By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
NXT Hits
Ricky Starks debuts: After sitting in limbo while under AEW contract, Starks made an unadvertised NXT debut shortly after receiving his release. I don’t know if Starks delivered this promo amongst the fans because it bought the production crew time while they were setting up the cage for the main event, but it made for a great visual and popped more than it probably would have had he spoke in the ring. It would have been easy to save the Starks debut for Saturday’s Vengeance Day premium live event, but in this case I like the idea of creating an anything can happen feel on the weekly television show.
Tony D’Angelo vs. Ridge Holland in a cage match for the NXT North American Championship: A good main event with a couple of strong near falls before D’Angelo went over. It appears the creative team teased us with Stacks turning on D’Angelo to pull attention away from Izzi Dame being aligned with Shawn Spears. Normally, I would praise this creative approach, but the red herring of Starks and Dame turning on D’Angelo and being an on-air couple is more appealing to me than Dame joining Shawn Spears and his crew.
Cora Jade vs. Bayley: Roxanne Perez coming out dressed like the early Bayley character was cute, but it also felt like that could have been saved for a time when they could have done something that packed more of a punch. Bayley just beat up Perez, which led to Jade taking advantage of the distraction and stealing the pin. Even so, the match was enjoyable and it was obviously a must to have Jade win to justify adding her to the NXT Women’s Championship match at Vengeance Day.
Oba Femi, Grayson Waller, and Austin Theory: Has there been a tag team in the history of pro wrestling that has teased breaking up longer than Waller and Theory have? It worked here because even though they got back on the same page to lay out the NXT Champion, they established their issues and the fragility of their alliance heading into the Triple Threat title match on Saturday.
Josh Briggs and Yoshiki Inamura vs. Hank Walker and Tank Ledger vs. Miles Borne and Tavion Heights in a three-way tag team match: My initial thought was why not go with a standard tag team match, but this turned out to be a pretty good three-way tag team match. Inamura shined in his first non-battle royal match on NXT television. It feels premature to give him and Briggs a title shot, but they should have a good match with Axiom and Nathan Frazer. Of course, it’s pretty hard to not have a good match with the NXT Tag Team Champions.
Zaria vs. Nikkita Lyons: A nice television win for Zaria. The NXT women’s division is crowded, but both of these wrestlers stand out from the pack in a good way because of their size and unique looks.
NXT Misses
Lexis King vs. JDC for the NXT Heritage Cup Championship: The fun of JDC’s return last week was seeing the live crowd react to his Fandango entrance music. For some reason, they played his System entrance theme this time around, causing the crowd to be flat heading into the match. While I’m happy that NXT officials threw in the towel on the rounds format, I still couldn’t care less about this lousy championship. I vote for booking a unification match for the NXT Heritage Cup Championship and the TNA Digital Media Championship, have it end in a double disqualification, and then throw the cup and the belt into a pit of molten lava.
I’m guessing we’ll see Cora vs.Roxy at Stand and Deliver. Perez loses and moves up, Jade will be a major NXT player for the rest of 2025.
And Ricky Starks broke the internet.
It’s interesting that Ricky Starks never said his own name. Felt a lot like Scott Hall showing up in WCW.
Including paraphrasing the Scott Hall line of “You know who I am.” As long as they dont change his name.
There is a chance of a name change being the reason he didn’t say his name. He owns the trademark, not AEW, so this would be a case of WWE wanting to own a new name. Hopefully he just didn’t feel the need to say it because the crowd took care of it for him. If they change it, I vote for Rick E. Starkz!
Lol, is he related to Rick O’Shea?
I guess someone had to say it! *insert eye roll here*
Didn’t Sasha and Bayley tease breaking up for like three years?