NXT Review: 04/08

Linus O'Howell
1 day ago
5 min read

Nikkita Lyons and Karmen Petrovic VS Thea Hail and Jaida Parker

This week’s edition of NXT kicked off with Tag Team action as Nikkita Lyons and Karmen Petrovic took on the odd pairing of Thea Hail and Jaida Parker! Thea and Jaida have bonded over recent weeks, setting the stage for them to team together against Nattie “protégés”! I thought that this was a decent enough match, with Nikkita and Karmen working well together! However, that didn’t exactly make much of a difference here, as after Miss Parker dealt with Petrovic, Hail delivered “Boing” to Lyons to pin the Evolve Women’s Champion for the second-straight week! Thea’s definitely not winning that Title!

Grade: C+

Tony D’Angelo Gets Interrupted, Wren Sinclair VS Zaria: NXT Women’s Speed Championship

After a video recapping Brock Lesnar’s retirement announcement, Tony D’Angelo came down to the ring to address his future challengers! Tony didn’t really care too much about Grayson Waller; his focus was more occupied by Cruz Montana! Of course, this resulted in Grayson Waller interrupting, with The Arrogant Aussie stating his claim for a shot at the NXT Title! Tony then brought up a great point that out of the original 2.0 team, only Waller hasn’t held the NXT Championship, whilst Cruz Montana then arrived to get into a war of words with Grayson! Unlike Waller, Montana has actually battled hard for everything he’s earned, whilst D’Angelo had eventually had enough, telling the other two that he’d fight the winner at Heatwave! That’s definitely going to end up being a Triple Threat!

Grade: C+

After Kendal Grey calmed Wren Sinclair down, Wren had to head down to the ring to put her NXT Women’s Speed Championship on the line against Zaria! The build to this match was the same as what Myles Borne encountered last week; if Wren could retain her Women’s Speed Title, she’d get a shot at Zaria’s NXT Women’s North American Championship! Now, the problem with that stipulation is that it would require Zaria to lose, something that also wouldn’t be a very good idea! So, to combat that, NXT played into the Speed format, with this match ending as a timed draw whilst Sinclair had Zaria locked in a submission! Zaria would then floor Wren Sinclair after the match was over, but all of this just means that this feud will have to continue!

Grade: C+

NXT Tag Team Championships: The Vanity Project VS Myles Borne and Tavion Heights, EK Prosper VS Keanu Carver

Birth Right continue to cause tension in OTM, with Lucien Price wanting a singles match against Lexis King as his brother “already has a backup plan”! Grayson Waller and Kelani Jordan then had a fun interaction backstage, before Mason Rook’s attempt to get in the face of Grayson Waller was hijacked by an attack from Kam Hendrix! The NXT Tag Team Championships were the next Title to be on the line as The Vanity Project aimed to retain against the duo of Myles Borne and Tavion Heights! The Vanity Project were pretty annoyed that this match was even going ahead to begin with, with Myles Borne and Tavion Heights earning the opportunity because Myles successfully defended his NXT North American Title against Kam Hendrix last week! In fairness, I’d also be annoyed about that, but it’s not like Myles and Tavion haven’t looked like a great team in the past, with their match against FRAXIOM at NXT Deadline 2024 being pretty damn fun! Amazingly, after the referee chucked out both Jackson Drake and Myka Lockwood, Borne and Heights took advantage, with Heights delivering his finishing manoeuvre to get the win, crowning the (former) No Quarter Catch Crew as the brand-new NXT Tag Team Champions! This genuinely shocked me, but I’m alright with it as long as they have a segment with Wren next week!

Grade: B-

Jackson Drake was absolutely losing his mind backstage, whilst Myka Lockwood seemed more interested in Keanu Carver! Shawn Spears then confirmed that he and Lizzy Rain will be teaming up together next week to take on The Culling, but Lizzy was anything but pleased to hear this news! It was then time for the penultimate match of the night as EK Prosper once again went one-on-one with Keanu Carver! We’ve seen this match multiple times now, with EK actually going 2-0 against his much larger opponent! However, this match was completely different, with Keanu continuing his attitude from last week by being nice and playing fair! In fact, Carver even apologised to Booker T at one point, whilst he seemed reluctant to hurt Prosper! Also, when Keanu did finally win this match, it was with a roll-up! All of this was incredibly bizarre, but it has been successful in the fact that it’s kept me intrigued!

Grade: C+

The rest of DarkState were confused as to why Dion Lennox was so angry, despite the fact that they won last week! Dion stated that he won’t stop until DarkState is feared again, something that they’re not right now due to Saquon Shugars still standing! Shiloh Hill then cut a rather wild video promo where he explained that he’s going to be out with an injury for a bit, but that didn’t stop him from doing some research on a wide range of (rather ridiculous) topics! Mr. Stone was then delighted at the idea of potentially securing another free agent signing, whilst Tristan Angeles didn’t seem to impress Cruz Montana!

NXT Women’s Championship Underground Match: Kendal Grey VS Lola Vice

And in the Main Event of this week’s edition of NXT, Kendal Grey put her NXT Women’s Championship on the line against Lola Vice inside NXT Underground! This was the first time ever that a Championship was being defended in NXT Underground, and for me made this format feel an awful lot more important, as there were actual stakes on the line! I also thought that this match felt quite intense, with Kendal taking one of the nastiest bumps I’ve seen in a while, landing ear-first onto the steel steps! Grey would then need to have her head bandaged up, leading to a pretty cool look, although it just gave Vice a bigger target to aim at! In fact, Kendal looked spent on multiple occasions during this match, with Hank and Tank even needing to help her out at one point! Towards the end of the match, Kendal Grey was out, but the problem was the referee was also knocked out, meaning Lola got distracted trying to wake him up! Kendal would then take advantage of this, locking in a great-looking submission that gave Lola Vice no choice but to tap out! This was a good way to make Kendal Grey look like a formidable Champion whilst also letting Lola Vice bow out of NXT in the match that she made her own!