NXT Review: 05/08

Linus O'Howell
5 days ago
4 min read

Blake Monroe VS Kelani Jordan

This week’s edition of NXT started with a match straight away as Blake Monroe wrestled in the Performance Centre for the “first time” against Kelani Jordan! Kelani was fired up, going straight after Blake before her music had time to end as she went straight to work! Monroe was able to fight back, using her Heel tactics, but it was the arrival of Jordynne Grace that threw all of this out as Monroe scurried away, escaping Grace in her car! This resulted in Jordan winning by count out, but I was more worried about Jordynne’s safety because the rain was heavy!

Grade: C+

NXT Tag Team Championships: Hank and Tank VS Chase University, Lexis King VS Myles Borne, Nia Jax VS Thea Hail

After Mr. Chase hyped up his students, Kale Dixon and Uriah Connors headed down to the ring to challenge Hank and Tank for the NXT Tag Team Championships! This was aggressive, both teams were really going in on each other, and it was fun to watch! Kale Dixon looks good, he looks like he could be something strong in the future, but he wasn’t quite strong enough here as Hank and Tank eventually retained with their finisher! After the match was over, DarkState arrived, laying out all 5 men (including Andre Chase) in the ring!

Grade: B-

Jacy Jayne told Jazmyn Nyx to polish her Titles as The Personal Concierge sent over a message from Ash by Elegance. Tavion Heights then had a friendly interaction with Myles Borne backstage as Borne was set to take on Lexis King! For weeks, Lexis King has been claiming that Myles isn’t deaf and is instead a massive fraud, and his way of showing that here was to try and injure his ear! This was very odd, I’m not sure what King was trying to achieve, but either way, he lost following a Zigzag from Borne! Yeah, I’m very confused!

Grade: C

DarkState admitted that they’re the ones who attacked Hank and Tank with steel chairs weeks ago, not The Culling, and that their night wasn’t over yet! Nia Jax was then set to have her first NXT singles match since 2016 when she looked to punish Thea Hail! When I found out about this match, I laughed! It felt so random, two complete opposites in this game, and that actually worked to their advantage! Nia destroyed Thea for the most part, as she should, but Hail’s fiery underdog resilience brought her back into it as she was finally able to drop Jax with a DDT! However, this clearly angered The Irresistible Force as she soon delivered an Annihilator to squash Thea for the 3 count! After this, Jax cut a promo which led to Lash Legend arriving, starting a big brawl that lasted throughout the night (we’ll get on to that later)!

Grade: B-

Oba Femi Gets Interrupted, Channing “Stacks” Lorenzo VS Yoshiki Inamura, Ethan Page Promo

Ava was incredibly biased against Blake Monroe as she gave Jordynne Grace a match with her for NXT Heatwave before Oba Femi came out to talk about how nobody is worthy enough to take the NXT Championship away from him! This brought out Trick Williams who truly believes he is the star of NXT, and that means he’s more than good enough to carry two brands’ World Titles! Je’Von Evans must have found this funny as he said he wants the NXT Title, and this resulted in Oba Femi agreeing to face the winner at Heatwave! However, Moose then showed up and made his intentions clear: take the TNA World Title back and then get revenge on The Ruler! There were then more interruptions as DarkState showed up, but for the first time ever (it feels like), they actually got dealt with! Honestly, this doesn’t surprise me one bit, what did they expect?! On a serious note, this was cool!

Grade: B-

After Arianna Grace checked on Channing “Stacks” Lorenzo, Lash Legend and Nia Jax continued to brawl as we then got an incredible segment where Wren Sinclair called for Joe Hendry, and he appeared from a fridge! This was so random, so bizarre, but so brilliant, and Charlie Dempsey was perplexed! Channing “Stacks” Lorenzo was then out for revenge when he went one-on-one with Yoshiki Inamura! This wasn’t much of a match, it didn’t last very long, and it was more about Arianna Grace coming down to ringside and slapping Inamura! Somehow, this wasn’t cause for a disqualification, and Josh Briggs took advantage of this to take out Inamura behind the referees’ back, allowing Stacks to steal a victory!

Grade: C

When we came back from a commercial break, Ethan Page was in the ring to talk about being the greatest North American of all time, even greater than Bret “The Hitman” Hart! Ethan then went to sing the Canadian National Anthem again, but Tavion Heights interrupted, saying he wants to prove himself by having a shot at the NXT North American Championship! This is when The Secret Hervice arrived as Chelsea Green wanted to salute her fellow Canadian in the form of Page, and she then got in the face of Tavion, with Heights punching Page instead! All Ego and Ms. Green is a heck of a combination!

Grade: B-

NXT Women’s North American Championship: Sol Ruca VS Tatum Paxley

After Fatal Influence disrespected Lola Vice and Kelani Jordan, and Ricky Saints had his own sit-down interview with Kelly Kincaid, it was Main Event time as Sol Ruca and Tatum Paxley went at it for the NXT Women’s North American Championship! This actually felt important because it was in the Main Event, and I actually brought into the idea of Tatum taking the Title, there’s a good story to be had for it! However, we didn’t get that as Lash Legend and Nia Jax showed up at ringside, still brawling, and this distracted everyone as Shawn Spears handed a doll to Tatum! However, Izzi Dame wasn’t a fan of this, and this created even more confusion as Ruca took advantage and nailed Paxley with a Sol Snatcher to get the win and retain her Women’s North American Title! There’s a lot to be explained next week!