Powell’s NXT Hit List: Giulia and Stephanie Vaquer vs. Jacy Jayne and Fallon Henley, Iyo Sky and Kairi Sane vs. Lash Legend and Jakara Jackson, Oba Femi vs. Luca Crusifino, Tatum Paxley vs. Jaida Parker

By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)

NXT Hits

Giulia and Stephanie Vaquer vs. Jacy Jayne and Fallon Henley: An enjoyable tag team main event. As much as the match was naturally meant to spotlight the new arrivals, it was good to see Jayne and Henley get a fair amount of offense. Even so, this was a strange way to set up one member of Fatal Influence getting a shot at the North American Championship. Perhaps the arrival of Zaria at the end of the show means she will take the match?

Trick Williams and Ethan Page in-ring confrontation: Page carried the verbal segment while also establishing that the Devil’s Playground match will be violent and bloody. I continue to wonder if Halloween Havoc will be Page’s swan song in NXT, as he could definitely add something to the main roster.

Je’Von Evans: Nathan Frazer f’d around and found out. Okay, enough of the old dude trying to use dated tough guy lingo. The point is that the typically jovial Evans character showed a bit of an edge by responding to Frazer big timing him with a slap across the face. Evans shouldn’t move away from his likable nice guy persona, but it’s important that his character can flip the switch when necessary.

Giulia and Stephanie Vaquer video package: Finally. It felt like NXT was starting to make the common AEW mistake of assuming that their audience is either familiar with wrestlers who made their names wrestling internationally (Google this, buddy). The subtitle approach was logical and easy to follow.

Oba Femi vs. Luca Crusifino: Oba made good on his threat to take out Tony D’Angelo’s family before their match at Halloween Havoc. It’s obviously not his time to shine, but Crusifino has size and a good look. It’s great to see that he’s ditched the campy sports entertainment lawyer character attire that made him impossible to take seriously early in his NXT run.

Jaida Parker vs. Tatum Paxley: A soft Hit for Parker going over clean. Paxley is playing her oddball character really well, but there’s still no signs of it actually clicking with the audience. While it may seem logical to have her work with spooky characters such as Wendy Choo (yeah, I get that Halloween is approaching), the creative forces might be better off having Paxley work with more straight laced characters so that the character’s eccentricities actually stand out.

NXT Misses

Iyo Sky and Kairi Sane vs. Lash Legend and Jakara Jackson: Is it unfair to carry over bitterness from Raw’s shit finishes to NXT? Perhaps, but I couldn’t help but be annoyed when the first match on WWE television since Raw concluded with yet another cheap finish. The match was mostly solid leading up to Piper Niven and Chelsea Green attacking Legend and Jackson.

Sol Ruca vs. Karmen Petrovic: I get a kick out of Ashante Adonis’s playboy antics. But Petrovic losing this match because she was distracted by Adonis hanging with woman in the crowd was high school nonsense that did nothing for her or Ruca.

Cole Custer: Okay, so I’m not a NASCAR guy, let alone a NASCAR Xfinity Series guy. The CW runs a bunch of “Inside the NFL” ads during NXT. If WWE or CW executives can’t swing it, perhaps it’s worth having Pat McAfee make a call to see if he can get NFL coaching legend Bill Belichick to make a crossover appearance.