By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
NXT Hits
Ethan Page vs. Wes Lee vs. Eddy Thorpe vs. Lexis King for a shot at the North American Championship at Stand & Deliver: Well, at least we get one singles match at NXT Stand & Accept Your Participation Trophy. Shawn Michaels stated in a recent interview that he wants to give as many people as possible an opportunity to work during the biggest weekend of the year. Shouldn’t the priority be to give fans the best possible show on the biggest weekend of the year? Crazy thought, but I digress. This was a rare case of an NXT show opening with the wrestlers in the ring for the opening match. While I don’t want that to become the norm, it was an attention grabber because it’s such an uncommon approach in NXT. It felt like King was there to take the pin, but they got it right by having Page earn the right to challenge Ricky Saints on Saturday.
Oba Femi, Trick Williams, and Je’Von Evans: As high as I am on Evans, he still feels shoehorned into what should be a showdown singles match between Oba and Trick. As such, it was a good move to close the show with him standing tall. Evans went from being one of the most likable wrestlers in NXT to coming off like a bombing stand-up comedian. Is he turning heel, or did this segment expose a hole in his game? On the bright side, while Evans was the weakness of this segment, he should add a lot to the match with his ring work. The build hasn’t been perfect, and yet I am looking forward to Saturday’s NXT Championship match.
Hank Walker and Tank Ledger vs. Tyson Dupont and Tyriek Igwe vs. Brooks Jensen and Niko Vance vs. Tavion Heights and Myles Borne vs. Josh Briggs and Yoshiki Inamura in a gauntlet match for a shot at the NXT Tag Team Titles at Stand & Deliver: By having the winning team run the gauntlet, NXT creative used the same formula that the Smackdown creative team used for the women’s tag team gauntlet match on Friday. Nevertheless, it was fun to see the likable team of Hank and Tank go from being down on their luck to earning a shot at the NXT Tag Team Titles. The backstage segment that followed with Nathan Frazer big-timing Hank and Tank while Axiom showed them respect was the latest tease of the NXT Tag Team Champions not being on the same page. All of the past teases haven’t led to a split. Will this one be different? I hope not.
Thea Hail vs. Karmen Petrovic for a spot in the NXT Women’s North American Championship Ladder Match at NXT Stand and Deliver: It was a pleasant surprise to see Hail return from a long absence from NXT television. Hail going over was a no-brainer. It will be interesting to see how she fares away from Chase U.
NXT Misses
Lola Vice vs. Tatum Paxley for a spot in the NXT Women’s North American Championship Ladder Match at NXT Stand and Deliver: Both qualifying matches felt a bit random when it came to which wrestlers were selected to compete. Vice going over was the obvious move, mostly because the Paxley character is so awful, which is the primary cause of this landing in the Miss section. Paxley is a talented wrestler in dire need of a gimmick overhaul.
DarkState brawls with The Family: A minor Miss. It was actually a Hit in terms of the execution. There were a lot of moving parts, and yet everyone involved pulled this off nicely. But the repeated use of crowbars caused this to fall into the Miss section. The wrestlers work hard to make their matches look realistic, but the people in charge continue to sign off on using weapons such as crowbars and ring bell hammers that never leave a mark. This makes everything look so campy that it’s difficult to suspend disbelief. Granted, this isn’t new, as these weapons are replacing sledgehammers and baseball bats, but it’s disappointing that the top companies haven’t cleaned this up this unrealistic silliness by now.
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