NXT Review: 27/01

NXT Tag Team Championships: DarkState VS OTM

Credit: WWE

After Joe Hendry was seemingly attacked by The Vanity Project backstage, Ava had to call an audible as this week’s edition of NXT instead kicked off with OTM challenging DarkState for the NXT Tag Team Championships! I thought this match was alright; Saquon Shugars definitely stood out here, and it was interesting in the sense that both of these teams are portrayed as powerhouses! What that means is neither team gets bullied around the ring too often, but in this scenario, Bronco Nima and Lucien Price seemed to have an edge over Osiris Griffin! However, The Vanity Project weren’t done with being a nuisance, as they disrupted this Tag Title bout, allowing DarkState to steal away with a successful retention! After the match was over, Swipe Right, OTM, Hank and Tank, and Chase University all brawled at ringside before The Culling attacked DarkState in the ring! The NXT Tag Team Division is starting to become stacked again!

Grade: C+

Jaida Parker VS Nikkita Lyons, Dion Lennox VS Myles Borne: NXT Championship Qualifying Match, Lexis King VS Tavion Heights

Credit: WWE

A random backstage interaction between Blake Monroe and Nikkita Lyons resulted in Nikkita returning to in-ring action on Tuesday Nights as she took on Jaida Parker! This was all set up as Nikkita Lyons trying to take out Jaida Parker, so Blake Monroe didn’t have to deal with her, but there wasn’t really any mention of that throughout the duration of this contest! I thought Nikkita looked better than in years prior; the work she’s been putting in in Evolve is clearly helping, and Jaida feels destined to become Champion in 2026! Thankfully, not only did Parker win, but she won via a new finishing manoeuvre (hallelujah)! After the match was over, Blake Monroe appeared on the titantron on her sofa, stating that she’d see Miss Parker real soon!

Grade: C+

Tavion Heights was hyping up both Elio LeFleur and Eli Knight backstage before Lexis King got into his face about how great he, Arianna Grace, and Channing “Stacks” Lorenzo are! The Elegance Brand then cut a promo ahead of their upcoming TNA Knockouts World Tag Team Championships defense against ZaRuca, before Zaria was getting angry over Sol Ruca not being around again. Thea Hail caught the blunt of it! Myles Borne was then getting ready to head out to the ring, but before he could do that, he once again got a pep talk from Ethan Page as Ricky Saints was once again listening in! For some reason, Ava decided to grant Jackson Drake a bye straight into next week’s NXT Championship Ladder Match (she also said that Joe Hendry would also be in it if he gets cleared), before we finally headed into one of those Qualifying Matches as Myles Borne faced off with Dion Lennox! Given the other people that are in this match, it kind of would’ve made sense for these two to have both qualified facing different opponents, rather than only one of them making the field! However, Myles is at least in a storyline currently, so he does have something to do! Speaking of that storyline, Ethan Page showed up to try and give more motivation to Myles, eventually handing Borne his NXT North American Championship as he tried to distract the referee! Now, of course, Borne froze, resulting in the referee stopping him, which opened the door for Dion Lennox to get the win and advance to next week’s NXT Title Match! After the match was over, Page berated Borne for his lack of killer instinct, which Myles responded to by smashing Ethan in the face with his NA Title! It’s pretty clear to me that Myles Borne is going to be the one who dethrones All Ego, but the real question is, "When is that time going to come?!"

Grade: B-

Credit: WWE

Ricky Saints was trying to get Ava to take Keanu Carver out of a qualifying match before Tony D’Angelo walked in, resulting in Saints quickly skedaddling! Tony asked Ava why she bailed him out of jail, with the NXT General Manager responding by saying that NXT needs him! However, Ava also made it clear to D’Angelo that he’d better not interfere in next week’s NXT Championship bout! Andre Chase was then once again frustrated with Kale Dixon and Uriah Connors, before Lexis King rode past him on his way to going one-on-one with Tavion Heights! Firstly, that bit where Lexis King road off screen on his chair was absolutely fantastic, and that was basically all I needed to see from this segment! Honestly, the match wasn’t memorable at all, but what I did like was that it was all very clean! See, both Arianna Grace and Channing “Stacks” Lorenzo came down to ringside at one point, but they didn’t get involved in the slightest, with King just beating Heights clean following a Coronation! I have no idea what NXT is doing with Tavion Heights at the moment, but this will go down as a good win for The King!

Grade: C+

Thea Hail VS Zaria, Andre Chase VS Keanu Carver: NXT Championship Qualifying Match

After a look back at Finn Balor’s NXT career (for some reason), we got straight back to in-ring action as Zaria looked to take out all of her anger on Thea Hail! Izzi Dame joined commentary for this match, adding insight as she prepares to defend her NXT Women’s North American Championship next week in a Triple Threat against both Thea and Lola Vice! Because of that, it felt like the winner of this match was kind of going to be obvious, but I didn’t expect it to happen the way it did! See, whilst Izzi Dame was talking on commentary, Tatum Paxley just appeared out of nowhere to attack Dame, chasing her through the ring to the back! This obviously distracted everyone who was trying to have a wrestling match, and this opened the door for Hail to sneak up on Zaria and steal a roll-up victory! After the match was over, Fatal Influence decided to come down to the ring (again, I have no idea why), before Zaria just attacked Thea Hail! This was all so odd; I have no idea what to make of it all!

Grade: C+

After Wren Sinclair, Charlie Dempsey, and Kendal Grey all seemed to be in different mindsets moving forward, it was time for the Main Event match of the night as Andre Chase looked to stun Keanu Carver to earn his way into next week’s NXT Championship Ladder Match! I have absolutely no idea why Andre Chase was even in this position in the first place, given that he hasn’t won a match since 2024, and on top of that, he was still wearing his protective face mask! That clearly annoyed Keanu Carver, too, as he ripped the mask off before he destroyed Mr. Chase to score an easy victory! There’s really not much to say about any of this, but the post-match beatdown of Mr. Chase was at least something!

Grade: C

NXT Championship Summit

After we came back from an ad break, Keanu Carver’s call out to the rest of the field in next week’s NXT Championship Ladder Match worked, with Shiloh Hill, Dion Lennox, Sean Legacy, and Jackson Drake all putting their point across! Ricky Saints then got to have his own entrance (because he’s a real star), and for some reason, Ricky decided to cut his promo whilst standing on a ladder! A brawl then broke out between everyone, which resulted in Joe Hendry appearing, seemingly confirming that he will also be a part of next week’s Ladder Match! Just when Hendry thought he was going to stand tall, he got taken out by Carver, who ended the show standing tall like he’s Oba Femi (I can tell you, he is not)! Honestly, I’m not sure if NXT knows who they want to win next week, but personally, I would give the Title back to Ricky Saints!

Credit: WWE

Grade: C+