Time for another week of NXT! We start off the show with reporters meeting Chase U in the parking lot and question Andre about the latest controvery or scandal about Chase U, which we are still in need of some information about! Chase U are actually having to defend the NXT Tag Titles to start the show.
WWE NXT Tag Team Title Match
Chase U (Andre Chase & Duke Hudson) (w/Jacy Jayne & Thea Hail) (c) vs. The Family (Channing Lorenzo & Tony D’Angelo)
Background:
Chase U won the NXT Tag Team Titles at Halloween Havoc, and this is their 1st televised Title defence, they have defended the titles twice on NXT Live Events though. The Family go into this the former champions, getting their rematch for the titles.
The Match:
Stacks started off with Andre, Andre is a great worker to be honest, and I Ioved the blind tag from Tony on Stacks, as Andre went for a leapfrog, Tony caught him in an atomic drop! Big dive over the top by Stacks, and obviously we go to a commercial break as we do after most dives or spills to the outside!
The Chase U students start walking out which distracts Andre a bit. Chase hit a high cross body for a near fall. The match wore on, Stacks hit a European Uppercut into a bridging German Suplex by Tony D’Angelo. Duke hit a MASSIVE German springing into the ring from the apron – but then Duke Hudson was thrown into the stairs, and Andre hit Tony with a flip off the apron!
The Family took control, Duke is there to save Andre constantly, who continues to be distracted by his woes.
All of Chase’s class walk out of the show late into the match, Bada Bing, Bada Boom, and Tony D’Angelo and Stacks Lorenzo have won the NXT Tag Team Titles again! Andre went into this looking dishevelled, and now he’s lost the Tag Team Titles!
Aftermath:
Who KNOWS where this goes from here with Andre, and The Family collect and continue their run as champs.
Winner/s: NEW NXT Tag Team Champions, The Family – Channing Lorenzo & Tony D’Angelo in 13:54.
Lita chooses the next combatants for the Iron Survivor Challenge Qualifying Matches.
She chooses Roxanne Perez, and She’s decided on Lash Legend for her opponent, which is ridiculous because Lash has been no where near the singles division in months!
She chooses Trick Williams, and Joe Coffey for the Men. Sounds more like they were chosen for her. Am I right or what?
Here we go. Dominik Mysterio is just walking around without being booked on the show, wearing his North American Title around his waist, and Baron Corbin interrupts him walking around aimlessly, and Baron goes on about putting Wes Lee in the hospital, and Dom says he will back him up if he needs.
Supernova Sessions with Meta Four
Noam Dar introduces Alpha Academy, and they get a pop and holy mother of god, Maxxine Dupri looks GOOD! Noam brags about beating Akira Tozawa last week, and Akira says if Meta-Four weren’t there last week, Akira would be the champ. The Cup is under lock and key with the chain, and Otis starts humping the air saying Lash can say what she likes, and that’s hilarious. She was screaming for Security and this whole scenario is ridiculous. Noam was LOSING IT saying Otis is disgusting.
Maxxine gets out of her seat which is appreciated on several levels and for several senses including the dopamine hit of all dopamine hits, they all start arguing, and Chad yells SHOOSH! This was hilarious.
Noam gets emotional about them putting a tournament together and it being tough at the top. Chad Gable is his next challenger, and Noam goes to hit Gable, but he got headbutted! Alpha Academy start dancing as we go to commercial. That was amazingly unrealistic, I love it. Noam is on the couch in so much pain and nobody is doing anything about it.
Iron Survivor Challenge Qualifying Match
Roxanne Perez vs. Lash Legend (w/Jakara Jackson, Noam Dar & Oro Mensah)
The Match:
Lash dwarfs Roxanne, she is HUGE! It’s hard to even imagine how Lash loses to the tiny Roxanne. Roxanne gets tripped by Jakara and the Referee ejects all of Meta Four, and they explode like only they can.
Lash continued her heat on Perez, the size difference is just so obvious though. Lash has Roxy in a Torture Rack and slammed her into the corner, but then Lash spilled to the outside and Roxy dove on her through the ropes!
Lash took a sick victory roll face plant from Roxy, Jakara came back out, Kiana James got involved and COST ROXY THE WIN! Lash Legend hit a powerbomb and won, that was unexpected. Awesome to see they didn’t do the obvious!
Aftermath:
Lash Legend qualifies for the Deadline event for the Iron Survivor Challenge, and it looks like Roxy and Kiana James will do battle then as well. I like that they’re keeping me on my toes this episode.
Winner: Lash Legend in 5:04.
All the Tag Teams are backstage and arguing together about who is ready for the next title shot, and they bicker as The Family show up and rip into Huberto Carillo and Angel Garza.
Whoever that chick is with them is a TRIUMPH with the Italian-American sterotype, wow. I dig her!
Nathan Frazer popped his stupid boring head in to say something and ruined the whole segment, show, and 2023. You aren’t even in a Tag Team Nathan, go away, nobody invited you. The segment ends with some of the Tag Teams getting into a shoving match. Ridiculous. That’s the word of the day for NXT.
Lyra Valkyria is also backstage with Robbie Brookside and another NXT coach talking about the Xia Li Match, and Lyra gets a text and invite on the screen they are watching… for a Warriors Tea Ceremony with Xia on this Episode. I guess Xia can hack into a random Televisions feed too hey? I love this stuff.
She’s not even in the room with them, what if they had walked off and it wasn’t timed perfectly? Man this amuses me too much.
We come back from commercial and now we’re already at the Tea Ceremony! Lyra looked really adorable in this segment, something about her hair being down! She needs to do that more often, it was really quite flattering.
This was strangely interesting and mature to build this story. As opposed to The Young Bucks getting upset because Kenny Omega isn’t paying enough attention to them.
They share the tea, and this tea is all apart of respect, and Lyra refuses the Tea, and now Xia will show no mercy. How arrogant of Lyra to bring her title with her as well?
This kind of thing should be done to feature Xia Li on the Main Roster. I thought she played her part very well, and this could work if the Main Roster could get their shizit together.
Trick Williams and Carmelo Hayes Interview with McKenzie Mitchell
Trick addresses the accidental punch to Carmelo last week, and Melo doubles down on not being the one to attack Trick a week before No Mercy. Carmelo promises to have Tricks back in his match with Joe Coffey. McKenzie is all hmming and still rather suspicious of Hayes.
Kiana James is in the locker room talking to all the ladies backstage about what she did to Roxanne Perez, standing in front of them and facing the camera as only they do in NXT. Amazing. Gigi talks some smack and KJ get’s all upset, Karmen Petrovic goes to walk in and Arianna says shes not allowed to speak after what she did last week… so Karmen leaves.
Gigi says Arianna is going to get her ass whooped tonight and she’s delusional. Arianna gets offended “Uh! Why does everything always have to end, in a fight?” Hahah It’s pro wrestling. Gosh, she’s adorable and hilarious. Arianna just stole that segment.
Bron Breakker Interview with McKenzie Mitchell
Bron has no remorse on what he did to Von Wagner and Mr. Stone. Oh great, Dijak interrupts. He gets all uppity about qualifying for the Iron Survivor Challenge and it’s become a confrontation SO quickly. Now they are making threats and that’s just hilarious. What did you think was going to happen Dijak? This is in fact, a match I would love to see. I’m not a big ‘match’ guy, but if I could see Dijak and Bron Breakker go 20-25 minutes, that would be interesting.
Iron Survivor Challenge Qualifying Match
Joe Coffey (w/Mark Coffey & Wolfgang) vs. Trick Williams (w/Carmelo Hayes)
The Match:
Booker T going ‘What!’ ‘Uh Huh’ ‘Oh YEAH MAN’ during Tricks entrance in the gaps as the fans chant ‘Whoop That Trick’ and it’s amazing. Trick’s going to lose this. I bet you. Trick has improved SO much. You can see he’s thinking a few steps ahead now and not getting muddled remembering his spots.
Joe gains the advantage when the GALLAS boys get in his way and he punched them both in the face which is so violent it made me laugh. It must be annoying always having to throw in a spot in almost every match where they go to a commercial break.
Melo shows his support but surely soon enough we find out he attacked Williams. I would say the feud continues after that till Stand & Deliver.
Melo pulls Wolfgang off the Apron at the wrong time and Trick eats shit and falls to the outside, there’s another little thing to add to the reel! Trick hits the big knee on Joe to win! I was wrong, I should just shutup.
Aftermath:
Another seed planted in the Melo and Trick saga, and Trick goes through to the Iron Survivor Challenge at Deadline.
Winner: Trick Williams in 11:54.
Wes Lee is seen getting all jumpy walking around aimlessly in the warehouse, as Ilja Dragunov walks upto him. He asks Wes to leave him a piece of Corbin, I assume Corbin wins though.
What I really find funny about all these scenarios backstage is that a lot of people seem to just walk around the building alone alot. Man, I can’t stop laughing when I watch NXT.
Corbin is in his Locker Room as Lexis King enters the fray. They give eachother encouragement and that’s just lovely isn’t it.
Lexis isn’t seen for the rest of the show which is super confusing. I almost feel like I have absolutely no freaking idea why the hell this segment even happened.
Tag Team Match
The Brawling Brutes (Butch & Ridge Holland) vs. Out The Mud (Bronco Nima & Lucien Price) (w/SCRYPTS)
The Match:
Brutes go over surely! Sheamus is about ready to come back so I am sure they will be just here for a cup of Joe Coffey. I actually don’t know what the point is in them being here considering! The Bruts dominate early.
OTM took their heat soon after, SCRYPTS belts Butch with a Drive By on the ring apron! “CMON SUNSHINE” was yelled by Ridge during his comeback. Butch weathered the storm of OTM, Ridge tagged in, Butch hit a moonsault on Price off the ring apron, Holland powerbombed Nima, and soon after they laid Nima out for the win!
Aftermath:
Absolutely no clue where this goes from here. The Brawling Brutes can’t be sticking around too long, surely. As far as Out The Mud is concerned, they still haven’t been able to get a lot of momentum but they’re only kind of new, so we’ll see how they develop.
Winner/s: The Brawling Brutes in 5:50.
Joe Gacy cuts another promo out in the middle of no where, and it’s another lonely promo. He’s losing his mind over his situation. I really worry for this character being lost in the shuffle, he seemed so prominant at the beginning of NXT 2.0 and now he’s kind of floating in purgatory.
Singles Match
Gigi Dolin vs. Arianna Grace
The Match:
There’s several reasons to be excited about a Gigi Dolin match, and hopefully her character starts getting some momentum. She lost her feud match with Blair Davenport, and we haven’t seen Blair since!
Tonight is a coming out party for Arianna. She really showed some range in that backstage promo, and here was an important match for her with Gigi. Gigi finds the camera well for her facial selling.
Arianna tried to use the ropes to win, but the Referee caught her. Gigi hit her sweet finisher the Gigi Driver to pick up the needed win! Afterward Arianna waves to the crowd like she’s thanking them for their support. Gosh, she’s tremendous!
Winner: Gigi Dolin in 3:47.
Vignette airs on Von Wagner and Robert Stone and how they started on the same day and it showed their journey together about Von Wagner’s issues with his skull. They also showed Bron Brekker being a bully and going after him, and what has transpired since.
Backstage, Von and Robert are talking, and Robert offers him dinner and he’s down if it’s the Pasta with the Sausages he’s in. He also says no to the Asparagus! Good stuff.
Corbin and Wes Lee are shown walking to the ring as we go to commercial. See? How hard is it to show a hook into a commercial break. The Main Roster could take some tips from NXT.
Eddie Thorpe Interview with McKenzie Mitchell
Eddie explains why he’s been absent since beating Dijak. The annoying and stupid Interview interruption happens again with Drew Gulak and his boys, and Charlie Dempsey threatens him. Whatever, think of another scenario to kick angles off for crying out loud.
I wrote an article about this and I guess what bothers me the most is that I would kill to have a job writing for a wrestling company so when I see them do these same things over and over again, it frustrates me that people can get away with sheer laziness. Which feels bad for me to say because they make such an effort throughout the show with other things, but then ruin it with crap like this.
Andre Chase refuses to answer questions from the press, and Jacy Jane gets him to hop in her car and get out of there. It seems Jacy is starting to become sympathetic to Andre, which is super interesting!
They show a Hype Video for the Iron Survivor Challenge. Lovely, becuase the match is super confusing. Also, no Tiffany Stratton this week, which is very upsetting to this reviewer.
Singles Match
Baron Corbin vs. Wes Lee
Background:
Don’t even get me started on this. Ok, fine. Wes Lee had an interview backstage last week and BaRoN cOrBiN InTeRrUpTeD AnD tHeY HaD a CoNfRoNtAtiOn.. Hahah I wonder if I’ll get that past my editor (You didn’t, but I’ll let it slide.)
The Match:
Great, Wes Lee is back. I hope Baron absolutely wrecks him. I need to stop being so mean to Wes. Nathan Frazer can just cop it more from me. Wes Lee is very athletic, there’s just a bit too much rolling around and Lio Rush style athleticism when you could do less things and still accomplish the same goal.
HUGE Deep 6 on the outside of the ring, and a sickening short arm clothesline from Corbin as well. This is the version of Corbin I’ve been wanting to see. Corbin is really putting his working boots on lately.
Wes dives and he clocks Dominik who’s come out to help Baron, then as Wes gets in the ring and cops the End of Days and it’s over! Corbin attacks Wes after the match and we go off hot with Ilja Dragunov delivering a German suplex in his nice suit! Then he ended up copping an amazing End of Days and Corbin walks off looking pretty chuffed with himself.
That was a refreshing change to how I expected that interaction to go!
Aftermath:
Ilja and Baron are on a collision course for a battle at Deadline, and it looks like Wes Lee will be challenging Dominik Mysterio at that show as well.
Winner: Baron Corbin in 10:28.
Final Thoughts:
Well, despite my complaints with some of the backstage scenes of people randomly walking upto one another and interrupting interviews, I really did enjoy the show and how things are progressing toward Deadline.
Boy, they really do have a lot of people on their roster! It’s almost like NXT Level Up needs to be an hour long or something just to get some more people TV time.
