SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
NXT TV RESULTS
MARCH 4, 2025
ORLANDO, FLA. AT CAPITOL WRESTLING CENTER
LIVE ON CW NETWORK
REPORT BY KELLY WELLS, PWTORCH CONTRIBUTOR
NXT Commentators: Corey Graves, Vic Joseph, Booker T
Ring Announcer: Mike Rome
Backstage Correspondent(s): Sarah Schreiber
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO OUR POST-SHOW PODCAST
-We opened with shots of last week’s show, which largely set up next week’s Roadblock PLE-Lite but also got us to this week. Giulia & Stephanie Vaquer’s title vs. title challenge got the main event treatment.
-The Spears and D’Angelo families were shown arriving. The Hardy Boyz were shown to a big pop.
(1) SOL RUCA & ZARIA vs. CHELSEA GREEN & PIPER NIVEN
Good reactions for all involved (I’m not sure it’s good that Green and Niven are almost always cheered despite acting like heels, but they don’t seem to care, and they’re a comedy act anyway).
Green and Ruca opened, and Green slapped Ruca. Ruca quickly caught Green with an X-Factor for two, and Green scampered to a tag. Zaria tagged in for the power vs. power segment. Niven patronizingly patted Zaria on the head, and the two quickly went for big power spots to a stalemate. Niven got the first block and she over-celebrated, and Zaria popped up behind her and took her down. Ruca tagged in and missed from the top. Niven tagged Green, and Ruca picked up the pace as she worked Green over early on. Commentary started putting Ava’s job as a GM over out of nowhere, perhaps hoping we haven’t noticed she still can’t act. Action spilled to the outside and Piper hit a cannonball on the babyfaces from the apron to the floor and there was an “NXT” chant as the match went to split-screen. [c]
Niven had Ruca dominated, but Ruca managed a kick and crawled for a tag. Niven cut it off an went for a suplex, but Ruca got another kick in. She leaped for the tag, but Green yanked Zaria to the floor with precision timing and the tag didn’t happen. Green and Piper both got involved, but Ruca hit a high cross-body on both and made the tag. Zaria dominated both heels and hit spears on both. She covered Green, who reached for a rope to break the count. The heels teamed up for a move and Green covered Zaria for two. Green was bleeding pretty badly from the face somewhere. Niven tried to slam Ruca, who was atop Green, but Ruca moved and Green got flattened. Ruca hit a glorious high-angle Sol Snatcher to pin the US Champion.
WINNERS: Sol Ruca & Zaria at 10:10.
(Wells’s Analysis: Decent enough tag action, other than Green constantly shuffling around and repositioning when she’s supposed to be out of it and about to take a bump, but old habits die hard. It seems there was much made of Ruca pinning the US Champion, so we might see a title match before Green & Niven’s month or so working NXT is over)
-Earlier today, Cora Jade interrupted a conversation between Ava and Jordynne Grace. Jade said Ava signed off on a match between Jade and TNA Champion Masha Slamovich. Grace said the day she wins that title is the day she retires.
-Jaida Parker entered ahead of the next match. [c]
-Like last week, locally we got a commercial for AEW coming to St. Paul for Dynamite.
-Trick Williams was cornering Ava about his issue with Eddy Thorpe. Uriah Connors and Kale Dixon showed up with a housewarming gift for Ava, and Williams lost it and said it wasn’t the time. Dixon flipped out and said Williams was the reason Chase U ever went away in the first place. Williams shoved Dixon to the wall and said he’d face him tonight. I still think they’re playing with fire having their most popular guy turn into a hotheaded jerk.
(2) KELANI JORDAN vs. JAIDA PARKER
Shoving to open. Jordan took Parker to a corner and hit a snap mare and a standing moonsault for two. Jordan worked the arm and hit a La Magistral cradle for two. Vic brought up that Jordan was trying to stop a four-match skid. Jordan hit a stiff lariat that got a big reaction from the announcers. Jordan hit the apron and, when Parker missed a shot to the outside, hit an asai moonsault. Back inside, Jordan covered for two. Parker missed two lariats but landed a shoulder block. Parker took control with a spot to the outside as the match went to split-screen. [c]
At this point, I lost the rest of the recap when WordPress blipped on me. Parker won with Hipnotic, and then called out both Giulia and Stephanie Vaquer and said she’d be watching their match.
WINNER: Jaida Parker at 12:50.
-Tony D’Angelo said Stacks was concerned about his back, but he’s going in there to face Shawn Spears anyway. A returning Kelly Kincaid was the interviewer. [c]
-The Hardy Boyz entered to an enormous reaction. Jeff barreled through a promo with his usual meandering cadence, putting over No Quarter Catch Crew. Both Jeff and Matt put over NXT in general, and Jeff was giving props to Fraxiom when Hank & Tank’s music played. The crowd relentlessly booed the popular tag team, somehow saddened that they were robbed of a Hardy talk segment. Hank & Tank said they were full of respect and they just wanted to talk to them about tag wrestling. Matt said sometimes to get noticed, you have to go to the extreme. Tank took this to mean tables, ladders and chairs, but Jeff told him it was about getting out of their comfort zones. The Hardys said Hank & Tank had the same look in their eyes that they had in 1998.
Josh Briggs and Yoshiki Inamura’s music played. They got booed too. Briggs said Hank & Tank should remove their lips from the Hardy’s asses. They told Hank & Tank they should stop playing the damsel in distress card. He said the Hardys weren’t going to give them a title shot, because they were taking it. Hank & Tank decided it was time to get extreme and they hit stereo tope suicidas and the two NXT teams brawled to the back.
Meanwhile, Nathan Frazer & Axiom had appeared behind the Hardy Boyz. Once again they used the line about being the best tag team today against the best of all time. They didn’t really add any new sizzle and just reiterated that they’re going at Roadblock next week. [c]
[HOUR TWO]
-A female-narrated spot promoted the title vs. title match between Giulia and Stephanie Vaquer next week. HBK and Triple H each got in soundbytes. Triple H said it would “decide the entire future of the WWE Women’s Division,” interetsingly.
-Next week, the LFG coaches – Mickie James, Bubba Ray Dudley, Undertaker, and of course Booker T, will all be in attendance at Roadblock.
(3) JORDYNNE GRACE vs. CORA JADE
Masha Slamovich, who faces Cora Jade at TNA Sacrifice, was in attendance. Grace grappled Jade down to the mat a couple of times early. They went to a series of reversals and Grace darted Jade into a corner a couple of times while holding on. Rope run and a blck, then a lariat, by Grace. Suplex by Grace got two. Jade ducked a lariat but got hit with a side slam. Grace nailed Jade in a corner and Jade finally got into it by yanking Grace back by the hair and knocking her into the turnbuckle. Jade shoved Grace down and threw her face down into the mat. Grace hit a couple of chops but Jade landed a couple of knees. Jade hit some more of them on a draping Grace and did her single teardrop taunt as the match went to split-screen. [c]
During the break, something happened to Jade – seemingly legitimate as the attending medical personnel looked like real ones and not indie wrestlers – and she was shuffled out of the ring and the winner was declared to be Grace by referee stoppage. She made the best of it and pumped a fist.
WINNER: Jordynne Grace by referee stoppage at 7:43.
(Wells’s Analysis: They had something going before that happened. I usually pay no attention during split-screen, and this was no exception, so I missed what happened to Jade. She was holding her hand to her face for the duration after I started watching again, so that’s all I know)
-Oba Femi, in a press conference, said he couldn’t let a TNA star (Moose) walk around with the NXT Championship.
-A promoted spot saw Shawn Spears cutting on Tony D’Angelo ahead of their match tonight.
-Ethan Page and Je’Von Evans sat down (in different rooms) and talked to the camera. Page was angry that he wasn’t getting back to the championship, and was stuck with a 20-year-old kid instead. He said he’d break Evans’ jaw again in a heartbeat. He said this place was silly enough to give him a match with no rules next week. Evans got his turn and said Page took his smile and voice for three months, and people like Page try to hold people like him down, and they always will. Vic asked for last words and both tried to talk over each other leading to the end of the segment.
-Kale Dixon entered ahead of his match with Trick Williams. [c]
(4) TRICK WILLIAMS vs. KALE DIXON (w/Uriah Connors)
On a positive note, Trick finally has a match on TV. The downside is that he’s facing a debuting wrestler positioned as a babyface (I think), which is a strange spot for both of them.
Trick hit the Trick Shot and then went for ground and pound. The ref called for the bell.
WINNER: Trick Williams by referee stoppage at 0:05.
From the perch, Eddy Thorpe said he beat Trick at Vengeance Day, but it looks like he has to finally really put him down. He said he wants Trick in two weeks in NXT Underground. Trick agreed. Well, Trick got a match, but he still wasn’t on the show for more than five minuges.
-Backstage, Roxanne Perez (she still goes here?!) had laid out Jordynne Grace. [c]
-The announcers promoted Roadblock’s four matches, which likely make up the whole card. Undertaker, via socials, said he’d be there to watch it live.
-Moose, at the same press conference area as Oba Femi earlier, said this match was the biggest of his career. There was good scripting, and Moose delivered it in his usual way, which would have a hard cap on WWE’s main roster but have been good enoughfor him to this point. Ava took over and was blindsided by Fatal Influence, who wanted to know why they hadn’t gotten a rematch.
-Ricky Saints and Ridge Holland ran into each other backstage. Holland said he shouldn’t be here, and Saints told him to get used to seeing a lot of him. Saints theran into Shawn Spears and his family, and Spears said that his revolution would be televised. [c]
-Jordynne Grace vs. Roxanne Perez was made official for Roadblock next week. I imagine there was supposed to be an in-ring scene, but the injury to Cora Jade likely derailed it. Roadblock is a five-match PLE lite, but it’s really shaping up to be a good show.
(5) TONY D’ANGELO (c) (w/Channing “Stacks” Lorenzo & Luca Crusifino & Adrianna Rizzo) vs. SHAWN SPEARS (w/Brooks Jensen & Niko Vance & Izzi Dame) – NXT North American Championship match
Tony D was on the Vengeance Day poster and then wasn’t booked, and now he’s fallen short of Roadblock as well. Lilian Garcia handled formal introdructions, which somehow was more jarring than just about any established star being on this show.
Thesz press and some punches by Spears. D’Angelo shoved Spears into a corner and threw rights, then exploded out of another corner with a lariat. Spears went at the neck to take control, then threw some rights. Back body drop by D and a cover for one. D’Angelo threw rights and then took Spears up in a corner, and hit a superplex with all of both families nearby for a good look. He covered for two, and the match went to split-screen. [c]
Spears was in control. He made mocking Italian taunts at the Family. He slowed down the slow match with a camel clutch and then hit a backbreaker. Spears jawed at D’Angelo and said the family’s done. D’Angelo fired up and the two went to a forearm exchange. D got the better of it and dominated Spears with rights and a belly-to-belly. Spear by D’Angelo got a long two.
Action spilled outside and Spears charged D’Angelo to the apron, then rolled him inside. Spears went high for an ax-handle and D’Angelo caught him with a shot to the midsection. Spears then hit a sharpshooter and D’Angelo powered out and hit Fuhgeddaboutit, but Izzi Dame yanked a leg to break it up. The two families went at it and things broke down, and Spears shoved Stacks into D’Angelo, and D fell to the outside. Spears brought D’Angelo in and hit C4 for a very long two. I thought that was it, and that Stacks would be treated as the problem by D’Angelo.
Spears set up the C4 again but D’Angelo escaped. D’Angelo tried something but his bad back gave out and Spears landed on him and covered for the win. As is their thing lately, production focused on fans with idiotic overreactions, put on so they can get their moment on TV.
WINNER: Shawn Spears at 12:26.
Spears celebrated with his family afterward. Man, that championship has fallen on hard times. D’Angelo wasn’t getting booked on major shows with it, and Spears certainly isn’t likely to.
(Wells’s Analysis: There was a “this is awesome” chant after one nearfall because that’s what people do, but this wasn’t all that awesome. Tony D came out with some nice fire early on, but this settled into the expected slog before long. This used to be one of the most protected championships in the entire company, let alone the brand, but the intriguing D’Angelo-Femi feud, all based on self-doubt, now seems like a lifetime ago)
FINAL THOUGHTS: Kind of a throwaway show in many respects, as the heavy lifting for Roadblock had already been done, and the build for Jordynne Grace-Roxanne Perez may have been rushed tonight with the injury to Cora Jade (the promised update never came, and Nate Lindberg – who saw it all – said he went back a couple of times and couldn’t pinpoint any specific issue). I continue to worry about the production of Trick Williams, as I don’t think this is someone to tinker with and jerk around before his main roster debut, as he’s just got too much babyface potential that’s ready to go just about anytime here. We’ve got a Ruca-Green match on the horizon, most likely, and we can look forward to Green cheating to win in a silly match that’ll probably be more fun than it deserves to be. I’m less bullish by far on the meandering tag team segment tonight, and Shawn Spears winning the North American Championship after losing the majority of his matches since his debut is…certainly a choice. Nate Lindberg and I will talk it out on PWT Talks NXT soon. Cheers.
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