-In general, the second week of NXT Gold Rush wasn’t nearly as exciting as the first week was. They had some star power involved, but also quite a bit of WWE Evolve talent as well. Definitely a B level show that masked as a promo for the Evolve brand for some reason.
Who?
-The show opened with some of the Evolve stuff. Jackson Drake defeated Sean Legacy to retain the WWE Evolve Men’s Championship. The match was fine, but nobody seemed to care all that much. Legacy is the lead babyface on Evolve and because of the crowd’s overall lack of interest, it’s a good thing he didn’t win the championship in this match. Both Drake and Legacy are fine wrestlers, but I don’t see WrestleMania main event talent written on either of them at this point.
-The Zaria and Sol Ruca story has lost it’s way. Officially. Look, Zaria has to go heel in this thing and turn on Ruca. The fact that they are teasing otherwise isn’t compelling and paints both women as kind of obnoxious. Ruca is a layup babyface for WWE. Messing with that just to try and get a couple more weeks of story doesn’t make a lot of sense.
The WWE Speed Championship
-Fallon Henley is the WWE Speed Champion. Yay? The Speed Championship is still the silliest championship in all of wrestling. Isn’t everyone trying to beat their opponent really fast in matches?
-Shiloh Hill impressed once again. No clue where this thing with him is going or what the character really is, but when he’s on the TV I stop and listen.
-So, John Cena was advertised for the show to choose participants for the Iron Survivor Challenge matches. He only appeared on a video, but did deliver on the overall promise. Kind of lame, though. No, they didn’t say he’d appear in the ring, but it would have been much cooler and memorable if he did. As for the Iron Survivor Challenge Matches, they’re loaded. Thanks John!
-Not sure I fully get why Kelani Jordan would drop the TNA Knockouts Championship to Lei Ying Lee like she did this week. The match wasn’t great and there wasn’t much fanfare at all regarding the match or the title itself. Jordan just turned heel, so it’s odd timing for her to lose.
An inauthentic heel
-Jordan continues to be inauthentic as a heel. She’s a natural, likable babyface, but trying to cosplay as a bad guy. The audience sees through it.
-Cool sit-down interview with Ricky Saints. Saints looked like a star and presented like a confident champion. When him and Oba Femi were in the ring together a few weeks ago, Femi outclassed him. Saints has to find some of the gravitas and confidence that he had in the segment this week when he’s in the ring.
-Kendal Grey beat Lainey Reid to retain the WWE Women’s Evolve Championship. Like the men’s match, nobody cared. Of the four Evolve wrestlers that were featured this week, Grey has the highest upside.
The future of Trick Williams
-Myles Borne vs. Trick Williams in an Iron Survivor Challenge Qualifying Match was the main event. A good match, but not a great one. The booking of Williams has been all over the place the last three months. It’s clear he’s in a holding pattern and not a focus of NXT, but not up on the main roster either. Being in no-man’s land like that won’t help him when he eventually makes the move to Raw or Smackdown.
What did you think of this week’s episode of NXT? Let us know in the comments!
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