Powell’s NXT Hit List: Stephanie Vaquer vs. Roxanne Perez for the NXT Women’s Championship, Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez vs. Gigi Dolin and Tatum Paxley for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Titles

By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)

NXT Hits

Stephanie Vaquer vs. Roxanne Perez for the NXT Women’s Championship: A good match aside a rough backbreaker spot. Vaquer’s stock is on the rise after her big weekend, which included the surprise match with Iyo Sky on the Raw after WrestleMania. The same can’t be said for Perez, who took a clean loss to Tiffany Stratton on Smackdown, worked a throwaway pre-show tag match at Stand & Deliver, and then lost this match. Perez feels like she’s in the spot that Bron Breakker was when it seemed like the NXT creative team was reluctant to book him in meaningful programs because they knew he’d be called up sooner rather than later, which led to him spinning his wheels for months before he was actually called up.

Oba Femi, Trick Williams, and Joe Hendry: It was a questionable move to turn Williams heel when he was the brand’s most popular act. It’s taken some time, but Trick is starting to settle in nicely. The gamble has also paid off because Oba has stepped up and filled the top babyface spot. Hendry’s appearance was a nice surprise, and I like the way he took pride in his WrestleMania appearance by shooting down jabs about his loss to Randy Orton by pointing out that the other two wrestlers were watching him from the stands. Hendry indicating he was there to talk to the NXT Champion was an interesting development. We may get the Oba vs. Hendry match at some point, but it won’t be a champion vs. champion match if Hendry drops the TNA Championship at Sunday’s Rebellion event.

Tony D’Angelo and Stack: I am not particularly high on most of the cinematic videos used in pro wrestling because they require viewers to turn their brains off and not question why the wrestlers don’t notice the cameras. John Moore calling for an all cinematic show in his NXT live review is about as appealing to me as having a root canal. So while this is not an endorsement of the cinematic approach, I must say that the Family’s version of it well done for what it is. D’Angelo and his crew are better actors than most wrestlers, and a big key is the way these segments and the Family’s kooky storyline universe are always presented with a straight face. The Family and their various adversaries never wink at the audience, and the broadcast team never takes a tongue-in-cheek approach, even when discussing the insanity of wrestlers being kidnapped and even killed off.

Thea Hail vs. Fallon Henley: A soft Hit for a decent match, a good win for Hail, and teases that the end is near for the Fatal Influence faction. Fallon Henley, Jacy Jayne, and Jazmyn Nyx are all talented, but they just haven’t clicked as a faction. Hopefully, this will lead to Henley returning to her role as a natural babyface. If Henley gets free at the same time Yoshiki Inamura’s excursion comes to an end, the only thing standing in the way of a fun reunion would be Brooks Jensen breaking away from The Culling. Make it happen.

Chase U: It’s only appropriate that I follow up my plea for the reunion of an act that I disliked during the early days of NXT 2.0 by giving a thumbs up to the return of another group that took a long time to win me over.

Dion Lennox and Osiris Griffin vs. Je’von Evans and Myles Borne: Another soft Hit. I don’t think anyone would have predicted that this show would include Evans and Bourne teaming together. Ultimately, the match helped further establish the DarkState faction.

NXT Misses

Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez vs. Gigi Dolin and Tatum Paxley for the WWE Women’s Tag Titles: A minor Miss. Is it over yet? The ring work was solid, but this match felt needlessly long, considering the outcome was never in doubt. It’s not like Paxley and Dolin being competitive with the champions would win over the fans. The duo works well together, but they are ice-cold characters. Paxley needs a character makeover, and Dolin hasn’t received much creative attention since they told the story of her tough upbringing moons ago.

Penn & Teller: Why would the creative team turn these lovable legends heel by having them bring back the awful NXT Heritage Cup from wherever items go after magicians make them disappear? And just when it looked like the company might merge the lousy cup with the NXT North American Championship, the guy who made the cup into a comedic joke in the first place regained it. The NXT Heritage Cup needs to join the TNA Digital Media Championship and AEW All-Atlantic titles on the scrap heap. Penn & Teller making the cup disappear and it never being mentioned again would have been perfect.

Vegas live crowd: Were they mic’d poorly or just half asleep following the long weekend? This had to be the first time in NXT history that I wished a road show had been held at the WWE Performance Center.