-Well, I’m here to eat a little crow. Bron Breakker and Baron Corbin as tag team partners had all the makings of a disaster, but they pulled it off last week. The tag team I never knew NXT needed! They worked really well with one another and gelled not only as a team in the ring, but as characters with personality too. Tag team star isn’t going to be Breakker’s calling on the main roster when he gets there, but if this continues to be successful, it’ll add some range to his game. Clearly Breakker and Corbin had to go over strong here and they did. Frazier and Axiom were wonderful punching bags that bumped like hell to make them look menacing and threatening.
-Ilja Dragunov had a good night in terms of presenting as NXT Champion. Josh Briggs is still trying to find himself as a singles act and while Dragunov is obviously a top star to play off of, Briggs looks a bit out of his league when playing off him. Based on how things went with Briggs later in the night, it seems like a heel turn is on the horizon? We’ll see, but he seems to have a natural babyface charisma that he’d be fighting as a heel.
Meta Four No More
-Man, the Meta Four stuff is so DOA right now it’s painful. It hurts to watch and I simply can’t see why Noam Dar and the group get the time they do on a regular basis. Lash Legend looked fine in her win, but as a part of the group has a low, low ceiling.
-A pretty nice brawl between Joe Gacy and Dijak this week. Each of them are like mirror images of the other as lost souls of NXT. They are both guys with some talent, but seem forever destined to linger in NXT like a triple A baseball player that just quite can’t crack the major leagues. This feud won’t elevate either guy, but will be good content on Tuesday nights for the next few weeks.
-Lexis King? Yawn. Snore. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
-Elektra Lopez had her best night since making her NXT debut. Lopez cut a strong promo on Lola Vice and dominated her segment in terms of polish and entertainment. There were always hints of a star there, but this was her strongest showing yet. Vice continues to struggle. There just doesn’t seem to be a feel for the job with her, so she’s rigid in talking and acting.
-Chase U is in shambles! The entire angle is more of a storybook than it is pro wrestling, but it continues to work. Andre Chase has lost his university and it appears as if Jacy Jayne will be the one to bring it back. I’m here for that moment and it seems like the audience is too. I don’t want to see this type of thing on WWE Raw, but it’s fine tucked away in NXT.
Oba Femi MVP
-Dragon Lee vs. Oba Femi is set for the Vengeance Day PLE. Femi cut another very good promo green-lighting the match and is a bright star on the show. Looking forward to seeing what he can do with Lee on a big PLE show.
-Sorry, Brinley Reece. Super positive person gimmicks just don’t work in pro wrestling. Good in theory, bad in practice. Back to the drawing board.
-Thank you, Blair Davenport, for carrying Karmen Petrovic to a serviceable match. It was short, Davenport won, and Petrovic still shouldn’t be on national television. She’s lacking in character and ring acumen and is just hurting herself out there trying to belong where she doesn’t.
Tick Tock on Hayes vs. Williams
-The Trick Williams and Carmelo Hayes saga got more juice this week with Williams actually pushing Hayes due to Hayes getting involved in his match and swinging at Ilja Dragunov. The two guys then had a confrontation backstage with Hayes exasperated at how Williams can’t see Dragunov trying to get in his head. Williams has been the stand up babyface throughout all of this and plays the part well. Hayes has walked the line on the other side too. We’ll see the wheels fall off at Vengeance Day. Hayes will cost Williams his title and they’ll be on a collision course for a match at Stand and Deliver over WrestleMania weekend.
-Lyra Valkyria and Roxanne Perez signing their contract for Vengeance Day was what it was. Both women are clearly the top stars of the division right now, but both have progress to make as well. They delivered well in talking about the stakes of the match and importance of the NXT Women’s Championship. Setting up a contrast of Valkyria taking over Perez’s spot was smart and added a layer of drama to things. Simple A to B stuff, but good overall.