NXT TV results (12/24): Moore’s review of Charlie Dempsey vs. Lexis King for the NXT Heritage Cup, Stephanie Vaquer vs. Cora Jade, a four-way for a shot at the NXT Tag Team Titles

By John Moore, ProWrestling.net Staffer (@liljohnm)

NXT TV 
Taped December 17, 2024 in Lowell, Massachusetts at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium
Aired December 24, 2024 on The CW

Vic Joseph and Booker T were on commentary. Mike Rome was the ring announcer. After Vic handled the intro to the show, the show cut to highlights from last week’s main event featuring Trick Williams vs. Eddy Thrope for the NXT Championship (which ended in a disputed finish). Footage from after the show aired where NXT GM Ava ruled the match as a double pin, meaning Trick Williams retains the championship. Eddy Thrope shoved WWE Vice President of Talent Development Shawn Michaels at ringside…

Vic Joseph introduced Santa Claus, who was waiving to fans at ringside…

Entrances for the opening match took place…

1. Stephanie Vaquer vs. Cora Jade. Both women started the match with pin attempts and chain wrestling. Cora hit Steph with a huracanrana. Steph came back with a drop toehold. Cora ducked a 619 attempt by Stephanie. Both women sized each other up to acknowledge the stalemate. Stephanie set up for her signature hip thrust of a person’s head into the mat, but Cora rolled to ringside to avoid the move. Vic joked that this was Booker’s favorite move of Steph’s.

Stephanie hit Cora with a dropkick in the center of the ring. Steph then hit Cora with a slingshot knee. Vic noted that Cora hasn’t really landed any offense yet. Cora jumped out of the corner to land a Codebreaker on Stephanie. Cora did the Nelson from the Simpson’s laugh heading into break.[c]

Cora hit Stephanie with a knee in the corner for a two count. Stephanie fought out of a headlock with a jawbreaker. Stephanie then planted Cora with a back suplex for a moment of respite. Booker noted that Cora attacking Stephanie a few weeks ago was a Coup D’ Etat (Uhm? Naw. It’s not a Coup, Book!). Steph dodged a knee in the corner and hit Cora with Eat Da-feet. Steph then hit Cora with a meteora in the corner.

Stephanie went for her signature hip thrusts, but Cora alligator rolled to the ropes to block it. Steph synced in the headscissors more and dragged Cora to the center of the ring for her signature hip thrust move. Horny Booker was making weird “uhh” noises at his new favorite wrestling move (In all fairness to Book, the move is quite provocative). Stephanie got a two count. Vic joked that Booker should give a name to the move.

Stephanie locked Cora in a Standing STF. Cora escaped and gave Steph a draping elbow to the back of the neck. Cora hit Stephanie with a Gutwrench Suplex for a nearfall. Stephanie escaped a double underhook and hit Cora with a striking combination. Stephanie hit Cora with the Package Neckbreaker for the win.

Stephanie Vaquer defeated Cora Jade via pinfall in 9:41.

While Cora was focused on Vaquer leaving, a denim clad Kelani Jordan showed up and whailed on Cora with a Kendo Stick. Stephanie Vaquer held Kelani back, which allowed Cora to escape…

John’s Thoughts: A pretty one-sided match with most of Cora’s standard heat happening behind the blindness of the commercial break. Stephanie Vaquer is really acclimating well to WWE by simply being a badass. She has a natural aura to her like Giulia, but doesn’t even need the WWE production theatrics that Giulia got (I’m also more impressed with her in the ring in WWE more than Giulia who is holding back from her Japanese style). Meanwhile, Cora is stuck in a sorta “jobber to the stars” role at the moment. Hope they do more with her because they’ve invested a lot of TV time in her development and she’s delivered.

Tony D’Angelo, Channing Lorenzo, Luca Crucifino, and Adriana Rizzo were backstage. Luca thanked Tony D for the Christmas present of getting him and Stacks in the number one contenders four way match for a tag title shot. Tony D said it was time for more D’Angelo family members to get gold around their waist.

Stacks said he’s reminded of the one time he saw Santa creep into his home and ruffling through the gifts like he owns the place. Stacks talked about how his mom showed up and whooped Santa’s ass with a broomstick. Rizzo said that Momma Lorenzo is a saint amongst women. Stacks said his mom was a damn enforcer. Stacks said it was just the homie down the street instead of Santa, trying to shop for last minute presents in the Stacks home. Tony D called that fool a Grinch. Stacks and Luca then said they were going to beat up the other tag teams like Momma Lorenzo did to the impostor Santa…

Lexis King was warming up backstage. William Regal showed up and offered to be in King’s corner for his shot at the Heritage Cup. King accepted. Regal asked “are you gonna do it?”. King said yes, he was going to win the Heritage Cup. After King left, Regal took out his “Power of the Punch” Brass Knuckles and said “that’s not what I meant”…[c]

Entrances for the Heritage Cup match took place. A picture-in-picture showed a replay from King’s last attempt at the title, where he refused Regal’s brass knuckles because he didn’t want to be like Brian Pillman Sr. Vic Joseph read off the rules graphic…

2. Charlie Dempsey (w/Wren Sinclair) vs. Lexis King (w/William Regal) in a Rounds Match for the NXT Heritage Cup. King took down Dempsey with a shoulder and a crucifix rollup for a nearfall. Dempsey came back with an Ankle Lock which King escaped. King hit Dempsey with a dropkick. Dempsey put King in a Heel Hook, right into a armbar. King escaped and took down Dempsey with an armdrag into an armbar.

Dempsey used his technical wrestling to reverse the armbar into some joint manipulation. Dempsey then transitioned the move to a Cravate. King escaped and hit Dempsey with a hip toss. Dempsey used a bridge to escape the pin. Dempsey hit King with Cravate strikes. [End of Round 1]

King held onto the hold after the bell. Dempsey forced the break with a front suplex. King put Dempsey in the corner and worked on him with right hands. Dempsey came back with a Power Irish Whip and Axe Handle overhead to the back. Dempsey hit King with a Gutwrench out of a clinch for a nearfall. Dempsey worked on King’s neck and lower back with strikes.

Dempsey got a two count off a elevated single leg takedown. Dempsey put King in a Half Crab. King escaped with boots. King hit Dempsey with a superkick and Top Rope Sunset Flip for a nearfall. Dempsey came back with a Dragon Screw and Bridged German for a two count. The clock ran down with Dempsey locking in a modified STF. Dempsey gave King boots after the bell heading into break. [End of Round 2] [c]

[Round 3 occurred during the regular commercial break]

There were still no decisions in the match. King got a two count after a backbreaker. King hit Dempsey with a Northern Lights Suplex for a two count. King got another two count after a high crossbody. Both men traded Fighting Spirit European Uppercuts. King nailed Dempsey with a superkick. Dempsey rebounded with a knee. Both men took each other out with headbutts.

Regal put brass knuckles in King’s hand and told him to go for the Power of the Punch. Regal then knocked out King with a right hand punch. The knuckle dusters fell out of King’s hand. Dempsey recovered and picked up the knuckles out of confusion. The referee saw the knuckles in Dempsey’s hand with King knocked out and assumed Dempsey used the foreign object to knock out King. The referee called for a DQ. [End of Round 4]

Lexis King defeated Charlie Dempsey via DQ 2:53 into Round 4 to become the new Heritage Cup Champion (0-0 DQ).

When King woke up, he was shocked at his win. He then hugged the Heritage Cup to celebrate his title win. Vic noted that under Heritage Cup rules, you can lose the title from a DQ. Regal was shown shaking his head at ringside. A sponsored replay of the match aired…

John’s Thoughts: A solid rounds match before the finish with Lexis King showing a lot of in-ring improvement working his fresh new babyface style. The finish was a bit wonky. All of a sudden, a referee decided to be logical at the wrong moment. That said, it progresses the story and I think Tony D and Charlie Dempsey have done a good job establishing the “pure rules” of the Rounds match after Noam Dar kinda hurt the title with all his dirty and comedy finishes. The best thing I hope comes from this match is William Regal working a program with his real life son Dempsey. Maybe even backing the son of Brian Pillman. Regal proved in his recent AEW run that he still has a lot in the tank in terms of character work (being at the head of Blackpool Combat Club, the only time that faction was good).

Bronco Nima and Lucien Price were backstage hyping up themselves in the upcoming tag team title shot four way…

Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn made their entrance…[c]

A replay aired of last week’s Pilmanize spot where Ethan Page stomped a chair into the jaw of Je’von Evans, causing him to spew “blood”. Vic noted that we’ll hear from Page later in the show…

Kelani Jordan and Stephanie Vaquer were backstage with Jordan berating Vaquer for holding her back. Lola Vice showed up and noted that Stephanie was just looking out for Jordan. Jordan then noted that Vice was being a hypocrite because she allowed herself to interfere in all of Jaida Parker’s matches. Jordan yelled for both women to get out of her face…

John’s Thoughts: Seems like they’re setting up for a Kelani Jordan for a heel turn. She has a good natural girl next door vibe to her, but hasn’t really found it in the acting department. Curious to see if the heel shift might help her with her character work?

Fatal Influence made their entrance. Katana Chance, Kayden Carter, and Santa were shown watching the match from a balcony. Vic noted that they were here via WWE’s “Transfer Portal”…

3. “The Unholy Union” Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn vs. “Fatal Influence” Jasmyn Nyx and Jacy Jayne (w/Fallon Henley). Dawan and Nyx started the match with a collar and elbow. Dawn fought out of the corner with a shove. Dawn hit Nyx with a dropkick and basement uppercut for a nearfall. Dawn hit Nyx with a dropkick. Jayne tagged in. Dawn hit Jayne with a Gutwrench Suplex.

Dawn hit Jayne wiht a hip attack in the corner. Dawn held Jayne in place for a superkick by Fyre. Fyre hit Jayne with a few strikes. Jayne came back with an armdrag. Jayne hit Fyre with a huracanrana. Nyx tagged in and hit Fyre with a leg lariat. Nyx worked on Fyre with methodical offense. Gigi Dolin, Shotzi Blackheart, and Tatum Paxley were shown at ringside.

Shawn Spears, Brooks Jensen, and Niko were watching the match backstage. Fyre and Dawn dominated the match heading into break.[c]

Fatal Influence cut the ring in half on Dawn. Dawn escaped a headlock and got a nearfall off a rollup. Jayne came back wiht a right hand and mounted strikes. Fatal Influence used quick tags for tandem and isolation offense. Dawn hit Nyx with an enziguri to tag in Fyre. Chance and Carter made their way to ringside. Fyre hit Nyx with a DDT, Gourd Buster, and SUperkick.

Jayne broke up Fyre’s pin. Nyx caught Fyre with a kick and tagged in Jayne. Jayne hit Fyre with a leg lariat. Fyre and Jayne took each other out with stereo headbutts. Henley and Nyx bickered with Chance and Carter at ringside, which also distracted the referee. Gigi Dolin shoved Jayne off the top rope. Fyre and Dawn hit Jayne with their Gory Buster-Flatliner finisher to give Dawn the win.

The Unholy Union defeated Fatal Influence via pinfall in 12:47.

John’s Thoughts: Good to see Fyre and Dawn back in NXT. Paul Levesque didn’t really seem really into the whole witchcraft thing, and rarely use them on the main roster. Meanwhile, HBK was known to actually overpush both talented women. Given their talent, I would prefer HBK’s approach. Fatal Influence, meanwhile, are still booked to be Toxic Attraction Lite. Toxic Attraction in presentation. Lite, in terms of being booked to lose all the time as opposed to Toxic Attraction who were booked strong.

Tavion Heights and Myles Borne were warming up backstage. They didn’t like Dempsey being screwed out of the title. Heights said they have to focus on their tag team four way match. Heights as Bourne what Christmases were like for him. Borne said they were “pretty quiet” (get it? Because he’s legally deaf. He seems okay with the running jokes about his disability, so it seems fun and harmless)…

Zaria thanked Sol Ruca for protecting her in last week’s match. Izzi Dame showed up to talk trash to Zaria and Sol. Shawn Spears and crew showed up to offer words of advise. Dame called Spears a stalker. Dame left…

Dion Lennox made his entrance looking like a nerdy and black EC3…[c]

John’s Thoughts: The fact that I call Lennox the result of a fusion dance between EC3 and Showtime Percy Watson is actually a complement. EC3 had the great look and Watson had the fun glasses gimmick. So far with Lennox though it seems very surface level and he needs to find a way to feel more than just a caricature.

An Eddy Thorpe tweet was shown where he was complaining about last week being an injustice done to him…

Ashante the Adonis made his entrance…

John’s Thoughts: I know he spells the “the” as “thee”, but it just doesn’t feel right to write that for anyone who isn’t Megan Thee Stallion!

4. Ashante the Adonis vs. Dion Lennox. Lennox tried to explain to Adonis that he wasn’t trying to hit on Petrovic. Adonis shoved Lennox. Lennox went into Incredible Hulk mode by launching Adonis into the air. Adonis worked on Lennox with ground and pound. Nikkita Lyons showed up at ringside looking juicy thicc as usual. Ashante worked on Lennox with methodical offense.

Dion got a two count off a backslide. Adonis got a two count after a clothesline. Adonis went back to his methodical offense. Dion escaped a headlock and rallied with running forearms and a clothesline in the corner. Dion hit Adonis with a spinebuster. Dion hit Adonis with a running power slam. Lyons put Ashante’s leg on the rope for the break. Lyons yelled at the crowd and told them that they were trippin’. Both men traded rollups with Adonis picking up the pinfall win.

Ashante the Adonis defeated Dion Lennox via pinfall in 5:07.

Lyons went in the ring to praise Adonis for his win, all while swanging her booty cheeks left and right (as she usually does)…

John’s Thoughts: Due to injuries cutting her runs short, Lyons never really had a chance to click as a babyface. I’m starting to like her in the role of the soap opera homewrecker. Adds some drama to my guilty pleasure love story between Ashante and Karmen. Dion Lennox feels like a “extra” in this soap opera and his role feels like it could be filled by anyone. He has a good look and personality. He just feels very NPC in this story.

Hank and Tank were backstage talking about how much they like Christmas and how they were ready for the tag team match later in the show…

Vic Joseph hyped up Roxanne Perez appearing after the break…[c]

Kayden Carter and Katana Chance met up with Shotzi, Gigi, and Tatum backstage. Lash Legend and Jakara Jackson showed up to bicker with everyone…

Vic Joseph and Booker T checked in on commentary. They sent the show to a Roxanne Perez promo. She talked about how she came to WWE as a little girl with some indie buzz, but ultimately became one of the best free agent signings in WWE history. She agreed that it was cocky of her to think that. She talked about winning a bunch of NXT’s championships in short time. She talked about how nobody beats the prodigy.

She said she agrees that there were bumps on the road, but she took three years to become at the forefront of all the NXT women legends. She said she lives up to the prodigy name every single day. She said most 20 year olds don’t know about what to do at that age, but she’s making history. Perez said only people like Simone Biles and Caitlin Clark can relate to her. Perez said Giulia is the underdog to her, even though Perez is smaller. She said that’s just how great she is. Vic plugged Perez vs. Giulia II for New Years Evil…

John’s Thoughts: Standard video package, but effective in building up Perez. I think showing clips of her early on when they were trying to make her the hero to little girls, really helps build her up now, showing how far she’s come in terms of character development.

A replay aired of William Regal costing his son the NXT Heritage Cup to Lexis King…

Sarah Schreiber congratulated Lexis King about his title win. Before she could go into the dirty finish, King cut her off and talked about how excited he was to win his first championship [in WWE]. He talked about how he won because he stuck to integrity. Sarah tried to bring up the dirty win, but King interrupted again talking about integrity and not taking shortcuts. He then said he had to go and rest up…

The Tony D’Angelo Family made their entrance…[c]

John’s Thoughts: They are definitely setting up King for a heel alignment, hopefully with Charlie’s dad William. I do like that it is up in the air a bit because Regal attacked King and King has plausible deniability as to weather he accepts the dirty win. They have been telling the story that he’ll turn at any minute though, due to his pedigree.

An Ethan Page pre-tape promo aired. Page spoke in a cold and methodical tone. Page said he sees the social media outrage over him breaking the jaw of “NXT’s favorite son” Je’von Evans. Page said the person to blame for that act is Je’von Evans himself. Page said he had to listen to Evans bragging about his great 2024, but it ended with him eating out of a straw. Page said Evans asked for the real Ethan Page and got it.

He said he can still hear the sound of Je’von’s mandible cracking. He said he remembers Evans laying there in shock, pain, and fear. Page said that Evans is no longer the kid with an infectious smile, because Page took that from him. He said he had a week to reflect on his actions. He said he should have regret or remorse, but he doesn’t. Page said that last week was the highlight of his year. Page thanked Evans for helping him “find his smile” by taking Je’von’s smile…

John’s Thoughts: Last week was one of the best moments of Page’s long career with the new unhinged character he unleashed. This was a wonderful follow up, especially with the tone Page was speaking in. I criticized Ridge Holland for being a bad sad dad, and Shawn Spears for being a bad melodramatic ham. Page was a better sad dad, better at melodrama. Ever since the Chandler Park days, this guy has always impressed me with how great he plays his characters, and now he’s emerging a cool main event character (Only character of his that annoyed the hell out of me was his stupid ass Karate Man gimmick).

The following segments were plugged for next week’s NXT: The year end awards, Lola Vice vs. Kelani Jordan, and Dolin and Shotzi vs. Meta Four vs. Chance and Carter…

Bourne and Heights and Hank and Tank made their entrance. Hank started the match by hitting Heights with one of the artificial Christmas trees…

5. Hank Walker and Tank Ledger vs. Channing “Stacks” Lorenzo and Luca Crucifino (w/Adriana Rizzo) vs. Tavion Heights and Myles Borne vs. “Out Tha Mud” Bronco Nima and Lucien Price in a Christmas Chaos Fatal Four Way for a future shot at the NXT Tag Team Championship. Hank put Tank in a shopping cart and rammed the cart into Borne. The Family dumped OTM to ringside. The Family then used a table as cover and threw “snowballs” at Hank and Tank.

Luca then sprayed a fire extinguisher at Hank and Tank. Heights distracted Luca with a gift. Borne dumped Luca to ringside with a dropkick. Heights dumped Stacks to ringside by spraying him with extinguisher. Tavon’s extinguisher jammed. Nima and Price took down NQCC. Hank and Tank took down OTM with a Christmas Tree Clothesline. “Santa” then showed up to watch the match sitting at ringside.

A “Santa” chant ensued. Stacks and Luca then hit Hank and Tank with Jeff Hardy like double leg drops. Rizzo gave Luca a gift box with had a bowling ball in it. Luca rolled the ball into Hank’s golden globes. OTM slammed Luca on the apron. Borne and Heights power bombed Stacks through a cookie table. Borne reversed a press slam into a RKO heading into break.[c]

Borne opened a gift to get Kendo Sticks. Heights and Borne cleaned house with Kendo Stick strikes. Price was wrapped in a gift ribbon. Hank and Tank dumped NQCC from the ring and hit Price with a running press squash. Hank then tossed Tank into Nima. NQCC broke up the pin and hit Hank and Tank with Kendo Sticks. Luca and Stacks fishhooked NQCC with plastic candy canes. Price and Nima cleared Luca and Stacks from the ring.

Price chokeslammed Borne on a chair. Nima body slammed Heights on the chair. OTM hip tossed Borne into a table in the corner. Hank and Tank hit OTM with diving strikes from the top rope. Hank and Tank hit OTM with stereo Vader Bombs to ringside. Tyson Dupont and Tyriek Igwe then brawled with Hank and Tank to the back. The Family worked on the other two tag teams with candy cane shots. The Family hit Price with the Shatter Machine.

Nima broke up Lorenzo’s pin. Santa got up the chair and hit Tony D’Angelo with a Redeemer DDT. This distracted Stacks and Luca. OTM dumped Luca to ringside. OTM hit Stacks with an assisted Alabama Slam to give Price the win.

Out Tha Mud defeated Channing Lorenzo and Luca Crucifino, Tavion Heights and Myles Borne, and Hank and Tank via pinfall in 12:41 to become number one contenders to the NXT Tag Team Championships.

“Santa” took off his beard and hat to reveal that he was Ridge Holland…

Trick Williams was shown walking backstage…[c]

John’s Thoughts: Years of Vince McMahon booking have made me dread these holiday themed matches because of all the camp and yuk-yuk jokes that would be included in all of those matches. This was one of the better versions of the themed holiday match (which is expected now that Vince is no longer around). There was no random slapstick or food fights. Instead, they used the holiday gimmicks as weapons for winning. I thought it was good. Good to see OTM win too because I’ve been high on these guys since the early days of Level Up (I wouldn’t mind if they brought Reggie-Scrypts back too, because that guy was starting to click and he gave OTM authenticity).

NXT Champion Trick Williams made his entrance. Before Trick could get into his promo, Oba Femi made his entrance. He said to not talk about last week because it was time to talk about the future. Oba was interrupted by Eddy Thorpe making his entrance. Eddy said Oba might not care about last week, but he does, so Oba has to deal with it. Eddy said he didn’t get pinned, because his feet was under the rope. Eddy said Trick didn’t beat him, Trick escaped.

Trick said told Eddy to shut up and said that him and Eddy being at the same level sounds crazy. Oba cut in and said that Trick is the champ now, but only for two more weeks before Oba beats him. Eddy said even though Oba won Iron Survivor, he and Trick have business to deal with and Oba has to wait. Oba said he’s done waiting. Oba noted that Eddy claimed that Oba screwed him out of Iron Survivor, and even swore on his Native American people. Oba said Eddy was a liar.

Trick said “both of ya’ll need to shut up”. Trick said Eddy wants to talk past while Oba wants to talk future. Trick said they have to talk about now. Trick proposed a Triple Threat Match in two weeks between the three of them for the title. Oba rolled his eyes and his face sold “oh hell naw”. Trick said he knows that makes it where he doesn’t have to be pinned to win the title, but he wants to beat both of them to shut up all the hate and show people he can whoop dat trick.

Oba took exception and called Trick the slickest man in all of WWE for proposing that. Oba said Trick knows he can’t beat Oba one-on-one so he put Eddy in the match to get pinned so Trick can escape with the title. Eddy tried to cut in but Oba yelled “BE QUIET!” at Eddy. Oba said if Trick can’t even beat Eddy, Trick’s chances of beating Oba are zero. NXT GM Ava’s entrance theme played as she made her entrance. Ava said that since Trick wants the triple threat, she’ll sign off on it. Ava booked Trick vs. Eddy vs. Oba for the Championship at the Shrine Auditorium show.

Eddy tried to get a cheap shot on Oba. Trick and Eddy brawled. Oba took down Eddy and Trick with clotheslines. Oba hit Trick with a Power Bomb. Oba tried to hit Eddy with a power bomb, but Eddy rolled to ringside. Oba Femi’s theme played with Oba posing in the center of the ring with the NXT Title Belt. The show closed with Paul Levesque, Shawn Michaels, and Lee Fitting credited as Executive Producers…

John’s Thoughts: While a standard go home segment, it was effective in developing Oba Femi and Eddy Thorpe a bit. Eddy Thorpe is finally, after all these years, starting to click from a character standpoint. He reminds me a bit of Christian Cage as a pest heel; being a ponk ass in a good way. This is a huge upgrade over his BFD Karl Fredericks days when he was just a barebones Randy Orton clone. Oba Femi came out of this segment as the most logical. I liked him adding heat on Thorpe by calling out Thorpe for disingenuously invoking the race card. On one hand, you could think of Oba mentioning the obvious aspect of Eddy being put into the match to eat the pin, meaning they won’t go with that finish.

I still think Eddy’s eating the pin, and Oba just said that to lampshade it. Let’s see where they go. If anything, Eddy will be in the ring to help improve the match from an in-ring perspective with him being the most experienced of the three in the ring. Looking forward to the Shrine Auditorium show in Los Angeles. I kinda feel bad for not getting tickets to the show as I also liked attending Shrine Auditorium shows growing up. Overall, this week’s show was solid. Too bad a lot of people aren’t watching it live, like me, since it’s the Holidays.

WE VALUE YOUR PRIVACY

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