{"id":197431,"date":"2025-05-07T12:36:38","date_gmt":"2025-05-07T17:36:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=197431"},"modified":"2025-05-07T12:36:38","modified_gmt":"2025-05-07T17:36:38","slug":"nxt-hits-misses-5-6-battle-royal-return-of-timothy-thatcher-hank-tank-hendry-vs-dark-state-jaida-parker-vs-petrivic-grace-vs-giulia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2025\/05\/07\/nxt-hits-misses-5-6-battle-royal-return-of-timothy-thatcher-hank-tank-hendry-vs-dark-state-jaida-parker-vs-petrivic-grace-vs-giulia\/","title":{"rendered":"NXT HITS &#038; MISSES (5\/6): Battle Royal return of Timothy Thatcher, Hank &#038; Tank &#038; Hendry vs. Dark State, Jaida Parker vs. Petrivic, Grace vs. Giulia"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-1026520225\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><h3>Tank Ledger &amp; Hank Walker &amp; Joe Hendry vs. DarkState: Hit<\/h3>\n<p>Please, Booker\u2026stop calling the spin move by Joe Hendry the \u201cmoney shot\u201d\u2026please! Another fun match with Hank &amp; Tank, who continue to win me over with their athleticism. Hendry is always a favorite for me. Dark State is another group that I have grown to like. I wish they\u2019d give him more mic time, but at least they\u2019re wrestling now than just beating people up post-matches. Considering the only \u201cveteran\u201d in the ring was Hendry, everyone put on a good show. I love the Williams feud with Hendry, because as I\u2019ve mentioned before, if you want to turn Trick heel, his perfect opponent is the popular Joe Hendry. Good win by DarkState.<\/p>\n<h3>Kelani Jordan vs. Zaria: Hit<\/h3>\n<p>Fun match between these two. I\u2019ve been lucky to see Jordan progress in her time in NXT. I still think she needs a turn at some point, but frankly I feel the same about Zaria. NXT needs a monster heel female and Zaria fits the bill perfectly.<\/p>\n<h3>NXT #1 Contender\u2019s Battle Royal: Minor Hit<\/h3>\n<p>First, as a long time watcher of NXT, it was so awesome to see Timothy Thatcher back. He used to be one of my favorites. Also, great ovation for Elijah; that was awesome, just freaking awesome. Part of my marks against the battle royal was the lack of intros for the talent. Some I didn\u2019t recognize and would\u2019ve loved to have seen at least a short vignette introducing them, if they weren\u2019t getting a proper intro. Plus marks for not a ton of quick eliminations that usually occur, leaving a scant amount of wrestlers in there. This was my first look at Sean Legacy and I was impressed. I liked the showing from Randy Orton\u2026I mean, Miles Bourne, as well. A surprise win for Bourne and I\u2019m all for going against the grain. I can see this leading to Dempsey getting upset that a prot\u00e9g\u00e9 won what he couldn\u2019t.<\/p>\n<p><em>ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW&#8230;<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Check out the latest episode of &#8220;PWT Talks NXT&#8221; with Kelly Wells and Nate Lindberg, part of the PWTorch Dailycast line-up: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spreaker.com\/episode\/pwt-talks-nxt-wells-little-discuss-jordynne-grace-vs-giulia-25-man-number-one-contender-battle-royal-kelani-jordan-vs-zaria-more--65962338\">CLICK HERE<\/a> to stream (or search \u201cpwtorch\u201d on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or any other iOS or Android app to subscribe free)<\/h3>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"PWT Talks NXT - Wells &amp; Little discuss Jordynne Grace vs. Giulia, 25-man Number One Contender Battle Royal, Kelani Jordan vs. Zaria, more\" src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?episode_id=65962338&amp;theme=light&amp;playlist=false&amp;playlist-continuous=false&amp;chapters-image=true&amp;episode_image_position=right&amp;hide-logo=false&amp;hide-likes=false&amp;hide-comments=false&amp;hide-sharing=false&amp;hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"200px\" frameborder=\"0\" data-mce-fragment=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Jaida Parker vs. Karmen Petrovic: Minor Hit<\/h3>\n<p>Not a bad match, but it\u2019s hard to invest in Parker as a heel, when she really is over with the crowd. She\u2019s come such a long way in the ring though and Petrovic looked okay in defeat. Will the crowd be anti-Parker against the popular Thea Hail? We\u2019ll see. As it appears that\u2019ll happen sooner than later.<\/p>\n<h3>Jordynne Grace vs. Giulia: Hit<\/h3>\n<p>Of course these two would put on an awesome match. I love Grace, but she\u2019s not even close to getting love going against Stephanie Vaquer. Maybe Grace is the monster heel I said the division needs? One thing: I\u2019m so happy it was a clean finish. I was afraid of a wonky finish that would lead to yet another Triple Threat match (I agree with Oba Femi earlier in his confrontation with the NQCC: no more Triple Threats). Regardless, Grace versus Vaquer should be an absolute treat.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"PWT Talks NXT - PWTorch NXT Post Show w\/Lindberg &amp; Little\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zs8O0bRoCcE?start=1&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-187551965\"><div id=\"pwtor-3855149988\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>Tank Ledger &amp; Hank Walker &amp; Joe Hendry vs. DarkState: Hit Please, Booker\u2026stop calling the spin move by Joe Hendry the \u201cmoney shot\u201d\u2026please! Another fun match with Hank &amp; Tank, who continue to win me <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2025\/05\/07\/nxt-hits-misses-5-6-battle-royal-return-of-timothy-thatcher-hank-tank-hendry-vs-dark-state-jaida-parker-vs-petrivic-grace-vs-giulia\/\" title=\"NXT HITS &#038; MISSES (5\/6): Battle Royal return of Timothy Thatcher, Hank &#038; Tank &#038; Hendry vs. Dark State, Jaida Parker vs. Petrivic, Grace vs. Giulia\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":197432,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52,28,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-197431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opnionandanalysis","category-specialists_hitsandmisses","category-specialists"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-2025-05-07-at-12.35.58\u202fPM.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197431","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197431"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197431\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":197433,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197431\/revisions\/197433"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197431"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197431"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197431"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}