-The Bayley vs. Cora Jade opener was a fine start to the show this week. Jade seems to be a step behind the top of the women’s roster in NXT right now, but Bayley got a good match out of her. The angle with Roxanne Perez dressing like Bayley to distract her was a nice touch and helped protect Bayley in losing.
Giveaway
-Jade getting added to the title match pretty much gives away how the match is going to go at Vengeance Day. Guilia is pinning Jade. You heard it here first.
-Well, nobody actually believes that Oba Femi is going to lose his NXT Championship at NXT Vengeance Day over the weekend. That said, they tried to generate some sort of story between Grayson Waller and Austin Theory this week, so there is some kind of drama when the bell rings on Saturday night. Waller and Theory both nicely tossing each other under the bus in a fake, respectful way did the job to generate the story and was heelish of both guys. Femi got to just stand around and watch their friendship burn.
-Waller was particularly effective. Where Theory just kinda went through the motions, Waller spit some words on his history of NXT, being an overlooked main roster call up next to Carmelo Hayes and Bron Breakker, and not having won the NXT Championship during his time on the brand. Makes you think that maybe he was called up prematurely.
-After Eddy Thorpe attacked Trick Williams with a strap last week, a strap match between the two was inevitable. Good promo work from both guys to build the match. Short and to the point, but it did enough to highlight their characters and heat things up. Thorpe has come along nicely with mic work since returning from injury.
-Josh Briggs and Yoshiki Inamura becoming number one contenders for the NXT Tag Team Championships works well enough. Fraxiom needs opponents and the story all along has been Briggs and Inamura earning a shot. Briggs and Inamura need an edge. A real edge. They present like they have one with the words they use and the intensity they attempt to drum up, but it isn’t believable at all — especially as babyfaces.
The Heritage Cup needs special rules … badly
-The Heritage Cup not having the special match format and rules very much hurts it and anyone fighting for it. The rules and format is what made the thing stand out as something different to fight for in NXT. There was an argument to be made that specialist could and would fight for it because it was different. Now? It highlights just as a regular third singles championship.
-Zaria got a dominant win over Nikkita Lyons and she needed it. They are jumping through the hoops of developing Zaria and Sol Ruca as a tag team, but the long game is Zaria turning heel on her and finally being cast properly on the show.
-Really nice production on the hype vignette for Je’Von Evans vs. Ethan Page this weekend at Vengeance Day. Struck the right one of presenting a really dark and personal feud. Thumbs up.
Hey Ricky
-Ricky Starks!? Hello, Ricky Starks. That was quick. Starks looked like a star in the NXT environment and crushed his promo. Nobody said his name, but the audience made him look and feel important because of the reaction they gave him. If they keep going with that presentation, he’ll get organically over and that’s always the best kind. A big loss for AEW.
-Who is going to bring back Chase University? It’s a guilty pleasure and the show doesn’t feel the same without, alright!!!
-A good cage match main event between Tony D’Angelo vs. Ridge Holland for the NXT North American Championship. It wasn’t the time to take the title off D’Angelo, so good thing they didn’t.
Is it worth it?
-What they did do was give D’Angelo and The Family another team to work against for the foreseeable future. I’m not a fan of Shawn Spears heading up any factions, but at least now this faction serves the purpose of getting The Family over. Spears and Co. attacking D’Angelo as his family looked on was done well and secured the heat it needed. They’ve got big tags they can do and multiple singles matches they can do with D’Angelo and the North American Championship out of this. For as down as I am on Spears, this is worth doing and has some upside.
What did you think of this week’s episode of NXT? Let us know in the comments!
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