-In the year 2026, it’s rare that the fake entrance music for heat bit works, but it worked for Grayson Waller to start NXT this week. CM Punk’s entrance music blared to start the show, but Punk was nowhere to be found. Instead, Waller basked in the glory of the boos from the Orlando audience who were disappointed and frustrated for being duped. Because Waller beat Punk last week, this was effective. It served as a way to acknowledge the big match from last week, while also leaning into Waller’s victory. He wasn’t shy. There wasn’t an attempt to soften the impact of Waller pinning Punk. Waller went all the way with it and declared himself the best in the world. He then called out the locker room to give him a real challenge. Beating CM Punk should be a major moment and Waller was able to treat it as such during his promo.
Finding the right Shiloh Hill
-Well, well, well … Shiloh Hill is in the top championship picture. Go figure. Hill gets a mixed grade this week. If you just look at his promo, he’d get high marks. Hill was smooth and conveyed his passion for pro wrestling. There was a mission statement inside of the promo that fans can attach themselves to. On the flip side, it in no way highlighted the character he’s played up to this point. The silliness was gone. The rambling on a topic? Gone. The laugh? That was gone too. The crazy computer hacker tone? Gone. He has already had a couple different iterations of his act and none of them showed up for this promo. Hill and the creative team need to figure out what they want this poor guy to be.
-John Cena invited Noam Dar and Romeo Moreno to the John Cena Classic this week. I didn’t have that on my bingo card, but I supposed it’s sensible. Dar and Moreno have exemplified “hustle, loyalty, and respect” more than anyone on the NXT roster and were the winners of this year’s Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic. Here’s the thing … what is in the briefcase Cena handed them??
-For as good of a fit as Dar and Moreno are, Cena also invited Kelani Jordan to the John Cena Classic. That’s a terrible fit. The entire Jordan character is based on whining about not getting opportunities. Not only did she get this one, but she fawned over it like a child meeting their hero. Jordan dropped her entire personality in appreciation of the invite and it was off-putting. If John Cena cared about the future of WWE as much as he says he does, he should’ve insisted that Jordan openly disrespect him.
-In addition to hanging with Cena, Jordan got in-ring promo time and it was a better effort on her part than usual. Jordan has regularly gotten caught up reading the memorized lines from her brain out there. The promo this week involved the audience more and adjusted to their reaction to her. Strong growth. Kendal Grey confronted Jordan about a title shot and got one set for next week. That’s a big match. For most of 2026, Grey has been a reason to watch NXT each week.
-The Kam Hendrix character continues to be nauseating. It’s inauthentic and comes across as overly rehearsed and staged. Hendrix had a good match with EK Prosper this week. There is certainly some in-ring talent there, but he’s got to get the character part figured our or it won’t mean anything.
Sorry Wren
-Wow. Who did Wren Sinclair piss off? Sinclair was a pushed top babyface ahead of Halloween Havoc, lost her title match there, and then lost cleanly to Izzi Dame on the show this week. Not a great run and the match wasn’t anything to write home about either.
-Based on this week’s presentation, Izzi Dame has now officially dropped ties with The Culling faction. She’s “The Culling,” but the faction appears to be no more. I’ll drink to that. What’s next for her? After the run-in with Zaria this week, a Women’s North American Championship match is a good bet.
-Can Tony D’Angelo get more directionless? This week he stared into the abyss from the top of a bridge and then angrily rode into NXT and had a little brawl with Kam Hendrix. As usual with D’Angelo, there isn’t a way to tell what the booking is going for from a character perspective.
-Speaking of direction less … hi, Myles Borne. Borne got the big win over Tavion Heights at Halloween Havoc and now … nada. Borne was antagonizing D’Angelo on the bridge, but to no end.
-The main event match of the show was a tag team championship match between Vanity Project and Hank & Tank. The scheduled bout was Vanity Project defending their belts against Dar and Moreno, but VP took them out prior to the match. Vanity Project arrogantly taking credit for the attack and then assuming they wouldn’t still have some kind of championship match was peak heel — the bad guys living in their own reality. Their match with Hank and Tank was really good and the best match of the night. Vanity Project held onto the titles and the match with Dar and Moreno continues to grow in importance. Hopefully, that feud continues to simmer. The longer Vanity Project can avoid actually wrestling Dar and Moreno, the hotter the match will be.
Huh???
-The main event segment of the show was a Zilla Fatu promo, in which he was supposed to call out Grayson Waller. Instead, DarkState interrupted him. Dion Lennox talked a bunch crap and it missed on tapping into the effective mic work Lennox had started to develop inside his feud with Cruz Montana. Had this interruption been the end of the show — fine — Fatu gets another rival he can stomp easily. Instead, it twisted down a bizarre road that included DarkState, Birthright, and Perros Del Mal from AAA. Is Shawn Michaels trolling me? Not sure how you get an audience to care about those three factions.
What do you think of the NXT talent invited to the John Cena Classic? Let us know in the comments!
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The way Dar and Moreno got cheated out of their tag title shot. I can see them getting the tag titles at NXTLC in a TLC match against Swipe Right and Hank & Tank. Let's not stand on ceremony. Mason Rook coming back is a great thing and he should be a shoo-in to be in the Cena Classic.
I just watched Zilla's vlog about the contents of the briefcase that Cena gave him (and other invitees). They each get a deck of cards, a watch, a book, a letter of instructions and a commemorative jacket.
Ending was a little random by having Birthright, Perros Del Mal and Darkstate in faction warfare (Worlds Collide, methinks)