HEYDORN’S WWE NXT RECEIPT: Roxanne Perez now face of women’s division as champion

BY ZACK HEYDORN, PWTORCH ASSISTANT EDITOR

NXT Women's Championship tournament bracket revealed
PHOTO CREDIT: NXT

SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...

This week’s episode of WWE NXT has wrapped. Let’s take a stroll down memory lane and relive some of the madness.

-I like the opening segment this week between Grayson Waller and Roxanne Perez. Both appearing first after winning the big Iron Survivor Challenge matches at Deadline made sense and though they will likely never wrestle, working with one another brought out the best in them. Waller looked like a total jerk interrupting Perez and Perez looked sympathetic and confident in running him down.

-As for the Mandy Rose and Roxanne Perez title match. We now know why it was hot-shotted, but at the time and in the moment I thought it worked well too. Perez being the frustrated, fighting champion is in line with her act. The setup was effective.

-I smell a triple threat match for the NXT North American Championship. Wes Lee, Dijak, and Tony D’Angelo have crossed paths now and the story writes itself. Lee as the lone babyface makes this work, but all three guys could really use a true feud of some sort rather than this thrown together title match that Lee will just likely win.

-This Chase U stuff continues to amaze and bother me. It’s over, but for all the wrong reasons – a chant, silly “U” poses, and really cheap catchphrases. I’ll just say it again — the group needs depth.

-Now, Von Wagner doing the job for Odyssey Jones was quite a sight and more of an inditement on Wagner rather than a true push of Jones. Wagner continues to just not reach the next level after a year of television time.

-It will be really interesting to see what will happen to Toxic Attraction without Mandy Rose. I say mid-card main roster slots at best. Time will tell, because I don’t think their stint is NXT will be for much longer. They’ve done all there is to do at this point.

-Carmelo Hayes and Trick Williams were tremendous. Their act is main roster ready. Time to pull the trigger on them, Levesque.

-This Javier Bernal stuff is nauseating. He’s making McKenzie Mitchell look bad and himself look lame. It’s not heat. It’s not likable. It’s just bad. Plus, he lost the match as well. A dead act right now.

-A solid celebration segment for The New Day. They put over how important winning the NXT Tag Team Championships were and therefore elevated those titles. Pretty Deadly hung with them on the microphone. The next chapter in this should be excellent. Could I have done without the national anthem business? Ab-sol-freaking-lutley.

-JD McDonagh getting that kind of a win over Brutus Creed was a surprise. The Creed Brothers can be a top act on the show and having McDonagh roll through him with relative ease isn’t the way to present them as such. It was a repair victory for JD after his showing in Iron Survival Challenge, but he still screams mid-card to me and doesn’t have a lot of credibility even if he gets wins like this one.

-Lyra Valkyria looked ok this week. Someone to keep an eye on for sure.

-Roxanne Perez defeated Mandy Rose to win the NXT Women’s Championship. I figured when she got the opportunity at the title next, she’d win it, but the show after Deadline was a surprise. We now know why it happened due to Mandy’s release, but the moment still felt special. The match was ok, but Perez was able to get the clean win with her finisher. Perez is the face of the women’s division now in WWE NXT and hopefully Levesque and Michaels can get some heel challengers ready to go for her in quicker fashion than they maybe originally thought.


CATCH-UP: 12/13 NXT REPORT: Hazelwood’s live report on Perez and Waller aiming for Rose and Breakker, Valkyria’s debut, Nile & Paxley vs. Toxic Attraction, Jones vs. Wagner, more

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