-I liked the opening NXT Women’s Championship triple threat match quite a bit. Roxanne Perez and Lyra Valkyria held down the fort as expected, but Tatum Paxley delivered on a different level than she has thus far in NXT. Yes, she was in the ring with two of the best NXT has to offer, but she held her own and articulated her character nicely within her move set and overall ring presence.
What’s next for Roxanne Perez?
-Roxanne Perez was the obvious winner here going in and NXT kept it straight with that booking. With Perez seemingly headed to the main roster during the 2024 WWE Draft, which starts up on Friday, it looks as if she’ll pull double duty for a bit. As far as who is ready to take that title off of her? Yikes. Not sure. Sol Ruca was impressive, but still needs character work. Maybe Lyra Valkyria again? That’s not a great option either. Bottom line? It’s a short list and Shawn Michaels has some work to do in developing new top tier women for the brand.
-It’s Thea Hail vs. Jacy Jayne on next week’s episode of Spring Breakkin. We’re finally here, folks. Finally. This feud got a lot of play throughout the last 12 months, so it was surprising to see very little final hype for the match on this show.
-The Family defeating No Quarter Catch clearly sets up Tony D’Angelo for a shot at the Heritage Cup. Ehh, I can take or leave this. Nothing against The Family — in fact, it’s quite the opposite. D’Angelo seems higher level than the Heritage Cup, so pivoting there after wrestling for the NXT Championship at the biggest NXT event of the year is a step down in importance.
-Jaida Parker had a nice outing against Fallon Henley. She’s got a ways to go, but there is a charisma there that strongly stand out. As for Henley, she’s in NXT hell. Not ready for the main roster, but stale in the standard NXT cannon.
A step forward
-Who would’ve thought, right? Lola Vice dipped deep into her bag of promo tricks and was serviceable on the microphone opposite Natalya ahead of their NXT Underground Match next week. Her work didn’t seem as performative as it does in the ring and was more believable. Natalya was good too. The NXT Underground stipulation very much limits what these women can do, but I’m interested to see it play out.
-I can’t stand themed street fights in WWE. They’re incredibly cringey and hurt the credibility of actual street fights that happen. I don’t know how they got started, but shame on them. That same rule applies to the Beach Brawl this week between Blair Davenport and Sol Ruca. It’s like, “Oh no! A pool filled with McDonald’s ball pit balls.” C’mon. My three year old daughter dove into one of those head first like three days ago and was just fine. Ruca got a win here and that’s fine, but this was awful. If you want to do a street fight, just do one straight up and leave the silliness aside.
Old school
-Annnnnnnd Baron Corbin did the favors for Lexis King on his way out of the promotion. Old school. King got the win, but continues to show nothing of substance. Sorry, Corbin, but that job was for nothing.
-Before we get to the main event between Trick Williams and Ilja Dragunov for the NXT Championship, let’s talk about the hype they put behind that match throughout the show. It was wonderful. The old NXT stars coming back to watch the match and comment on who they thought would win was a very strong touch that gave the match huge intensity and drama. The angle backstage with Johnny Gargano and Trick himself very much drove home the level of importance the match had. This is how you frame a big match for TV. Thumbs way up.
New champion
-As for the match itself, good stuff. Nothing great, but enough drama and crowd interest to carry it. The audience is firmly behind Trick and it showed. It’s Trick’s time and he’s on the path to having a very strong run as NXT Champion. A really fun end to a good show overall.
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