This week’s NXT turned out to be a good show on the road to Battleground. Starting with match quality, and this week we got some fantastic matchups. Hank and Tank really showed the growth they’ve made as a tag team, by putting on a brilliant, physical match with Briggs and Inamura. This has got me more interested in their Tag Team Titles reign now. While the main event was just WWE bragging about how great their women’s division is. Iyo Sky and Jordynne Grace against Roxanne Perez and Giulia is a match which showcased the embarrassment of riches the company has on their roster. Four of the very best in the world having an outstanding match with each other. There were some other solid matchups as well, such as Ricky Saints vs Lexis King while Sol Ruca and Karmen Petrovic showed why they deserved more time for their match. Storytelling was a bit of a low point, the Joe Hendry and Trick Williams story hasn’t been clicking yet. But something which is probably the best part of NXT each week recently is the D’Angelo Family storyline. Tony D and Stacks had a fantastic segment, which told us more of their history and added more weight to the heel turn. We got some nice development for Battleground, but there needs to be some heat added to storylines for the build to really start cooking.
NXT continues the build towards Battleground with a pretty special show this week. Ricky Saints defends his North American Title against Lexis King. Joe Hendry will make an appearance. While Iyo Sky returns back to NXT to take on Giulia and Roxanne Perez alongside Jordynne Grace. Let’s get into the review!
GREAT Joe Hendry Segment
Joe Hendry returned to NXT this week to call out Trick Williams. Hendry said that Trick “crossed the line” when attacking him at Rebellion (pun intended), and then proceeded to ask him to come out to the ring. Instead, Joe got a visit from DarkState.
Archie Carter WR Star Rating: 3.50 Stars
GOOD Ricky Saints vs Lexis King – NXT North American Championship
This was a pretty competitive match, but Lexis King didn’t really give Ricky Saints too much to worry about. This one started off by wasting no time in these guys getting their hands on each other. It was pretty much non-stop action from then on, with neither guy giving themselves much breathing room. With more time this match could be a higher rating.
Result: Ricky Saints by Pinfall
Archie Carter WR Star Rating: 3.25 Stars
AMAZING The D’Angelo Family Segment
The D’Angelo Family storyline is some of the best stuff on NXT TV right now. I had my doubts about Stacks as a singles guy in wrestling, but he showed me in this segment why I shouldn’t have had doubts. He more than held his own against Tony D’Angelo in this promo battle they had, while Tony D peeled back the curtain a bit more on their history.
Archie Carter WR Star Rating: 4.25 Stars
SQUASH Sol Ruca vs Karmen Petrovic
I wished these two got more time in this match. They have great chemistry in the ring, everything came off pretty smoothly with hardly any mishaps. Sol Ruca grabbed the win though, while Karmen Petrovic finally dumped Ashante.
Result: Sol Ruca by Pinfall via Sol Snatcher
Archie Carter WR Star Rating: Too short to rate
GREAT Trick Williams Segment
Trick Williams basically said a different version of the same thing Joe Hendry said in his promo earlier in the show. But he explained the Rebellion attack well, and now his sights are set on the NXT Championship again. However Ava said Trick will get his match, if he can win next week’s battle royale to determine the Number 1 Contender for Oba Femi’s title.
Archie Carter WR Star Rating: 3.75 Stars
AMAZING Hank and Tank vs Josh Briggs and Yoshiki Inamura – NXT Tag Team Championships
Hank and Tank are actually slowly winning me over. They had an outstanding match with Fraxiom, but the question to me was what would the match quality look like outside of that match. Well this was a great start to their reign, as they had a physically amazing match with Briggs and Inamura. Hank and Tank retained their titles in the end, but if this is what their matches are gonna look like from now on then I’m very interested in this Tag Team Title reign.
Result: Hank and Tank by Pinfall
Archie Carter WR Star Rating: 4.00 Stars
MUST WATCH Iyo Sky and Jordynne Grace vs Giulia and Roxanne Perez
Four of the very best in the world, all together in the same ring. Pretty great idea for a main event if you ask me. Although Iyo Sky, Jordynne Grace, Giulia and Roxanne Perez are some of the best in the world, sometimes the chemistry just isn’t there. That was far from the case here, Jordynne and Giulia showed off their surprisingly great chemistry. While Iyo and Roxanne really need to have a one-on-one match soon, because their chemistry was too flawless not to have one. Iyo and Jordynne were a surprisingly fun tag team, they actually resorted to using innovative double team moves which highlighted both of their wrestling styles. While Giulia and Rox are a solid tag team as well. Jordynne and Giulia were fighting each other, which meant Rox and Iyo were on their own in the ring. Iyo after a sensational reversal, hit her signature Moonsault for the win.
Result: Iyo Sky and Jordynne Grace by Pinfall via Over The Moonsault
Archie Carter WR Star Rating: 4.50 Stars
Overall…
This week’s NXT turned out to be a good show on the road to Battleground. Starting with match quality, and this week we got some fantastic matchups. Hank and Tank really showed the growth they’ve made as a tag team, by putting on a brilliant, physical match with Briggs and Inamura. This has got me more interested in their Tag Team Titles reign now. While the main event was just WWE bragging about how great their women’s division is. Iyo Sky and Jordynne Grace against Roxanne Perez and Giulia is a match which showcased the embarrassment of riches the company has on their roster. Four of the very best in the world having an outstanding match with each other. There were some other solid matchups as well, such as Ricky Saints vs Lexis King while Sol Ruca and Karmen Petrovic showed why they deserved more time for their match. Storytelling was a bit of a low point, the Joe Hendry and Trick Williams story hasn’t been clicking yet. But something which is probably the best part of NXT each week recently is the D’Angelo Family storyline. Tony D and Stacks had a fantastic segment, which told us more of their history and added more weight to the heel turn. We got some nice development for Battleground, but there needs to be some heat added to storylines for the build to really start cooking.
Matches: 0.5/1 Stars
Show Structure: 0.75/1 Stars
Atmosphere/Crowd/Commentary: 0.75/1 Stars
Storytelling: 0.5/1 Stars
Production/Theme: 0.75/1 Stars
Overall Rating: 3.25/5 Stars
Photo Credit: WWE
For inquiries about the rating criteria check out the article announcing the new system here:
