Review: WWE NXT (11-26-2024)
NXT is live from the warehouse in Orlando!
It’s the final ‘sode before Deadline!
I am a Chase U fan, but not like some of these folks, so the big drama over Chase U As We Knew It being dead is really funny to me. It’s also funny that the killer of something apparently this beloved was Ridge Holland.
Here’s Ridge: He mocks Chase U with his entrance, a fake-out that it would be Andre Chase. People in Chase U t-shirts in the crowd play their characters, and they aren’t PC extras. Well I guess most people in the crowd are PC extras in their own way. Holland’s focus is now Trick Williams. “Trick Williams. Deadline. I’ll be seeing ya.” Well that’s all he says. Booker T is so amused by the death of Chase U As We Knew It, I’m dying.
Axiom vs Ethan Page
Iron Survivor Qualifier
Nathan Frazer is with his partner. Page already kinda feels like a blast from the past in a way, like he got the instant title shot, got the title fast, lost it, and now what do we do with him? Now that he’s done all that it just kinda feels like he should be lost in the shuffle on Raw or Smackdown instead.
The match actually starts after the first break. Page generally is fun against small, fast-paced guys, and this is fun. It’s also nice to see Axiom in a singles match instead of the junk ass NXT tag division, which barely exists, but now does exist more because Ava said they should do stuff. We watch a bunch of them shuffle in and out of watching on TV backstage.
Now this is just a good TV match. Page grounding it, using his size and technique, wearing Axiom down, not letting the smaller man use his speed at all. Once Axiom gets a chance, he lands a super Spanish Fly1 for a near fall.
Damn, this is getting good time, and they’re using that time really well. This is really a hell of a match. Page destroying Axiom’s back but Axiom won’t die. Axiom counters the avalanche Razor’s Edge but runs RIGHT into a vicious lariat and Page wins it. This rocked. I loved this match. ****
Post-match: Sarah Schreiber speaks with Ethan Page. Page puts Axiom over as “a hell of a champion,” but is interrupted by Frazer, and Page excuses Schreiber. Can I be honest? Frazer comes off as the heel here. Page baits Frazer into being sort of insulting toward Axiom, but Frazer does sniff it out. Now Wes Lee interrupts. His hair is shorter. And then he gets interrupted by Je’Von Evans. This sure is a bunch of guys that Page matches up well with style-wise. And now here’s … OTM. And now the other tag teams. Wow this is Chaos. Frazer and Axiom dive onto the mass of humanity. Evans is just fired up to watch everyone fight.
Backstage: The ladies in their locker room. Stephanie Vaquer and Lola Vice speak Spanish. Wren Sinclair questions Lola for going after Jaida Parker again. Lola’s monotone is getting a little better. It’s still there, but there was some emotion in there! Oh, Wren vs Lola tonight. “After that altercation.” Sure why not.
Cafe NXT: Ashante Adonis and Nikkita Lyons talk. She wants to bone him. He DID text her. “Who didn’t I text?” Karmen heard that part, though. Karmen will not be entertaining this dummy anymore. Very sad. They’re going to get wrestling married.
Lola Vice vs Wren Sinclair
Hooray, another match where Wren Sinclair will be losing and making someone look better. Lola’s little shimmies and stuff are so lifeless. They match her promo voice.
Lola takes the hell out of some arm work from Sinclair. Weirdly clunky match, weird because the clunk is more a feature than a bug. Lola catches Wren with the spinning backfist for the sudden win, but Sinclair was competitive.
Post-match: Lola, no mic, yells at the camera, and challenges Jaida Parker to go “underground.” Then she makes her mean face at the camera.
Backstage: Tony D’Angelo and Adriana Rizzo meet up. Luca and Stacks won’t be accompanying them tonight.
Backstage: Brooks Jensen is impressed by Shawn Spears’ manipulation. “Now you’re learning,” Spears says. Think this is actually pretty cool! Even if Jensen realizes he was manipulated a bit by Spears, he’s more into it than offended by it, wants to learn himself. Jensen’s a dick! He is going to a more seasoned dick as a mentor.
Tony D’Angelo (c) vs Shawn Spears
NXT North American Championship
Another match that really starts after a break. Tony D’s wonky knee is not my favorite repeat bit but he’s not exactly a super worker so he tries to find ways to be compelling in-ring, and I think mostly he does a good job. This is an OK match, D’Angelo wins clean with his spine slam that I won’t call a spinebuster, clutching his stupid knee.
Post-match: Spears’ crew get involved, including Niko, and D’Angelo is left laying in the end. Rizzo has to just stand there and make her Rizzo face at all of this.
Backstage: Kelani Jordan stretches and stuff. She’s “The Standout.” She looks at herself in a mirror. She faces Giula, who is also walking around.
Outside: More of the tag division brawling. Jesus, enough already. We get it. The fact that nobody’s actually gotten hurt by now is dumb. Just have some actual matches for God’s sake. This stinks.
Chase U: Andre Chase is packing it all up. The memories, they wash over him. It’s over. Room 106 6 Andre Chase will never be seen again. “Hey, Mr. Chase!” someone shouts in the background. He turns, it fades out. (They’re absolutely going to bring Chase U back with new “students.” And they should.)
Giulia vs Kelani Jordan
Iron Survivor Qualifier
Booker says Kelani is really a student of this game. “The NIL program has proven to be very successful. Tiffany Stratton. Uhhh you’re looking at Kelani Jordan.” Yeah, man. Two people.
Ah, Kelani Van Dam has decided to ask Giulia to be her Jerry Lynn. Well, she asked the right person among her choices. After break, Kelani hits a spinning slingshot dive that lands a little awkwardly with Giulia coming down on top of Kelani’s leg. Back into the ring and Kelani is doing pointless cartwheels and shit. She went to Michigan State, you know.
This is getting a little rough, but in a way I’m liking. Scrappy, we’ll call it. Kelani goes for her split legged moonsault, but it’s right into a Giulia submission attempt. Jordan fights real hard to get out, but Giulia has it in deep and won’t fall for letting her shoulders stay down, either. Kelani powers up from the triangle into a sit-out power bomb! Hell yeah.
Backstage, Roxanne Perez watches TV. Now this is starting to just get really good, actually. That submission attempt to settle things down was right on time. Giulia with the big wound-up right hand! Kelani with a high kick! Some more nice near falls. Knee strike from Giulia, Northern Lights Bomb and that’s it. Hell of a match in the end. Even the “rough” parts served the rest well. This was a fight, a two-year pro giving her all against one of the best in the world. ***½
Backstage: Ava gives the various also-ran losers another chance next week to get into Iron Survivor. Eddy Thorpe is pissy about it. The tag champs hang back with Ava and annoy each other. The other tag teams intrude. Ava leaves. Eddy Thorpe comes back to whine some more. She tries to get away from him and he touches her and she gets all mad because Ava isn’t a worker and she’s on the no-contact list because her dad is famous from several major Hollywood flops. But then a door gets knocked into her and she has to take a bump and I ugly laugh out loud in real life.
Backstage: After break, Shawn Michaels gets all violent at Eddy Thorpe over Ava getting hit with a door. He didn’t hit her with a door, mind you. I yell for Eddy Thorpe to beat that old man’s ass but he doesn’t.
Trick Williams is here: Great, he has an update on Ava confirming what I just saw. He reminds us that her dad is the Rock. Jesus Christ lol this sucks. Now he talks about the death of Chase U. Very sad, to him. This is not a good promo because he sounds like a dork. He came up with some dogs in this business like Tiffany Stratton and #DIY. Ah yes I remember all those great Trick Williams matches in AIW and AAW. Nothing Williams is saying here suggests he’s a real person. He’s a WWE bot. Here’s Ridge. But wait, Eric Bischoff (yes) is on the screen. He’ll be at NXT next week. Fuck off.
Backstage: Fatal Influence walk.
Backstage: Chas Dempsey is drinking a coffee or the like and Wren joins him. Tavion and Myles join them fresh off the three-week tag team brawl. Wren announces that Lola “hits really hard.” But Wren is in the last chance match next week against Kelani, Cora, and Jaida. “All of them at the same time?!” But the lads encourage her.
X-Pac will also be on NXT next week.
Fallon Henley (c) vs Tatum Paxley
NXT Women’s North American Championship
Paxley starts OK but then she gets distracted by the resourceful Jacy Jayne and Fallon gets the advantage heading to break.
This is pretty good! Paxley’s better on offense than selling still, and I think by quite a bit. That’s her thing to work on further, I suppose. The offense looks good, though. Jacy Jayne is very good ringside. Jazmyn Nyx might be out there but emoting isn’t her strong suit so she doesn’t get as much camera time.
Jacy with another key distraction, she’s doing almost as much work to win this match as Fallon is. Tatum hits the 450 for two. Paxley ready on the third Jayne distraction attempt and dropkicks her through the ropes. Psycho Trap gets countered and Henley hits the Rocker Dropper for the win. Good match. ***½
Post-match: Fatal Influence triple up on Tatum Paxley, but then Gigi Dolin’s music hits, and she’s back, appearing in the ring behind Fatal Influence and attacking. She shows off some nice offense, too. Nyx basically just ran while the other two stayed to fight, and Paxley and Dolin clear them out.
GRADE: B+
Real good ‘sode this week. Top highlight was definitely the hilarity of Ava getting bonked with that door and Shawn Michaels shitting his pants because he knows her dumbass dad might be real cheesed off about it, but there were also several good matches, and Page vs Axiom really cooked. It’s just very hard to not laugh at the entire Ava bit there, she comes off like such a dork, so weirdly entitled, then Shawn Michaels has to run in there and back her play while a medical team checks on her for the equivalent to stubbing her toe, and it wasn’t even really Eddy Thorpe’s fault.
Three Stars of the Show
Ethan Page: Maybe the absolute best performance he’s had in NXT to date. Those two had no “issue,” no nothing, just a qualifier for another match at a “PLE,” and they tore it up. Axiom, of course, was a strong half of that, but I thought Page really brought the best out of Axiom, he’s always been really, really good against smaller, quicker guys.
Tatum Paxley: I think Fallon has pretty well established herself as a consistently strong in-ring carrier, but Tatum went to a new level tonight. Thank goodness the Wendy Choo angle is over, because while that ended really well with the casket match, it was just sort of dragging Paxley through empty “story” junk for the most part, none of it particularly compelling. Her persona will always be a key to her presentation, of course, but she’s more than that, or at least can be, and we got to see her tonight lean more on her ability.
Kelani Jordan: Maybe my favorite Kelani performance to date, even with the tougher spots, because she came through them with a strong energy and hung hard with a truly elite wrestler. Now to work on her displaying a human emotion.
I think maybe that move should be called something else already, fellas, when you think about it.