NXT Review: 30/06

Linus O'Howell
2 days ago
6 min read

Kendal Grey’s Championship Celebration, The Vanity Project VS El Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. and Galeno: NXT Tag Team Championships

After a recap of what went down at The Great American Bash, this week’s edition of NXT kicked off with Kendal Grey coming down to the ring to celebrate becoming the brand-new NXT Women’s Champion! Kendal admitted that she’s not your stereotypical Champion; she doesn’t like to dress up all glamorous like a lot of the other women in the locker room, and she’s also not somebody who’s particularly confident on the microphone! However, when the bell rings, that’s when Grey performs like a Champion, with nobody being on her level in that department as she embarks on a journey to make the NXT Women’s Division even stronger than we’ve ever seen before! Kendal’s Tag Team partner, Wren Sinclair, then arrived with a double-layered cake, a reward that the pair had agreed upon last week if they were both able to successfully leave The Great American Bash as Champions! Of course, this happened, but one woman who wasn’t in the mood for celebrating was Kelani Jordan, as Kelani still believes that she deserves a shot at the NXT Women’s Title! In fairness, Jordan and Grey are tied at 1-1! Anyway, Lani is also angry about what happened on Sunday, when she got attacked by Tatum Paxley, leading to Tatum doing the same thing again! Whilst this was all going on, the WreNQCC were just stuffing their faces full of cake! I’d like some cake! On a serious note, I really liked Kendal Grey’s promo; everything she said felt real!

Grade: B-

After El Hijo del Vikingo was found backstage completely laid out by Keanu Carver, Mr. Stone had no choice but to cancel the scheduled AAA Latin American Championship match, with EK Prosper instead getting another match against Keanu Carver! Robert Stone also gave Kelani Jordan a match with Tatum Paxley (in the Main Event), whilst Zaria couldn’t hear a single thing that Izzi Dame was saying as Lizzy Rain was creating an absolute racket inside of the NXT Women’s Locker Room (which is already a pretty dangerous place to begin with)! It was then time for the opening match of the night, as brothers El Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. and Galeno teamed up to challenge The Vanity Project for the NXT Tag Team Championships! In fairness, Brad Baylor and Ricky Smokes aren’t the biggest competitors anyway, but they looked in a completely different league when facing Dr. Wagner Jr. and Galeno! The two guys from AAA are mammoth competitors, with Booker T in particular losing his mind! Of course, my highlight of all of this was getting to hear Wagner’s theme song; it’s absolutely one of my favourites, and I actually thought that all of this was done quite well! The Vanity Project weren’t made to look like rubbish Champions, with them getting plenty of double team manoeuvres in, but they were also clearly second best due to the difference in experience levels! However, with Jackson Drake and Myka Lockwood on the outside, The Vanity Project were always going to use the numbers game to their advantage, with Baylor and Smokes delivering their Tag Team finisher to retain their Titles! A good opening match!

Grade: B-

Jackson Drake VS Mason Rook, EK Prosper VS Keanu Carver

BirthRight, OTM, Sean Legacy (without Dorian Van Dux), and DarkState all surrounded Mr. Stone, pushing for an NXT Tag Team Championship shot! Robert Stone decided to book a Number 1 Contender’s Fatal 4-Way for next week's show, whilst he told Noam Dar and Romeo Moreno that they need to rack up more wins in order to also be in contention! The Vanity Project’s music was still playing in the arena as Jackson Drake was ready to take on Mason Rook! This match was booked off the back of their altercation at the end of last week’s show, with Mr. Stone also booking this match because he’s clearly had enough of The Vanity Project’s own hype! I’ll be honest, Jackson Drake is one of the best young wrestlers that I have ever seen! In-ring-wise, he genuinely feels like he’s come from the Black-and-Gold Era of NXT; very much like an Adam Cole or Johnny Gargano, and he’s probably the best in-ring performer NXT have had since Carmelo Hayes! In fairness, Mason Rook plays his role well; he’s a big guy, but he can be quite agile! I expected him to win this match, given the fact that he’s already been positioned in the NXT Main Event scene, but to my surprise, that didn’t happen! See, after plenty of interference from The Vanity Project, Jackson Drake was able to steal away with the win as Myka Lockwood held the leg of Rook down!

Grade: B

Tate Wilder did a good job of hyping EK Prosper up after EK was rightly disappointed that his AAA Latin American Championship opportunity was no longer taking place, before Mr. Stone told Kali Armstrong that she needs to make a statement in order to be in with a shot at challenging Kendal Grey for the NXT Women’s Championship! EK Prosper was then out next as he was looking to get some revenge on Keanu Carver! Of course, EK won this match last week, with Robert Stone rewarding Prosper with a Latin American Title shot, but it’s worth mentioning that EK actually wanted to face Keanu again to begin with, after Carver put him through a table in the aftermath of last week’s match! Also, with the added fact that KC attacked Vikingo in order for the Title match not to take place to begin with, I guess that it was fine to get this match back-to-back! Towards the end of the match, Tank Ledger arrived, throwing Keanu Carver into the barricade, with the referee deciding not to throw the match out, despite clearly hearing what happened! This allowed Prosper to stun Carver once again, and my goodness me; Keanu Carver sucks!

Grade: C

Jaida Parker VS Karmen Petrovic, Tony D’Angelo Promo

Nikkita Lyons, Karmen Petrovic, and Layla Diggs are clearly big fans of Nattie, with Mr. Stone agreeing to give Nattie a shot at Kendal Grey’s NXT Women’s Championship next week! Speaking of Karmen Petrovic, she finally returned to an NXT ring as she went one-on-one with Jaida Parker! I will be honest; this entire match confused me! The story that NXT have been telling over recent weeks/months is that Jaida Parker has been going soft; yet she just won here! In fairness, I’m assuming that the other story that’s being told is Layla Diggs is secretly a big fan of Jaida, with those two potentially forming some sort of alliance in the future! But yeah, Miss Parker beat Karmen pretty clean, a woman who’s seemingly the leader of a brand-new faction in AAA! All of this was odd!

Grade: C+

Shiloh Hill and Tatum Paxley absolutely love hanging out together, with Shiloh explaining to Tatum that Tristan Angels brought out a side of him that’s always been there! Niko Vance then called Paxley “deadweight”, leading to Hill defending his bestie, before Dorian Van Dux promised Sean Legacy that he’d lock in moving forward! Then, after Wren Sinclair and Myles Borne didn’t exactly look too pleased to see Tavion Heights, Tony D’Angelo came down to the ring to address the NXT Universe following his successful NXT Title defence over Naraku at The Great American Bash! Tony explained that he had to sign a bunch of waivers in order to even be allowed to defend the Title in the first place, with his health clearly not being at 100%! However, despite that, D’Angelo was able to overcome the odds and retain his Title, with Tony claiming that there’s not a single man in the NXT Locker Room who’s capable of defeating him! This is when Kendal Grey came out, but to my disappointment, it was only because she was going to commentate on the Main Event, not challenge Tony D to a Winner Takes All match (which would’ve been cinema)! Anyway, Naraku then attacked Tony D’Angelo anyway, with Grey seemingly vanishing! I guess that feud must continue, but it kind of feels pointless!

Grade: C+

Kelani Jordan VS Tatum Paxley

And in the Main Event of this week’s edition of NXT, Kelani Jordan looked to take out her frustration on the women who’s attacked her twice in as many days, Tatum Paxley! Kelani and Tatum have been two of NXT’s most important women for quite a while now, with that seemingly not set to change any time soon! I say seemingly, because I would argue that both Jordan and Paxley are more than good enough for the Main Roster by now! Anyway, Kendal Grey joined commentary for the first half of this match, and the reason that it was only for the first half of the match was that she got attacked by Kali Armstrong! That’s all Mr. Stone’s fault! Back to the action, and after a good back-and-forth contest between two talented performers, it was Lani who was able to score the win with her One-of-a-Kind Split-Legged Moonsault, before Paxley was attacked post-match by NXT’s newest female star! A part of me really wants this to be Tatum Paxley’s final NXT appearance; that would do great for everyone involved!