NXT Review: 02/12
- Linus O'Howell
- 11 hours ago
- 5 min read
Women’s Iron Survivor Challenge Summit, Arianna Grace VS Thea Hail
NXT went straight into things this week by starting off with a summit between the five women set to compete in this weekend’s Iron Survivor Challenge! Sol Ruca, Jordynne Grace, Lola Vice, Kendal Grey, and Kelani Jordan all made compelling cases as to why they’re going to win, before Fatal Influence arrived as Jacy Jayne wanted to make it clear that whoever survives on Saturday, they will fall short to the NXT Women’s Champion at NXT New Year’s Evil! Jordynne and Kelani then started to get into a brawl, leading Fatal Influence to get involved also, with Ava later booking a 6-Woman Tag Team match as a result! This was fine for what it was!
Grade: C+
After Arianna Grace and Channing “Stacks” Lorenzo laughed at the pairing of Joe Hendry and Thea Hail backstage, Arianna was forced to eat her words as she faced Thea in the opening match of the night! This was about as good as you would expect it to b, and whilst there’s nothing wrong with doing these types of matches, it didn’t feel that important! I really like Arianna Grace’s character, and I think she works great in her NXT-TNA Liaison Role, but in-ring she’s still not the best! Ultimately, Thea scored a relatively easy submission victory, and I guess we’ll see where she goes from here!
Grade: C
Josh Briggs VS Tavion Heights, The Culling Explain their Actions
Andre Chase wasn’t at all impressed with either Kale Dixon or Uriah Connors after they nearly ran over OTM, before Ava announced that whoever gets the winning pinfall in tonight’s Main Event will get to choose their slot in the Men’s Iron Survivor Challenge! Ava also got given a box, and this was very strange (to say the least)! Josh Briggs and Tavion Heights were then set to go one-on-one as both superstars were ready to settle their score after weeks of backstage brawls! As expected, neither guy could wait for the bell, attacking each other at ringside before the match even began, and we got a wicked scene where both men crashed through the barricade, completely wrecking that side of the floor (with NXT doing my favourite thing of putting up caution tape to stop others from going over there)! I thought this was a good contest; both guys have their upsides, and Josh Briggs usually tends to deliver good showings! Whilst it wasn’t super clear who was going to get the victory, Tavion let his anger towards the referee get the best of him, opening the door for Briggs to pick up the W!
Grade: B-
The next segment was all about The Culling as Izzi Dame explained why they decided to get rid of Tatum Paxley! See, Izzi believes that she didn’t turn on Tatum, and in fact, Paxley got what she deserved! Izzi dragged Tatum from being sad on the floor to becoming the NXT Women’s Champion, and yet she continued to not listen to the advice that Dame provided her! In fact, the only reason Paxley was even Champion to begin with was because of The Culling, and Dame showed at Gold Rush that she can take things away just as quickly as she can give things to begin with! Izzi Dame then confirmed that she and Tatum Paxley will have a match this Saturday at NXT Deadline, and this is when Tatum appeared on the screen in The Culling’s “old home”, stating that she’s scared of what’s next for her without Izzi, both regarding herself and Dame’s future! I said this when the turn happened; it made sense to do the storyline that they’ve done because I’m not invested in this Paxley-Dame feud, and that means everything NXT has done has worked!
Grade: B-
Fatal Influence VS Kendal Grey, Sol Ruca, and Lola Vice, Chase University VS OTM
After Zaria told Sol Ruca that she isn’t going to be in her corner tonight, Sol, Lola Vice, and Kendal Grey all teamed up to take on Fatal Influence in 6-Woman Tag Team action! I will continue to say that Kendal Grey has improved a lot since her first run on NXT, and you can also say the same thing about Lola Vice! Sol Ruca is, of course, a star; she will go far, and it’s not like she’s facing a slouch of a team in Fatal Influence, as both Jacy Jayne and Fallon Henley have proven themselves time and time again to be two of the best performers in the entire division! However, the one problem for Fatal Influence is that they tend to lose an awful lot of Tag matches, and wouldn’t you know it, that proved to be true again as Ruca nailed Jayne with a Sol Snatcher to get the win, pinning the NXT Women’s Champion in the process! After the match was over, Zaria nailed Kendal Grey with a Spear, but if we’re being completely honest, it very much looked like Zaria was aiming for Sol!
Grade: B-
After Ricky Saints and Je’Von Evans gave each other some back-and-forth banter, Dion Lennox handed his NXT Tag Team Title over to Saquon Shugars before he told Oba Femi that he wants to face him at New Year’s Evil so he can finally prove The Ruler wrong! Chase University then had to suffer the consequences of nearly running OTM over as Kale Dixon and Uriah Connors were tasked with facing Bronco Nima and Lucien Price! I’m not a fan of OTM, never have been, but these are the types of matches that they should be dominating, winning in around 2 minutes so they come across as the threat that they keep telling us they are! However, it felt like Chase U got more offense in here, like they got so much offense in compared to Nima and Price, and that just seems like a very dumb decision to me! Eventually, OTM were able to get the victory, but yeah, this didn’t make them look like a threat at all!
Grade: C-
DarkState VS Leon Slater, Je’Von Evans, Myles Borne, and Joe Hendry
After Mr. Iguana stole Ethan Page’s car, and Shiloh Hill talked about when he crashed in the snow (these two things really happened), it was Main Event time as Leon Slater, Je’Von Evans, Myles Borne, and Joe Hendry all teamed up to take on DarkState in a semi-preview of this weekend’s Iron Survivor Challenge! Whilst this could’ve just been a preview to NXT Deadline, there were real stakes to this, with the winner getting to pick their spot in the Iron Survivor Challenge! That in itself is an interesting concept, as there are a lot of different ways/reasons you could make for choosing any of the 5 spots (besides 2nd because that would be an odd choice)! Anyway, the match itself was alright, I thought Je’Von Evans was easily the best part about this match, but I did quite like that Dion Lennox and Joe Hendry were both taken out of the finish due to them brawling to the back! Now, the finish was a clever one as not only did Leon Slater tag himself in after Je’Von delivered his finishing manoeuvre, Borne also tagged himself in just as Slater delivered his Swanton 450, meaning Myles was the one who scored the pinfall victory with the Borne Again! This was a very clever way to end this match, but I will say that Myles Borne has basically confirmed that he won’t be winning this Saturday! After the match was over, we had a quick contract signing segment between Ricky Saints and Oba Femi, where Ava confirmed that for the first time in NXT PLE history, the NXT Championship will kick off the show at Deadline! I don’t mind this decision at all, and oh, one last thing, I think The Don might be returning!
