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NXT TV REPORT
JUNE 27, 2023
WINTER PARK, FLA. AT THE CAPITOL WRESTLING CENTER
AIRED LIVE ON USA NETWORK
REPORT BY KELLY WELLS (@spookymilk), PWTORCH CONTRIBUTOR
NXT Commentators: Vic Joseph, Booker T
Ring Announcer: Alicia Taylor
Backstage Correspondent(s): McKenzie Mitchell
[HOUR ONE]
-Recaps from last week’s Gold Rush (week one) special aired.
-Miscommunication resulted in no live report this week, so this is just after the fact and therefore has no play-by-play.
(1) THEA HAIL (w/Duke Hudson, Charlie Dempsey & Drew Gulak) vs. TIFFANY STRATTON (c) (NXT Women’s Championship)
Dempsey and Gulak stayed at bay, but their presence was reminded to viewers several times throughout the match. Hail acquitted herself well in her longest singles match on TV to date before getting a visual tapout victory that was washed away as Dempsey & Gulak were jawing with the referee at the time. Stratton won with a rollup shortly afterward, and Duke Hudson took issue with Dempsey & Gulak. They got into it, and Andre Chase made his return to even the odds and take out the heels to a good reaction.
WINNER: Tiffany Stratton at 9:07.
(Wells’s Analysis: The match had a couple of imperfect moments but the story was well told and Hail proved herself worthy of a decent spot even at the age of 19. Stratton continues to hold her belt with the confidence the company has to be hoping for.)
-Gallus (Mark Coffey and Wolfgang) were concerned because they hadn’t heard from Joe Coffey since he was abducted by Channing “Stacks” Lorenzo last week.
(2) EDRIS ENOFE & MALIK BLADE vs. GALLUS (Wolfgang & Mark Coffey) (c) (NXT Tag Team Championship)
As always, Enofe and Blade do strong work in an inevitable losing effort as they were props in what was a story about Gallus and The Family. Stacks showed up late in this match and seemingly was setting up a shot on Coffey, and “accidentally” struck Enofe, and then shoved him into the ring to be finished off by Gallus as the announcers wondered what was up with Stacks. All the while, Los Lotharios watched from the perch as well.
WINNERS: Gallus at 13:17.
(Wells’s Analysis: Cool finish as Stacks gets involved but questions still remain to be answered. Enofe and Blade have so much going for them, but right now they’re merely meat puppets as other characters tell a story. That said, Enofe and Blade always deliver and they seem on the verge of having a look and swagger that’s right for the main roster, so hopefully there’s room for them there)
-McKenzie Mitchell interviewed Meta Four. Noam Dar was hilariously downtrodden about losing his Heritage Cup championship and Lash Legend kept trying to force Mitchell to talk about something else because it was too hard for Dar. Jakara Jackson put over her tag team win (with Legend) last week. Dar was great in his sad sack performance and Legend had a great night also in her role of taking the bullet for Dar.
-The Schism had an in-ring summit about their infighting. Everyone was wearing black other than Jagger Reid, who was dressed casually in a flannel shirt and jeans. Reid and Rip Fowler got most of the mic time and Fowler even gave a small hint that GYV could return as he said “we found out who we rrrrreally are” in the vein of how he says “Grrrrrrizzled.”
The Creed Brothers and Ivy Nile showed up and gave a forced promo about how they want to get the Schism out of here. After a clunky and convoluted series of comments, Joe Gacy made a match next week of Dyad vs. Creeds with the loser leaving NXT. This of course works on a meta level because the Dyad are known to have their contracts running out in October and they’ve stated they’re heading out, but their screen and mic time tonight suggests at least the possibility of a red herring there.
-Hype segment for Lucien Price and Bronco Nima. Both have backgrounds in football and they look like an interesting dominating power duo. If the Creeds are still around when these guys move up the card, that could be some hard-hitting stuff.
-Hank Walker, Tank Ledger, Scrypts and Axiom were talking backstage. Nathan Frazer showed up carrying his Heritage Cup and the group exchanged words. After Frazer left, Axiom admitted he was “drawn to” the Heritage Cup.
-Carmelo Hayes and Trick Williams ran afoul of Rhea Ripley backstage, who got a huge reaction from the NXT faithful. She said Hayes was walking dangerous ground by messing with Judgment Day.
(3) DRAGON LEE vs. NATHAN FRAZER (c) – Heritage Cup Championship
Valentina Feroz and Yulisa Leon (respectively) were the corner women for the two. The first round was remarkably restrained as the two had a nice sequence of counters and resets. Round two saw Frazer get a flash pin at 1:11. The third round happened entirely during split-screen, which remarkably held my interest unlike most split-screen segments since I could actually see a non-match-ending pinfall happen in that context (although it didn’t). Dragon Lee won round four at 1:44 to even the score. The two kicked into high gear in the fifth round and referee Darryl Sharma did some great work with the timing to make sure the two men ended the match at 2:59 of the round when they almost ended it early. Lee has the “out” of losing with at the last moment while his arm was arguably not completely down. Axiom came out to the ramp to watch part of the match, and Scrypts went out to make sure he didn’t get too involved.
WINNER: Nathan Frazer (11:54 total bell time)
(Wells’s Analysis: Very good, as expected, but it’s a good question how many big losses Dragon Lee can take before the audience ceases to believe in him)
-Hype for the NXT Underground match between Eddy Thorpe and Damon Kemp led into a workout scene between Thorpe and Gable Steveson. To my surprise, it seems like the crowd isn’t supposed to know Damon Kemp and Steveson are real-life brothers. Steveson is going to help Kemp win and reveal who he is, and I don’t know how the crowd is supposed to react to that.
-Wes Lee and Mustafa Ali had a little talk about the match last week where Ali was referee. Tyler Bate showed up and got into it as well. Ali tried to make it a match between he and Lee, and Bate said he’d be referee and he’d be better than Ali. I assume this ends with another triple threat, but at least soon it’ll be a one-on-one.
-Mr. Stone looked around for Von Wagner backstage, then found him sitting in a chair that he would’ve been able to see the whole time. Wagner was having trouble with the fact that he opened up to Mr. Stone with his baby photos last week, and his acting was…a trudge.
(4) GIGI DOLIN vs. KIANA JAMES
Gigi won a competent-ish match where she continued to look a little tentative, surprisingly. James got her heat back by pouring paint on Dolin after the match.
WINNER: Gigi Dolin at 9:04.
(Wells’s Analysis: I’m glad Dolin and Jacy Jayne are apart now, but they’ve both still got work to do.)
-Tony D’Angelo had a visitor in prison (it was a phone scene across the bulletproof glass). It turned out to be Joe Coffey, who revealed the kidnapping was a ruse by Stacks, who made a power play to be the big boss and was the rat all along. Tony D remains in prison and Stacks appears to be at least somewhat connected to Gallus. I still think Luca Crucifino gets involved as Tony’s lawyer, if they think he’s ready for a bigger story.
-Next week, Roxanne Perez faces Blair Davenport on the July 4th show!
-Jacy Jayne was running down Lyra Valkyria in front of some unnamed ladies as well as Tatum Paxley. Paxley egged on Jayne because she could see Valkyria just offstage out of Jayne’s view. Valkyria laid out Jayne. Rhea Ripley showed up again and looked upon Jayne with pity.
-The Dyad and Ava Raine got a second segment, this time without Joe Gacy. Ava said Gacy has a plan. Rip Fowler said if he doesn’t, then he does.
(5) CARMELO HAYES (c) vs. BARON CORBIN – NXT Championship match
The match went a surprising amount of time considering Hayes got five or six minutes less the night before against Finn Balor (though I recognize the disparity in fan recognition at the shows). Corbin leaned on Hayes throughout but Hayes struck quick and often to overcome a series of impressive Deep Sixes. Hayes finished Corbin, leaving a lot of questions about what’s next for him in NXT, since his story right now is on the main roster.
WINNER: Carmelo Hayes at 16:33.
(Wells’s Analysis: Pretty good big vs. small match that had some doubt in the end because of Carmelo rubbing elbows with the main roster of late. Corbin remains a bridesmaid on all brands in WWE who can always fill a valuable role and be an irritant and semi-credible challenger to the throne. Melo has nothing obvious lined up on the brand, so it’ll be interesting to see what’s next for him; Rhea Ripley’s presence would suggest it isn’t over, so perhaps we’ll see Damian Priest or even Dominik Mysterio work the NXT main event soon)
-Bron Breakker yelled at Shawn Michaels (who was unseen and unheard) in his office. He said next week he’d find out what was…next? It was kind of a weird segment that was just Bron reminding people he was around and would do things soon, like my good friend Todd constantly calling people to tell them he’s going to call them later.
FINAL THOUGHTS: Nowhere near as cogent and clean a week as last week, but there were things to like and the show continues to do a decent job of promoting future weeks of TV and special events. Bruce Hazelwood, Nate Lindberg and I just finished a podcast talking over the show that will drop soon. Cheers and I’ll see you next week.
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