a mistake, as a Z5 was enough for Zaria to pin Lizzy, which I assume earned her a shot at the NXT Women’s North American Championship!

Grade: B-

The Culling VS OTM, Jackson Drake VS Tate Wilder, Lola Vice’s Next Challengers Emerge

Tavion Heights suggested to Sean Legacy and Dorian Van Dux that they should start being a Tag Team, whilst Izzi Dame told The Culling that they need to refocus! DarkState were then out next, only to get attacked by Saquon Shugars during their entrance, which forced Mr. Stone to call an audible and bring forward the match between OTM and The Culling! Everything I’m getting from this Culling storyline right now is that Shawn Spears is going to get excommunicated from the group; you can tell in his facial expressions that he doesn’t have the same control over this group that he once had, with Izzi Dame clearly running the shots! I’m also not convinced that Niko Vance has ever liked “The GPS”, with The Culling once again coming short here after OTM pinned Spears to build some more momentum! On OTM, I’m guessing they’re being built up to challenge The Vanity Project for the NXT Tag Team Championships, but whether they win those Titles or not is another question entirely!

Grade: C+

EK Prosper was trying to explain to Tate Wilder that he needs to chill out a bit, whilst Kam Hendrix told them to make sure that they’re watching when he dethrones Tony D’Angelo for the NXT Championship in tonight’s Main Event! Before we could get to that, though, Tate Wilder was back in action as he went one-on-one with Jackson Drake! As always, Jackson was accompanied by Myka Lockwood and the rest of The Vanity Project, and this guy is just so good! Drake already stands out as the best up-and-coming performer in NXT right now, with him surely set to win Championship Gold down the line?! Anyway, as always in a Tate Wilder match, he does too much, with Wilder not going for the pin when he should’ve! I will say, though, that some of the moves that Tate hit were superb, particularly his top-rope Splash, but eventually, Jackson Drake was able to score the win with a wonderful 450 Splash following interference by Lockwood!

Grade: B-

Mr. Stone was attempting to hype up NXT’s next Premium Live Event, The Great American Bash, before Osiris Griffin stormed in, demanding that DarkState’s match against Myles Borne and Tavion Heights still takes place! Jasper Troy then interrupted this, leading to Osiris and Dion Lennox destroying the LFG Season 1 Winner, before Lola Vice came down to the ring to address the rest of the NXT Women’s Division! Lola talked about what an amazing week she’s had, from successfully retaining her NXT Women’s Championship against Izzi Dame last week to performing at AAA Noches de Los Grandes this past weekend (a match that is still yet to air, by the way)! Vice isn’t planning on slowing down any time soon, though, with the Champion welcoming all challengers, which brought out Kelani Jordan to once again bring up the fact that she’s never been given an opportunity at the NXT Women’s Championship! I thought Kelani brought up a great point that her and Lola Vice’s stories are pretty similar, but the one key difference is that when Lola went to AAA, everyone praised her! However, when Jordan went to TNA and won the Knockouts World Championship, she got kicked out of the locker room! This was a very good point made by Lani! Anyway, Kendal Grey then interrupted, stating that she’s still got her eyes set on the NXT Women’s Championship, which eventually led to Vice booking a Number 1 Contender’s Match between Jordan and Grey for next week’s show! I mean, that match will be good, but Kelani literally beat Kendal two weeks ago, so this seems kind of unfair (again)! Anyway, the segment then ended with Lola Vice accidentally flooring Kendal Grey with a back fist, so I'm assuming that Grey is going to win after all!

Grade: C+

NXT Speed Championship: Lexis King VS Romeo Moreno, Myles Borne and Tavion Heights VS DarkState

After a video that was designed to hype us up for next week’s “Mr. NXT Pageant” between Shiloh Hill and Tristan Angles (to be fair, I was already pretty hyped), Shiloh and Tatum Paxley had another one of their odd conversations before Zaria attacked Tatum from behind! Those two will battle for the NXT Women’s North American Championship next week after all! Tony D’Angelo and Mason Rook then got into a rather intense conversation, which Mr. Stone broke up by telling Mason that he’s getting a match against Naraku next week! However, Stone also made it clear to Rook that he cannot get involved in tonight’s NXT Championship match! Speaking of Championships, the NXT Speed Title was next to be on the line as Lexis King looked to successfully retain against Romeo Moreno! Due to the Title being on the line, the usual 3-minute time limit for a Speed match was increased to 5 minutes, allowing us to at least see a little bit more action! However, as always with the Speed matches, it’s very hard to get too invested in them, despite the fact that I’ve always been a fan of fast-paced action! I guess that’s where the irony comes with having Lexis King as Champion, as he more known for being a slower, more technical performer! In fairness, Romeo would bring it to The King, with a couple of great dives to wipe out the rest of BirthRight, only for Lexis to deliver a Coronation to successfully retain his Speed Title! It didn’t seem to me like Noam Dar helped Moreno out at all here!

Grade: C+

After Nattie said some words that clearly affected Jaida Parker more than she would usually let on, Keanu Carver wasn’t at all impressed with either Tate Wilder or EK Prosper! Wren Sinclair then told Kendal Grey that she has to face Kelani Jordan alone next week, that she can’t keep being a distraction, before Myles Borne and Tavion Heights reunited as they teamed up to take on DarkState! As I said earlier, this match was meant to happen a lot earlier in the show, but I actually think it worked quite well being here! The story of this match was simple; Myles and Tavion weren’t on the same page as they were in the past, with the former No Quarter Catch Crew partners struggling to rekindle their Tag Team chemistry that brought them so close to Championship glory! This would ultimately allow DarkState to take advantage, with Dion Lennox and Osiris Griffin working well together, ultimately putting Heights away with their finishing manoeuvre! After the match was over, Tavion Heights seemingly had no interest in interacting with Myles Borne, whilst Saquon Shugars watched on from the Podium/Platform area!

Grade: C+

NXT Championship: Tony D’Angelo VS Kam Hendrix

And in the Main Event of this week’s edition of NXT, Kam Hendrix looked to make history when he challenged Tony D’Angelo for the NXT Championship! This match got about 12-to-13 minutes to breathe, with Tony guiding this match due to his vast amount of experience compared to his opponent! I’m still not convinced by Kam Hendrix; Booker T keeps calling him “The Heisman”, but he doesn’t stand out nearly as much as some of the other people that have debuted from either the Indies or Evolve over the past month! Hendrix was able to start this match off quickly, stunning D’Angelo with a couple of big manoeuvres, but Kam knew he needed more to beat The Don, which is why he went after a steel chair! However, this was cut off by the massive boot of Mason Rook, which distracted Hendrix enough to open the door for Tony D to deliver Dead to Rights to score another victory! After the match was over, Naraku handed Tony D’Angelo his NXT Championship, whilst it was officially confirmed that next week’s match between Naraku and Rook will now be a Number 1 Contender’s Match!