Results
- Lash Legend def. Jaida Parker (11:35)
- Candice LeRae def. Xia Brookside (WWE Speed Women’s Championship #1 Contendership Tournament Semi-Final) (2:36)
- Jordynne Grace def. Kali Armstrong (7:53)
- Josh Briggs def. Andre Chase (7:20)
- Hank Walker, Tank Ledger, Oba Femi & Ricky Saints def. Cutler James, Dion Lennox, Osiris Griffin & Saquon Shugars (12:02)
Lash Legend gets the win, but Jaida Parker has the last laugh
This week’s episode of NXT, from the Performance Center in Orlando, Florida, started with action in the women’s division. In a singles bout, Jaida Parker faced off against Lash Legend. It’s not every week that the bell rings just three minutes into the program; usually, we get a recap of a recent episode or an in-ring segment before a match.
Legend got a two-count a minute into the match after scoring a standing splash. Parker escaped a move from Legend, beginning a prolonged sequence where she worked the ex-Meta Four member’s arm. Legend kicked out of two roll-up pins during this exchange.
Parker came off the top rope with a clothesline, seemingly slipping on the top turnbuckle but sticking the landing for the most part. Parker tried for an attack in the corner, but Legend countered, instead catching her for a chokeslam, earning her a near fall just before the show went to a break.
Parker started to mount a comeback as the show returned. She avoided a second standing splash from Legend, rolling out of the way. Parker came running off the ropes with a series of shoulder tackles, only being able to knock down Legend upon the third blow.
Parker avoided a clothesline from Legend, using the momentum to connect with a backstabber. She earned a near fall after hitting a Blockbuster to Legend, who was on her knees.
Parker came running off the ropes, but ate a knee to the head from Legend. Getting an opening late in the match, Legend followed up her counter with a backbreaker, earning her a two-count.
Legend came charging at Parker in the corner, but instead went head-first into the ringpost. Parker landed her “high-step” hip attack in the corner, then a Samoan Drop. Legend rolled out of the ring. Parker tried to keep her in the ring by grabbing her hair, but instead was dragged to the floor along with her.
Legend connected with a huge front kick to the head, then scored her finisher, the Lash Extension, onto the commentary table. Back in the ring, Legend once again hit a Lash Extension, earning her the clean pinfall win in 11 minutes.
Legend and Parker are both fun midcard talents in the women’s division, so this was expectedly a nice little opener.
Sour after defeat, Parker jumped Legend during the post-match. Legend was tossed into a steel staircase, then Parker delivered her Hipnotic finisher, sending Legend through a barricade at ringside.
Backstage, Arianna Grace and Blake Monroe bonded over their hatred for Jordynne Grace. A door in the break room busted open, and Grace emerged, forcing a pull-apart between her and Monroe.
After things had settled, it was WWE EVOLVE Women’s Champion, Kali Armstrong, who confronted Grace. She’s understandably still mad that her sole NXT match, which came in mid-July, was thrown out in just a minute after Grace interfered. “You thought you had problems with Blake Monroe? Now you got problems with Kali Armstrong,” she said to Grace.
A bad few weeks gets even worse for Je’Von Evans
Je’Von Evans, who was absent from NXT TV last week following his Heatwave loss to champ Oba Femi, appeared in the ring to address his fans in the next segment. The barricade that Parker was put through was marked up with caution tape, but later fixed.
Evans was still significantly shaken by his loss to Femi from a little over a week ago, saying that it’s hard to find the positives from a defeat that tough. He tried to apologize to the fans for losing, but they didn’t want to be apologized to – a “No” chant was followed by “We still love you.”
Evans’ sad speech was cut off by a video on the screen: A motorcycle was approaching the venue. “I’m not trying to do the games right now,” said Evans.
Gong…. The crowd shot up to their feet, expecting The Undertaker to arrive right after the start of his theme hit. It would’ve been a full-circle moment, as ‘Taker was the one who told Evans to go for a fight against the champ. Instead, it was Josh Briggs.
Making fun of Evans in this moment was a real “punch a guy while he’s down” situation, and Briggs was fine with doing that. He berated Evans on the microphone for a few minutes. Evans started to respond, causing Briggs to knock the recent title challenger down with a head kick.
Briggs set up a chair, then chokeslammed Evans onto it – this was nasty, it looked like the back of his head caught the chair. Briggs stood tall to end the segment. Evans might’ve thought he was at rock bottom after Heatwave, but things got even worse here.
Candice LeRae eyes second Speed title run
Backstage, Hank & Tank tried to rally together teammates Oba Femi and Ricky Saints ahead of their matchup tonight against DarkState. Saints and Femi seemed willing to put their rivalry aside for tonight’s tag match, although there’s clearly still tension between them.
WWE Speed officially arrived at NXT in the next match. The former WWE web series, which sees wrestlers fight under quick time limits, made its debut on the NXT brand in the next segment. As part of a four-woman bracket to determine who will face current women’s champ Sol Ruca, ex-champ and current Smackdown member Candice LeRae took on TNA Wrestling’s Xia Brookside in a three-minute time limit bout.
Brookside had LeRae reeling early, scoring a hurricanrana, a double knees in the corner, then a Russian Legsweep, getting her a near fall with two minutes left on the clock. Brookside climbed to the top but was struck by LeRae, causing her to fall to the outside.
LeRae brought Brookside back into the ring, knowing she had just a little over 90 seconds to work with. LeRae scored a running knee strike. She came off the ropes with a springboard moonsault, but Brookside dodged it. Brookside got another near fall with a Codebreaker.
The fight went to the corner, where LeRae landed a tornado DDT. She connected a senton onto Brookside’s back, then landed the springboard moonsault upon second attempt, earning her a pinfall win with 24 seconds to spare.
LeRae is two more wins away from becoming the first-ever two-time Speed champ. She’ll now meet the winner of a matchup between NXT’s Lainey Reid and AAA’s Faby Apache, which we’re expected to see next week.
Backstage, Chase U’s Kale Dixon and Uriah Connors confronted Josh Briggs over what he did to Je’Von Evans earlier on the show. Andre Chase tried getting between everyone and calming things down. Instead, he got himself into a fight. The Chase U students said that Chase will teach Briggs a lesson, and that they’re about to go make that match official by heading over to NXT General Manager Ava.
A women’s NXT tag team will get a title shot soon
Backstage, Ava said that she has recently been pushing for an NXT team to get a shot at the WWE Tag Team Championships. Her options, all conveniently in the office, were Sol Ruca & Zaria, Fatal Influence, and The Culling’s Izzi Dame and Tatum Paxley. Ava announced that a #1 contenders match will take place next week, presumably between these teams.
A vignette with DarkState explained how past problems in all of their careers pushed them to join their rebel group. Dion Lennox wasn’t getting anywhere on NXT, Cutler James was “humiliated” on WWE LFG, Osiris Griffin wasn’t given a proper chance by the NFL’s New Orleans Saints, and Saquon Shugars took six years to get to the WWE because he messed around too much (six years is meant to be a long time in this case).
NXT legends make unannounced appearance
TNA World Champion Trick Williams appeared in the next segment. He said that he’s the greatest in NXT history, and nobody, past or present, will try to prove him wrong.
Answering the challenge was #DIY, the team of Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa. They noted that today marks the 10-year anniversary of their NXT debut, hence why they wanted to show up now, and not at the Full Sail “Reunion” show in a few weeks.
They picked apart Williams’ credentials as the best NXT wrestler of all time, comparing their title wins to his. Their conclusion on who’s the best in NXT history? “The jury is still out.”
Tension between Williams and #DIY built up during this segment, eventually boiling over into a brawl. #DIY laid out Williams to end things, likely setting up something for the coming weeks.
Backstage, Ava tried to cut a deal with Je’Von Evans: If he can stay out of the Josh Briggs vs. Andre Chase tonight, he’ll get to face Briggs next week. Evans agreed, but just to be safe, Ava got security to escort him out of the building.
Jordynne Grace takes down EVOLVE’s Kali Armstrong
After a break, Ava was seen dealing with Ethan Page and Tavion Heights, still going back and forth with their USA vs. Canada patriotism battle. Page sarcastically asked Ava if she was going to book a flag match for next week. Ava liked that idea and made it official for next Tuesday.
After calling out Jordynne Grace in a backstage segment earlier in the night, EVOLVE Women’s Champion Kali Armstrong got her shot against her in the next match.
Armstrong started strong against Grace, giving her a back bodydrop in the opening minute. She kept control of the match heading into a commercial break.
Commentary wondered if they were witnessing a soon-to-be-upset result before the show came back from commercials. Grace put together a trio of clotheslines, giving her a two-count as the match hit seven minutes.
Grace came running off the ropes, but Armstrong countered her with a scoop slam. Armstrong gained momentum running the ropes, but ate a nasty backfist from Grace while in motion. Grace landed her Beast Mode powerbomb to win in just under eight minutes.
Blake Monroe came out in the post-match, causing a brawl between the two, which left Monroe bleeding, seemingly from the nose.
Josh Briggs delivers teachable moment to Andre Chase
After a vignette about Lola Vice aired, we went back to the ring, where Josh Briggs and Andre Chase were ready for their singles bout. It was all-Briggs before the break, but Chase found some openings later in the match, notably getting a near fall after a DDT as the show returned.
Chase came flying off the top, but Briggs dodged the move and followed up with a Bossman Slam. Briggs tried for another move, but Chase was surprisingly able to reverse it into a stunner.
Chase came off the top rope with a crossbody, getting him a close near fall.. The crowd started to believe Chase actually had a chance here. Briggs caught a kick from Chase, instead connecting with a Chokeslam to the Chase U owner. Briggs came running off the ropes with a big boot to win in seven minutes.
Biggs went after Kale Dixon and Uriah Connors afterward, chokeslamming Connors through the commentary desk. The chokeslam was massive and got a big reaction, but it certainly didn’t win over the fans, who chanted “You still suck.”
Cameras caught up with an irate Trick Williams, who said he will see #DIY next week.
They quickly ran through the lineup for next week’s show:
- Ethan Page vs. Tavion Heights (Flag Match)
- Jazmyn Nyx & Fallon Henley vs. Sol Ruca & Zaria vs. Izzi Dame & Tatum Paxley (WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships #1 Contenders Match) (Elimination Triple Threat Tag Match)
- Je’Von Evans vs. Josh Briggs
Hank & Tank win despite Ricky Saints, Oba Femi failing to set rivalry aside
Eight-man tag action closed out the night, as Hank & Tank teamed with Oba Femi and Ricky Saints against DarkState’s Cutler James, Dion Lennox, Osiris Griffin, and Saquon Shugars.
A fair amount of this match understandably revolved around the interactions between Femi and Saints. Femi would at times toy with Saints, but in the early goings it was something Saints was able to brush off.
Hank Walker got isolated for a couple of minutes late in the match, eventually setting up for a hot tag to Tank Ledger. Ledger had an impressive run, including a tope suicida which wiped out a pair of DarkState wrestlers at ringside.
Saints got into the match and was about to battle with Shugars, but was slapped in the back by Femi, who tagged himself into the bout instead. This caught Saints off guard and made him argue with Femi, leaving an opening for Shugars to attacm.
Femi tossed Shugars onto Saints, taking them both out. This angered Saints, who started to outright brawl with Femi in the ring. The two tag partners were back to being rivals, fighting to the backstage and leaving Hank & Tank to fend for themselves in a two-on-four match.
Hank & Tank were still fidning success, but the obvious numbers disadvantage at play caused them to eventually struggle. In the ring, James put a choke on Walker and told him, “No one’s saving you now.”
Walker put out a bat signal for help: “Joe Hendry!”
Hendry’s music hit, and out of nowhere, the TNA star appeared on the ring apron. James charged at Hendry but missed, as the star dropped down to the floor to avoid his attack. Walker picked up James and hit his double-team finisher alongside Ledger for the pinfall win in 12 minutes. Hank & Tank overcame the odds and seemingly punched their ticket to a tag title rematch.
We cut to the backstage area just before the show went off air, where we saw that Femi and Saints continued to fight. In the ring, a much more peaceful tone: Hendry’s music played as he celebrated with Hank & Tank to send the fans home happy.
