WWE NXT: A good show on the road to Chicago

Thomas Starr

Vaquer added to Giulia-Roxanne mix.
Vaquer added to Giulia-Roxanne mix.

Overall, a good episode of NXT. The worst parts of this show, unsurprisingly, featured TNA talent. The rest of the show was good with everything having a purpose. Even a segment I found goofy (The D’Angelo training montage) had a point to it and built to a match. There is a clear story there.

There were several WWE main roster talents on the show. CM Punk appeared backstage with several different wrestlers giving them some “rub” by being involved. The Good Brothers worked with the young tag team of Hank and Tank in a surprisingly decisive loss. Austin Theory, Grayson Waller, and Cedric Alexander all worked with Je’Von Evans in a tag match, which is three veterans he can learn from.

Zachary Wentz and Wes Lee being allowed to use the language they used, even though it was censored, was a waste. I will be happy when Wentz is back on TNA and off NXT. His overacting and generic modern style just do not work for me. Wes Lee is pretty good, but he is never going to be a player on the main roster. When he is called up, he will be at the level of a Creed Brother. So having them drop “F” bombs on air was stupid.

That ending segment was very awkward. As I mentioned in the review, that needed to be a pre-tape. Putting an English Language Learner in front of a live audience, both at home and on set, and asking her to do a promo in English was a lot. Funaki was there to translate, so I am not sure why they did not just have her speak in Japanese the whole time. Him reading the first part off a paper was so lazy.

The ending segment did set up the Roxanne-Giulia match and even added a surprise with Vaquer making an appearance to challenge the winner. So, this also had a purpose to it, even if the execution was off.

Wren Sinclair vs. Kelani Jordan – Women’s North American Title

The two wrestlers tried to do spots that were too intricate, but it is a developmental brand. So, it is better to work on it here than the main roster.

Kelani Jordan stands out as an athlete anytime she is in the ring. She might lean into that athleticism a little much because she is green, but you can see the potential. Her pure babyface character is great to see. She is a female Cody Rhodes.

Wren has good size and charisma, but she is still working things out as a heel. She seems miscast as a heel, to be honest.

Good match. Clunky at times and Jelani landed knees to chest on her split legged moonsault, but they are in developmental.

Winner: Kelani Jordan

Superstar Press Conference

Ethan Page opened the press conference. This was a promo with a different setting. Page was great here. He looks and acts like a heel. There is nothing cool or likeable about the guy. He put over Trick as a former champion and said Punk will not factor in the finish.

Grayson Waller Effect

Waller compared Nathan Frazer to Kurt Cobain? I guess the hair, but was Waller even alive when Cobain was famous?

The two teams tried to sow seeds of dissension between the other team. This was too long and boring.

Lexis King sat down with Oro Mensah backstage and did some counseling. He discussed Mensah’s grief over his dead father. Just awkward. King’s beard is magnificent, though.

Ashanti “Thee” Adonis wandered around the women’s…dressing room? Lobby? I do not know where they were. Brinley Reece and Karmen Petrovic were doing stretches while Tatum Paxley was cutting a doll’s hair. There were four other women there too. What a scene.

Ashante was hamming it up. He offered his rose to Brinley Reece, and she pointed out the rose cost him his match last week. She has a point. Ashante’s character is starting to grow on me.

The Good Brothers vs. Hank and Tank

This was not exactly a squash, but it was short and decisive. Hank and Tank have a lot of charisma. They also want to do everything at a thousand miles per hour. They have a lot of potential, but they need to slow it down just a tad.

I was surprised the Good Brothers are being used as glorified jobbers. Like I said, it was not quite a squash but there was nothing flukey about the win for Hank and Tank.

Winners: Hank and Tank

Lexis King vs. Oro Mensah

Good match. I had not seen much of Oro Mensah, but he looked great here. Lexis King held up his end as well.

The finish was weird. King had Mensah rolled up and put his feet on the ropes, but he had second thoughts and took his feet off the ropes. Mensah turned the tables but kept his feet on the ropes for the pin. Double turn? I am interested in where they are going with this.

Winner: Oro Mensah

The Family took Tony D’Angelo back to an old school gym to train for Oba Femi. They did a training montage. This included Tony boxing a large unidentified man. The large man resembled Oba. This was goofy.

Ridge Holland vs. Riley Osborne

Thea Hail’s shrieking at ringside began to wear on me. She was way over-the-top.

Ridge Holland has run through the entire Chase U faction. He beat up Osborne afterwards too. Ridge tried to use a piece of the barricade on Riley, but Riley countered and fought back until security separated them.

Good match. It was helped by having a backstory. Holland using the barricade, as he had previously, but being countered was a nice progression. Despite being beaten, Osborne fighting back does setup another match between the two men.

Winner: Ridge Holland

Oba Femi was next at the press conference. He still thinks Tony is broken. Femi suddenly stopped the questions and left. Short and sweet.

Wes Lee and Zachary Wentz split-screen

For this feud, WWE decided to allow them to use foul language. Seriously, these two? They wasted “F” bombs on these two? Wentz is especially bad. There were multiple bleeps in this segment. This one. I am at a loss. The two men then found each other and brawled. Well, they mostly just swung their arms and hit each other on their sides and backs. Thankfully it was short.

WWE aired a highlight package of NXT on USA moments.

Wendy Choo and Rosemary vs. Brinley Reece and Karmen Petrovic

After having Wentz on the show, Choo and Rosemary were a welcome sight. Sort of.

Karmen is the one with the sword. Brinley Reece, I had never seen before. Her name did not show up on this website’s tags either. She is blonde. I do not know anything else about her.

In a nice touch, NXT aired Kelani Jordan at the press conference. They used picture-in-picture to show her there without sound. It made it seem like the press conference was ongoing.

A woman with a sword was fighting a woman in her pajamas and a woman with red contacts. I just wanted to write that down for posterity.

Ashante walked out randomly with his stupid rose. Inexplicably, Karmen left the corner to ask him about the rose. I presume she was jealous. Brinley was beaten by Rosemary.

Thankfully it was short.

Winners: Wendy Choo and Rosemary

At the press conference, Fatal Influence were up next. The gist is they are not going to say which two of the three are facing Lola Vice and Jaida Parker next week. Lola and Jaida stormed in and had to be held back.

Je’Von Evans and Cedric Alexander vs. Austin Theory and Grayson Waller

WWE appears to think highly of Je’Von. He is a tremendous athlete. Evans needs to add some muscle to his frame, but you can see the potential.

This match featured three veterans, which can only help his growth. In two weeks, he is facing Randy Orton. While I think the visual of facing someone Orton’s size does not help Evans, he will learn a lot.

Evans did a dive and badly missed Waller, who grabbed Evans in time to stop him from hitting the announce desk. Booker T picks that moment to tell us how innovative Evans is. Only Booker would pick a botch to compliment someone on.

Fraxiom came out for no reason. They ended up distracting Evans and Alexander, who lost the match.

Winners: Theory and Waller

Trick Williams finished the backstage press conference. He said he needs to be himself and he will win the belt back. Media was then directed to the ring for Roxanne and Giulia going face-to-face.

Giulia and Roxanne face-to-face

Giulia came out with Funaki as her translator. The first “reporter” referred to Roxanne’s title as a “heavyweight title.” Do they refer to the women’s title as the heavyweight title?

Giulia answered questions in Japanese. Instead of breaking up her answers into parts, she did a long answer which the crowd politely clapped to. Funaki was reading the scripted verbiage while it also appeared on the screen. And by read, I mean that literally. He had the script in front of him.

Giulia answered a couple of questions in English, which got awkward quickly. There were long pauses where she, understandably, had to think of her words. At least the crowd was patient and did not do the “what” chant.

Suddenly, a disembodied voice tried to interrupt the proceedings. Byron Saxton, the moderator, tried to act like a member of the “press” spoke out of turn. The voice spoke again, and it was Stephanie Vaquer challenging the winner of Giulia and Roxanne.

This would have been better as a pre-tape. Awkward and strange. If you are going to have a translator, and you should, then have Giulia break her responses into segments so he can translate instead of reading her monologue off a paper. Also, Vaquer and Giulia are not proficient in English yet, so it was not really a great idea to put them out there live. Trying to switch between two languages is hard enough, but in front of a live audience on set and at home, that is a lot of pressure.

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