This week’s NXT followed up on New Year’s Evil with a good show. The episode kicked off with a strong opening segment, with Oba Femi celebrating his championship win. The matches were pretty decent for the most part, Shotzi and Stephanie Vaquer had a good match although what came with it was some questionable booking. The two showcase matches were the two tag team matches. As Meta Four showed everyone they are more than ready to compete for the Women’s Tag Team Titles again, as they were able to overcome two very tough opponents in the Unholy Union. Fraxiom kicked off the year with yet another successful tag title defence, as they and OTM put on undoubtedly the match of the night with DIY looking on. TNA Knockouts Champion, Masha Slamovich made a surprise appearance as the NXTNA partnership continues to be as strong as ever. While Bayley made her return to NXT by confronting Roxanne Perez, revealing what is next for the Prodigy. NXT has been on a great run recently, but this week’s show failed to reach the usual heights we expect from WWE’s developmental brand. Which was in part down to having to tie some loose ends storyline wise, and some production and timing issues as well.
Another week, another NXT review. On this week’s show, Roxanne Perez addresses her future on the brand. Stephanie Vaquer and Shotzi battle it out to determine who will face Fallon Henley for her NXT Women’s NA Title. Fraxiom defends their tag team titles for the first time this year against OTM. Let’s get into the review!
AMAZING Oba Femi Opens The Show
This week, things kicked off with the new NXT Champion in Oba Femi. Oba gave a very good promo making sure that everyone knows that it’s The Ruler’s Era now. While he also gave praise to Trick Williams, and told Eddy Thorpe to move on to something else. Surprisingly, Tony D’Angelo interrupted Oba, vowing that he will once again beat him and become a double champion. Ridge Holland reminded Tony that he has other business first though, and Eddy Thorpe made his presence known to Femi.
Archie Carter WR Star Rating: 4.00 Stars
Ethan Page started bragging about his interaction with The Rock last week, calling the Final Boss ‘DJ.’ Dante Chen got annoyed with Page though, calling him obnoxious and saying that nobody even wants him in the locker room. Dante then mentioned he is going to go to Ava and make a match between them official.
GOOD Shotzi vs Stephanie Vaquer
Shotzi surprisingly picked up the win over Stephanie Vaquer here. There was a nice level of chemistry between the two women, other than a noticeable slip up on the ropes, everything came together nicely as the match went on. I do have a problem with how this contest came together, it doesn’t sit right with me that Stephanie had to earn her Women’s NA Title match again after beating three of the best NXT has to offer. Shotzi winning here though thanks to help from Fallon Henley will leave a gateway for Vaquer to demand a triple threat match, even though she already earned a one on one match.
Result: Shotzi by Pinfall via Roll-up
Archie Carter WR Star Rating: 3.25 Stars
Kelani Jordan continued her change in attitude, as she took advice from both Sol Ruca and Zaria on what she needs to do differently to get back on top. Cora Jade came in and was her usual arrogant self, which Kelani had enough of and slapped her across the face.
Oba Femi came into Ava’s office and demanded a match with Eddy Thorpe. Ava refused to reward Eddy’s bad behaviour, then Mr. Stone tried to calm Oba down which just frustrated Femi more, to the point of him picking up Stone and throwing him against the wall. Ava eventually gave Oba his match and he faces Eddy for the title next week.
SQUASH Ethan Page vs Dante Chen
Very quick match here, as Ethan Page made quick work of Dante Chen. After the match, Ethan continued the trend of badly injuring his opponents by kicking the steel steps against Chen’s foot. Je’Von made his return by beating up Ethan, but one punch to the jaw and Evans was down.
Result: Ethan Page by Pinfall
Archie Carter WR Star Rating: Too short to rate
Very cool video package up next showcasing Giulia’s NXT Women’s Championship win over Roxanne Perez at New Year’s Evil. The package then revealed we will see the return of the champ next Tuesday!
DIY is here at NXT. They announced that they got tickets for tonight’s show so they can take a closer look at Fraxiom’s tag team title match.
GREAT Meta Four vs The Unholy Union
I don’t think enough people are talking about the run of matches that Jakara Jackson and Lash Legend is on right now, yet another very solid tag team match involving these two. Once again, we saw the power of Lash on full-display and she was booked like a powerhouse in this match. While for the first time, Jakara’s resilience was a major story in this match, as she had to overcome the odds to help her team pick up the victory. This win cements Jackson and Legend as the new Number 1 Contenders for the Women’s Tag Team titles, and honestly I think they should be the ones to beat Bianca Belair and Naomi.
Result: Meta Four by Pinfall
Archie Carter WR Star Rating: 3.50 Stars
Lexis King came face to face with Charlie Dempsey backstage, who congratulated him on his NXT Heritage Cup win. But Wren Sinclair demanded that Charles get his rematch, which he eventually did.
AVERAGE Kelani Jordan vs Cora Jade
This match went just over five minutes, and I think these two deserved more TV time than that personally. Neither Cora Jade or Kelani Jordan were able to really get going in this match, which meant the contest was stuck in the same gear for the majority. Cora got the win after Kelani’s attitude change cost her and allowed Jade to resort to her usual heel tactics. Something interesting though is that TNA Knockouts Champion, Masha Slamovich was in attendance for the match. Perhaps a potential match with the champ is in the future of Jade or Jordan.
Result: Cora Jade by Pinfall via DDT
Archie Carter WR Star Rating: 2.75 Stars
AMAZING Fraxiom vs OTM – NXT Tag Team Championships
Very much a tale of speed vs power in this one, with speed coming out on top. OTM massively impressed in the big guys role in this one, pulling out some powerful moves and other moves that you didn’t think were possible for guys their size. Fraxiom sold like their lives depended on it as well, making sure to put them over as much as they could. The match came to an end after a very cool commentary table frog splash, and Spanish Fly combo. Then Axiom picked up the win for his team. After the match, Fraxiom held their titles up in DIY’s face, implying they think they have overtaken Johnny Gargano and Ciampa as NXT’s greatest tag team.
Result: Fraxiom by Pinfall
Archie Carter WR Star Rating: 4.00 Stars
AMAZING Roxanne Perez Addresses Her NXT Future
And so we have the next step in Roxanne Perez’s career, and it is a feud against someone she looks up to in Bayley. Roxanne did a great fake babyface promo, before showing everyone that her title loss hasn’t changed her. Bayley surprisingly interrupted her, and judging by their cool little promo battle, it seems like a match between them is definitely on the horizon.
Archie Carter WR Star Rating: 4.00 Stars
Overall…
This week’s NXT followed up on New Year’s Evil with a good show. The episode kicked off with a strong opening segment, with Oba Femi celebrating his championship win. The matches were pretty decent for the most part, Shotzi and Stephanie Vaquer had a good match although what came with it was some questionable booking. The two showcase matches were the two tag team matches. As Meta Four showed everyone they are more than ready to compete for the Women’s Tag Team Titles again, as they were able to overcome two very tough opponents in the Unholy Union. Fraxiom kicked off the year with yet another successful tag title defence, as they and OTM put on undoubtedly the match of the night with DIY looking on. TNA Knockouts Champion, Masha Slamovich made a surprise appearance as the NXTNA partnership continues to be as strong as ever. While Bayley made her return to NXT by confronting Roxanne Perez, revealing what is next for the Prodigy. NXT has been on a great run recently, but this week’s show failed to reach the usual heights we expect from WWE’s developmental brand. Which was in part down to having to tie some loose ends storyline wise, and some production and timing issues as well.
Matches: 0.5/1 Stars
Show Structure: 0.75/1 Stars
Atmosphere/Crowd/Commentary: 0.5/1 Stars
Storytelling: 0.75/1 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:
