By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
NXT Hits
Trick Williams vs. Pete Dunne in a Last Man Standing match for a shot at the NXT Title: The presentation of the match was strong. Everything from the shot of Williams arriving at the building to both men getting promo time was effective in making the main event feel important. The actual match was strong and the obvious person went over to set up Williams challenging Ethan Page for the NXT Championship on the NXT debut on The CW.
Nathan Frazer and Axiom vs. The Street Profits for the NXT Tag Team Titles: A fun match while it lasted. The Profits were late replacements for Trey Miguel and Zachary Wentz, and there was no reason to expect a clean finish. The Bloodline’s surprise attack took a cheap finish scenario and made it feel satisfying. It was also a nice touch to have Wes Lee take credit for taking out Miguel while challenging Wentz to a street fight on The CW premiere.
Ridge Holland vs. Duke Hudson: This match was exactly what it needed to be. Hudson showed some heart, but Holland ultimately destroyed him. The post match attack was even more effective in terms of making Holland look like a badass. An assist goes to Thea Hail for selling the beatdown angle by acting horrified at ringside.
Jordynne Grace vs. Sol Ruca for the TNA Knockouts Championship: More of an in the middle than a Hit or a Miss for a match that had some rough spots and concluded with a copout finish. On the bright side, it was nice to see Rosemary and Wendy Choo featured in a video package. It’s not that I’m fired up about the heel spooky girl tag team, but it was encouraging to see NXT put Rosemary’s excellent verbal skills to good use.
NXT Misses
Giulia vs. Chelsea Green: Maybe it’s a good thing that the NXT viewership was presumably lighter due to the U.S. Presidential debate. As much as I’m an advocate for Green being positioned as someone who can hold her own in the ring, Giulia’s NXT debut match was a strange time for Green to suddenly be so competitive. Yes, Giulia went over clean in the end, but the match was no different than some of the needlessly long and overly competitive AEW debut matches that I’ve grumbled about. Hey, at least we got to see Funaki as NXT’s No. 1 Translator!
NXT North American Champion Oba Femi vs. Hammerstone in a non-title match: The match was fine. The problem is that NXT just wasted what could have been a compelling PLE match or at least a strong television main event by having Hammerstone show up unadvertised and lose clean in just over five minutes. Sure, it was fun in the moment, but they could have gotten so much more out of this matchup with a proper build.
Charlie Dempsey vs. Je’Von Evans for the NXT Heritage Cup: An enjoyable match until the bad finish. The Heritage Cup format could give the NXT brand a dose of a different style of wrestling. Unfortunately, NXT creative typically uses the format to come up with lame ways to have outside interference end matches. At this point, I wish they would ban everyone from ringside during Heritage Cup matches just to save the creative forces from themselves.
INDEEEEED!!