NXT Review: 04/11
The Vanity Project VS Rey Fenix, Chad Gable, and Dragon Lee
This week’s highly anticipated Wednesday edition of NXT kicked off with Rey Fenix, Chad Gable, and Dragon Lee returning to NXT to take on The Vanity Project in 6-Man Tag Team action! The crowd was loud from the off, cheering in particular for Chad Gable, who had a ton of good moments and sequences with Jackson Drake! I say this every week, but The Vanity Project as a collective are so damn good; all three of them are talented in-ring performers, and they just so happened to be facing off against three Main Roster guys who I’m almost certain will appear a ton in my Matches of the Year article in December! Ultimately, after Rey Fenix and Master Gable took care of Jackson Drake and Ricky Smokes, Dragon Lee dropped Brad Baylor with an Operation Dragon to get the win! I could make an argument that having the NXT act with multiple Champions lose is questionable, but it was fine when you consider that they’re Heels!
Grade: B
NXT Women’s Championship: Kelani Jordan VS ?, Hank and Tank VS Noam Dar and Romeo Moreno: NXT Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic Final
CM Punk put Shiloh Hill over backstage, whilst Grayson Waller walked in to remind Shiloh of who the NXT Champion actually is! Speaking of Champions, Kelani Jordan was set to defend her NXT Women’s Championship against a mystery opponent! That mystery opponent just so happened to be none other than Paige! Vic Joseph rightly pointed out the fact that not only was Paige the first-ever NXT Women’s Champion, but she never actually lost the Title, as she relinquished it following her becoming Divas Champion on the Main Roster! This gave quite a good narrative to this match, with Paige trying to win something back, but the problem was that she’s just not as good as Kelani! Thankfully, Jordan would eventually win this match via a roll-up, but even then, I think Lani should’ve won more convincingly!
Grade: C+
Wren Sinclair and Kendal Grey were celebrating NXT taking place on a “Wrensday”, whilst Sol Ruca returned to the show as she’d gotten a message from Zaria! However, apparently that wasn’t Zaria, as Izzi Dame was the one who contacted her. This made literally no sense! Cody Rhodes would then make his way down to ringside ahead of Hank and Tank taking on Noam Dar and Romeo Moreno in the Final of the 2026 NXT Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic! I said last week that this match should’ve taken place at Halloween Havoc, and I definitely stick by it after this! Neither team got an entrance ahead of this match, despite the fact that this was a Final! Cody Rhodes got an entrance, though, which says a lot! This match also felt rushed; it only got about 10 or so minutes, and after a really good tournament, I have to say that the production for this match was horrendous! Now, the actual wrestling was really good; both of these teams are fun to watch, and it was unclear as to who was going to get the win! However, it should’ve been longer! In the end, despite being the underdogs throughout the tournament, Noam Dar and Romeo Moreno were able to complete the Cinderella story by defeating Hank and Tank, winning the Dusty Cup, as Cody Rhodes told them that they will be challenging The Vanity Project for the NXT Tag Team Championships next week! Why? Surely this should’ve been held off for a bit to truly bask in Dar and Moreno’s win?!
Grade: B for the Wrestling, E for everything else
Cruz Montana VS Dion Lennox: Unsanctioned Match, John Cena Appears on NXT
There was no messing around next as Cruz Montana went one-on-one with Dion Lennox in an Unsanctioned Match! Cruz attacked Dion during his entrance, probably because they didn’t know what to do with Montana’s entrance, but rather interestingly, Cruz continued to act as the biggest Babyface on the show! The crowd themselves only added to this, consistently cheering and chanting for Cruz Montana, which is pretty ironic considering he just joined a gang on Monday Night Raw! UFC fighter Michael Chandler was the Special Guest Referee for this match, and my goodness me, was he annoying! Despite the fact that this was an Unsanctioned Match, he kept getting involved, stopping Montana and Lennox from hitting potentially dangerous manoeuvres! What?! Then, when the rest of DarkState arrived, he didn’t do anything! What an idiot! Thankfully, 946 would then arrive to a great pop, with Royce Keys, Carmelo Hayes, and OTM getting cheered as they wrecked DS! Cruz Montana would then floor Dion Lennox with Spin the Block to get the win, with Montana ending the segment standing tall alongside Keys! I don’t think NXT has any idea what’s going on with Cruz Montana right now, but he’s clearly still a big Babyface in the eyes of the fans!
Grade: B-
The quick-fire segments continued next as John Cena returned to NXT to announce more of his plans with the John Cena Classic! John’s next invitee for the tournament is none other than Zilla Fatu, as Cena talked about how he’s always felt like an “Honorary Samoan”, due to his history with a ton of members of The Bloodline! Cena also told Zilla that he loved his Dad (Umaga), which clearly made Fatu emotional as the NXT Universe cheered throughout! This was a very simple segment, but this is exactly what the John Cena Classic should be! If Cena’s going to be around, putting over new, young, and exciting talent is the only way to go!
Grade: B+
NXT Championship: Grayson Waller VS CM Punk
After Tony D’Angelo was seen standing over a lake, and Kam Hendrix got cocky in front of John Cena, the Main Event of this week’s edition of NXT saw CM Punk challenge Grayson Waller for the NXT Championship! This was made to feel like a big deal, with Punk competing in NXT, but I was more interested in how cool of a moment this was for Grayson! Waller’s character this year has been fantastic; he keeps saying he’s trying to make the NXT Championship relevant again, and having CM Punk come down to challenge him for it proves that he’s doing just that! Yes, the finish was fairly obvious; Kevin Owens showed up to cause a distraction, opening the door for Waller to steal a roll-up victory to successfully retain his NXT Title! Whilst all of the Babyfaces will say that The Arrogant Aussie only won because of KO, Grayson Waller just beat CM Punk; that’s a big deal!
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