Our WWE NXT results for tonight include Jasper Troy battling Ricky Saints, Blake Monroe clashing with Wren Sinclair, WWE Hall of Famer The Undertaker returns to confront TNA Champion Trick Williams, and NXT Champion Oba Femi defending against Yoshiki Inamura and Josh Briggs in a triple threat match. Here’s our review and grades for tonight’s show, live from the 713 Music Hall in Houston, Texas.
WWE NXT Card:
- NXT Championship Match: Oba Femi (c) vs. Yoshiki Inamura vs. Josh Briggs
- Jasper Troy vs. Ricky Saints
- Blake Monroe vs. Wren Sinclair
- The Undertaker confronts Trick Williams
WWE NXT Results:
Booker T opens the show, running down the card. Booker hilariously messes up Blake Monroe‘s name, calling her “Monica” Monroe.
NXT Tag Team Champions Hank and Tank, Women’s North American Champion Sol Ruca, and Zaria vs. The Culling
A brawl breaks out between everyone before the bell rings. Vance beats down Hank. Spears tags in and gets in a few shots on Hank as well. Hank catches a kick from Spears and lands a corner clothesline. Tank gets a blind tag and runs over Spears. Paxley tags in and takes Zaria down with a Thez press. Dame charges in and eats a lung blower from Ruca. Hank and Tank set up their finish. Vance breaks it up. Another huge brawl breaks out. The good guys land simultaneous body slams. Tank, Hank, Ruca, and Zaria all crush Vance with a four-way running body block.
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After the break, Ruca gets the hot tag and clears the ring. Zaria and Ruca hit the Keg Stand on Paxley. Dame breaks up the pin by pushing Zaria into the pin. All of the men land big moves. Dame takes out Hank and Tank with a lungblower/senton combo. Dame lands a dive while Ruca lands a dive on the other side. Back in the ring, Zaria plucks Spears off the top and hits an F5! Paxley rolls up Zaria. Zaria kicks out and hits a Spear. The lights go out, and DarkState is in the crowd. When the lights come back up, Paxley is on top of Zaria. Paxley gets the three count.
Winners- The Culling
Grade: B-
This was such a fun TV match. It’s rare that we get to see a multi-person match that makes sense, but this one has several personal issues that all collided in the ring tonight. Ruca and Zaria’s issue with Dame over Paxley, and Hank and Tank blaming The Culling for a blindside attack weeks ago (it was totally DarkState, but whatever. Hank and Tank are not the sharpest knives in the drawer). Paxley getting the pinfall here was shocking, but it’s sadly not surprising that it was on Zaria. At some point, Zaria has to win something.
The Champ-Champ is Here!
The new TNA Knockouts Champion and NXT Women’s Champion Jacy Jayne is in the ring with Fallon Henley and Jazmyn Nyx. Jayne quips that we can hate it or love it. Jacy Jayne runs women’s wrestling. Jayne revels in the crowd’s boos. Not bad for the most beatable champion ever? The best part of all of this is that Jayne did it all herself with no help or support. Henley and Nyx aren’t loving what Jayne is putting down right now. Jayne notes that she walked into TNA and walked out with their championship. Jayne is interrupted by Lash Legend. Legend says she has to give Jayne her flowers, but no one ever expected Jayne to be the double champion. Jayne is beaming.
Legend gets in the ring and tells Jayne that Jayne must be delusional if she thinks she is going to stay on top. Legend is going to make her moment and take one of those titles. Jaida Parker interrupts Legend. Parker puts over Legend but says she’s the future of this division. Jayne tells Henley and Nyx to get them. Henley and Nyx don’t budge. Jayne attacks Legend, and Henley and Nyx join in. Parker and Legend clear the ring. After clearing the ring, Parker and Legend bump into each other and have a tense stare-down.
Grade: B
Jayne as a swarmy heel champion just works. By virtue of how she has been presented on NXT for the last few years, she subverts every expectation with each improbable win. The fans don’t realize that the more they feed into the idea that she isn’t worthy, the longer this reign will be. Heel NXT Women’s Champions just works. Legend and Parker are being positioned as her next challengers, and this writer loves everything about that. It’s time for one of them to take the next step. Which will it be? Let us know what you think in the comments!
Jasper Troy vs. Ricky Saints
Troy tosses Saints around the ring. Saints traps Troy in the corner and lays in a few punches. Troy dumps Saints out to the apron and lands a clothesline. Running powerslam by Troy. Troy tosses Saints over the top to the floor. After the break, Saints bites Troy’s head to break a bear hug. Troy rolls to the floor. Saints lands a dive. Troy accidentally punches the ring post, trying to blast Saints. Big crossbody by Saints. Saints follows that with a leaping tornado DDT.
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Troy kicks out. Saints clothesline Troy over the top. Troy backs down the referee, who tries to check on Saints. Saints attacks Troy from behind. Troy runs over Saints. Saints tries to crawl away, and the entrance ramp collapses under Saints. Troy leaps off the edge and crushes Saints with a senton. Troy manages to get back to the ring as Saints is counted out.
Winner- Jasper Troy
Grade: C
Troy continues to look like a monster, but for whatever reason, they refuse to allow Troy to win a match convincingly. Troy dominates just to either lose or win via countout. This match was humming until the seemingly gimmicked ramp collapsed early. They managed to recover, with Troy diving into the hole to flatten Saints, but it’s hard not to let this gaff take away from the overall proceedings.
Whoop Dat Trick-NA
The TNA World Champion Trick Williams walks to the ring dressed in all black. The man carrying two brands has arrived. Williams is here to spit facts. Williams says he main-evented the biggest show in TNA history. The crowd cheers. Williams puts himself over for beating two of the best TNA has to offer. That makes him the greatest TNA Champion of all time. Williams puts the Undertaker over, but notes Taker has never held down two brands. Williams says LFG has Taker soft. The crowd boos as Williams proclaims he’s the only person man enough to call out Taker, so he demands Taker get his you know what out here. The Undertaker marches to the ring as American Bad A$$ blares through the sound system. Taker says, What do we have here. He’ll tell us: we have a dead man walking. Taker circles Williams and says he has the title, the bling, and asks if Williams is wearing real cowhide.
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Williams says it is, with a huge smile on his face. Taker looks impressed. Taker notes that Williams has everything but respect. Williams isn’t feeling the turn. Taker says Williams isn’t the same guy with the TNA Championship that he was with the NXT Championship. When Williams had the NXT Championship, he had that dawg in him. Taker says that’s not Williams anymore. Williams can have all the tools in the world, but with his attitude, it’s only a matter of time before Williams loses the championship. Williams tells Taker to shut up as he starts to talk about LFG. Nobody in LFG or in WWE is a superstar like Trick Williams. Taker says he has one last piece of advice for Williams: Williams is a bit too light in the a$$ to step to an OG. Taker quips that he can flip the switch, and he can make Williams famous. Williams takes a sing at Taker. Taker blocks it and delivers a thunderous chokeslam.
Grade: B
Williams just works as a bad guy. His swagger just oozes heel, and regardless of how easy it is to get mesmerized by his promos, he brings us back down to earth by dumping on the fans or our favorites. Taker’s returns have always been hit or miss. As much as we may love him, he seems to get a bit lost and ramble in his promos at this point. Tonight, Taker was rambly, but finished strong. There was no way this wasn’t ending with a chokeslam, and they delivered. Williams got up for that one.
Blake Monroe vs. Wren Sinclair
Sinclair and Monroe trade pin attempts. Sinclair catches Monroe with a modified crescent kick using the ropes. Monroe responds with a dropkick off the second rope. Slingblade by Monroe. Sinclair kicks out. Sinclair fires up, but gets tripped into the second rope by Monroe. Headbutt by Monroe. Monroe lands a Cactus DDT for the win.
Winner- Blake Monroe
After the match, Monroe grabs a mic. Jordynne Grace hops the barricade and chases Monroe. Security grabs Grace. Grace tosses around the security guards. Monroe surprises Grace with a headbutt. Monroe destroys Grace with a Cactus DDT on a chair.
Grade: C+
Standard quick TV match. Monroe got a solid win, but it’s a shame it was at Sinclair’s expense. Sinclair has proven to be one of the better in-ring talents in NXT. At some point, they have to give her the chance to fail or succeed.
The Greatest North American, North American Champion
North American Champion Ethan Page congratulates himself on his reign as North American Champion. There have been 17 North American Champions, and Page plans on holding the championship with more honor than all of them combined. Page notes that he is better because he comes from Canada. Page reveals a Canadian flag. The crowd boos. Page tosses the North American Championship out of the ring. Page reveals a new championship, which is emblazoned with the Canadian flag. The crowd is going nuts, booing Page, who is going on a rant about all the reasons Canada is better than America. Most of this is getting bleeps, likely due to the crowd telling Page what they really think about him. Page tells the crowd to rise for the national anthem.
The crowd chants U.S.A. as Page sings. The TNA Director of Authority, Santino Marello, interrupts. Marella tells “Etan Pagy” that he’s an embarrassment. Marella says he raised his family in Canada, and Canadians don’t think like Page. Page tells Marella to go back to TNA. Marella says this North American Championship should be held by someone who embodies what the championship means. That person is Marella himself. Marella says he’ll see Pagy next week. Page laughs and says they should do this right now. Page turns around to get ready, and when he turns back, Marella is ready with the Cobra! Page avoids it and rolls out of the ring.
Grade: B
Page may be the biggest heel in NXT history. We are reaching “no entrance theme Ciampa” levels of heat with the NXT Universe. Half of what Page said got edited out because the fans were calling him every swear word in the book. It’s rare for a talent to generate that type of visceral heat in this day and age. The Santino Marella thing was funny, but a feud between Page and Santino makes little sense. This writer was hoping Marella was going to call out Mike Santana, and TNA would finally get one up on NXT with Santana taking the title from Page. So much for that.
NXT Championship Match: Oba Femi (c) vs. Yoshiki Inamura vs. Josh Briggs
As soon as the bell rings, Femi goes after Briggs. Femi clotheslines Briggs over the top. Inamura attacks Femi from behind. Suplex by Femi. Briggs crushes Femit with a splash. Inamura and Briggs double-team Femi. Inamura pins Femi, but Briggs steps on the referee’s hand. Inamura is shocked. Briggs acts as if it were an accident. Femi chokeslams Briggs and Inamura simultaneously. After the break, Inamura takes Femi and Briggs over in a tower of doom. Inamura pins Femi. Femi kicks out, and Inamura lands on top of Briggs. Briggs kicks out. Briggs is upset with Inamura. Inamura apologizes. Femi pushes Briggs into Inamura, knocking him out of the ring.
Briggs chokeslams Femi. Femi kicks out. Inamura charges in. Femi leaps over Inamura, causing Inamura to spear Briggs. Inamura fires up and lands a powerbomb. Briggs pulls the referee out of the ring. The referee slides back in, and Briggs puts Femi’s hand on the rope to break the pin. Inamura takes out Briggs with a diving shoulder block. Inamura lands the Yoshiki Bomb. Briggs breaks up the pin with a moonsault. Femi kicks out. Briggs and Inamura trade strikes. Briggs floors Inamura with a lariat. Femi obliterates Briggs with a roaring European uppercut. Fall From Grace Powerbomb by Femi. Femi pins Briggs.
Winner and STILL NXT Champion, Oba Femi!
After the match, Briggs spears Inamura into the ring steps.
Grade: B-
Oba Femi is main roster ready. At this point, he’s spinning his heels as NXT Champion. This whole thing seems to be an avenue for a breakup between Briggs and Inamura. You don’t need to waste the time of the NXT Champion for that. The match itself is precisely what you would expect from Femi in a triple-threat match. At this point, they should just name the match after him. Briggs and Inamura are both good in the ring, but this angle didn’t need a week-long build. Just split them, have them fight, and move on.
WWE NXT Review:
Solid in-ring tonight. NXT feels like an out-of-control rollercoaster at times, with chaotic and wild brawls, and a splash of storyline logic to tie everything together. The match of the night was the triple-threat NXT Championship main event. Though the logic behind the match was flimsy, the action delivered. One thing to note is that it’s odd that the extent of TNA fighting back after losing all of their main championships to NXT talent was the appearance of Santino Marella. Marella didn’t interact with the Knockouts Champion Jacy Jayne or the TNA World Champion Trick Williams… he took issue with the North American Champion Ethan Page. Make it make sense? How did NXT’s sweep not lead to an invasion or some kind of major pushback from the TNA roster? What do you all think? What’s next for NXT Champion Oba Femi? Tell us what you think in the comments below!
Rating: B
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