By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
NXT Hits
Ricky Saints and Trick Williams: When a heel is offered a title shot and says it will happen on his terms, I’d like to see the champion say GFY and rescind the offer. Anyway, Saints showed good fire throughout his promo, and his anger felt justified given that Trick walked out on him during last week’s elimination match. Trick just dropped the TNA World Championship, and I can’t see Saints losing the NXT Title in his first televised title defense. There isn’t much left for Trick to do in NXT, so hopefully a main roster call-up is in the works for him and Oba Femi.
Battle royal for a shot at the NXT Women’s Title at the Halloween Havoc: The highlight of the match wasn’t when Kelani Jordan pulled a Kofi Kingston by walking on her hands to avoid being eliminated, it was when Jordynne Grace cut her off stomping and eliminating her before she could get back inside the ring. The annual Kofi spot in the Royal Rumble was fun, but it ran its course. The lowlight was the absurd moment when Zaria eliminated herself by leaving the top rope to check on Sol Ruca at ringside. I get what they were going for, but it made the Zaria character look like a dimwit. Tatum Paxley won?!? Why not? I’m not a fan of her campy character, but she is talented, and the live crowd embraced it. It reminds me of when Myles Borne won a battle royal to earn an unexpected shot at the NXT Championship at Battleground back in May. It’s fun when the creative forces deliver the occasional twist by going with an underdog challenger.
Josh Briggs vs. Matt Cardona: A sorely needed win for Briggs over a notable veteran. Briggs has taken too many losses for a guy who stands out because of his size and strength. But the skull that Briggs has on his shoulder during his entrance looks painfully low-budget. I have decided to name the skull Earl. I’ve also started work on a fan fiction origin story for Earl that explains who Earl was before he was beheaded and how Briggs ended up winning his skull by finishing third in a high-stakes underground cornhole tournament held in Uganda. Okay, not really, but I wish someone would.
Blake Monroe vs. Zaria: A soft Hit. We’ve reached the point in the story of Zaria and Sol Ruca where the creative forces are laying it on thick to make it seem like Ruca has done everything she could to be a good friend before Zaria turns on her. It led to the silly spot of Ruca coming out just in time to stop Monroe from using a chair, but I’m happy that they finally seem to be on the verge of Zaria turning heel. I did enjoy Monroe jabbing Zaria’s throat with a hair pick, as it’s something she could pull out of her hair and use at any time during future matches.
NXT Misses
AAA Latin American Champion El Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. vs. Lexis King in a non-title match: Wagner was introduced to the NXT audience by having a needlessly long match against a guy who loses more than he wins. It got worse when Wagner called out Ethan Page, who informed him that they would meet for the NXT North American Championship at Halloween Havoc, yet expressed no interest in Wagner’s AAA Latin American Championship.
Hank Walker and Tank Ledger vs. Uriah Connors and Kale Dixon vs. Shawn Spears and Niko Vance in a Triple Threat tag team match: While it was nice to see OTM return, NXT creative appears to be reverting to the bad habit of cramming a bunch of tag teams into the same story. If history is any indication, none of the teams will stand out, and most of the teams will end up doing little or nothing until the next time creative decides to do another group tag team match. Why can’t any modern booker or creative team book a compelling tag team division?
Je’Von Evans and Leon Slater: Quiz time. Evans and Slater’s responded to DarkState interfering in their gem of an X Division Title match at Bound for Glory by (a) attacking DarkState, (b) finding two partners to set up an eight-man tag match with DarkState, (c) calling for a rematch with DarkState banned from the building, or (d) marking out for Matt Hardy and Jeff Hardy. As if acting like giddy fanboys wasn’t bad enough, why would DarkState be rewarded for their actions at Bound For Glory by getting a rematch for the NXT Tag Team Titles?
(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.)
Trick Williams is about as main roster ready as he’ll ever be, I’m not sure about Oba Femi. I think he can be a main event talent, but if he comes across as too green he can easily fall into that Nia Jax category. Fans do not have the short memory WWE thinks they do.
I like Paxley a lot, but its time to add more depth to her character. I don’t know that adding Lyra to her act does much for either one.
Sol and Zaria are starting to feel boring, but if they are turning Sol heel I am intrigued.
Briggs obviously ripped off Papa Shango.lol
And I bet there’s a swerve with Sol attacking Zaria!