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WOMEN’S TAG TEAM FATAL FOUR WAY – NXT Womens Tag Titles
Toxic Attraction lost the titles to Cora Jade & Roxanne Perez a handful of weeks ago until the titles were vacated after Jade’s heel turn. This week Kayden Carter & Katana Chance, Valentina Feroz & Yulisa Leon, Ivy Nile & Tatum Paxley, and Toxic Attraction kicked the show off in an attempt to capture the vacant Women’s Tag Titles.
A Fatal Four Way tag match has strange rules, as you don’t have to tag your partner in. You can tag one of your opponents as well. Those rules have never really made sense to me, as two competitors are in the ring at a time. Why ever tag in a competing team? Wouldn’t you want to isolate your opponents and prevent a fresh team from tagging in? That’s never the story told in one of these matches either.
Regardless of strange WWE tropes, this match was able to showcase just about everyone in the match in some way making them look good in the process. Ivy Nile was a big standout for me, especially after eliminating Leon & Feroz a few minutes into the match. I think she has the potential to be a star in this business as long as she continues to improve at the rate she has since her debut.
It ultimately came down to Chance & Carter vs. Toxic Attraction for the second half of the match with Chance & Carter capturing NXT gold for the first time in their careers. Well deserved as far as I’m concerned, as they’ve shown nothing but heart since their debut years ago.
Verdict: HIT
CARMELO HAYES w/ Trick Williams vs. NATHAN FRAZER – NXT North American Title Open Challenge
It’s Carmelo’s birthday, and what better way to celebrate than for him to issue an open challenge? He said that the next person to get in the ring would get a shot at the “A” Championship. Giovanni Vinci’s music hit and Vinci started to make his way to the ring. All of a sudden, Nathan Frazer sprinted past Vinci and slid into the ring first. The bell rang, and Vinci joined the commentary team.
Now, I was pretty pumped to see Hayes vs. Vinci. But I was even more excited when we learned Vinci was a red herring and the real match would feature Frazer. Frazer and Hayes put on an absolute clinic as far as I’m concerned. Vinci interfered on Hayes behalf, predictable after he was kinda cheated out of this match, allowing Hayes to retain. My guess is that we aren’t finished with a feud between Frazer and Vinci any time soon.
Verdict: HIT
MANDY ROSE vs. SARRAY
Last week, Sarray interrupted Mandy Rose during an interview segment leading to this non-title match tonight. Oddly enough, this match started during a picture in picture commercial break. Weird on a normal night, but weirder on a night like tonight where NXT has touted “limited commercial interruptions” throughout the entire show.
This felt like one of the less consequential matches of the night where there wasn’t a title on the line and the feud is extremely new with little to sink your teeth into as of yet. It was a perfectly passable match, but the lack of crowd response and predictable win for Rose made this one a tough one to get into.
Verdict: MISS
DUKE HUDSON vs. AXIOM
Axiom was being interviewed backstage when Hudson interrupted calling Axiom a nerd, saying that he doesn’t belong here. He attacked Axiom and the fight made its way to the ring. Axiom was left lying in the ring and Hudson walked up the ramp to go backstage when Axiom picked up a mic and challenged him to a match on the spot.
Hudson laid waste to Axiom, looking to take him out with a Razor’s Edge when Axiom reversed into a hurricanrana and picked up a quick win.
A short but fun match to show off the newest underdog on the roster.
Verdict: Lukewarm HIT
CREED BROTHERS vs. THE FAMILY – NXT Tag Team Championships
Damon Kemp escorted the Creed Brothers to the ring, but as we found out earlier in the night, Roderick Strong was running late to the show. He said he’d be there for the match, but was nowhere to be found as the match started.
The Creed Brothers continue to impress each time they’re in the ring, even though they may have been on the receiving end of The Family’s offense more than they were on offense themselves. As face champions, however, that makes sense in order to get sympathy on the Creeds.
Towards the end of the match, Elektra Lopez tried giving a crowbar to D’Angelo. When he went to use it, Santos Escobar came out of nowhere and held the crowbar back so he couldn’t use it. Escobar clocked D’Angelo in the head, leading to the Creeds retaining their titles.
While I didn’t expect to see Escobar return, I did expect to see Roddy show up and have something to do in this matchup. I’m assuming his absence will be addressed later, adding fuel to the fire of a Diamond Mine implosion.
Verdict: HIT
BROOKS JENSEN vs. JOE GACY
Earlier in the night, The NXT UK Tag Champions, Brooks Jensen and Josh Briggs, were being interviewed backstage. Joe Gacy and The Dyad interrupted and repeatedly insulted Brooks Jensen, including calling him underwhelming for a 2nd generation wrestler. Well, I mean, it’s not like he has huge boots to fill. How many of you guys remember Bull Buchanan? He was in the WWE for a cup of coffee during the attitude era, but never made it past the mid card.
Of course, that interaction lead to a match between Jensen and Gacy later in the night.
The match was barely a couple minutes long with Pretty Deadly interfering and attacking Jensen while The Dyad kept Josh Briggs busy. At the end of the match, Gacy looked into the camera and called out Cameron Grimes. The whole angle seemed like a way to get to this particular shot of Gacy calling out Grimes, with Grimes watching backstage. While it wasn’t a bad segment, it felt like it overshadowed the rest of tonight’s match and angle.
Verdict: Lukewarm HIT
LASH LEGEND vs. ALBA FYRE
The feud that’s been building for weeks finally meets in the ring. As far as I’m concerned, this is Legend’s first “real” feud. Her first few storylines felt like they were just trying to flesh out the character. Now, she feels like she’s ready for primetime. Pairing her with an incredible veteran talent like Alba Fyre was almost a guarantee that she’d wind up having a great match tonight.
Lash Legend delivered. She appeared more comfortable in the ring tonight than in prior matches, and she seemed much smoother in the ring as well. With her level of charisma, if she’d able to continue to improve between the ropes, she has potential to be a great monster in the main roster women’s division.
Fyre did wind up with the win after Legend failed to connect with a baseball bat. But, I also don’t feel like this feud is over. We could still see Lash Legend get a win over Fyre.
Verdict: HIT
SOLO SIKOA vs. VON WAGNER – Falls Count Anywhere
This was not the match I expected to main event tonight’s show, frankly. However, I’m not going to complain either. Solo Sikoa has money written all over him and putting him in the main event is just giving the WWE brass further evidence to call him up and add him to The Bloodline.
However, I do find it odd that this match made it to the main event slot when the NXT Champion’s segment was shuffled all the way down to midway through the first hour. They weren’t even in the mid-show main event! Not that I think a sit down between JD McDonaugh and Bron Breakker would have been a better main event, but I think it says something in the favor of Sikoa that his match was put in the spot that it was. This was a packed show, there were two other matches that easily could have main evented.
The falls count anywhere stipulation was a great call in terms of storytelling. For weeks, Wagner has attacked Sikoa backstage. This stipulation allowed for the story to come full circle and allow them to fight all throughout the arena again.
I can’t believe I’m going to say it, but I enjoyed the heck out of Von Wagner match. Sikoa and Wagner told a great story throughout the match, and used the Falls Count Anywhere stipulation to perfectly add to said story.
His win over Wagner was a pretty big milestone in the NXT bubble. I think he has a short NXT Title run in his future followed by a callup to the main roster. He’s a star.
Verdict: HIT
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