WrestleMania Weekend continues chugging along with show after show after show. Now, NXT gets their turn with a super early show. The event itself is starting at 10am in California, which means some of these fans and wrestlers have been at the Staples Center (I still refuse to call the venue by its current name) since 8am, and maybe even earlier. How will that affect things? Will it affect things? Let’s find out. It’s time for NXT’s biggest show of the year!
Roxanne Perez vs Zoey Stark vs Gigi Dolin vs Indi Hartwell vs Tiffany Stratton vs Lyra Valkyria (NXT Women’s Title Ladder Match): I will fully admit that I’m not exactly a fan of how we got to this match. If you wanted to have a Ladder Match for the NXT Women’s Title, that’s fine and all. It’s a great idea all on its own. The whole story with Roxanne Perez passing out after her match with Meiko Satomura, though? That didn’t do much of anything, especially when she didn’t miss any time and just entered the match as a participant. To go from “oh, no, her life and career are potentially in jeopardy” to “nah, just playing, bro, she’s fine” is jarring and didn’t add anything to the match itself.
This was a helluva way to start the main show. If you’re not in the main event, you want to be in the opening match. The fans are extra excited, and the wrestlers clearly feed off of that. All six women in the match looked great. They were all motivated, and it showed. It was “car crash” wrestling like these types of matches are supposed to be, but without any over-the-top spots that put anyone at risk unnecessarily.
As an added bonus, we got the return of Jacy Jayne, costing Gigi Dolin a chance at winning the match. That feud needed to continue. As an extra added bonus, live crowds simply love seeing InDex together, so a cameo appearance from Dexter Lumis here was fun. Plenty to enjoy from bell-to-bell, and just the start that Stand & Deliver needed. 4 Stars
Gallus vs The Family vs The Creed Brothers (NXT Tag Team Title Match): This was a weird one. For one, the crowd was lukewarm, at best, after a hot start. When the Creeds were on offense, the crowd was good, but otherwise, there was a lot of silence. A lot of that has to do with Gallus coming in as the champions. There still hasn’t been a lot of connection with Gallus and NXT live crowds, with not a lot of reason for those crowds to care. It’s one thing when you can say that about an act at the bottom of the card, but it’s another thing altogether to say it about champions.
The match itself was fine. Some fun offense from almost everyone involved, but it just didn’t have the FEEL of a WrestleMania Weekend title match. It just seemed like something you’d see on any random episode of NXT’s weekly television program. That’s a shame. 3 Stars
Wes Lee vs Ilja Dragunov vs Axiom vs JD McDonagh vs Dragon Lee (NXT North American Title Match): Random thought, but it’s funny to me that there are so many people wrestling on this show. Counting the pre-show, there are seven matches on the show. In those seven matches, we’re seeing 33 people wrestling. On top of that, there are four additional people as managers and manager-like roles, and we’ve already seen three extra people making their returns to NXT.
Non-stop action here. That’s to be expected with a Fatal Five-Way, especially with the five competitors involved in this match. You want fast-paced, high-flying action? There was plenty of that here. You want stiff strikes, submissions, and hard-hitting European stylings? There was plenty of that here. All it was missing is someone like Dijak or Veer Mahaan to be the monster that can throw people all over the place.
Dragon Lee needed to have an impressive debut, performing in front of an audience that has a lot of people who have never seen him before, and that’s what he got. He looked like someone that is going to be a major player in NXT right away. All five of these men look like major players right now, and the North American Title scene is as hot as it gets because of it. This was so much fun, and is well worth checking out. 4.5 Stars
Johnny Gargano vs Grayson Waller (Unsanctioned Match): Within the first few moments of the match, Booker T was almost taken out of action when the fight spilled out to the ringside area. Unfortunately, it didn’t take Book out for good, so we’re still having to deal with his awful commentary. Damn.
When it comes to matches like this, and any sort of match with stipulations in a very personal feud, I hate it when things are put together like a normal wrestling match. You’re supposed to HATE your opponent, and they’re supposed to HATE you, but you’re bothering with rest holds and things of that nature? Fortunately, that’s not what we got here. From the first second, these two looked like they were trying to put each other in the hospital. That type of intensity and physicality is greatly appreciated.
What isn’t appreciated is how dumb it looked for Candice LeRae to be sitting (well, standing) in the front row while holding Baby Wrestling. It just didn’t look natural whatsoever. In no situation is she going to bring her baby to the show like that.
These two went at it with the fire of a thousand suns. Such a good, brutal brawl. Kudos to both men, but especially to Grayson Waller, because he put his body on the line here. His entire back is covered in welts, bruises, scratches, and scrapes. He took a glorious ass whooping, but he also delivered one. 4.25 Stars
After the match, we get a full-fledged reunion for The Way, as InDex come out to celebrate with Johnny and Candice. That was cool to see. Candice looked legitimately surprised to see them, which made the whole thing even better.
Fallon Henley & Kiana James vs Isla Dawn & Alba Fyre (NXT Women’s Tag Team Title Match): This was the easy choice for the “cool down” match. We’ve seen some really good action so far, including back-to-back great matches, and with only the main event to go, this is going to let the crowd recharge a bit. I’m sure these four women are super cool and super nice, but right now, fans simply haven’t been given many reasons to care about this match. There’s more focus on the drama involving Henley, James, Brooks Jensen, and Josh Briggs, but even that is something that a lot of people don’t care about.
Sure enough, the match that you figure the crowd wouldn’t care about was a match that the crowd didn’t care about. They were silent for nearly everything. It’s not like they were given much to care about, though. The match was okay. It featured champions that had no business being champions just yet, and challengers that went from feuding to randomly teaming up not that long ago. The crowd should be ready to go for the main event now. 2.5 Stars
Bron Breakker vs Carmelo Hayes (NXT Title Match): There is a crazy “big fight feel” around this match. That type of thing has largely been missing in NXT for a while now. You’d see it all the time in the Takeover era, but the 2.0 era just hasn’t been the same. Bron and Melo came to NXT at the same time, and have seen meteoric rises, all while being kept apart until now. All the potential is there for this to be something special.
Overall, though, I was underwhelmed by this. The match was good. It was really good, actually. Bron was able to look like the unstoppable machine that he has been, and Melo was able to look like the world class athlete that he has been. I have no problems there. My issue with the match is that it seemed to be put together like a match that could see a rematch. It was slower paced than many people expected it to be, and the interference and Referee bump seem to potentially open the door for something else with these two soon. No matter who you like, or picked to win this match, it seems like it was pretty universal that we assumed the man who lost this match would end up on Raw or Smackdown here in a few days. They’re both beyond ready for it. There’s no reason to keep either of them in NXT any longer, but especially so for the man who isn’t the champion. Chances are, we’re still going to see a main roster call-up. I just wish the match was put together a little differently. 3.75 Stars
That’s a pretty good show. Six main show matches, and half of them were in the vicinity of greatness, with another one being on the doorstep of reaching that level. The NXT roster wrestled with chips on their shoulders today. Kudos to the brand, as a whole, for putting on an entertaining show. I’ll see all of you back here in a few hours for my WrestleMania review column.