SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
ROXANNE PEREZ vs. KIANA JAMES – DEVILS PLAYGROUND MATCH
After a rock concert by “New Year’s Day”, playing their theme for NXT, “Vampyre”, we were brought into the devils playground to put an end to this blood feud between James and Perez.
Which on paper kind of sounds cool, right?
Well, in practice… it was just a No DQ match with a plastic kiddy pool filled with Halloween decorations, a plastic swingset and plastic slide ringside.
No. I’m not kidding. That’s what they came up with for the devil’s playground.
The women did a decent enough job putting together a decent No DQ matchup, but the absurdity of the gimmick absolutely killed any momentum that this match had for me.
Verdict: 50/50
LEXIS KING vs. DANTE CHEN
The first few appearances of Brian Pillman Jr. to NXT saw him in vignettes shedding any shred of his past and adopting the name Lexis King. Tonight, he debuted in ring against Dante Chen, Jobber to the NXT stars.
King has a great look, a great entrance and great hype surrounding his debut in NXT.
I think this was a good way to debut him, give him a solid win over a handful of jobbers first and then move him up the card with some credibility.
Verdict: HIT
ARIANNA GRACE vs. KELANI JORDAN – BREAKOUT TOURNAMENT SEMI FINALS
It’s too bad that these two women couldn’t both go the finals as it’s clear that the company has things in store for them both.
Kelani Jordan is being hyped as the total package, and she backs it up with everything she’s done so far. Arianna Grace, while in NXT for a long time at this point has finally found her stride with her Miss Universe gimmick.
They put on a decent match before the midpoint of the show and I think that these two will find themselves in more high profile stories before long.
Kelani Jordan picking up the win means that Lola Vice will probably win her match, considering how the brackets are laid out. I think we’ll wind up seeing Kelani Jordan win the tournament. Lola Vice, while coming in with some name value, can use said name value to get her a bit of a push in the eyes of the fans. Kelani Jordan, on the other hand, could certainly use a launching point like this tournament to put a mark on her name.
Verdict: HIT
TONY D’ANGELO & CHANNING “STACKS” LORENZO vs. ANDRE CHASE & DUKE HUDSON (w/Thea Hail & Jacy Jayne)
Winning the Badabing Badaboom Battle Royal to get an opportunity at the D’Angelo Family’s tag titles, Chase University got their first taste of gold in our mid-show main event tonight. j
Coming into this match, it seemed to me like it wasn’t quite time for the Family to lose their titles just yet. Their story to get to the titles was too intricate and too long for their reign to be cut this short. However, it also seemed like Chase U was poised to finally get a big win. That is, unless Hail and Jayne wound up costing them the match with their apathetic and juvenile ways.
Turns out, my predictions were completely wrong and Chase U picked up a win over the D’Angelo Family for the titles after a distraction by Jacy Jayne and Thea Hail.
Winning the titles in a somewhat heelish manner may not sit well with Chase, so it should be interesting to see where this goes in the coming weeks.
Verdict: HIT
GIGI DOLAN vs. BLAIR DAVENPORT – LIGHTS OUT MATCH
I was hoping they’d do a little better than the Devils Playground match for this one… and well… it was something.
Blair Davenport was the clear heel, getting booed throughout. However Dolin was getting zero reaction at all. It made for an odd atmosphere. Or maybe it was the fact that there were plenty of lights, they were just dim. And blue.
It was basically just a regular match with “The Fiend” lighting.
And a match that nobody cared about, despite the two women trying to get some investment. I can imagine it was difficult to see what was going on in the building for any action that spilled outside the ring.
Think about how loud of a reaction Dominik Mysterio elicits right now. If that’s a 10/10 reaction from the crowd, then the reaction for this entire match never reached at 3/10.
Blair Davenport won to the delight of everybody, as we could now move on to the next match.
Verdict: ZzzzzZzzzzZzzzz
LOLA VICE vs. KARMEN PETROVIC – BREAKOUT TOURNAMENT SEMI FINALS
In our second semi final match of the night we saw Lola Vice take on Karmen Petrovic. While this match was rather rudimentary, I think this was a relatively solid match considering how new these women are to the business.
Lola Vice’s tag partner interfered towards the end, and my prediction of Lola Vice vs. Kelani Jordan looks to be coming to fruition next week to crown a Breakout Tournament winner.
Verdict: HIT
BECKY LYNCH vs. LYRA VALKYRIA – NXT WOMENS CHAMPIONSHIP
The match everyone was looking forward to, Becks vs. Lyra. The battle of the Irish Lasskickers (no, I’m not more original than that).
Lyra had a lot to prove coming into the match tonight, and Becky was coming in after defending her title the prior night against Indi Hartwell on RAW. She wasn’t coming in at 100%, as the story was told. She wanted to follow in the footsteps of her hero, Becky, and Lyra was going to stop at nothing to make that happen.
The crowd was electric for this match with dueling “Let’s go, Becky!” and “Let’s go, Lyra!” chants for a good portion of the action. There should be something to be said for that reaction for Lyra, as face/face matchups are not easy. Especially when you are the lesser known face going up against one of the most popular women in the industry. However Lyra and Becky were both able to tell a compelling story leading up to the match tonight that allowed the audience to still believe in Lyra. Even when the odds were against her.
And she did it. Stunning everyone. Lyra pinned Becky Lynch clean to win the NXT Championship in the center of the ring. What a story, what a win!
Verdict: HIT
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