By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
NXT Deadline Hits
Trick Williams vs. Dijak vs. Josh Briggs vs. Bron Breakker vs. Tyler Bate in the men’s Iron Survivor Challenge: All five wrestlers had moments to shine and the sequence that led to Trick picking up four falls in the closing minutes was a crowd pleaser. Predictable? Sure, but it worked like a charm and that’s the most important thing. Breakker’s rapid fire spears that led to him picking up three falls during his first minute in the match were a lot of fun. The only thing that didn’t really work was the interference of Eddy Thorpe. It furthered his feud with Dijak, but the near silence from the crowd when Thorpe walked out was telling.
Tiffany Stratton vs. Lash Legend vs. Blair Davenport vs. Kelani Jordan vs. Fallon Henley in the women’s Iron Survivor Challenge: A creative match that included some memorable spots. They made good use of the penalty box and match format creatively allowed Legend to pick up two falls at once. Jordan showed her inexperience a couple of times, but she continues to be extremely impressive at this early stage in her development. Legend was protected by being the final entrant, but she was put in a position to stand out and made the most of her limited minutes. The Stratton and Henley feud made for some fun moments. Davenport was a solid choice to win the match and is a fresh challenger for Lyra Valkyria. One thing that worked against the match is that the live crowd didn’t have a favorite to support. For as loaded as the NXT women’s division is, none of the babyfaces have caught fire. While some of that falls on the talent, it strikes me as an ongoing shortcoming of the creative forces. Mistakes were made when they rushed to Roxanne Perez winning the championship and the jury is still out on whether Lyra Valkyria will truly connect with the audience.
Dominik Mysterio vs. Dragon Lee for the NXT North American Championship: A hot opening match complete with a title change. I suspected that the plan was for Wes Lee to regain the championship had he not been forced to pull out of the match due to injury, but I was still surprised to see Dragon beat Dom clean to take the title. Dom didn’t get any support from Judgment Day, so perhaps that will be a story coming out of the match.
Ilja Dragunov vs. Baron Corbin for the NXT Championship: More of an in the middle than a Hit or a Miss. While I can’t knock any company for putting its championship match in the main event slot, they may have been better off putting the crowd pleasing Trick Williams win on last. The match was well worked and Vic Joseph did a nice job on commentary of telling the story of Dragunov’s resilience and family sacrifices, but I just don’t know how much it’s actually resonating with viewers. The live crowd was attentive, yet not nearly as hot as they’ve been for other NXT PLE main events. Of course, some of that falls on Corbin. But as much as I enjoy Dragunov’s in-ring work, he’s just not clicking with the masses in his role as NXT Champion.
CM Punk and Shawn Michaels: Punk’s not quite a surprise appearance was a nice treat for the live crowd and presumably brought in some extra viewers for the PLE. I don’t think anyone thinks Punk is NXT bound, but it was still fun to see him share an NXT ring with Shawn Michaels, even if Punk confessed that they both forgot what they were supposed to say.
Axiom vs. Nathan Frazer: A strong Kickoff Show match. I groaned when NXT extended their Kickoff Shows to a full hour and added a pre-show match. But I’ll learn to tolerate them if every pre-show match is as good as this one.
NXT Deadline Misses
Roxanne Perez vs. Kiana James in a steel cage match: A nonsensical finish completely ruined what was an otherwise flat cage match. As high as I am on the upside of James, she just hasn’t had enough consistent heat or character development to make fans get caught up in her feud with Perez. But that dreadful finish did them no favors. If the wrestlers couldn’t win this match by escaping the cage, then why would the referee open the cage door to let James try to escape? As if that wasn’t bad enough, the “Who?” moment of Izzy Dame slamming the cage door on James’s head was poorly executed and just plain bad. To be fair, Dame appeared in the Breakout Tournament and had a brief appearance on Tuesday’s television show, but she wasn’t positioned strongly enough to be memorable to the masses and it showed based on the crowd’s flat reaction to her.
Carmelo Hayes vs. Lexis King: A soft Miss. The match was solid by King’s standards and yet below the top notch level that we’ve come to expect from Hayes, especially on premium live events. King’s inconsistency with selling his hand injury was particularly bad. King has improved in NXT, but there’s still a lot of work to be done. On the bright side, I like the post match character work with King telling Hayes that he didn’t attack Trick Williams before thanking him for the PLE spotlight.
Be the first to comment