NXT Review: 28/10

Trick Williams Calls Out Ricky Saints, Axiom VS Jasper Troy: NXT Speed Championship Tournament Finals

After a recap of NXT Halloween Havoc, an irate Trick Williams went berserk at the production crew before he stormed into the arena, quickly calling out Ricky Saints! Ava wasn’t going to stand for any of this, but Ricky Saints clearly didn’t care as he arrived to start a brawl between the two! I can’t really grade this segment as it was an ongoing thing throughout the entire episode, but why is Trick still here?! Anyway, after a video package hyping both competitors up, Axiom and Jasper Troy clashed in the opening match of the night to determine the new Number 1 Contender to the NXT Speed Championship! This wasn’t as good of a match as Axiom had last week, but it was better than Troy’s one! This was more competitive, with both guys getting their shots in, but again, we’re going to keep on having the same conversation about the Speed format, because for me, it just doesn’t work! Eventually, Jasper Troy was able to pin Axiom with about 7 seconds to go, and I fully expect him to dethrone El Grande Americano in two weeks’ time!

Grade: C+

Tatum Paxley Celebrates, Kendal Grey VS Lash Legend: Evolve Women’s Championship

Sol Ruca made the decision to hand over her NXT Women’s Speed Championship to Ava, and to say Zaria was unimpressed would be an understatement! The Culling were then out next to do one thing and one thing only: celebrate Tatum Paxley! Tatum was so happy about finally achieving her dream of becoming NXT Women’s Champion, and she was even happier to celebrate it in front of all of her friends! Paxley was also feeling quite generous, so generous that she wanted to hand out opportunities to other women who deserved a shot too, but Izzi Dame was quick to try and pull the plug on all of this! However, Tatum made it clear that this is something she wants to do, and that’s when she brought back the Halloween Havoc Wheel to find out who her first challenger was going to be! The wheel then just so happened to fall on Lola Vice, and I’m sorry, but the whole point was we’re supposed to be getting different people challenging for the NXT Women’s Title, not Lola Vice who’s had so many opportunities (it honestly made me laugh)! This was all so bizarre!

Credit: WWE

Grade: B-

Credit: WWE

After Trick Williams was still irate on his search to find Ricky Saints, Kendal Grey had the difficult task of putting her Evolve Women’s Championship on the line for the first time against a well-known entity in Lash Legend! I don’t necessarily think the idea of doing this match was a good one; the whole point of Evolve is its newer wrestlers finding their feet, so there’s no way that they should be beating one of NXT’s best in Lash Legend! Also, on the opposite side, there’s no way that Lash would want to fight for the Evolve Title, surely, she’d rather just get an opportunity at the NXT Women’s Title?! However, having said all of that, this match was actually pretty decent, and it ended with Kendal delivering a nice move to get the victory and retain her Title!

Grade: C+

Myles Borne VS Tavion Heights, Tatum Paxley VS Lola Vice: NXT Women’s Championship

Lola Vice congratulated Tatum Paxley on becoming the brand-new NXT Women’s Champion, but she made it clear that she will be taking the Title from her before Myles Borne and Tavion Heights were set to go one-on-one after Ava booked this match following all of the stuff that’s taken place with Josh Briggs! Both Myles and Tavion said in social media videos before this match that they will always be brothers, and that was clearly on display here as neither guy wanted to go in on their opponent! In fact, this was really starting to irritate Booker T, and this is when Josh Briggs arrived to stick his nose into the business of his rivals yet again! Ultimately, this cost Tavion Heights more than it did Myles Borne, with Borne picking up a sneaky roll-up win, before Briggs and Heights brawled to the back! Myles was then smashed in the back with a steel chair by Trick Williams, who once again called out Ricky Saints, before those two again got into another brawl! Honestly!

Grade: C+

Ethan Page and Chelsea Green were reunited in a backstage segment, talking about their upcoming match for the AAA Mixed Tag Team Championships, before Thea Hail joined in with Chelsea Green’s singalong, resulting in Joe Hendry appearing from inside a bin! Everything about this was so silly, and it was also amazing! Anyway, it was then time to get back to being serious as Tatum Paxley was ready to put her newly-won NXT Women’s Championship on the line for the very first time against Lola Vice! I thought the action here was pretty solid; I’ve liked Tatum for a long time, and Lola’s continuing to get better! However, this match was never going to end clean, and it didn’t as Fatal Influence showed up to quickly cause a Disqualification, wiping out Izzi Dame before going after Paxley and Vice in the ring! Jacy Jayne was clearly furious about no longer being known as the NXT Women’s Champion, and she’s looking to put that right as soon as possible!

Grade: C+

TNA Knockouts World Championship: Kelani Jordan VS Jordynne Grace

Credit: WWE

After Blake Monroe celebrated in the bath, DarkState confronted Je’Von Evans, and Zaria told Sol Ruca that she will enter the NXT Women’s Speed Championship Tournament, it was Main Event time as Jordynne Grace looked to become a 4-time TNA Knockouts World Champion when she took on the reigning Champ, Kelani Jordan! This show really did highlight just how insanely stacked the NXT Women’s Division truly is, and the fact that three brands’ top Women’s Titles were defended on this one show was actually pretty amazing! I also really appreciated that Kelani’s gear was based on the colours of TNA Wrestling, something Jordynne Grace has done in the past; that’s the type of mind games that are both simple and effective! The only negative to this match is it was another one that got effected by outside interference, and this time, it was because of the fact that Ricky Saints and Trick Williams were still brawling! However, this actually played quite well into the ending of the match as after Saints and Williams’ brawl distracted the referee, Kelani nailed Jordynne with her TNA Knockouts Title, knocking Grace out for the 3 count! This was actually pretty Heel-ish from Kelani Jordan, but I quite liked it! Also, JG sold the belt shot like a champ! Anyway, after the match was over, Trick Williams and Ricky Saints brawled so hard that Saints sent Williams crashing through the Podium/Platform area with a Spear! Ava was absolutely sick to death at this point, so she booked a Last Man Standing Match for NXT Gold Rush! Please, someone help!

Grade: B