Powell’s NXT Hit List: Trick Williams vs. Eddy Thorpe for the NXT Championship, Nathan Frazer and Axiom vs. Mark Coffey and Wolfgang for the NXT Tag Titles, Oba Femi vs. Axiom

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

NXT Hits

Nathan Frazer and Axiom vs. Mark Coffey and Wolfgang for the NXT Tag Titles: I’m not sure what Coffey and Wolfgang did to earn a title shot when their last win on NXT television as a tag team occurred back in July. But if you can get past that, this was a hot tag team title match in execution. The story of Axiom doing double duty after Frazer did the same at Deadline was fun and made this match more interesting than it would have been without that story.

Ethan Page and Je’Von Evans: From All Ego to clinically depressed, Page showed more range than most of his peers possess. Evans was solid, bro. He did a good job of trying to build up Page, bro. Okay, so only Vinny Ru says bro more frequently than Evans did during this promo, but Page turning on him and the rare use of cosmetic blood in NXT came off really well. I’ve enjoyed the youthful exuberance that Evans has shown, but hopefully this will be the program that turns his character into a man.

Oba Femi vs. Axiom: The match went longer and was more competitive than I anticipated given that Femi is next in line to challenge for the NXT Championship. Ultimately, though, Oba didn’t lose anything despite giving up a fair amount of offense to Axiom, who looked good in defeat by holding his own with the monster.

Lash Legend and Jakara Jackson vs. Sol Ruca and Zaria: A fun tag team match. Sure, there were a couple of clunky moments, but there was more good than bad. I continue to hope that Zaria’s babyface run won’t last long. The vignettes that set up her arrival made her out to be a monster, but she was oddly positioned as a babyface shortly after her debut.

Jaida Parker vs. Wren Sinclair: The match was laid out to make Sinclair looked competitive before Parker went over strong. This was a good bounce back win for Parker coming off her loss to Lola Vice at Deadline.

NXT Misses

Trick Williams vs. Eddy Thorpe for the NXT Championship: The most interesting part of the match was the way Thorpe weaseled his way into getting a title shot. The actual match was pretty flat and had a couple of rough moments. The double pin finish with two different referees was weak. Really, a cliffhanger finish with the goal of getting viewers to watch on Christmas Eve? Good luck with that. Why isn’t that going to be a “best of” show? Thank goodness for DVRs. Anyway, I like Thorpe, but I fear they went with this bad finish to shoehorn him into the Williams vs. Oba Femi title match at New Years Evil.

Dion Lennox: The Ashante Adonis and Karmen Petrovic relationship drama continues to be a guilty pleasure, but I’m not a fan of Lennox being stuck in the middle of it. Lennox comes off as a likable guy, but it’s hard to get behind a babyface who is more concerned with reading books and giving relationship advice than his own in-ring career. Lennox has a good look and seems comfortable in front of the camera. I just hope there’s a plan to ditch the bookworm character and get Lennox in the ring.

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Readers Comments (2)

  1. Jason, that’s two misses in a row for a trick Williams match. Maybe there’s more but I don’t want to go back that far. Could the problem be trick? He has a good look and great entrance but his skills overall seem to be off.

    • I mentioned in the Deadline Hit List that Trick (and Ridge Holland) is a guy who needs the right opponent to have a strong match. But I don’t put a lot of the blame on him for this match. One of the flaws was Trick throwing a kick that Thorpe sold prematurely. And a big part of the Miss was for the finish, which isn’t the fault or either wrestler.

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