By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
NXT Hits
TNA World Champion Mike Santana and “OTM” Bronco Nima and Lucien Price vs. “DarkState” Dion Lennox, Saquon Shugars, and Osiris Griffin: A high-energy opening match. Santana was mega over in his hometown and got a great reaction as he made his entrance through the crowd. It carried over to the match, as the fans clearly saw Santana as the star of the match, and he gave a rub to Nima and Price. The OTM duo has been teaming in NXT for nearly six years. It’s taken a long time, but it seems like the creative forces are finally getting behind them. Meanwhile, the DarkState faction has no momentum, as they continue to lose as often as they win. Lennox’s character expressed frustration during a backstage promo over their struggles. While this could be a turning point, seeing is believing.
Joe Hendry, Ricky Saints, Ethan Page, and Tony D’Angelo contract signing for the NXT Championship match at Stand & Deliver: The segment didn’t overstay its welcome, thanks in part to most of the entrances taking place during a picture-in-picture break. Saints and Page continue to be highly entertaining as they act overly nice to one another, even though it’s obvious that they will turn on each other during the four-way match.
Bravo and Rayo vs. Uriah Connors and Channing “Stacks” Lorenzo in the tournament final for a shot at the NXT Tag Team Titles at Stand & Deliver: The tournament was an unavoidable mess due to Sean Legacy and Elio LeFleur suffering injuries that caused two changes. Fortunately, they ended up in a good place by having Los Americanos step in and win the tournament, as they are more over than the other tournament teams. They’re just getting started, but the Birthright members lack on-air chemistry and are off to a poor start.
Myles Borne and Johnny Gargano: A minor Hit for Gargano’s intense promo. It feels like the dynamic is off in that the fans seem more interested in rooting for heel Gargano during his latest homecoming match over babyface Borne. What matters is whether the match leads to Borne getting the desired reaction.
Jaida Parker vs. Kelani Jordan: A minor Hit. What we saw was good, but the commercial break ate up a decent amount of the nine-minute match. Jordan attacked Parker backstage to get her heat back, so it looks like the feud is just getting started.
NXT Misses
Lola Vice vs. Kendal Grey for a shot at the NXT Women’s Championship at Stand & Deliver: Good work from the wrestlers, but the “simultaneous” pin and submission finish was an overbooked mess. It didn’t help that Grey clearly tapped out before the referee’s hand hit the mat for the third time. I get that it’s live TV, and WWE’s production team is tremendous, but someone should have recognized that it wasn’t simultaneous. They could have avoided the angle that showed Grey tapped early, or just avoided running it in slow-motion, which made the difference stand out. Grey didn’t come out of this looking better than she went in. I suspect the idea was for this to be an even match, but Vice actually dominated the majority of it. While Vice had prolonged stretches of offense, Grey performed a move of two before Vice cut her off. If Grey went for a submission, Vice always had a counter or made quick escapes. The crowd also turned against Grey when the replay showed that she tapped out roughly a half-second before the referee finished his three-count. I doubt that any long-term damage was done, but it was a mess in the moment that could have been avoided.
Tatum Paxley and Blake Monroe: After needlessly long monologues from both wrestlers, Paxley said she wanted Monroe to return her NXT Women’s North American Championship belt. In exchange, she offered Monroe a title shot at Stand & Deliver. I’m not sure why Paxley had the power to book her own match for Stand & Deliver, but she looked foolish for not having Monroe actually return the belt before making the match official. Rather, Monroe got the match she wanted and ran off with the belt again. While I look forward to the match, it has nothing to do with the booking.
Keanu Carver vs. Jasper Troy with Josh Briggs as special referee: Troy objected to Briggs’ count, which set up Carver taking advantage of the distraction by hitting a big boot and his finisher for the win. Troy looked foolish for questioning a fair count, and Troy’s win off a distraction felt underwhelming. Whatever Troy got from going over in that fashion was quickly erased when Briggs beat him up after the match to set up yet another Triple Threat match. Bad parity booking. Rather than choose between making Carver or Troy the badass of the company, they were both brought down to Briggs’s level.
Shiloh Hill: Hill topped Ricochet for having the most obnoxious laugh in pro wrestling. Ricochet’s laugh works because is a heel going for heat. Hill has a ton of potential, but his quirky babyface persona is a turnoff.
Join John Moore for his NXT Stand & Deliver live review on Saturday.
(Jason Powell, founder and editor of ProWrestling.net, has covered pro wrestling full-time dating back to 1997. He hosts a weekly podcast, Pro Wrestling Boom, and also appears regularly on the Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Podcast. Reach him via email at dotnetjason@gmail.com and on social media via @prowrestlingnet.bsky.social or x.com/prowrestlingnet. For his full bio and information on this website, click here.)
I don’t know about you Jason,but the Lola/Kendall match besides the finish was one of the best women’s matches this year so far.
To each their own. As I wrote, I thought it was more one-sided than it should have been. I think most of Grey’s offense came during the PIP break. Grey got in a move/punch/kick or two in a row, and then Vice would cut her off, shake her ass, and go back on the offensive. Grey had the late ankle lock, but I’ll take that hold seriously again when everyone stops kicking or rolling their way out of it.