NXT Review: 10/03

Tatum Paxley Starts the Show, Jasper Troy VS Eli Knight VS Sean Legacy

After a recap of Vengeance Day, this week’s edition of NXT kicked off with Tatum Paxley celebrating becoming the brand-new NXT Women’s North American Champion! Tatum talked about how all of this was possible because of the support from the NXT Universe, not anyone else, and she’s going to defend this Title with honour! This brought out Izzi Dame, who had put together a video package showing off Tatum from all the way back to her days in Diamond Mine at the start of the 2.0 Era! Basically, what Izzi was trying to prove here was that no matter what has happened, Paxley has never changed, with her being the “Chameleon” of NXT (whatever that means)! Eventually, the rest of The Culling appeared to block Pax off, allowing Dame to floor her to end the segment standing tall! There’s more to this throughout the rest of this show!

Grade: C+

After Ricky Saints fired up Ethan Page over his plan for both men to become “2-time” Champions again (these two are brilliant together), Jasper Troy headed down to the ring to take on both Sean Legacy and Eli Knight in a Triple Threat Match! This was the first match of the night, and it was actually structured quite smartly! Troy isn’t that good of a wrestler, which is why having him be taken out for the large majority of this allowed Knight and Legacy to put on a fun showcase! Going back to being taken out, that came at the hands of Keanu Carver, who sent Troy crashing through the announce table following a great show of strength! Eventually, Jasper Troy would re-enter the action, but to my surprise, he didn’t win as he got pinned by both Eli Knight and Sean Legacy, meaning the match ended with 2 winners! Stupid ref!

Grade: B-

Birthright VS Charlie Dempsey and Tavion Heights, Tony D’Angelo Announces his Intentions

Tatum Paxley managed to find herself an “equally-wacky” friend in Shiloh Hill, with Shiloh saying he’d help make sure that The Culling wouldn’t be able to leave before Tatum found them, before Lexis King and Uriah Connors of Birthright teamed up to take on a reunited Charlie Dempsey and Tavion Heights! I won’t call them the No Quarter Catch Crew as Wren Sinclair’s firmly taken that stable name now, but it was good to see Dempsey and Heights back together as their styles gel quite well! However, their bond didn’t last very long, as both Fit Finlay and William Regal appeared in the entranceway! This was clearly the sign that Charlie needed, as he screwed Tavion over, allowing Lexis King to score the win with a Coronation before Dempsey seemingly aligned with the faction! This was pretty straightforward, but that’s all it needed to be right now!

Credit: WWE

Grade: C+

The Culling were aiming to leave the arena, only to find out that their car had been destroyed by Shiloh Hill (again)! In fact, Shiloh had seemingly destroyed every single car, resulting in Mr. Stone losing his mind over all of the car alarms going off! Tony D’Angelo was then out next to talk about his win over Dion Lennox on Saturday, stating that Part 1 of the reason why he came back to NXT is complete! Now, the second reason why Tony D returned to NXT is to become NXT Champion, and that’s something that the old version of him simply wasn’t good enough to achieve! However, this new version of D’Angelo is more than capable, with Tony sending a warning shot to Joe Hendry! I’m very surprised that we haven’t held this particular storyline until after Stand and Deliver, but I guess NXT has plans to have Tony D’Angelo in a World Title match at Stand and Deliver!

Grade: C+

Sol Ruca VS Lainey Reid, Thea Hail VS Wren Sinclair: NXT Women’s Speed Championship Tournament (Finals)

Lola Vice told Sol Ruca that when she wins the NXT Women’s Championship next week, it’s going to be Lola VS Sol at Stand and Deliver, before Kendal Grey ate a lot of cake after Joe Hendry didn’t appear in a fridge (I’m telling you, all of this happened)! Fatal Influence’s music then hit next, as Lainey Reid was tasked with trying to take out Sol Ruca! As expected, that was never going to happen, but in fairness to Lainey, she looked quite good here! We already know that Sol is one of the most exciting talents in all of professional wrestling, but Reid didn’t look out of place here (which is a real compliment)! Eventually, a Sol Snatcher was enough for Ruca to get the win, and whilst I am intrigued about next week’s NXT Women’s Championship clash, Jacy Jayne better not lose!

Grade: B

Credit: WWE

Neither Elio Lefleur, Eli Knight, nor Sean Legacy were happy with Mr. Stone’s idea of another tournament (because both men won), and The Vanity Project were also seemingly bored (for some reason)! Blake Monroe was then in the middle of an interview, talking about what’s next for The Glamour, before Tatum Paxley interrupted to ask if either Blake (Monroe and Howard) had seen The Culling! I think we know what’s next for Ms. Monroe! Anyway, Wren Sinclair was fired up and ready to go as she went one-on-one with Thea Hail to determine the brand-new Number 1 Contender to the NXT Women’s Speed Championship! I know this match is all about speed, but this was “super-speedy”! Vic Joseph brought up a great point that both women are submission specialists, something that may hinder both of them in this type of format, but it definitely didn’t hinder Wren, with Sinclair forcing Hail to tap out with still a minute plus remaining on the clock! I really hope Wren Sinclair wins gold next week; she deserves it!

Grade: Too Short

Mr. Stone had all of the NXT Tag Teams in his office to announce that he will be holding a tournament to determine who will challenge The Vanity Project for the NXT Tag Team Championships at Stand and Deliver! However, a brawl then broke out between DarkState and OTM, resulting in Stone kicking them both out of the tournament (before it had even started)! Jacy Jayne and Fallon Henley had then had enough of Blake Howard’s stupid questions, whilst Tatum Paxley finally found Izzi Dame, starting a brawl that security actually managed to stop (for once)! Robert Stone was then back with more announcements ahead of next week’s show in Houston, before Vic Joseph confirmed that next week’s show will be in celebration of Booker T! I was so worried that they were going to announce that it was going to be Book’s last show, so this was a nice surprise!

Joe Hendry and Myles Borne VS Ethan Page and Ricky Saints

Credit: WWE

And in the Main Event of this week’s edition of NXT, the Champion duo of Joe Hendry and Myles Borne teamed up to try and finally take care of Ricky Saints and Ethan Page for good! This team-up between Ethan and Ricky has been absolutely fantastic; they’re proper Heels who clearly don’t care about each other, but that’s why it works so well! Joe and Myles were also a pretty good team, with the two Champs working together well; however, that proved not to be enough! See, after a smart tag by Ethan Page, the referee was left to deal with Saints and Borne being in the ring when they shouldn’t have, opening the door for Page to drop Hendry with a Twisted Grin onto the NXT Title to get the win! All of this was so well done, with Ricky Saints eventually realising that by pinning Joe Hendry, “All Ego” Ethan Page is potentially next in line to become a “2-time” NXT Champion!

Credit: WWE

Grade: B