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WES LEE w/Tyler Bate vs. DREW GULAK w/Charlie Dempsey – NXT NORTH AMERICAN CHAMPIONSHIP
Tyler Bate stood in Lee’s corner to even the playing field against Gulak and Dempsey during tonight’s open challenge for the North American title.
As you may expect, Lee and Gulak put on an absolute clinic to energize the crowd. The match was short but it was a great and easy victory for the champ. Dempsey and Bate’s involvement did wind up playing into the finish, though their roles were minor otherwise.
Verdict: HIT
GIGI DOLAN vs. JACY JAYNE
One more match between the two former members of Toxic Attraction.
Dolan’s little brother sat ringside to watch the next chapter of this blood feud. Jayne did a great job heeling it up to build sympathy on Dolan and her brother. Unfortunately, the two still don’t have the best chemistry together in the ring leading to a couple sloppy looking spots. But honestly, that’s more nitpicking than anything.
Jayne somehow started bleeding from the forehead after a spot where she was thrown into the steps. It looked like a blood capsule at first until the blood just kept coming. I tend to think it was hard way, but at the same time they didn’t stop the action as they famously did back in the say for Samoa Joe. Honestly though, it made Jayne look like a total badass while she defeated her former friend.
She’ll get her comeuppance soon enough, though.
Verdict: HIT
AXIOM vs. SCRYPTS
“I’m telling you, that baby could be the star of the show Babies I Don’t Care About” – Deangelo Vickers, The Office.
Substitute “baby” for wrestler and you know how I feel about Scrypts. The gimmick was just so poorly executed, and it’s so very clearly Reggie in a mask. Why do they expect any of us to get behind this?
The match was better than I expected with Scrypts attacking Axiom before the bell rang. The two put on a halfway decent matchup but… if two wrestlers put on a match and nobody cares… did it even happen? Axiom won of course. Meaning that Scrypts may as well chase the non existent 24/7 title once again.
Axiom de-masked Scrypts, and commentary barely even made mention of it being Reggie. Even though the crowd was chanting his name incessantly.
Verdict: MISS
DRAGON LEE vs. JD MCDONAGH
Talk about going out with a bang. JD McDonagh has been drafted to RAW and his final match was an absolute banger against the newest sensation on the male roster, Dragon Lee.
If you don’t watch any other match from this week, go out of your way to give this a watch. Well worth it. False finish after false finish leading to a McDonagh victory. I think this was the wrong move. JD is heading to Raw, why not do the favors for the up and coming star?
Verdict: HIT, but wrong guy won
JOE COFFEY vs. JOE GACY
The battle of the Leader Joes! Joe Coffey, figurehead of Gallus squared off against Joe Gacy, cult leader extraordinaire. Big meaty men slapping man meat. At least until Gacy picked up a quick win after Ava Devine distracted the referee, making the ref believe Coffey hit her.
I wish they’d give the factions a few more moments to shine this week, especially since they’ll most likely be a big part of NXT going forward with as many callups as there have been.
Verdict: Meh, this existed
DANI PALMER vs. TATUM PAXLEY
Sol Ruca’s friend, Dani Palmer made her debut on NXT TV against Tatum Paxley, now donning all black to denote her heel change of course.
Palmer looked great in her first match, dedicating it to her injured best friend. For a woman with only a handful of matches under her belt, I think she has a lot of promise and I’m glad to see they’re giving her a push right off the bat. Once Ruca heals up and makes it back to NXT, pair these two up and I think they’ll be a great team until they each inevitably split into singles competition.
Verdict: HIT
KAYDEN CARTER & KATANA CHANCE vs ALBA FYRE & ISLA DAWN – NXT WOMEN’S TAG CHAMPIONSHIP
Both teams are bound for the main roster in just a few days, yet here we are with them in the main event for the titles. No matter which team wins, we know new champions are coming sooner rather than later. They wouldn’t allow the NXT Women’s Tag titles to not be defended on NXT for a length of time.
On one hand, it doesn’t make sense to keep the belts on a team about to leave the brand. On the other hand…. who else is there?
They gave these women time to work tonight, and I think they put on a great tag match to say goodbye to the audience. The champs retained, and it’ll be interesting to see how Dawn and Fyre handle being NXT champs on Smackdown.
Verdict: HIT
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