NXT Review: 19/05

Linus O'Howell
18 hours ago
5 min read

Myles Borne and Tony D’Angelo VS Kam Hendrix and Mason Rook

This week’s edition of NXT kicked off with some Tag Team action, as Champions Myles Borne and Tony D’Angelo joined forces to take on the new kids on the block in the form of Kam Hendrix and Mason Rook! The crowd certainly weren’t that interested in Kam Hendrix, but I will say that they do seem to quite like Mason Rook! This match was totally fine; it was a very simple “Veterans VS Newbies” dynamic, but I don’t think it landed quite as well as when DarkState faced off against Oba Femi, Trick Williams, Je’Von Evans, and Moose last year! Myles Borne did a lovely dive to the outside at one point, but this is when Tavion Heights arrived to attack Hendrix from behind! Unfortunately for Tavion, this attack accidentally impacted Borne, opening the door for Rook to hit his finishing manoeuvre! However, it wasn’t actually Mason who scored the 3 count, as Kam tagged himself in to steal a pinfall victory over the NXT North American Champion! Mason Rook wasn’t impressed, and honestly, neither were the crowd!

Grade: C+

Kelani Jordan’s Challenge Gets Interrupted, Romeo Moreno VS Tristan Angels

DarkState are focused on one thing and one thing only: getting back the NXT Tag Team Championships, whilst Kelani Jordan has her eyes firmly set on the NXT Women’s Championship! See, Kelani has never even had a shot at NXT’s Top Title (which is actually insane), and Lani firmly believes that she is better than every woman that’s already been moved up to either Raw or SmackDown! This brought out Izzi Dame, who told Jordan that she’s next in line, having already pinned Lola Vice over recent weeks, whilst Lola doesn’t exactly seem threatened by either of them! Kendal Grey then interrupted all of them to state that she’s not done with either Kelani or the NXT Women’s Title, as Wren Sinclair arrived, nailing Jordan in the back with a crutch! Whilst this was going on, Vice also sent Dame packing! Wren is the best out of all of this lot!

Grade: C+

Sean Legacy and Dorian Van Dux were having a friendly back-and-forth encounter backstage, whilst Noam Dar feels like he’s playing catch-up! Jaida Parker then got into a war of words with Layla Diggs over Nattie, before Romeo Moreno and Tristan Angels faced off in what was an NXT in-ring debut for both men! I have to say, I thought this was a pretty decent match! I thought both guys look to have a promising upside, with me already quite enjoying Tristan’s character work! For now, Moreno’s probably in a position where he’s going to lose a lot, but at least he won’t get lost in the shuffle whilst working alongside a veteran like Noam Dar! Eventually, as expected, Angels scored the win, but he wasn’t at all happy post-match with Shiloh Hill’s antics in the crowd! See, Shiloh is pushing for everyone to refer to him as “Mr. NXT”, whilst “Mr. England” responded by calling Hill and the NXT Universe “a bunch of plebs”! This guy’s my new favourite!

Grade: B-

NXT Women’s North American Championship: Tatum Paxley VS Lizzy Rain, Keanu Carver VS Tate Wilder

We found ourselves with some kind of “NXT Champions” summit backstage, with Lola Vice, Tatum Paxley, Myles Borne, and Tony D’Angelo all chatting about their respective list of challengers getting bigger! Naraku then proved this by stepping up to D’Angelo, stating that EVIL is coming, before both Izzi Dame and Niko Vance questioned Shawn Spears’ decision to get The Culling a Tag Team match against OTM on the same night that Izzi Dame is set to challenge Lola Vice for the NXT Women’s Championship! Fair point! Speaking of Championships, Tatum Paxley was out next, defending her NXT Women’s North American Title against Lizzy Rain! I thought these two had a decent amount of chemistry; Tatum is very good at what she does, whilst Lizzy looks good in the ring. I’m still not sure about her character, though; it’s a bit too much for me! Anyway, what I liked about this match is it was super competitive, with both Paxley and Rain having moments where they came close to getting the victory! Honestly, whilst a Paxley retention was the obvious way to go, it wasn’t out of the realms of possibility that Lizzy Rain was able to somehow find a way to win this match! Ultimately, though, Pax was able to retain with a Cemetery Driver to Rain, before Zaria attacked both women after the match to stand tall!

Grade: B-

The WreNQCC seemed very happy with themselves backstage, with Mr. Stone agreeing to give Wren Sinclair a match against Kelani Jordan next week, as long as she gets medically cleared in time! Keanu Carver was then out next as he was set to go one-on-one with Tate Wilder! This match came about after Tate pleaded with Mr. Stone to give him another opportunity, and all I’m getting from Wilder is that his character’s a bit of an idiot! I mean, he’s got a decent amount of ability, but every time he has a chance to win, he does too much! There’s another debate in itself as to whether Wilder should’ve gotten this much offence in on Carver to begin with, but anyway, after Tate once again tried to do more than he should, Keanu took advantage to score the win. I’m not sure that this was a very effective way of following up from KC’s interview from a couple of weeks ago!

Grade: C-

The Vanity Project were stressing about the numbers advantage that DarkState possess, but Myka Lockwood made it clear that she’d handle both Osiris Griffin and Cutler James! Shiloh Hill was then looking for signatures to sign his petition to become “Mr. NXT”, and whilst OTM were happy to oblige, BirthRight certainly weren’t! Charlie Dempsey then challenged Shiloh to a match for next week, whilst Myles Borne and Tavion Heights were arguing in the background! Kam Hendrix was then in the ring, being interviewed about his big debut win, and Kam talked about how, despite the fact that he pinned the NXT North American Champion, he only has his sights set on the NXT Championship! This brought out Mason Rook, who wanted Hendrix to give him some credit for their victory earlier tonight. When Kam didn’t, Rook wrecked him!

NXT Tag Team Championships: The Vanity Project VS DarkState

And in the Main Event of this week’s edition of NXT, DarkState challenged The Vanity Project for the NXT Tag Team Championships! For months now, Dion Lennox and Saquon Shugars haven’t been getting on, which is exactly the reason why Osiris Griffin and Cutler James chose them to represent DarkState in this Title match! It was obviously Heels VS Heels, but even then, the crowd were definitely more behind DarkState (which tells you just how great The Vanity Project are)! Myka Lockwood also did exactly what she said she was going to do, protecting Jackson Drake from the rest of DarkState, whilst Dion and Saquon then had a little bit of a miscommunication! A very small one, but it ultimately proved deadly, with Ricky Smokes able to steal a roll-up victory to successfully retain his and Brad Baylor’s NXT Tag Team Titles! After the match was over, Griffin and James looked set to take out Lennox, only to destroy Shugars, with Dion clearly pulling the strings all along! The show then went off the air, with Lennox putting The Shugar Man through the announc table! I’ve never found DarkState to be an interesting group, but what I will say is Dion Lennox is easily the best wrestler out of the four, whilst Saquon Shugars is the most charismatic! By that metric, turning Shugars Babyface is the best way to go!