By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
NXT Hits
Kendal Grey vs. Kelani Jordan for a shot at the NXT Women’s Championship at the Great American Bash: Mark it down: NXT actually had two No. 1 contender matches that set up singles matches rather than overdone Triple Threat matches. Grey is arguably the hottest prospect in NXT due to how quickly she has taken to pro wrestling. Grey and Jordan had a good bout, which sets up a rematch of the great No. 1 contenders match that Grey had with Lola Vice. That match ended in a no-contest to set up the Triple Threat match that resulted in Vice winning the NXT Women’s Championship match
Axiom and Nathan Frazer vs. Noam Dar and Romeo Moreno: A hot opening match with the right team going over. Dar and Moreno looked great in defeat, but it would have been pushing it if the new team had beaten the main roster regulars, so the creative forces played it right. This was another reminder of how great the Smackdown tag team roster should have been when they had Fraxiom, the Street Profits, the Motor City Machine Guns, and DIY, yet opted to put the WWE Tag Team Titles on the Wyatt Sicks, The MFTs, and now Damian Priest and R-Truth.
Tatum Paxley vs. Zaria for the NXT Women’s North American Championship: It felt like now or never for Zaria, who finally won NXT’s secondary championship. Better yet, she went over decisively with no distractions or outside interference, which doesn’t happen enough in NXT. Paxley had a good title reign and is always impressive in the ring. She has main roster talent with a campy gimmick undercard gimmick. The character improved once Paxley stopped playing with dolls, but she could still use an overhaul.
Naraku vs. Mason Rook for a shot at the NXT Championship at the Great American Bash: This match would have been so much better with House of Torture run-ins. No, not really. Along those same lines, though, the protection finish of Kam Hendrix distracting Rook, who walked into Naraku’s finisher, felt unnecessary. I’m not a fan of protecting the match loser at the expense of making the winner look as strong as possible heading into his NXT Championship match. Rook did more than enough during the match that he would have been just fine had he been pinned clean. Putting that aside, this was a good back-and-forth match. Naraku seems inspired by the move from New Japan Pro Wrestling. He did an excellent job of carrying the green Aaron Wolf to a good match at Wrestle Kingdom 20, which has me optimistic that he can do the same with some of the developmental wrestlers.
NXT Misses
The Mr. NXT pageant with Tristan Angels and Shiloh Hill: Ah, yes, This brought back so many memories of when Bill Watts and Angelo Mosca competed in the Mr. Mid-South Wrestling Pageant back in 1979. Wait, never mind. This wasn’t exactly what I had in mind for Evolve Champion Aaron Rourke’s NXT debut, but it was still good to see him. Sadly, I found slightly more enjoyment in this idiotic pageant than I do in the vast majority of the WWE Speed matches.
Dion Lennox vs. Jasper Troy: Troy showed some improvement while having a passable match with Lennox, but the distraction finish was underwhelming. I laughed for all the wrong reasons afterward when Saquon Shugars ran away from Lennox despite holding a baseball bat. On the bright side, the live crowd got behind Shugars when he attacked Osiris Griffin.
(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.)
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