NXT Review: 21/10

The Culling Start the Show, Leon Slater VS Channing “Stacks” Lorenzo: TNA X-Division Championship

NXT kicked off this week with The Culling as Tatum Paxley celebrated becoming the new Number 1 Contender to the NXT Women’s Championship! Tatum said that she couldn’t have done this without the support of her new friends, but more importantly, she was thankful for the entire NXT Universe for sticking by her the past 4 years! This brought out Fatal Influence, who laughed off Tatum’s chances of becoming Champion, with Jacy Jayne stating that Izzi Dame would’ve stood a much better chance! This fired up both Dame and Paxley, starting a brawl to set up a Tag Team match for later in the show! This was totally fine for what it was; I like Pax a lot!

Grade: C+

Credit: Tuttowrestling

After some backstage segments, Leon Slater was set to defend his TNA X-Division Championship in the opening match of the night against Channing “Stacks” Lorenzo! Je’Von Evans was in Leon’s corner for this match, whilst Arianna Grace was in Stacks’! This match was alright, Slater is such a talented competitor, and I very much feel like he’ll be a big player in NXT at some point down the line! Honestly, though, my favourite part of this match was when Je’Von caught Arianna as she fell off the apron, clearly angering Stacks a lot, but this just opened the door for Leon Slater to deliver his incredible Swanton-450 to get the win! After the match was over, Leon and Je’Von talked about wanting to create magic together in a Tag Team match at NXT Halloween Havoc, and this is when La Parka and Mr. Iguana arrived to a rather large pop! This match is so random, but I bet it’s going to be fire!

Grade: B-

NXT Men’s Speed Championship Tournament (Round 1): Jasper Troy VS Zachary Wentz, Sol Ruca Makes an Announcement, Axiom VS Sean Legacy: NXT Men’s Speed Championship Tournament (Round 1)

The next match was all about speed as Jasper Troy took on TNA’s Zachary Wentz in a First-Round match in the NXT Men’s Speed Tournament! I haven’t exactly enjoyed the Speed format, mainly because it shouldn’t be believable that people can win so quickly, but that’s where it should work for Jasper Troy! See, Troy should be winning easily; he should be winning quickly, so I think this is the perfect role for him! However, the structure of this match was terrible, with Wentz getting all the offense in for 2 minutes before Jasper hit one move which was enough to get him the win! Like, what are we doing?!

Grade: C-

Kelani Jordan found all of her stuff on the floor as the NXT Women’s Division decided to kick her out of their locker room! Jordynne Grace found this to be a bit ridiculous, but Kelani clearly didn’t want Grace’s opinion! DarkState then started to cut a promo, only to get interrupted by a Hardy Boyz video which saw Matt and Jeff enter the “Lake of Reincarnation”, reappearing as “Broken” Matt Hardy and Brother Nero! Considering it’s Halloween Havoc this Saturday, this was a cool video! Sol Ruca was then out next to cut a rather sad promo, telling everyone that she suffered an injury on SmackDown, and she’s not sure when she’s going to be clear! You could tell that Sol was really hurting here, she’s done a great job with both Championships, and whilst Ava wasn’t sure if this was the right way to go, Ruca made it clear that she can’t hold this Division back! Before she could say anything else, Blake Monroe interrupted, claiming that she should be handed the NXT Women’s North American Championship, but this is when Zaria pushed to let her defend the Title in Sol’s place instead! For some reason, both Sol Ruca and Ava liked this idea, and the segment ended with Zaria holding the Title aloft after laying out Monroe with a Z5! Honestly, this was a very confusing segment; I can’t tell what the plan is here!

Credit: WWE

Grade: C+

After Josh Briggs got into the heads of both Myles Borne and Tavion Heights, Axiom returned to NXT to go one-on-one with Evolve’s Sean Legacy in the other opening round of the NXT Men’s Speed Championship Tournament! This was a much better match; Axiom is such an incredible talent, and Sean Legacy should be being used on NXT more! I could’ve seen this going either way, and it went right down to the wire, to the point where it nearly looked like it was going to end in a draw! However, with just 3 seconds to spare, Axiom was able to secure the win following a top-rope Spanish Fly, and that’s pretty fitting from the Spaniard!

Grade: B-

Hank and Tank VS OTM, Fatal Influence VS The Culling

After Ethan Page reminded everyone that he has a Devil's side too, OTM made their in-ring returns after over 9 months as they clashed with Hank and Tank! Given the fact that Hank and Tank are former NXT Tag Team Champions, you would’ve expected this match to be somewhat competitive, but that’s not how it went at all! OTM dominated this match, scoring a relatively straightforward victory, before they sent Tank Ledger crashing through the announce table to really put out a statement of intent! This was well booked, but I’m still not sure about the duo of Bronco Nima and Lucien Price!

Grade: C+

Lash Legend had no interest in speaking respectfully to Wren Sinclair, and this annoyed the brand-new Evolve Women’s Champion, Kendal Grey! It was then time for the Main Event match of the night as Fatal Influence’s Jacy Jayne and Lainey Reid teamed up to take on The Culling’s Izzi Dame and Tatum Paxley! It was interesting that it was Jacy and Lainey who teamed up and not Fallon Henley, but I thought they actually worked alright together! Fatal Influence’s record this year has been pretty terrible (despite winning so much singles gold), and it was definitely interesting to see Izzi work more of a Babyface role compared to her usual Heel persona! However, the most interesting part about all of this was the finish, as Jacy Jayne actually scored the win, pinning Tatum Paxley with the Rolling Encore! However, after the match was over, Paxley fought off the 3-on-1 assault, standing tall with the NXT Women’s Championship to end the segment! The fact that both women technically won here (in different ways) has certainly kept me guessing as to how it’s going to play out this Saturday!

NXT Championship Halloween Havoc Contract Signing

The final segment before NXT Halloween Havoc was all about Ricky Saints and Trick Williams signing the contract for their upcoming NXT Championship bout! Trick was very clear that he is the Main Event, that he is the top guy on NXT, with or without a Championship, but he has his sights firmly set on becoming a 3-time NXT Champion! This really fired up Ricky Saints, who went off on one about working his ass off to make it to this point, whilst Williams doesn’t even care about this place anymore! Eventually, security had to get involved after Trick delivered a cheap shot, but the segment ended with Saints sending Williams crashing through a table! I thought this was a well-done segment, both guys delivered their lines well, and this should be a pretty interesting matchup (as long as Trick leaves afterwards)!

Credit: Wrestling PT

Grade: B