-Well, Blake Monroe vs. Thea Hail for the NXT Women’s North American Championship was an absolute mess. The match wasn’t that great and then the entire finish got totally botched because Monroe seemingly got the wind knocked out of her and didn’t kick out of a pin on time. It happens. Hail is the new champion and Shawn Michaels has some retooling to do.
A blessing in disguise for Blake Monroe
-Monroe losing the NXT Women’s North American Championship is a blessing in disguise for NXT. Monroe needs to be in the main women’s title picture and was off in her own little world with the North American belt. Losing it this way actually protects her. She lost the title, but you know, not really? It’s meta and you don’t want to fully play into that on television, but she needs to move to bigger and better things. Hail is a fine secondary champion.
-A strong promo from Ethan Page this week. If he keeps delivering like that, he’ll have a ticket to the main roster sooner than later. Not sure why they had another heel in Stacks come out and interrupt him. It halted Page’s momentum and fans sat on their hands because he’s a heel too. Then, Moose walked out? A lot of cooks in the kitchen as they say. Page was good, but the rest of the segment was hard to understand.
-Hank and Tank vs. OTM happened. A fine little match, but it was clear these teams are lower level developmental talent.
Where he belongs
-Ricky Saints is a heel and that’s the right move. Fan reaction to him as a babyface cooled. This pivot gives Saints a new foundation to build off of. Saints can play off the fact that fans liked someone like Je’Von Evans better than him and it resonates because there is authenticity behind it. That’s very much the actual story of how things went down. Saints delivered with his first heel promo.
-Speaking of Je’Von Evans, it was nice to see him show some fire and anger at Saints this week. Evans hasn’t had a chance to show that side of him as a babyface much and this feud with Saints is a perfect moment to do it. This is a budding rivalry that will main event some big NXT shows in the near future.
Momentum builder
-Smart to get Kendal Grey a win over Fatal Attraction, even if Jacy Jayne didn’t participate in the match. Grey and Jayne is the title match and the goal should be to give Grey as much momentum as possible going into that. They accomplished that goal here.
-Yeah, I’m over the toys that Tatum Paxley keeps leaving everywhere to taunt The Culling. It was funny the first time, but this week it felt too unserious. Paxley has a connection with the audience. The writing and booking don’t need to dumb the character down in order to maintain it.
Femi vs. Slater
-An exciting fatal four-way main event to crown a new number one contender to Oba Femi and the NXT Championship. Myles Borne and Leon Slater were the bright spots in the match from an in-ring perspective. Per usual, Joe Hendry added some pizazz and energy. As for Dion Lennox, he didn’t get much, but was where he needed to be the entire time. Slater won the match and will now face Oba Femi for the NXT Championship at New Year’s Evil. It’ll be a fun match because of the different physiques of each guy, but the outcome is a certainty. Femi isn’t losing to a TNA guy. Bet on it.
What did you think of this week’s episode of WWE NXT? Let us know in the comments!
Subscribe to the Brass Ring Media Newsletter HERE.
Follow Zack Heydorn on Bluesky @zackheydorn.bsky.social