NXT Review: 11/08

The Culling VS Lizzy Rain and Shawn Spears

This week’s edition of NXT was supposed to kick off with a Mixed Tag Team match with Lizzy Rain and Shawn Spears teaming together to take on Izzi Dame and Niko Vance of The Culling! It quickly became clear that that wasn’t going to happen due to Spears completely no-showing, leading to Lizzy having to go at it alone! Or, at least to begin with, as EK Prosper would later show up to establish himself as Rain’s partner! This was certainly a positive, with Prosper VS Vance feeling a lot more exciting than what we would’ve got had Spears competed! Speaking of Shawn Spears, I have absolutely no idea where he is, but this felt like a weird path to go down storyline-wise! Anyway, after Lizzy was able to take out Izzi, EK Prosper nailed Niko Vance with a wonderful Moonsault to score the victory; a booking decision that also feels kind of odd!

Grade: C

Kali Armstrong Gets Interrupted, Dion Lennox VS Saquon Shugars, Zaria VS Wren Sinclair: NXT Women’s North American Championship

Many different teams congratulated Myles Borne and Tavion Heights on winning the NXT Tag Team Championships, whilst Kendal Grey was told that she should be cleared by next week! Lizzy Rain and EK Prosper were then ready to have an interview backstage, but that got completely ruined by Kali Armstrong, who stole the microphone and stormed down to the ring demanding an NXT Women’s Championship opportunity! Kelani Jordan would quickly interrupt to say that she wants the exact same thing, once again repeating the fact that she’s never actually gotten a shot at the NXT Women’s Title, to which Kendal Grey would arrive with a contract giving Kelani exactly what she wants! Jordan chose to have the match at NXT Heatwave in a few weeks’ time, before a right hand to the injured Champion led to Kali and Lani beating down Wren Sinclair to close the segment! This actually did a good job in setting up two future matches, with Mr. Stone later confirming that we’d see a tag match between all four competitors next week!

Credit: WWE

Grade: C+

Keanu Carver wished Cruz Montana good luck backstage, to the point where Mr. Stone is starting to get suspicious! DarkState’s music would then hit next as Dion Lennox aimed to take care of Saquon Shugars for good! I thought that this was a decent match, probably better than the last encounter that they had, but it still had its problems, mainly with interference and the referee! There were multiple occasions were the rest of DarkState, with it clear for everyone to see/hear what’s going on, and yet the referee was completely clueless, opening the door for a rather easy victory for Lennox! I can’t stand when the referees just play dumb!

Grade: C

Credit: WWE

Mr. Stone and Rey Mysterio came up with a plan to continue the partnership between NXT and AAA, whilst Grayson Waller’s comments very much got into the head of Saquon Shugars! It was then time for a Title to be put on the line as Wren Sinclair challenged Zaria for the NXT Women’s North American Championship! This match came about after Wren successfully retained her NXT Women’s Speed Title against Zaria 7 days ago, and you can kind of tell that Sinclair is the Speed Champion given that she wrestles in a style that wants to get matches done as quickly as possible! I enjoyed this match; I thought it was pretty competitive, whilst the finish of the match was actually quite creative! From out of nowhere, Dion Lennox and Saquon Shugars started brawling their way into the ring, with the rest of DarkState also making their presence felt! After Wren wiped out Cutler James, Zaria pounced, hitting a Z5 to successfully retain her North American Title! The right winner!

Grade: B-

Kam Hendrix VS Mason Rook, Lexis King VS Lucien Price

Credit: WWE

Shiloh Hill had more weird facts to share, but one of those was at least important in the sense that his injury isn’t going to keep him out of the ring for any extended period of time! After weeks of disdain, Kam Hendrix and Mason Rook were finally able to get all of their rage out when they squared off in the squared circle! I felt like there were parts of this match that I quite liked; Hendrix is growing on me as an unlikeable Heel, but there were also multiple moments which felt a bit off! I’m still not sold on Mason Rook; I need to see more things from him, whilst the decision to have him lose to Kam was certainly an interesting one! This may lead to a rematch down the line, but I don’t like the idea of doing 50-50 booking!

Grade: C+

The Vanity Project are desperate to get their hands back on the NXT Tag Team Championships, with Jackson Drake proposing the idea that all three members are going to leave Heatwave as Champions! This would mean that Myles Borne would have to wrestle twice in one night, something Borne was happy to agree with as long as Drake wins his match next week! That match will be against Shiloh Hill! Lucien Price was then clear to Bronco Nima about staying in the back as the OTM star activated “Plan B” when he went one-on-one with Lexis King! I’ll be honest, this is the best Lucien Price I’ve seen to date, with him genuinely coming across as a major threat that a comedy character like Lexis King shouldn’t be able to overcome! Thankfully, he didn’t, with Price eventually putting King away, earning himself a shot at the NXT Speed Championship! Could Lucien win that too?

Grade: B-

Wren Sinclair is so desperate to get her hands back on Zaria that she pitched the idea to Mr. Stone to unify the NXT Women’s North American and NXT Women’s Speed Championships together at Heatwave! Stone was happy to accept! Jaida Parker then gave Thea Hail some good advice when it comes to dealing with Nattie, before agreeing to be in Thea’s corner next week, whilst Romeo Moreno felt conflicted over accepting a spot in the AAA Cruiserweight Championship Number 1 Contender’s Match! Noam Dar told his Tag Team partner to go for it, whilst Tristan Angels said it wouldn’t matter as he’s going to win that match anyway! Angels’ outfit was ridiculous (in a good way)!

NXT Championship Number 1 Contender’s Match: Cruz Montana VS Grayson Waller

Credit WWE

And in the Main Event of this week’s edition of NXT, Cruz Montana and Grayson Waller faced off in a Number 1 Contender’s Match to determine the next challenger for Tony D’Angelo’s NXT Championship! Tony D was actually on commentary for this match, giving decent insight as Montana and Waller went at it! This was actually Cruz Montana’s official NXT in-ring debut, although the large majority of NXT fans are aware of his capabilities! After plenty of great moves, it started to beg the question of how either of these guys could afford to lose this match. So, instead of having someone lose, the match just ended in a Disqualification! However, the ending was perfect, as Zilla Fatu made his long-awaited WWE debut to attack both Montana and Waller, starring a whole through Tony D’Angelo to close the show! Given the amount of views that Fatu’s debut has amassed, this worked wonders!

Credit: WWE

Grade: B+ (Overall)