NXT Review: 10/02

Linus O'Howell
2 days ago
5 min read

Joe Hendry Starts the Show, Blake Monroe VS Jaida Parker

After a recap of last week’s show, this week’s edition of NXT kicked off with the new NXT Champion, Joe Hendry! Joe Hendry thanked the fans for always believing in him, with that motivation and support enough to get him over the line as NXT Champion! Joe talked about all of the highs in his career, from winning the TNA World Championship to facing Randy Orton at WrestleMania (and even his song getting on the charts), and how this is another building block for him moving forward! Eventually, this brought out The Vanity Project, who finally admitted that they were the ones who attacked Hendry a couple of weeks ago! Then, after Jackson Drake got the NXT Title match that he so desperately wanted, they attacked Hendry again! Pieces of!

Grade: C+

After Zaria and Sol Ruca continued to bicker, Keanu Carver made his intentions very clear to Robert Stone when it came to creating chaos! We then switched gears into the opening match of the night as Blake Monroe and Jaida Parker finally went at it after weeks of issues! I felt like this was a decent match for what it was; the early stages implied that Blake was scared of Jaida, but I’m not convinced that that is the correct direction to go with this feud! Anyway, this obviously wasn’t going to be the only battle between these two women, meaning we were probably going to get a screwy finish, and ultimately, that came in the form of a double count-out! This made Jaida incensed, with Miss Parker laying it on multiple officials and security guards as Monroe was able to scurry off into the crowd! I’m guessing that they’re going to fight again in Atlanta?!

Grade: C+

NXT Speed Championship Tournament (Semi-Finals): Eli Knight VS Josh Briggs, DarkState Get Interrupted

After an incredibly unique video for Tatum Paxley aired (I was blown away by this), Kale Dixon questioned why Uriah Connors would walk out on Chase University! Uriah made it clear to Kale that Andre Chase was holding them back, before Lexis King told Connors that there’s one guy left that they need to try and win over (I’m assuming they meant Charlie Dempsey)! Anyway, we then headed into another match in the latest NXT Speed Championship Tournament as Josh Briggs went one-on-one with Eli Knight! In fairness to these two, this might have been the best Speed match I’ve seen! Yes, it only went 2 minutes, but the action flowed in a really strong capacity that had plenty of impressive moments! I do have big questions as to what NXT is even doing with Josh Briggs anymore, but that’s a story for another day, as eventually, Knight earned himself a win with an insane top-rope manoeuvre (I literally can’t explain it)! After the match was over, Elio Lefleur headed down to the ring, just so both men could get destroyed by Jasper Troy.

Grade: B-

Robert Stone told Lola Vice that her victory in AAA the other day only made her hand injury worse, but Lola made it clear that she’s going to fight Kelani Jordan next week, no matter what! Then, after the doctors and Stone were called to another incident involving Keanu Carver, Kelani pounced to deliver even more damage to Vice’s fingers! DarkState were then in the ring next, as Dion Lennox wanted to make it clear that he still has his eyes firmly set on the NXT Championship! However, Cutler James did need to address Tony D’Angelo, whilst Shaquon Shugars and Osiris Griffin have the NXT Tag Team Championships to worry about! This led to The Culling, OTM, and Hank and Tank all laying claim to a shot at the Tag Titles, before Tony D’Angelo floored DarkState! This all would eventually lead to Mr. Stone booking a Number 1 Contender’s Triple Threat Match for next week’s show, whilst D’Angelo will also return to in-ring action next week!

Grade: C+

NXT Championship: Joe Hendry VS Jackson Drake, Hank and Tank VS Swipe Right

Ethan Page was very impressed with Robert Stone’s tone towards the greatest North American alive, as Ethan asked Stone to give him a match with someone so he can break the record for the most successful NXT North American Championship defences in a single reign (of course Page knows about this record)! Eventually, Stone gave the match to a knife-wielding Shiloh Hill, before Joe Hendry was set for his first defence of his newly-won NXT Championship against the reigning Champion of Evolve, Jackson Drake! Very early on in this match, the rest of The Vanity Project got themselves kicked out after they sent Joe Hendry straight into the ring steps. Why wasn’t this a DQ? Anyway, without the numbers advantage, Jackson had little to no chance of winning this one, with Hendry scoring a pretty easy win following a Standing Ovation! After the match was over, Ricky Saints attacked Joe, making it clear that he still wants the NXT Title back! I’m honestly not sure what this match did for either Hendry or Drake, and I would also personally hold off on Hendry-Saints until Stand and Deliver!

Grade: C

Unlike ZaRuca, the WreNQCC were actually talking like adults to each other before Cutler James made it clear to the rest of the DarkState that their intentions need to remain, with him being the one to deal with Tony D’Angelo! Swipe Right were then back at ringside as they were set to take on Hank and Tank in Tag Team action! I’m not convinced whether Brad Baylor and Ricky Smokes are still called Swipe Right, or if they’re simply just The Vanity Project now (think of it like The Usos in The Bloodline)! Anyway, this was a pretty good match; the best of the night for me, and what I particularly liked was the time that this contest was given! It certainly felt like they didn’t need to rush to get all of their moves in, and we already know that Hank and Tank are pretty damn talented! However, after both The Culling and OTM came down to ringside, this distraction allowed Jackson Drake to take out Tank from behind, opening the door for Baylor to steal the win! Later in the show, Robert Stone would reward this behaviour by adding Swipe Right to next week’s Number 1 Contenders’ match, and as much as I like Mr. Stone, this was a very dumb decision!

Grade: B

NXT Women's Championship Number 1 Contender's Match: WreNQCC VS ZaRuca

After Sean Legacy challenged Keanu Carver to a match, and Mr. Stone told Myles Borne to do something out of character (this guy isn’t professional at all!), it was Main Event time as the WreNQCC and ZaRuca battled under a pretty unique stipulation! Basically, the way this match worked was whichever competitor scored the winning pinfall would earn themselves a shot at Jacy Jayne’s NXT Women’s Championship! That created quite the interesting narrative of how even though it was a Tag match, it was sort of everyone for themselves! What I liked about this is how it really did separate these two teams, with Zaria and Sol Ruca not getting on at all, whilst Wren Sinclair and Kendal Grey were a proper unit! This story led throughout the match, with Wren more than happy for Kendal to get the win, whilst Zaria kept stopping Sol from pinning anyone! Eventually, after an unintentional tag, Zaria went to pin Sinclair, only for Ruca to nail Grey with a Sol Snatcher to get the win! The show then closed with Jacy Jayne staring down Sol Ruca as Zaria looked on like she was Anakin Skywalker!