NXT TV results (1/14): Moore’s review of Nathan Frazer and Axiom vs. OTM for the NXT Tag Titles, Stephanie Vaquer vs. Shotzi for a shot at the NXT Women’s North American Title

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

NXT TV 
Orlando, Florida at the WWE Performance Center
Aired live January 14, 2025 on The CW

[Hour One] Highlights from last week’s NXT New Years Evil show aired. Vic Joseph and Booker T were on commentary. Mike Rome was the ring announcer…

The show opened up at the Performance Center where NXT Champion Oba Femi made his entrance in street clothes. Oba said that destiny will always arrive, and he’s arrived. Oba mocked an american accent and talked about how other champions will go “I didn’t think I can do it”. Oba said he always knew he could do it. Oba said people thought what he was doing was a gimmick or joke, but he was backed by destiny.

He said he was backed by destiny when he came here, won the breakout tournament, became the longest reigning NXT North American Champion, and the current NXT Champion. Oba said he’s the ruler now and he’ll do what he sees fit. Oba said Trick put in a lot of work and broke a lot of records as NXT Champion. Oba said like others, Trick has a ceiling, while Oba has no ceiling.

Oba said that Eddy Thorpe is something, like a cockroach, or crap that won’t come off the bottom of your shoe. NXT North American Champion Tony D’Angelo made his entrance. Tony D congratulated Oba for being in the big seat now. Tony D said he and the family have been listening to Oba list off his accomplishments, but the one Tony D was interested in Oba being longest winning North American Champion.

Tony D said in his world it’s Tony D 2, Oba Femi 1. Tony said he’s the only person to beat Oba. Tony D said he’s going to fight hard and become a two title don. Oba mocked Tony D for getting beat up by Santa Claus a few weeks ago, and told Tony D to make sure Tony is protecting his own reign. Ridge Holland made his entrance and showed off a framed picture of him beating up Tony D as Santa Claus.

Tony D rushed Ridge and the two men brawled. Security Guard pulled both men apart as they brawled to the back. While Oba Femi was laughing at the brawl, Eddy Thorpe jumped Oba Femi from behind. Eddy wrapped a leather strap around his hand and knocked out Oba by punching him in the back of the neck. Eddy Thrope posed with the NXT Championship for a bit and left…

Dante Chen and Oro Mensah were chatting in the locker room and were cut off by Ethan Page who was bragging about chatting with Rock last week. Ethan Page said he can smell the jealousy in the locker room (mocking Rock’s smell catchphrase). Dante Chen said everyone’s disgusted at what Ethan did to Je’von Evans. Page mocked Je’von not being able to eat solid food and having his mouth wired shut. Chen was about to snap at Page, but he was held back by Hank and Tank…

Stephanie Vaquer made her entrance…[c]

John’s Thoughts: Standard and solid first promo from Oba Femi. I got a good chuckle out of Oba bringing out the cheesy sad white guy voice to mock other past champs who act like they won an academy award. I’m curious to see how the NXT title picture unfolds as during Oba’s record breaking reign, he ran through most of the powerhouses in NXT and a few on the main roster. There’s always the Trick run back, Tony D down the road, Wes Lee maybe in the wings? Eddy Thorpe looks like he’ll be a solid thorn in Oba’s side and I really like that Eddy has finally found a character that works for him. Good for BFT Karl Fredericks. Now if they’d only let him

Vic Joseph plugged NXT going on the road on January 28. Separate shots of the Meta-girls, Unholy Union, and Roxanne Perez were shown as they arrived to the WWE Performance Center…

Shotzi Blackheart made her entrance…

1. Shotzi vs. Stephanie Vaquer for a shot at the NXT Women’s North American Championship. Both women started the match even with technical wrestling and pin attempts. Shotzi escaped a Indian Deathlock and put Vaquer in a limb stretch. Vaquer escaped with a rollup. Shotzi hit Vaquer with a enzuigiri. Shotzi put Vaquer in a Tarantula.

Shotzi caught Vaquer with a crossbody for a nearfall. Steph no sold a big boot and gave Shotzi a Dragon Screw. Steph hit Shotzi with Booker T’s favorite women’s wrestling move, the headscissor hip thrusts to the mat. The show cut to regular commercial.[c]

Shotzi and Stephanie brawled to the top rope. Shotzi hit Steph with a Frankensteiner, followed by a strike combination. Shotzi got a two count off Stephanie. Stephanie recovered and hit Shotzi with Eat De-feet. Shotzi dodged a meteora in the corner and hit Steph with an inverted Cannonball. Shotzi hit Stephanie with a double underhook German Suplex for a nearfall. Stephanie got to her feet and hit Shotzi with a hip toss into the buckle.

Steph paintbrushed Shotzi with boots and hit her with a meteora in the corner for a good nearfall. Shotzi escaped Steph’s finisher. Both women traded right hands. Jacy Jayne ran and yelled from the apron. Shotzi and Stephanie dragged Jacy in the ring and both gave her a stereo headbutt. While Shotzi was grounded and Stephanie was running the ropes, Fallon Henley hit Steph in the lower back with the North American Championship. Shotzi recovered and rolled up Vaquer to pick up the win.

Shotzi defeated Stephanie Vauqer via pinfall in 11:04. 

Steph and Shotzi jawed with Jacy and Fallon from a distance…

Sol Ruca and Zaria were trying to give Kelani Jordan encouragement for Jordan’s loss last week. Cora Jade showed up to talk trash, but Jordan smacked her in the face. The show awkwardly cut to Picture-in-Picture.[c]

The picture-in-picture break had the camera person follow Stephanie Vaquer as she was rampaging backstage looking for someone. She tossed down what looked like Jacy Jayne (hard to tell from the little picture). Vaquer continued to walk backstage, intimidating the locker room. Stephanie eventually made her way to Gorilla Position to bully a referee. Ethan Page calmed her down somehow, leading to the camera following Page. Ethan Page made his entrance during Picture-in-picture…

John’s Thoughts: Harder to cover this show when there’s meaningful content in the tiny picture-in-picture. Good on WWE for finally utilizing the PIP for something useful. I’d definitely recommend checking out the PIP to see Vaquer look like a badass. Solid match. Shotzi is a solid good contender for the NA title, but I hope she isn’t just a challenger of the week for Fallon because I’ve been very high on Shotzi for years and think she has the potential to be one of the top women in all of WWE if utilized right. Stephanie Vaquer’s build has been very simple and effective, but I think she should be in the main title division, leaving the NA title for wrestlers that need building or developmental/NIL types.

Back from break, Oba Femi confronted NXT GM Ava backstage, which scared Robert Stone and Stevie Turner. Oba demanded a fight against Eddy Thrope. Robert Stone told Oba that Eddy was playing Oba like a fiddle. Oba lifted Stone and said if he wants Eddy, he’ll get Eddy. Ava told Oba to stop and that he’ll get Eddy next week

After Page’s entrance, Dante Chen made his entrance. Ethan Page attacked Dante before the bell. The bell ran when Dante gave the ok…

2. “All Ego” Ethan Page vs. Dante Chen. Chen hit Page with a chop into a kick combo. Page crumpled to dodge Chen’s signature chop. Ethan Page hit Dante Chen with a Twist of Fate for the victory.

Ethan Page defeated Dante Chen via pinfall in 0:57. 

Page attacked Dante Chen after the bell and took off Chen’s right boot. Page then trapped Chen’s foot between the steel step and the ring and kicked the steps. Chen sold it by writhing in extreme pain. While Page was gloating at his dirty work, Je’von Evans showed up and jumped Page. Page knocked down Evans in one shot by punching Evans in his injured jaw. Page yelled at Evans to “SMILE!” while Evans was spewing more blood from his mouth…

Vic Joseph plugged Giulia appearing after the break…[c]

John’s Thoughts: Poor Dante Chen. First night off his show Level Up and he is fed to Ethan Page as Page’s character development. Great stuff by Page though as his and Je’von’s feud have been pushing the psychological and violent boundaries that we’ve haven’t seen in WWE for years. The writing team also deserves credit for pacing this really well and selling the injury of Evans. I also like the aspect of Page being in headhunter mode by injuring anyone he’s in the ring with.

Vic Joseph plugged the ACC College Basketball games on CW…

Dion Lennox congratulated Oba Femi for winning the championship. Dion said maybe he can face Oba for the title one day. Oba smirked and walked off. The camera panned to Shawn Spears trying to recruit Adriana Rizzo to his group. Izzi Dame showed up and yelled at Spears that she and Rizzo don’t want to join his group. The camera then panned to Karmen Petrovic and Ashante the Adonis. Ashante said it’s a new year and he wants to make things “official”. Ashante handed Petrovic a rose. Petrovic accepted it and made out with Adonis (sort of…)…

John’s Thoughts: I’ll forgive Karmen and Ashante for not having one of the best on-screen kisses in the world. I still get a kick out of this story. By the way, is it too classless to make a “casting couch” joke about whatever the hell Shawn Spears is trying to do with his recruiting of the women that goes nowhere? I kid, I kid.

Vic Joseph and Booker T checked in on commentary and sent the show to a Giulia video package, featuring Giulia’s title win last week. They then aired a post match promo where Giulia said she has the championship and can take on new challenges. A graphic said that Giulia will return next week…

Vic Joseph hyped the NXT Tag Title match as well as Cora Jade vs. Kelani Jordan for later in the show…

Lash Legend and Jakara Jackson made their entrance…[c]

Sarah Schreiber interviewed WWE Tag Team Champions Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa. Gargano said they were just here to watch the NXT tag team title match up close. Gargano said there will be no funny business coming from them…

Unholy Union made their entrance. Vic dropped the obligatory line of NXT having the best women’s division in the world…

3. “The Meta Girls” Lash Legend and Jakara Jackson vs. “The Unholy Union” Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn. Alba and Jakara started the match with strikes. Jakara hit Alba with an armdrag and Shotgun Dropkick. Lash and Isla tagged in. Lash took down both opponents with shoulder tackles. Lash tackled Isla in the corner. Jakara tagged in and hit Isla with a booty strike. Jakara rolled up Isla and got a two count. Jakara slammed Isla to the mat and hit Isla with a cartwheel into an elbow drop for a nearfall.

Lash hit Isla with a body slam and then gave Jakara a wheelbarrow slam on Isla for a nearfall. Lash got Isla to a knee with a right hand. Alba distracted Lash which allowed Isla to put Lash in a Sleeper. Alba tagged in and put the boots to Lash. Unholy Union used quick tags to cut the ring in half on Lash. Lash used kicks to fight out of the corner. Isla went for a sleeper, but was slammed to the mat.

Jakara tagged in and climbed to the shoulders of Lash. Alba chop blocked Lash which sent Jakara’s face into the top buckle. Isla hit Jakara with a diving meteora at ringside. Alba dumped Lash to ringside with a huracanrana. Alba hit both Meta Gurls at Ringside with a top rope cannonball. The show then cut to Picture-in-Picture.[c]

[Hour Two] Back from break, Lash caught a hot tag and rallied with right hands on Alba. Lash lifted Isla and used Isla’s feet like a battering ram on Alba. Lash gave Isla a Fallaway Slam and gave Alba a Flapjack on Isla. Lash hit Alba with a Chokeslam. Isla broke up Lash’s pin. Lash took down Alba with a clothesline and body slammed Isla. Jakara tagged in and got on the shoulder’s of Lash to hit both opponents with a diving crossbody.

Alba kicked out at two. Isla grabbed at Lash’s leg. Alba knocked Lash off the apron. Isla put Jakara in backstabber hold. Alba hit Jakara with a Swanton Bomb. Lash broke up Alba’s pin. Isla dumped Lash to ringside by pulling down the top rope. Isla hit Jakara with a Superkick. Jakara hit Isla with a reverse X Factor. Jakara went for a tag, but Lash wasn’t there.

Alba tagged in and put Jakara in a Gory Special. Lash blind tagged herself in and dumped Isla to ringside. Lash and Jakara hit Alba with a wheelbarrow cutter finisher to give Lash the victory.

Lash Legend and Jakara Jackson defeated Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn via pinfall in 12:56 to become the new number one contenders to the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships. 

Lexis King was talking to Ava backstage as he was getting his name plate put in on the Heritage Cup. He talked about putting in months of hard work and dedication to get this title. Charlie Dempsey congratulated King for winning the title. Wren Sinclair said King cheated by giving Dempsey a low blow. King said it was an accident. Wren kept saying “rematch”. Ava was about to book something, but the someone outside was slammed into the garage door. The camera then panned to show Ridge Holland and Tony D’Angelo still brawling in the NXT Parking Lot…

Kelani Jordan made her entrance…[c]

John’s Thoughts: Fun women’s tag team match and one of the better tag team matches you would see quality wise in WWE in terms of a tag team television match. I think Lash Legend has the potential to be a top singles women’s star in WWE given her look, hard work, and talking ability, but this Meta Girl thing is clickin’. Jakara has shown a lot in the ring with this TV push too, showing athleticism and selling ability. They definitely deserve to be called up, especially given how much they did well during the few months they were featured on the main roster shows.

Wowzers! TNA Knockouts Champion Masha Slammovich was shown in the front row with her title belt. Vic noted that Masha was scouting the NXT Women’s Division…

Cora Jade made her entrance…

John’s Thoughts: Sweet! NXTNA Lives! Good positive too is that TNA doesn’t have to fear Masha leaving due to her recently signing a new TNA contract (I’m surprised Masha isn’t going to WWE or AEW given how talented she is, but even better for TNA!). As I’ve mentioned before, I hope this lead to NXT and TNA having that symbiotic tradeoff where NXT can have more wrestlers in their Knockouts Division while NXT helps mitigate their women’s roster logjam by allowing some developmental women on Impact to both develop and maybe even boost regulars like Masha or Rosemary.

4, Kelani Jordan vs. Cora Jade. Cora trash talked Jordan to start the match. Jordan hit Cora with a Shotgun Dropkick and Armdrag. Jordan worked on Jade with some ground and pound. Cora retreated to ringside. Once back in the ring, Jordan took down Cora with a axe handle and basement crossbody. Cora dragged Jordan off the top rope and did her signature laugh, a la Nelson from the Simpsons.

Cora tangled Jordan in the ropes and hit her with a dropkick. Vic said that Ava booked Tony D vs. Ridge Holland for the NA Title for next week’s show. Cora worked on Jordan with methodical offense. The camera showed Masha watching the match as Vic Joseph plugged TNA Genesis for this Sunday. Jordan tripped up Cora and gave Cora reverse curbstomps. The referee then made sure to pull back Jordan for getting too aggressive. Cora raked the eyes of Jordan during the pull-apart. Cora hit Jordan with a Dirty Deeds DDT for the victory.

Cora Jade defeated Kelani Jordan via pinfall in 5:12. 

The show cut to an instagram selfie from Eddy Thorpe, who was hard to see since he was recording at night outside. He laughed about Oba taking his bait again. Eddy said Oba is so predictable. He said he was also giving a shout out to Ava for giving him a shot against Oba, and said he needed that after Ava called him a liar last week. Eddy said he’ll be NXT Champion next week. Eddy said Oba calls himself the ruler, but next week he’ll be overthrown. He said he’s off to celebrate…

Vic Joseph plugged the American Red Cross efforts while they help with disaster relief for the wildfires in southern California…

Josh Briggs and Yoshiki Inamura confronted NXT Tag Team Champions Fraxiom backstage. Briggs talked about how they helped Fraxiom last week, but they have next dibs after OTM. Bronco Nima and Lucien Price confronted Briggs and Inamura. Price said after they win the tag titles, they’ll drag Briggs and Yoshiki through the mud. Yoshiki joked that OTM may like mud wrestling, but he doesn’t roll that way. Nima said that Inamura got jokes now. Both teams ended up brawling…[c]

Vic Joseph plugged NXT Vengeance Day ticket sales…

A Trick Williams tweet aired where Trick said he’s trying to figure out what’s next for him…

Out Tha Mud made their entrance first (sans Jaida Parker) followed by the Tag Champions Fraxiom making theirs. Mike Rome handled the formal in-ring championship introductions…

5. Nathan Frazer and Axiom vs. “Out Tha Mud” Bronco Nima and Lucien Price for the NXT Tag Team Championships. Axiom used his strikes to keep footsies away from Price. Frazer went in and ran circles around Price until Price took down Frazer with a shoulder tackle. Nima tagged in and slammed Frazer. Nima got a two count after a fist drop. Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa were watching the match from the Crow’s Nest.

Price tagged in. Nima hit Frazer with Old School into a stomp. Nima got a two count on Frazer. Axiom tagged in. Fraxiom swarmed both opponents with alternating strikes. Axiom went for Yes Kicks, but was turned inside out with a clothesline from Price.[c]

Out Tha Mud were draggin’ Axiom metaphorically through tha mud back from break by cutting the ring in half on him. Axiom managed to sneak in a crucifix bomb on Nima and tag in Frazer for the hot tag. Frazer hit Price with running forearms and a Tornado DDT. Frazer hit Price with a Standing Shooting Star Press for a nearfall. Price avoided a Phoenix Splash and hit Frazer with a Uranage.

Nima tagged in and hit Frazer with a Twisting Body Slam for a nearfall. Frazer came back with a flying punch on Nima and an enzuigiri on Price. Axiom tagged himself in and hit Price with a gamengiri. Fraxiom hit Price with a Missile Dropkick version of Total Elimination. Frazer dropkicked Nima at ringside and held him in a Guillotine Choke while Axiom put Price in a Rings of Saturn. The Performance Cernter crowd chanted for OTM.

Nima broke up Axiom’s submission by suplexing Frazer on top of Axiom. Axiom parried Price’s strikes but got chopped in the chest. Price caught both men and Uranage’d Frazer on Axiom to get a two count on Frazer. Nima tagged in. Nima hit Frazer with a corkscrew press slam for a nearfall. Price cleared the announce table, but ate a mini Golden Ratio Superkick from Axiom.

Axiom staggered Nima on the top rope with a Gamengiri. Frazer went to the top rope and sent Price through the table with a Frog Splash. Axiom hit Nima with a Super Spanish Fly and Golden Ratio Superkick for the victory.

Axiom and Nathan Frazer defeated Out Tha Mud via pinfall in 13:13 to retain the NXT Tag Team Championships.

Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa were shown nodding in approval. The camera then cut to Roxanne Perez walking backstage. The show then cut to the parking lot. The camera focused on the feet exiting a white car with Vic asking “who’s here?”…[c]

John’s Thoughts: Another good tag team match tonight. Fraxiom are as consistent a good tag team as usual with them carrying OTM to their best match so far in WWE. Given their long push, consistent development, and patience in not breaking them up, Fraxiom are arguably the best tag team in wrestling during 2024. Happy to see OTM get TV time finally. They are a great team with good look and story, but I feel they’ve been missing

Vic Joseph plugged the following matches for next week: Oba Femi vs. Eddy Thorpe for the NXT Championship and Tony D’Angelo vs. Ridge Holland for the North American Championship.

Roxanne Perez was in the ring in street clothes for a promo. Perez said when she won the title for the 2nd time at Stand and Deliver, no one expected her to hold the title for 276 days and nine title defense. Perez said she was making history because all she wanted to do was make women’s wrestling special, make a division that can main event, a division to be proud of. Perez said we did that.

Perez said NXT attracts the best women in the world because NXT has the best women’s division in pro wrestling. Perez said she stands here without a title because Giulia was the better woman last week. She said as sad as it is, the crowd wanted Giulia as champ. Perez said what’s sadder is a division without Perez as champion. Perez said without her the women’s division will be lost. She said NXT doesn’t deserve her and the fans don’t deserve her.

Bayley made her entrance to cut off Perez. A “welcome back” chant ensued. Bayley said she had to come out here and knew that Perez was going to be upset coming off her title loss. She said she sees Perez in a crossroads and how Perez should grow from her loss. Perez said she didn’t ask for Bayley’s advise. Bayley called out Perez for asking for advise since Perez was a kid. Bayley joked that Perez was only a little bit shorter when she was a kid.

Bayley said that NXT doesn’t need Perez to succeed because of all the talent there. Perez said Bayley is just like CM Punk or Natalya, people she “used” to look up to. Perez bragged about breaking any records Bayley had in NXT. Perez said Bayley was her role model, but she can be Bayley’s now. Bayley said Perez will be stuck here while Bayley will move on to wrestlemania when she wins the title from Tiffany Stratton.

The show had to cut off to local news, with them quickly closing the show with the Shawn Michaels, Paul Levesque, and Lee Fitting Executive Producer graphics appearing when Bayley and Perez started to brawl…

John’s Thoughts: Last week was on Rock, but this week was all mistiming on NXT creative. NXT seems to still haven’t gotten used to the hard-out for local news on network television. That said, I do understand their problem in that they have so much meaningful content to deliver to where they couldn’t necessarily cut time from any other segments. Yes, the final segment didn’t really get to drive home it’s final point, but I’m assuming that they are setting up a Roxanne Perez vs. Bayley feud.

I assume this leads to Perez getting a big win on Bayley, leading to a rematch with Giulia at Mania weekend possibly. I totally expect a big and multi-hundred viewership drop from last week due to Rock not being the rating pop on this week’s show (would be fun if they proved my assumption wrong, but i’m being realistic). I think that new viewers were treated to a nice week of episodic wrestling, especially with they restarting things a bit with the new champion Oba Femi. Several good matches too with the developmental wrestlers continue to grow in front of our eyes on a national stage.

NXT TV Poll: Grade the January 14 edition

 
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Readers Comments (2)

  1. The “Timing problem” is intentional – to drive people to their socials.

  2. What he said.

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