Posted on 4/09/125 by Bob Magee
NXT is on the air from a sound stage at the Performance
Center in Orlando. My local CW affiliate joined the show
already in progress by several seconds as NXT Women’s
Champion Stephanie Vaquer is being interviewed backstage.
She then heads towards the entrance ramp.
Jaida Parker vs. Jordynne Grace ended in a no contest (or
maybe a disqualification)
NXT Women’s Champion Stephanie Vaquer is at ringside for
guest commentary. The winner of this match challenges Vaquer
for the title at Stand & Deliver, except Vaquer got involved
in the match from ringside. Giulia also returned in a post-
match angle to attack the champion.
The referee throws the match out when Vaquer gets physically
involved at ringside, or at least I assume the ref did. It
could have been a disqualification. Who knows, because we
never got any official word. I miss when commentators said,
“Let’s get the official word.” Then, the ring announcers
would tell us the end result or lack thereof. This was more
like a lack thereof.
Good opener up to that point, if somewhat scary at times on
some wild bumps. They wrestled through a split-screen
commercial break. Grace almost crashed and burned while
doing a dive through the ropes just before the finish. That
led into Vaquer getting involved in a melee.
Vaquer was likely supposed to get hit as collateral damage
on Grace’s tope suicida, but Grace takes a spill instead.
So, Grace sort of shoves Parker into Vaquer. The champ looks
to hit Parker, but Vaquer instead clotheslines Grace. From
there, the match descends into a brawl while the ref calls
for the bell. So, Grace might have won via disqualification,
unless the proceeding melee deems it being ruled a no
contest. Your guess is as good as mine.
Out comes Giulia to help Vaquer clean house, and then they
face-off. Giulia headbutts Vaquer, and Giulia delivers a
Northern Lights bomb. Giulia then poses with the title belt
while standing over the reigning champion, who is laid out
in the ring.
Following up on a similar cliffhanger from last week, the
previous episode ended with Ethan Page laying out Ricky
Saints, who has just won his first title in WWE when he
captured the NXT North American Championship.
Hank & Tank are backstage chatting when they are approached
by the tag team known as Swipe Right. This skit plays into
Swipe Right wrestling in the next match on tonight’s card.
NXT Tag Team Champions Fraxiom (Nathan Frazier & Axiom)
defeated Swipe Right (Brad Baylor & Ricky Smokes) in non-
title match
Vic Joseph on commentary called it “a statement win.” The
win by Fraxiom could also be called an enhancement match.
However, this was far from a squash match. Swipe Right got
their stuff in, and they had a competitive match at times.
For the finish, Spanish Fly by Axiom on Smokes, and Frazier
follows up with a Phoenix Splash. Frazier then covers Smokes
for the pinfall.
Fatal Influence is backstage. Fallon Henley and Jacy Jayne
are arguing over who gets to face Sol Ruca. Jazmyn Nyx cuts
off her Fatal Influence partners to say she is facing Ruca
tonight.
Sol Ruca (with Zaria) defeated Jazmyn Nyx (with Jacy Jayne &
Fallon Henley) in a NXT Women’s North American Championship
qualifying match
Ruca pinned Nyz after a Sol Snatcher in an okay match. In
winning, Ruca qualifies for the ladder match at Stand &
Deliver for the Women’s North American title. A subplot in
this bout tonight was Fatal Influence leaving Nyz out to dry
with no help.
Je’Von Evans cuts a promo on NXT Champion Oba Femi and Trick
Williams.
Giulia is stopped while leaving the building for a TMZ-style
interview. She wants for title rematch at Stand & Deliver
against Vaquer.
Brooks Jensen & Niko Vance defeated Hank Walker & Tank
Ledger
Vance pinned Walker to win the match. Yet another loss for
Hank & Tank, as their losing streak continues. On
commentary, it was phrased as they are still trying “to find
their way.”
Hank & Tank got a lot of offense in the match, and they were
a house of fire at times. Even moments before the finish,
Hank was running wild. Tank is thrown into the barricade at
ringside, and Hank was double-teamed in the ring. The led
into the finish.
Out comes new NXT North American Champion Ricky Saints for a
monologue. While Saints gets a full entrance and some promo
time, he tries to calling out Ethan Page. Instead, out comes
Lexis King to interrupt the segment. More interruptions
follow because no in-ring promo in NXT can go without an
interruption. It must be some kind of rule. Thou must
interrupt.
So King interrupts first, followed by Eddy Thorpe. Wes Lee
soon joins the talking segment after another interruption.
Saints says this is not the place to figure this out when
Saints is suddenly ambushed by Ethan Page. Saints takes a
Twist of Fate from Page.
Page, Lee, Thorpe and King all have a tug-o-war over the NXT
title match. All four then start brawling among themselves.
Lee does a flip dive to the outside on a pile of bodies, and
Lee is set for a match up next. Yet, Lee was time to
recover, because before his match is a skit and a backstage
interview.
NXT Women’s Champion Stephanie Vaquer informs NXT GM Ava
that she made up her made. Vaquer wants to fight “all of
them” at Stand & Deliver. That would seem to set up fatal
four-way for the women’s title at Stand & Deliver. Lazy
booking in my opinion, but the match will probably be great.
Men’s title match is also a multi-person match. Very lazy
booking, but let us hope they have a plan.
Wes Lee (with Tyson Dupont and Tyriek Igwe) defeated Yoshiki
Inamura (with Josh Briggs)
Lee pinned Inamura after a Cardiac Kick. Inamura was in
control in the closing moments. He did an airplane spin body
slam, and Inamura went to climb the ropes. Igwe interferes
by jumping on the apron and grabbing the top rope. Briggs
comes in for the save by pulling Igwe off the apron, but it
was too late. A shaken top rope causes Inamura to lose his
balance, and he takes a bump into the ring. Cardiac Kick by
Lee, and he covers Inamura for a pinfall.
NXT Champion Oba Femi cuts a promo on DarkState.
Izzi Dame (with The Culling) defeated Wren Sinclair (with No
Quarter Catch Crew) in a NXT Women’s North American
Championship qualifying match
Dame pinned Sinclair after a sit-out powerbomb. Weakest
match on the show so far, as it was not particularly good.
With her win, Dame qualifies for the ladder match at Stand &
Deliver.
NXT Champion Oba Femi, Trick Williams & Je’Von Evans vs.
DarkState (Dion Lennox, Saquon Shugars & Cutler James) in a
six-man tag team match
Freebird rules for DarkState, as we did not know which three
of the four would wrestle in this trios match until it
starts. At least they still have that aura, because for me
whatever aura they had is gone with this bout. They are just
another group of wrestlers on the show, albeit with gear
that matches.
The trios match itself goes through a commercial break. The
heel trio gets heat on Evans, as they work him over. They
built to Evans making a hot tag, with Femi shoving Trick’s
hand out of the way so Femi could tag in. Femi was cleaning
house when he sends Shugars crashing into Trick. With that
and the shove of the hand earlier, Trick had enough. He gets
into the ring to argue with Femi.
Evans yells at Trick and Femi to pay attention. Femi
inadvertently tags Evans, so he is now legal. Meanwhile,
Femi and Trick start to brawl with a slugfest. Cactus
clothesline sends both Femi and Trick over the ropes and out
to the floor.
Evans leaps high off the top rope with a frog splash on
James for a near fall. While referees pour out to ringside
to separate Femi and Trick, DarkState gangs up on Evans in
the ring. Triple power bomb by DarkState, and Shugars covers
Evans for the deciding pinfall.
The show ends with Channing “Stacks” Lorenzo on the
Titantron speaking on behalf of the D’Angelo Family, and
Stacks challenges DarkState to fight in the parking lot next
Tuesday.