NXT Review: 28/04

Linus O'Howell
3 days ago
5 min read

NXT North American Championship: Myles Borne VS Saquon Shugars

After Shawn Michaels, Mr. Stone, and Matt Bloom all discussed what they’re going to do following a number of their key players moving up to the Main Roster (Ethan Page, Joe Hendry, Fatal Influence, Sol Ruca, etc.), this week’s edition of NXT kicked off with Myles Borne putting his NXT North American Championship on the line against Saquon Shugars! After Dion Lennox failed last week, Saquon stepped up this week in an attempt to bring Championship Gold back to DarkState, something that obviously wasn’t going to happen! However, The Shugar Man did get plenty of offense in, with Borne looking on the ropes a couple of times! It then looked like DarkState were running a play, only for Saquon to stop Lennox in his tracks! This ultimately just cost Shugars, with Myles taking advantage and delivering a Borne Again to get the win! After the match was over, Tristan Angels made his NXT debut, appearing in the crowd to call his shot at the NXT North American Champion, only for Kam Hendrix to arrive to take out Myles Borne! Strap yourselves in, people; there are a lot of debuts to cover on this show!

Grade: C+

Tony D’Angelo’s Next Challenger is Revealed, Birth Right VS EK Prosper and Dorian van Dux, Lola Vice Outsmarts The Culling

Kelani Jordan wasn’t too impressed with Kendal Grey getting so many opportunities at the NXT Women’s Championship, a sentiment that Wren Sinclair didn’t take too kindly to! Tony D’Angelo was then out next as the NXT Champion wanted to address his potential future challengers, particularly whoever gave him that Asian box last week! The person who gave Tony that box then arrived, revealing himself to be none other than EVIL! For those who don’t know, EVIL is a former IWGP Heavyweight Champion, meaning this guy is entering as a ready-made star! Then, after EVIL left, Tavion Heights made a shock appearance, taking out Tony D, before “a fan” just jumped into the ring and delivered a pretty great Moonsault to D’Angelo! This guy is apparently called Will Kroos, but seriously, what the heck is going on?!

Grade: B

After a crazy video which saw Tatum Paxley and Shiloh Hill sitting next to Blake Monroe’s grave, Birth Right were supposed to have a Tag Team match against EK Prosper and Dorian van Dux! However, Lexis King celebrated in the glory of attacking Dorian backstage, meaning EK would have to go it alone! However, this just led to the return of Sean Legacy, setting him up as Prosper’s partner! As expected, this match was good, with Legacy and Prosper always putting on a good show! I also think Uriah Connors is really good, meaning all of this flowed quite well, before Sean Legacy eventually scored the win with his really good-looking finisher! After the match was over, the rest of Birth Right attacked Legacy and EK, leading to Tate Wilder running down to make the save! Another NXT debutant!

Grade: B

Kali Armstrong wasn’t messing around backstage, already stepping up to Jaida Parker, whilst Mr. Stone was happy to welcome Tate Wilder to NXT! Lola Vice then came down to once again talk about being the realest NXT Women’s Champion in the brand's history, before she turned her attention towards Izzi Dame and The Culling! Shawn Spears then appeared on the titantron, telling Lola that The Culling were once again 1 step ahead of her, with Izzi and Niko Vance then appearing in the ring! However, Vice had actually outsmarted all of them, with Mr. Iguana showing up to even the odds to the delight of the NXT Universe! It was later announced that these two teams will face off next week (not for the AAA Mixed Tag Team Titles), and I honesty have no idea who’s going to win!

Grade: C+

Lizzy Rain VS Nikkita Lyons, Wren Sinclair VS Kelani Jordan

Dion Lennox and Saquon Shugars continue to bicker backstage, to the point where the rest of DarkState have had enough! Osiris Griffin and Cutler James then said that they’re going back after the NXT Tag Team Championships, before Lizzy Rain made her NXT debut against Nikkita Lyons! Lizzy Rain had a bit of a crazy “Heavy Metal” entrance, something the crowd in the WWE Performance Centre seemed to love! This match also got a good amount of time, allowing Rain to showcase her skills against an opponent who has definitely gotten a lot better over recent times! As expected, Lizzy scored the win over Nikkita here, but I have to say that her finisher looks awesome!

Grade: C+

Myles Borne questioned Tavion Heights’ attack on Tony D’Angelo, an approach that left Tavion feeling like Myles was talking down to him! Keanu Carver then gave Myles the same warning that he gave to D’Angelo 7 days ago, before Jasper Troy got in the face of Jackson Drake after the leader of The Vanity Project said he could beat anyone! Kelani Jordan was then out to prove a point when she went one-on-one with Wren Sinclair! This match wasn’t for the NXT Women’s Speed Championship, mostly because I feel like Kelani views that Title as beneath her, but also because it allowed the story to play out! See, this was the opposite of Speed, with Wren getting hurt early on, leading to Lani smartly targeting the injury for the entirety of the match! It definitely seems like submission/mat-based style is being used more by Jordan since her feud with Lola Vice, something that actually makes a lot of sense! However, despite all of that, Kelani Jordan still won via One of a Kind! Whilst the Men’s Division feels very open, the NXT Women’s Division is still stacked, even with all of the people that they’ve lost!

Grade: B-

Ricky Saints VS Shiloh Hill

After an insane Zaria video (which saw Sol Ruca fade away), it was Main Event time as Ricky Saints competed in his final NXT match against Shiloh Hill! The crowd were definitely into this one, with Ricky getting a good and well-deserved final reaction! The crowd are also really behind Shiloh Hill; he’s massively connected with the NXT Universe, and I think that that partly comes down to the fact that he’s so unique, even for NXT standards! I said last week that the best thing you can do as someone who’s going up to the Main Roster is to put someone else over, and that’s exactly what Saints did here! Ricky made Shiloh look great, with Hill scoring the win before he celebrated in the crowd (with a dummy, too)! This kid’s future is bright, whilst Ricky Saints should do good things on Friday Night SmackDown!