Big show on Saturday and we’ll be covering it. But before we get there, we gotta stop here…
Roxanne Perez vs. Thea Hail vs. Fallon Henley vs. Kiana James (Last Chance Qualifier Match)
This is the perfect show of how good the NXT Women’s Division is – that these four very talented women aren’t (at least as of this very moment) in the big match Saturday. This is a deep roster.
Clusterfrickery as expected. Hail with a nice double arm drag. Dreaded Roll-ups abound and no one can get the pin early.
Henley hits her baseball slide punch on James, but James survives and nails Perez with her bag (which, of course, is loaded).
Later on, James nails Henley and Hail with a Tower of Doom spot, which leaves Perez open to attack James with a series of moves for sweet revenge. The two women end up doing each other in, going through the announce desk. Henley quickly moves on on Hail with a Shining Wizard.
Spot fest but there was a decent amount of storytelling here.
Winner: Fallon Henley
Backstage time! Lyra! Lola! Elektra!
Wes Lee is next up in an emotion-filled moment as he announces he has to undergo surgery, thereby nixing his victory last week. Dom comes out to mock him and announces he’s taking the night off. Papa Rey comes up on the NXTron and dispels that wish right away, saying Lee’s distant cousin, Dragon Lee, will be in the match instead. Oh, and Papa Rey will be in the corner… that can’t be good…
More backstage! Kiana! Roxanne! Izzy (no not that one)! Ava!
We then get the announcement of the NXT Men’s Breakout Tournament participants: Riley Osborne, Keanu Carver, Tavion Heights, Dion Lennox, Luca Crucifino, Trey Bear Hill, and Myles Borne, and Oba Femi. Yep… some interesting names there…
Lola Vice vs. Tatum Paxley
Paxley does her best to freak out Lola early with a Bray style bend.
Back-and-forth action follows. Vice gets her submission game going with a heel hook. She continues the offence and uses her big Latina line that is supposed to do something… I guess…
Paxley soon after goes for the Dreaded Roll-up, only gets two, and Vice comes back with a Hook Kick for the duke.
Winner: Lola Vice
Back to the back! Axiom! Frazer! Alpha! Corbin! Melo! Trick!
Alpha Academy vs. Meta-Four
I still fail to see why Alpha Academy is down here. It’s not like they’re needle-movesrs like others who’ve toured through NXT…
Mixed Tag match tonight with Maxxine and Lash competing, which is what you want – two greenhorns duking it out…
Gable starts quickly with a series that finishes with an Ankle Lock on Dar. Oro gets in and evens things up with Gable including a sweep kick. More good offence between these two before Lash is tagged, meaning Maxxine needs to come in as well.
Maxxine with a Rana highlights the women’s action before Dar tags back in. Otis is in next and is hitting on Lash (in front of his supposed girlfriend Maxxine by the way) and takes out both heel men with a double Suplex. Gable finishes things off with a double clothesline heading into the break.
Back at it, Dar and Oro take turns on Otis until Otis turns the tables on Oro. Lash then comes in and bodyslams Otis which is damn impressive. Maxxine takes out Lash quickly though and we quickly cluster to the finish which sees Gable tap Dar out with the Ankle Lock.
Winners: Alpha Academy
Back to the backstage. Gallus! Walker! Ledger! Ava!
Women’s Iron Survivor Summit is up next and it goes as catty as you’d assume. Ends up in a cluster brawl.
Axiom vs. Nathan Frazer
Short match interrupted by the brawling women from the previous segment.
Winner: No winners, only losers
Davenport is assaulted by Nikkita Lyons on the stage to end the segment.
Chase U segment is terrible. Money is owed to a kingpin. Students want to fundraise. This feels like early 90s campy crap.
Trick and Melo are next in the backstagery, followed by Lexis King.
Melo vs. Tyler Bate vs. Joe Coffey vs. Eddy Thorpe (Last Chance Qualifier)
More cluster and sorry guys, I’m worn out. Two clusters in one night is too much for this old timer.
Bate wins the match, pinning Joe Coffey with Tyler Driver 97.
Winner: Tyler Bate
Post match, Bate goes on the mic but is interrupted by Dijak, who stops briefly to take out the corpse of Eddy Thorpe. Bron Breakker then comes out, then Josh Briggs, then Trick Williams. They all brawl. I’m not sure which was more clusterfrick – the match or the post.
More backstage – Melo and… Ava… about a match next week. Ava’s got power?
Main event chatter time for Baron Corbin and Ilja Dragunov. It’s how long into this feud and finally they get marquee time? Gee I wonder what’s going to happen in the match.
What you’d expect until Ilja hugs Corbin out of nowhere. It’s kinda like Mickie James’ old Kiss of Death moment. Then the Iron Survivor cluster returns to close things out.
Until next time, Stay Classy.