Review: WWE NXT (12-3-2024)
We’re live from Orlando!
It’s the last NXT before Saturday’s Deadline show! Eric Bischoff is here!
Let’s get right to it!
Cora Jade vs Kelani Jordan vs Wren Sinclair vs Jaida Parker
Last Chance Iron Survivor Qualifier
Full “now this, now this, now this” to start, that empty-feeling choreography, but it is what it is, and they’re hitting their marks. I get it, there’s four of them out there and you run the high risk of a mess if you let them run free. Cora notably and clearly behind the pace of the others at points, but at other points with others, she is just fine. Probably still some rust. She’s also clearly still physically adjusting to her, like, new range of movement.1
We leave with Jaida in control, return to more four-way action. Kelani gets a near fall on Jade, Sinclair one on Kelani, Parker one on Sinclair, Jade one on Parker. Well, no, Parker kicks at one. Not sure that counts as a near fall then. Backstage, Roxanne Perez watches on TV. She makes the same faces she always makes when she watches TV.
Jordan moves early on a charging Cora elbow shot, so Cora looks ridiculous elbowing the middle rope when she had loads of time to stop, since she doesn’t move very fast. Parker’s power stuff is standing out the most in this match, along with Wren’s constant ability to feed others. Jordan’s RVD offense is not great; being RVD is very difficult, hoping others understand you being RVD makes it even harder.
Lola Vice comes down, swinging a backfist for Parker, but it hits Sinclair — who falls lifeless onto Cora Jade for the win. This is the “big surprise winner” that is fairly predictable if you’ve seen wrestling enough, but it’s a good thing. Wren sold it great and it’s also a spot that is fully deserved, she’s done such a phenomenal job making others look great for months now. ***
Backstage: Eddy Thorpe is here and Sarah Schreiber is trying to blame him for goofy Ava having terrible reaction time and overreacting to someone touching her arm. Thorpe says Shawn Michaels — that hotheaded dipshit — and Ava watched the tape and saw he did nothing wrong. Lexis King is here (interruption of a backstage promo! how unique!) to say Eddy needs to work on his issues. Thorpe says King has “daddy issues.” King absorbs the verbal arrow and causes no trouble.
Jaida is back: Jaida Parker has returned with a brick and she’s demanding the referee take the ropes down for an underground match that Lola Vice wants right now. We go to commercial!
Jaida is still here: After break, they have managed to get three sides of the ropes down and then Jaida gets bleeped for a while. “Bitch I ain’t leavin’ this damn ring until you get your ass out here” does come through. Instead of Lola, we get Ava. Ava “gets it.” I don’t think she does. (Does she know she’s a natural heel? Do the people being forced to try making her a babyface?) Anyway, Ava’s not going to let it happen tonight, though it will happen. Now here’s Lola to explain the rules of Underground matches. Jaida elbows Lola in the face and knocks her out. You’d think the MMA queen would have better reaction time than that but she was Ava-esque there.
Backstage: Karmen Petrovic is putting on her shoes and Brinley Reece and Dion Lennox are pep-talking her about Ashante maybe not being so bad a guy. Then some flowers arrive. They’re from Ashante. Petrovic can’t figure out what she wants to do but she’s “going to go put the roses away.” That’s how I always put it, too.
Poor referees: Now they have to try putting the ropes back up way faster than they took them down because Progressive is presenting us a No. 1 Contenders Tag Team Battle Royal. Luckily they’ll have a commercial break to work with.
Backstage: “Fraxiom” are set to watch the battle royal. Well, Fra is, xiom is focused on his also-ran four-way later. See! Roles reversed! These two! I tell ya!
No. 1 Contenders Tag Team Battle Royal
In the match: Stacks & Luca, OTM, Igwe & Dupont, Honk & Tonk, Mark Coffey & Wolfgang, Borne & Heights, Briggs & Inamura.
This does not have the rule that if one member gets eliminated, the partner has to go, too.
Booker wonders about Briggs “replacing his tag partner,” and Vic points out it’s been months that they’ve been broken up. Booker doesn’t register that so much and then starts fantasizing about Harlem Heat getting to take liberties with all these jobbers at a Worldwide taping. Booker later goes back to Briggs “dropping his partner” being like “getting divorced and getting married within a week.” He’s weirdly obsessed with this.2
“Ava has to be happy with all these tag teams answering her challenge!” Finally, we get to what I cared most about here, how Ava feels.
It’s a battle royal. I am not describing much action. Order of eliminations: Tyson Dupont, Luca Crusifino, Tavion Heights, Josh Briggs, Stacks Lorenzo, then they go to break and other people are gone, too, I’m done tracking. They go over them but I’m just gonna tell you what the final four is when we get there. I do not care for battle royals.
Booker wants Ava to start firing people. Tyriek Igwe is less about doing slap-fives with Honk & Tonk when they eliminate him than his partner was earlier, and Tyriek accidentally lowbridges Honk or Tonk. out of here.
Final five is Honk or Tonk, Borne, one of OTM, and both the Gallus lads, so the predictable deal is alive for it to be a Hank or a Tank against both Coffey and Wolfgang at the end. The eliminated one saves the other one from being eliminated.
Nope, Wolfgang’s out, Coffey’s out, Gallus fuckin’ flop once again. Borne, an OTM, and Hank or Tank are left. “Imagine if Hank and Tank was to win that spot! Can you imagine that?!” As compared to what, Booker? “OTM” and “No Quarter Catch Crew”? Those huge stars? Yes, I can imagine it.3
But it is, in fact, a big win for Myles Borne in the end, and what a night for No Quarter Catch Crew!
Backstage: Trick Williams and Ridge Holland are making their way to the ring for their big mediated meet-up with a guy who has maybe seen five minutes of the two of them combined but sits down at a TGI Friday’s to do interviews with that ass-kiss Ariel Helwani like he’s some current wrestling expert.
Here’s Eric Bischoff: Bischoff says he's "always been on the cutting edge" of wrestling. Cites creating Nitro (29 years ago) and creating the nWo (28 years ago). Nothing further, curiously. I can say that when you get older years do start to run together and stuff that was a pretty long time ago starts to feel very recent. Being fair to the old fella it's genuinely possible his brain is largely parked in about 1999.
Anyway here are Ridge and Trick: Bischoff says — as a positive — Ridge is sort of the antithesis of a WWE Superstar, while Trick is sort of the blueprint. Ridge does not care for Bischoff, as Eric steps away he calls Eric a “has-been podcast host,” which Bischoff doesn’t sell and nobody much acknowledges because the only people who listen to Eric’s podcast are terminally online and don’t actually go to wrestling shows or much watch wrestling now. Trick says Ridge is “bland” and “vanilla” and “boring.” Hey! This sucks, brother! Meanwhile Ridge is cutting an actual solid wrestling promo. Ridge says Trick is soft and Trick has a WWE Superstar Reaction. Then he punches Ridge, and now they’re fighting. Bischoff stands in the corner just kinda hanging out.
The fight continues: Out they go to the floor, and Ridge puts Trick thr—no, never mind, not through the commentary desk, but plants him onto it but good, which of course actually looks much nastier. Trick clutching his neck while referees caterwaul about needing heeeeelp and even Bischoff looks on in some amount of shock. (Hey, for the record, I like Bischoff fine as a performer.) Vic wonders, “What does this mean for Deadline?” as we go to break.
During the break: Trick was stretchered out. Once again, Trick Wussy can’t take a shot, won’t run the blade, just a total fraud of a “top guy.” Sarah Schreiber reports from outside that Ava “honestly really (doesn’t) know” about the Deadline title match now.
Karmen Petrovic vs Nikkita Lyons
It’d be so funny if Karmen just pieced Nikkita up out here, honestly. They do not fight with their weapons even though they both bring their weapons.
Nikkita drills Petrovic with a back kick. They should have let Bischoff do his karate commentary for this match. Huge missed opportunity to get the most out of Eazy E and let him have the most fun he could, too.
This is pretty fun. They both throw nice kicks and stuff, I’m not arguing with that. Ashante comes down and gets accidentally hit by Nikkita, who doesn’t care, but Petrovic hits the Silent Slice and wins off that distraction. Ashante is happy. They didn’t get to do a lot but I thought both of them looked good doing what they did out there.
Post-match: Karmen is mad at Ashante for pushing her out of the way of getting her brain kicked in. Women! I tell ya.
Backstage: Shawn Spears and Niko Vance understand what they’re doing but Brooks Jensen is kinda too stupid to get it easily. Spears wants a woman in his group, and hits on Gigi Dolin passing by. Tatum Paxley and Gigi walk away and talk about what a creepy weirdo Spears is, and not in a good way. They don’t even mention that he’s 56 years old and they’re both in their 20s but I think it’s part of it.
Backstage: No Quarter Catch Crew are backstage celebrating. Chuck Dempsey, who did nothing tonight, admits he’s proud of them, “even Wren.” You know, the actual standout of their group. Chas and his dumb trophy really fading into the background of this group now.
Gigi Dolin vs Izzi Dame
Oh, wow, it’s Izzi Dame! Vic Joseph describes Izzi as “a Superstar that just is what it is when it comes to her.” Glowing review. Backstage, Fatal Influence watch a small TV. NXT’s gotta get bigger TVs. Maybe if Triple Paul would stop spending money to break desks every week.
“Gigi was running this house,” Booker T misremembers of Dolin’s pre-injury time in NXT. Spears is looking on now from the entrance aisle. Izzi Dame was “a volleyball standout at Eastern Michigan.”
This isn’t very good :) The “Gigi Driver” — which has no velocity to be called a “driver” — finishes.
Backstage: Sarah Schreiber is with Je’Von Evans. He thinks Cedric Alexander will win the also-ran deal. Then X-Pac is here acting like a weirdo. As always, he’s great on the mic. A dude who wasn’t born the last time X-Pac was over on TV keeps squeaking in joy. Very weird stuff all around.
Eddy Thorpe vs Axiom vs Cedric Alexander vs Lexis King
Last Chance Iron Survivor Qualifier
Ethan Page is on commentary, too, and Wes Lee is watching in the Eddy Thorpe DJ Hole, and Je’Von Evans is watching from the crowd.
Is there really a good choice to win this match? Kind of the same as the other LCISQ earlier but the action is, like, a bit faster, and the other four guys already in the Iron Survivor at Deadline are paying attention while the other four gals did not seem to care what was happening. Nathan Frazer is out here in Axiom’s corner, by the way.
After break, we’re back and everyone is making faces after a tower of doom deal in the corner. Ethan Page keeps bragging about how long it’s taken him to get to WWE developmental. I think some amount of years that becomes counter-productive to your story and “18” might well be significantly past the line.4
Thorpe with a lovely brainbuster on Axiom. Axiom zipping around with offense on everyone not long after and hits a super Spanish Fly on Thorpe, who was just sat up on the top rope forever doing nothing, having put himself up there.
Good action in this one. Alexander and King do some nice, physical work. Axiom continues stealing the show, and man do I want to see Thorpe vs Axiom after Thorpe steals Axiom’s pin. Yeah, they’re giving Eddy an actual character and some level of push. ***¼
Post-match: Thorpe points out all of his Deadline adversaries. Then, “Fraxiom” are approached by Borne and Heights, which has quiet potential to be a real head-turner on Saturday if they’re given the chance.
Backstage: Steve and Bob are on a tablet call with Ava, who is at a local medical facility. As of now, Trick vs Ridge is still on. Steve gets an extra line in before they cut away.
Backstage: Roxanne Perez walks as she will be here for a main event promo after the break.
Backstage: Cora Jade is moaning to Steve and Bob. She hates this place. Eddy Thorpe is here to replace her after she’s done. Thorpe wanted to talk to Ava, but she’s not here. He’s all snippy and stuff. I like Steve’s nails. These two are bad, though. They see SOMEONE or SOMETHING and their eyes go wide and we do not find out what or whomst it is and Vic doesn’t wonder because he’s not perceptive like me. Not a professional like me.
Here is Roxanne Perez: I really don’t know how to put this but Roxanne just has no volume in her voice. It’s like she’s talking only to the camera, forgets entirely that there’s a crowd here. It’s very weird just because nobody else does this the way she does. Roxanne names the people in Saturday’s Iron Survivor. She’s having an entire series of hypothetical conversations with nobody but herself. Long story short and repeated a few times, nobody can beat her one-on-one. Here’s Sol Ruca. And now Zaria, then Stephanie Vaquer, then Giulia. Now hang on but I wonder if Wren Sinclair is next. They all start fighting each other! No Wren! No, there’s Wren. She levels the shit out of Roxanne with a forearm after pulling her to the floor and holds Roxanne’s belt up while the rest of them fight each other, totally unaware of Wren’s presence.
B-B-B-BOOKER SOMETHIN’S GOIN ON IN THE LOCKER ROOM
Backstage: They Need Some Medical Here. Eddy Thorpe has been laid out. A bunch of wrestlers arrive with the referees. Given the Steve/Bob reaction to the unseen presence and then this, we are left to assume that Ava’s dad came down to NXT furious because she had to take a bump for once while doing the job he forced the company to give her that she isn’t qualified to do. A great babyface idea for her! (More on this below.)
GRADE: C
Most of the lower end weekly TVs hit about this level for me. I honestly feel like people who act like any weekly TV is super terrible anymore are being a little dramatic, nothing is really allowed to be that actively bad. Everyone has the tempo and structure of their shows pretty locked in. Kinda high-floor, low-ceiling most weeks, which is why we all get horny when there’s, like, One Great Promo or whatever.
Anyway, the show was fine but fairly forgettable. I think even the implied idea at the end is pretty awful but it would fit if the idea is to let Ava embrace the fact that she is, indeed, naturally a heel, and you can continue with the fact that her dad isn’t very likable anymore either. But this could also be a swerve! What other person might cause a bug-eyed Steve/Bob reaction and wish to attack Eddy Thorpe for, uh, touching Ava’s forearm and her being too obsessed with not taking bumps to avoid a door hitting her in the head? Dwayne more likely sent a merc to NXT to be her bodyguard, which could result in her rejecting the idea but kinda having to go along with it for a while. Maybe Hikuleo, maybe Lance Anoa'i.
Three Stars of the Show
Ridge Holland: Ridge is never going to be special. Look, he’s 36 and he just doesn’t have that level of upside to go. But his time in and then feuding with Chase U did absolute wonders for him, and he’s put it together about as much as you could really hope. He took kind of a last-ditch idea, dug in, and made it count. He’s come out of it a really sturdy all-around pro wrestler. Good on the mic, good in the ring, reliable and can get his character across very well. He probably shouldn’t win the NXT title on Saturday, but they have set it up that he might.
Axiom: Everyone in the main did good work, but Axiom was really lighting it up, he’s a hell of a wrestler with some excellent recent performances.
Eric Bischoff: He was back, and older than ever! Has a knack for mortgage with Penzer. Great to hear that awful Jim Johnston fartrock again. Off-TV, he’s an all-timer grifter at this point, and whatever, good for him, he’s figured out a section of the broader wrestling audience that still cares about him repeating himself 250 times a year. People like hearing what they want to hear, including that everything was great when they were 12 to 17 years of age. On-TV, he can still be a fine performer, and he did a good job out there.
I mean, honestly, I flat don’t think she’s as good as a lot of the others in the division and has been lapped a bit over her absence, but there is that, too, being fair.
Brother they haven’t teamed together in a year, and as far as a straight tag, it’s closer to 14 months.
Booker is abnormally, uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, racing thoughts-y tonight. Even for Booker.
I like Page. I’m just being catty for no reason. Got my blood up.
Women's 4 way was a really odd mismash. As you mentioned, Cora Jade is trying to find her current speed, Kelani looked like she was going 20x faster than everyone else, but they had Wren there to keep being the mvp.
Kelani is starting to bother me in the fact that she never, ever plays to the crowd during matches. It stands out when Jaida does very well and Cora is a relic of NXT past where that's all they did.
There was a solid 45 minutes of this show where Booker was an out of control rambling lunatic, even by Booker standards.