NXT Review: 08/09
NXT Women’s Championship: Kelani Jordan VS Jaida Parker
This week’s edition of NXT kicked off with Kelani Jordan putting her NXT Women’s Championship on the line against Jaida Parker! This still felt like a bit of a strange match to put on, given that I firmly believe that this could’ve been saved for a major Premium Live Event! On top of this, this match wasn’t even the Main Event, which honestly felt like an even stranger decision! Now, the match itself was still good; it was pretty competitive, with Jaida really giving it a good go to dethrone Kelani! However, due to this match being on first, the result was fairly obvious, with Jordan playing it smart as she delivered “One of a Kind” to secure her first successful Title defence! After the match was over, Wren Sinclair went wild, attacking both Jordan and the referee as security had to pull her away!
Grade: B- (for the match itself)
The Creed Brothers VS Noam Dar and Romeo Moreno, Charlie Dempsey Calls Out Zilla Fatu
Noam Dar and Romeo Moreno requested a match with The Creed Brothers after they got attacked last week, which Mr. Stone was happy to give them! Before that match started, however, Myles Borne sent out an apology video to Tavion Heights as Hank and Tank watched on! We then got said Tag Team match, and my biggest takeaway from this is: how are WWE unable to utilise The Creed Brothers on the Main Roster?! The Creeds are so good; they’re similar to FRAXIOM in that their NXT run showed that they should be Tag Team Champions on either Raw or SmackDown, not having to come back down to NXT just to be able to put on entertaining contests! Noam Dar and Romeo Moreno also continue to gel together; they could win gold in NXT down the line, but for now, this was all about re-establishing Julius and Brutus as The Creed Brothers picked up the victory!
Grade: B
Mr. Regal and Fit Finlay fired up BirthRight backstage, before Mr. Stone had no choice but to suspend Wren Sinclair! Stone’s not messing around, clearly! Charlie Dempsey was then in the ring alone as the Brit cut a scathing promo about how he continues to be overlooked due to him not being a high-flyer, despite the fact that he’s the absolute best grappler in the entire company! Dempsey also talked about how he’s fed up of NXT pushing “failed football players”, demanding that Zilla Fatu joins BirthRight, which Fatu quickly rejected! As a result, Zilla got completely destroyed by the rest of BirthRight, with Dempsey, King, Connors, and Stacks putting Fatu through the announce table! This was a good way of re-establishing BirthRight’s credibility, whilst it was nice to see Charlie Dempsey stand in the spotlight for a change!
Grade: B-
NXT North American Championship: Jackson Drake VS Tavion Heights, Zaria Gets Interrupted
Naraku explained that unless Shiloh Hill makes the smart decision, he’s going to introduce him to all the different coloured mists (which is actually pretty cool), whilst Tony D’Angelo didn’t seem like he wanted to trust either Saquon Shugars or Mason Rook! Tristan Angels would then get in the face of all of them before Tavion Heights went one-on-one with Jackson Drake for the NXT North American Championship! Whilst Tavion was always going to struggle to deal with the numbers game of The Vanity Project, an injury to Jackson's ankle opened the door for Heights to take advantage! Drake did everything he could to restore feeling to his ankle, but it just wouldn’t work, with Heights being somewhat of a submission specialist (he did compete in the Olympics, after all)! However, despite this, Jackson Drake is so good that he was able to hold onto his North American Title following a wonderful 450! After the match was over, Myles Borne appeared in the crowd, but Tavion Heights decided just to walk off! Jackson Drake is amazing!
Grade: B
Cruz Montana didn’t seem to have any luck in terms of keeping harmony between EK Prosper and Keanu Carver, whilst Carver would then calm down as soon as Mr. Stone walked in! Zaria would then make her way down to the ring to talk about how fitting it was that she finally got to hold 2 Titles aloft at NXT Heatwave, and how glad she is that the Speed Title is being left in the dust! Zaria then said she’s now focused on continuing her reign as the most dominant NXT Women’s North American Champion in history, which resulted in Izzi Dame re-appearing to state that she’s going to expose the Aussie for “who she truly is”! A fired-up Thea Hail then called her shot at Zaria, with Dame leaving as Hail locked in an armbar to send a message to the current Champ! Izzi Dame having more interest in Zaria than the North American Title itself is an interesting development, but I quite like it!
Grade: C+
Myles Borne seemed deflated over Tavion Heights walking away from him, so Hank and Tank suggested that Myles holds a proper face-to-face apology next week! Mr. Regal and Fit Finlay were very proud of BirthRight, whilst Jackson Drake and The Vanity Project felt like they deserved their own due! Sean Legacy and Dorian Van Dux, The Creed Brothers, and DarkState all then made their claims for an NXT Tag Team Title shot, before Lizzy Rain got into the face of Kali Armstrong! Potentially a couple of Number 1 Contendership matches coming soon?!
Cruz Montana, EK Prosper, and Keanu Carver VS Tony D’Angelo, Mason Rook, and Saquon Shugars
And in the Main Event of this week’s edition of NXT, Cruz Montana, EK Prosper, and Keanu Carver teamed up to take on the trio of Tony D’Angelo, Mason Rook, and Saquon Shugars in 6-Man Tag Team action! This was sort of part 1 of finding a new Number 1 Contender for the NXT Championship, with the winning team moving on to a Triple Threat match next week, where the winner of that contest will go on to challenge Grayson Waller! Speaking of Grayson Waller, he was on commentary for this match, and The Arrogant Aussie is just so good at what he does! If I had to make a prediction ahead of this match, I would’ve gone with Cruz’s team to get the win, so of course, that didn’t happen! In fact, the main reason it didn’t happen is that Montana and Carver kept clashing, leaving Prosper on his own! However, my biggest takeaway from all of this was that after Tony D’Angelo looked set to get the win, Mason Rook tagged himself in, following that up by using D’Angelo as a weapon as he pinned Prosper to advance to next week’s Triple Threat match! I thought this was really clever from Mason, whilst I now assume that it’s going to be Shugars who eventually challenges Waller!
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