By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
NXT Hits
Oba Femi vs. Eddy Thorpe for the NXT Championship: The presentation of this match was subpar. It should feel like a big deal when the NXT Championship is defended on television. They did a solid job of setting up the match last week, but it wasn’t consistently hyped throughout this episode. Putting that aside, Femi and Thorpe had a strong match. Femi going over was a no-brainer in his first title defense, and Thorpe looked really in defeat. The broadcast team did their part to put over Thorpe’s late offensive surge in a big way.
Giulia and Bayley angle with Roxanne Perez and Cora Jade: After seeing Bayley on the last six WWE/NXT television shows, I feel like I’ve seen her more than my girlfriend lately (hey, there was a lot of football and wrestling on television over the weekend). Anyway, Perez and Jade had major heat from the live crowd and they did a nice job of setting up next week’s tag team match.
Wes Lee vs. Dion Lennox: I really like the idea of putting Tyriek Igwe and Tyson Dupont with Lee. Igwe and Dupont haven’t cracked on-air regular status as a tag team, and Lee’s heel act needed a little more juice. I keep waiting for Lennox to have a breakout moment. This wasn’t it, but it was interesting that he looked pissed after Trick Williams bumped into him at ringside, which was followed by a backstage meltdown.
Niko Vance and Brooks Jensen vs. Channing Lorenzo and Luca Crusifino: A minor Hit for a solid tag match that featured good action from start to finish. It was encouraging to see Vance and Jensen get a win. The question now is whether this is the start of something or if Lorenzo and Crusifino will just get their win back.
Corey Graves: It was good to have him back and fully engaged on commentary. The more Graves speaks, the less Booker T can randomly yell, “Here We Go!”
NXT Misses
Tony D’Angelo vs. Ridge Holland for the NXT North American Championship: The bulk of the match was fine, but the finish felt overbooked. There was a brawl at ringside to distract the referee while Izzy Dame booted Holland in the head, which led to D’Angelo hitting a spinebuster for the three count. Apparently, Dame did this to get in the good graces of D’Angelo. He later used her talking to him backstage as an excuse for not being at ringside during Lorenzo and Crusifino’s match. I assume this means Dame is in cahoots with Shawn Spears after all.
Lexis King vs. Charlie Dempsey for the NXT Heritage Cup: I’d love to see NXT bring in PCO and have him win the NXT Heritage Cup so that he could take it to GCW and smash it with hammer. Have I mentioned that I’m not a fan of the Heritage Cup? This was a well worked match, but the championship for the rounds based matches just hasn’t recovered from being booked as a comedic title during Noam Dar’s reign. The story of King trying to be a good person hasn’t been all that compelling. Fortunately, it finally advanced with King using a low blow to win the match. No one should be surprised by this, as you just can’t be a nice guy while sporting such a d-bag beard.
Jaida Parker vs. Karmen Petrovic: A solid match until the shit finish. Parker is a rising star and I wouldn’t have her taking throwaway distraction losses.
Graves actually yelled “Here we go!” a time or two lol.
Jaida may be my fav active women’s wrestler. She makes her gimmick fit like a glove. She over-sells enough to make HBK blush, but she has massive upside. Wwe needs Roxy and Cora to be main roster bound and let Jaida step in as the top heel in NXT…baybee!