-NXT is smart to not be on the road every single week for TV, but man, when they are it looks great. They are running unique, but small venues, and it’s making a difference in terms of the product feeling different than the traditional look of Raw and Smackdown. This week inside Shrine Expo Hall was a perfect example.
That truck is too big
-The Rock getting out of his enormous truck to start the show was an obvious move to set the hook for the audience on his appearance later in the show. Rock was Rock and that truck is enormous. Too enormous.
-Roxanne Perez vs. Guilia for the NXT Women’s Championship opened the show and was a good match, but it wasn’t the epic encounter that deep down you know these two can have. They didn’t get enough time for that, so it was smart not to try to fit too much in, but as signature and crowning moment for Guilia, this was flatter than I anticipated.
-Roxanne Perez is ready for the main roster and she’ll get there soon enough, but I’d give fans Perez vs. Guilia 3. Fans that don’t know Guilia’s work from Stardom haven’t seen “special” from her yet. Very good? Yes, they’ve seen that, but giving her a match to hit fifth gear with Perez would go a long way in helping to establish Guilia in not just NXT, but for a potential WWE main roster call up as well.
-I’m glad NXT took the time to run some promo vignettes to continue hyping Je’Von Evans vs. Ethan Page. Page’s attack on Evans was intense, so it was important to make sure the follow-up was strong. This was. When Evans gets his hands on Page, it’ll be a moment.
Too big for Stephanie Vaquer
-A strong fatal four-way match to crown a NXT Women’s North American Championship number one contender. Stephanie Vaquer was an interesting way to go in terms of a winner. She’s top title material and here she is tangling for the secondary belt? Let’s see how this plays out, but she seems too big for this spot.
-Lucien Price and Bronco Nima aren’t known as promo guys, but they cut a good pre-taped one this week. It felt personal and was well-delivered. Looking forward to seeing more from them.
-Shotzi, Gigi Dolin, and Tatum Paxley defeated Fatal Influence. The only reason to beat Fatal Influence at this point is to setup challengers for Fallon Henley and her North American Championship. Shotzi pinned her and now has a claim to a title shot.
All moment for Ethan Page
-A fun little interaction with The Rock and Ethan Page backstage this week. Confusing, but fun nonetheless. If Rock was being a true babyface Rock, he’d have eviscerated Page on the microphone. He didn’t do that. With his daughter in the shot, he simply kinda respected Page and moved on. Now, Rock did put Ava over and said she was in charge, but he wasn’t nearly “Rock mean” enough to Page. That said, it was cool to see Ethan Page have that little moment. Not many guys have shared screen time with The Rock. Now he can say he has.
-Charlie Dempsey vs. Lexis King was fine. Nothing special, but fine. What is Lexis King? Who is Lexis King. Heritage Championship or not, until he has an answer to this question, he’ll have a steep climb to make in order to become truly relevant.
-Ehhhh, look, I understand putting Oba Femi over and making him NXT Champion. Plus, he pinned Trick Williams, so the win is more official than other triple threat match victories. That said, it didn’t feel like this win was the moment for Femi. It just didn’t seem like the crescendo of his story was there last night. Now, Trick Williams may be getting called up. If that’s the case, you do the business you have to do. Oba Femi is a good face of the NXT brand. He’s strong on the microphone and has good enough matches in the ring. Plus, he’s a Performance Center talent and clearly WWE is going to want to feature those success stories.
Corporate Rock
-Well, we got corporate pitch-man Rock in the final segment. So, just like Raw this week, it was fine. Good even, but also a bit of a waste of time. Not sure if anyone else felt this way, but it looked to me like Rock was a little peeved at only having six minutes to do his thing out there.
What did you thin of this week’s episode of NXT? Let us know in the comments!
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