NXT Review: DarkState Destroy Je'Von Evans in Huge Victory

you know? Because they told us, They told us the last two days a Monday and Tuesday nights, they told us. I can't tell you how many times I lost count. I lost count. There was so many times. But anyway, were on the road to stand and deliver. And it seems like every NXT is doing a really good job doing having things progress forward. And it took a long

time to get here. We're only we're only like what ten days from this recording room, like well nine days from Stand and Deliver, and and they're still putting together the card. They're doing that for WrestleMania too, which I thought was really strange. Like there was just an Instagram post from Nick Aldis saying that there's gonna be a match of WrestleMania between Damian Priest and Drew McIntyre, and it's like, yeah, we know, dude, thanks for letting us know,

Like we figured out that that was gonna happen. And there's they didn't do a twist tonight NXT for the women's title more one than I don't think anybody was expecting, which I'll talk about in a second, but but we're getting there. I will tell you, well, yeah, I guess I'll run some stuff. I will tell you that this WrestleMania Slash Stand in Delivery season weekend seems like it's heavy on the multi person matches, triple threats. There's a few fatal four ways, there's a six one ladder match

for NXT. Uh. It's just it's so many multi person, I say, multi person, multi man, multi woman matches, and I just don't understand why there's so many. I guess they just want to get as many people in as possible. Although I saw this thing about on Stroman about how I feel like braun Stroman is is kind of the

unsung hero this year. He's basically doing everything that they're asking him to do, but then they leave him off of the card at WrestleMania, which I think is kind of it's kind of b yes, you know, it's kind of yes that they would leave him off of WrestleMania card. Hopefully, you know, he has some kind of a thing happening there, but but he has really been like he's he's really put over right now, He's putting over the the some of the other guys. He's putting over l A. Knight,

He's putting over Jacob Fachu. I know this isn't a main event podcast, you know show, but you know, a main roster show. But still I like to talk about it because it goes into the fact that they're having multi person matches all over the place the entire weekend. But then braun Stroman gets luffed off, which I think is kind of sad. I do think, just again, to

wrap this up. I do think the unsung hero of WWE all Together, like like in Toto, is Seth Rollins like to me, Seth Rowland like Seth Rollins for the last Like I think about this for a second, I just I'm gonna leave it at this. If Seth Rollins doesn't do the deed for Cody Rhodes, there may not

be a Cody Rhods right now. Like I know the story, YadA, YadA, YadA, but Seth Rollins, first he loses to him at WrestleMania as a surprise opponent, then he loses to him again, then he loses to him, and a hell in a cell with Cody has half an arm. Anyway, I need to move on NXT. I apologize. I go off on a tangent. So this week's NXT again from the Performance Center, because you know, we're going full force into Vegas next week, Vegas Baby, and we were till it was on April eighth,

twenty twenty five. Again from the Performance Center. I went to Part Florida. We had your commentators Vic, Joseph Booker, t and Corey Graves. We had your ring announcer Mike Rome, and we are going full force. So The first thing

that happens is before we go into the ring. The first thing that happens is Stephanie v A Kerr tells Kelly Kincaid, one of the you know, she's not one of the interviewers in the back, that she will make her decision regarding the NXT Women's Championship matches stand deliver after the upcoming match. And the upcoming match was Jordan Grace and Jada Parker. And obviously we know this. It's been a couple of weeks now. It has been an ongoing thing between Jordan and Jada. So this was kind

of the match that culminated it. And they were kind of Vic Joseph was trying to trying to like call it an unofficial Number one contenders match, like basically, so Stephanie went out for commentary, although you know, she really able to say much because English isn't her language, Like I understand that, but Vic Joseph's trying to get her to say, like, so you're picking the person that wins this matches. She wouldn't commit to that, so and we'll see why in a second. So we had Jordan Grace

was Jada Parker. This was a great match. Listen, Jordan Grace not only is she great a great wrestler, but she's a great seller. She made Jada Parker. I like, Listen, I love Jada Parker. I think she's awesome. She's going to be in the main roster, I believe at some point in the future. But she's not Jordan and she's not Stephanie. She's really good, but they are superior, and that's that's just the way I feel. But but Jordan

made her look really good in this match. And at the end of the match, we have Parker going for a dragon sleeper, but then Grace counters with with dragon sleeper of her own. Parker then hits a niche, a couple of knee strikes, and then has a gourdbuster, but Grace avoids the hypnotic, which is that hip bump that she does. It's her finishing move. Grace then lands a suicide dive. If this is a suicide dive that I'm thinking of, though, I gotta remember she she got totally

got her toes caught on the rope. She hit up side of the mat and the ground hard. There has been multiple people recently that have done suicide dives that keep getting caught in the ropes, and I don't know if this is a there's a reason for that or what. But there's been like like jay Uso did that one time, and there's another time, I believe, so I don't forget who it was. And then now Jordan, Grace tries a suicide dive and gets her toes caught in the rope.

So I wonder if the ropes are closer together or something. I don't know. And then Grace uh hits four I'm sures and eventually inadvertently closed lines Stephanie outside the ring, which and then and then Stephanie no, Stephanie inavertnity closed lines Jordan, which then leads to a disqualification. After the match, all help kind of breaks loose and Julia in the middle of all three of them fighting. Julia comes out and she helps Stephanie take care of Jordan and Jada,

and then Julia attacks Stephanie. And there's a couple of things. Number One, I didn't think Julia would be back this soon. I thought the whole reason for me, I thought the whole reason why Julia and Stephanie fought at Roadblock. A couple of weeks ago was because Julia was hurt and she was gonna be out for a little while. Apparently that's not the case. She's back. And not only that, later on we find out I'm just gonna say it

now for the sake of time. Later on we find out that Stephanie decided that she's going to fight all three of them in a fatal four way for the women's title. So we have a triple threat for the men's NXT title, and we have a fatal four way for the women's NXT title. So who the heck knows is gonna win? I can tell you. I could tell you two people that are probably not gonna win and in my predictions, and I'll do my predictions next week.

But the two people I think that are probably not gonna win are Javon Evans, just and not because he's not good enough, because it's just not yet his time. I don't think Javon Evans is gonna win the NXT men's title, and I don't think for the reasons I just said, I don't think that Jada Parker is gonna win the women's title. I think it's either gonna be Stephanie retaining Jordan Grace winning or Julia recapturing. But I would say tend to tend to tend to believe that

Julia won't regain the title. So it's really in my mind. And now, like I said, I'm gonna think on it and come up with predictions next week. In my mind, I think that it's either between Jordan or Stephanie, and I haven't figured that out yet, but I will. Anyway, Jordan Grace wins the match via disqualification, and then Julia Julia attacks Stephanie. I guess, as I said, and I

read a tweet or something. I think it was a tweet that said that Julia Julia is there to win a championship back, not to not to make friends, which is why she she turned on Stephanie. So I was kind of a bit of a heel turn. I'm guessing it's a heel turn because everybody loves Stephanie from what I can tell, Like if you watch the Performance Center, all the fans there, they all really seem like they

they they they're they're backing Stephanie. I think they think Stephanie's is And when I was at MSG and Stephanie won the title, she definitely was the fan favorite. So anyway, after after that, by the way, this ended really abruptly. It was really weird. It's like all of a sudden they were doing it and it was boom, it was done. It was and it was short. It wasn't I mean, it wasn't like terribly long. It was like maybe like ten minutes total, because you know, they had the commercials

and everything. But anyway, after this, we have a video recav a Ricky Saints winning the North American Championship and then getting attacked by Ethan Page after the match. Then I mentioned them last week. There's a group named Swipe right there on w W E Evolve, which is the show on twob again if you like wrestling, it's actually it's it's more wrestling than story, but their story too.

But they're wrestling there because they're all like young kids or people that are like have been around for a little while. There's one woman I forgot her name, she's from she was from TNA. They are it's wrestling at its like kids trying to make themselves look good so they can get up to the NXT roster and eventually the main roster. So uh, Swipe Wright talks to Hank and Tank in the backstage area and they want to take some notes during the match with Phraxium. So Swipe

Wright is facing Phraxium tonight. Then we have the Culling making a promise to show on Spears that do everything they can to get back his NXT North American Championship. Spears appreciates the passion, but the title is no longer the focus. The title was a vessel to bring them closer. Spears wants collective success, just individuals, So tonight the focus is on Easy Dame qualifying for the Women's North American

Championship ladder match at stand and deliver. Don't dwell on what happened last week, he says, focus on what what she can achieve. Spears is standing sending Brooks and Nico after Hank and Tank. Two.

you know. And they're like swipe right there, they're they're both like and there I think lower twenty. So it's it's a good it's a good name for them, uh to kind of go along with their young youngness. I guess. Uh. It was a great match. The match was great. Uh, swipe right put on a good show. And I mean, and Phraxium is Phraxium. The only reason I think, the only reason why Phraxim is still in the NXT is

because there's no other good tag teams right now. That too, and if they moved up to the main roster, and they have been dabbling with Phraxium separately on the main roster with Acxium going against gun Gunther and then last week on SmackDown, Nathan Fraser went against oh my god, Ray Phoenix. So yeah, but it was it was, like I said, Swipe right and phrasing was a great match. Ultimately,

of course Phraxie wins. They you know, they're they're not gonna get beaten by a team that's from the lower level. I guess we'll say for a lack of a better term, but but it was a great match, high quality, Probably the match of the night as far as wrestling goes, as far as actual wrestling goes. Praxium and Swape right was probably the match of the night, I would say,

but Fraxium ends up winning. And then the reason the way they won was uh, Axiom did the the Avalanche Spanish Fly, which, let me tell you to me, every time Axiom does the Spanish Fly from the top rope, it's a thing of beauty. And then and then followed right up by Nathan Frazier doing the Phoenix splash, Like that's just it's so they're so they're so good, They're

so good. They they really they could give, They really could give the tag teams and the main roster like they I would almost say they're the best tag team in all of w w E. I know that the Street Profits and the rest of them have been around, you know, and New Day have been around a long time, a lot longer, but like, they're really good and I really hope they don't break them up. I know this is different than what I've said in the past, but

that was before. This is now. A person can change their mind, but yeah, they need to eventually that help they go to the main roster because the tight team division on the main roster, especially in raw, needs something like them. Then we see Fallon Halle and J C. Jane bickering with each other about who should represent Fatal Influence of the Women's North American Championship Ladder Match qualifier, and then Jasmin basically says nope, I got it, I'm

doing it, and then she walks out. So the third match we have is so Ruka Mazari in her corner against Jasmine next with the rest of Fatal Influence in her corner, and it's a Women's North American Championship Ladder Match qualifier. That's a lot to say. Another great match again, And I know I keep saying this, and they obviously they're not going to keep bouncing people up to the mean roster, and I don't think this is gonna happen

anytime soon. But so Ruka is She's gonna be on the main roster at some point, her finisher, and I think that when the when the normal regular, every day non nxt w W E fans, So like not us who watch nx T every week, but the but the WWE fans that have not seen the up and comers, when they see sol Ruka's soul catchers like a cutter that she does the sole Catcher, they're gonna be like, what the heck was that? It's so it's so good

and she's so smooth at doing it. She hasn't winning the match with this, but the soul catcher because you know, hey, I mean, it's like you don't get up from that, the soul snatcher. Soul Snatcher, I think I think it was just soul snatcher. But yeah, that was It was a great match, not a huge I don't know. I mean, Jasmin Nicks was just okay, but so Rucas is awesome. And so now it's interestingly we have so Ruka and Zaria both in the ladder match at Santa Delivery, so

that that will be interesting, I think. Then Sarah Schaeffer, she's backstage an interview with Javon Evans. He knows, he knows what Dark State is. If Oba and Trick would have listened to him, they would have they would not be in the position they are tonight. He's tired of the little bro treatment and he's coming for the NXT Championship, and Javon is taking all of this step by step,

he says. Then a reporter tried to ask Julia and the NXT parking lot why she attacked your best friend, and she's she wants to rematch with Stephanie a stand and deliver great Like that would be awesome. Obviously I've already ruined it and said what Stephanie decided, but that would like to have Stephanie and Julia go one on one without the confines of the NXT show on the

CW would be so much better. Like the fact and I said this before the fact that there was I think I said this with DJ Kuzmo at the time. The fact that there was a time women on the episode and they were the last match really kind of I think it really didn't do them justice. Like it was a great match, don't get me wrong, but it would have been so much better if they didn't have the actual time constrain of the two hours of NXT on the CW. So then we have a fourth match,

which is the Culling versus Hank and Tank. This was really just another another way for Hank and Tank to lose a match. I like Hank and Tank. They're fun, but you know, they're going on this losing streak and I am sure there's a purpose for it down the line, but they've literally not want to match it and then they're going every week and every week they're losing to No Quarter Catch Crew. This week they lost to the Culling. They've lost to like basically every tag team there is.

So like I said, eventually, I'm sure there's gonna be a Hank and Tank payoff, which I'm looking looking forward to. To be honest, like I said, I like them. They're good guys. I mean, they're not the greatest wrestlers in the world. They look like, Yeah, they looked like they just stood up from a lawn chair, grabbed a beer and started wrestling. That they did that. That's to me the way they look. Not that that's a problem, but you know, that's their character. But it was a good match.

It was a decent match Hank and Tank. You know, it really looked like they were gonna pull it out at the end, but unfortunately they did end up losing by a dominator flying knee drop combination from the color. So uh. Then there's a huh. There's a segment. It started by Ricky Saints. I'm not gonna I'm not gonna go through what everything was said because it was a long, long drawn out uh thing. I think it went too

which times, too much, they put too many. I think they're setting up like, literally, they're gonna be setting up another multi person, multi man match, it seems like for the North American title now. And I thought we were getting Ricky Saints and Ethan Page and one on one, but it seems like now they're setting up like a five person fatal five man fatal four away or whatever for the NXT North American title. I don't know if this is where they're going with it, but they have.

First we have Ricky Saints out there talking. Then Lexis King comes out and gives his spiel. Then Eddie Thorpe gives out, comes out and talks about how the North American title is his birthright because of the way that the white man stole his land. I mean, please, sorry, but come on. Then Wes Lee comes out and says, you can't talk about the North American title without talking about Wesley and that's true because he is the second

longest running North American champion. And then finally Ethan Page comes out. There's a big braw with all the guys. Ethan Page basically lays out Ricky Saints again for the second week in a row. I hope, I hope they do Ricky versus Ethan one on one fan and deliver. But the way this is set up looks like it could be it could very well be a five person

match of some kind for the North American title. I guess we'll find out next week because as of right now, Ricky Saints doesn't have a match to defend the title. So we'll see next week what happens. By the way, Standon's Delivered is looking to be something really special and I'm really looking forward to seeing it. Okay, Then we have Stephanie in Stephanie vcour in Ava's office with mister Stone and Stevie Turner there, and she's made a decision.

Like I said before, She's gonna go against Julia, Jordan and Jada in a fatal four way match. So that's what that's what the Stephanie's title defense will be. And I'll like you gotta talk about the predictions late next week when I when we find out what all the matches are because Reserve Right now, as of this moment in time, we still don't know what all the matches are. Okay, who a lot going on? Sarah Shreiver, She's backstage with

an interview with Trick Williams. He's not here for any SOB story, but every time it comes to trying to get his title back, there's always someone in the way for Setdie Thorpe. Now Javon Evans taking a look at his resume. He's leaving Standon's Deliver with a title around his waist. He's he's concerned about the dark State. He needs Obafemi and Javon to bring their a game tonight. However, at stand and Deliver, the Trick is going to kick both of their butts. He didn't say bups PG show

trying to keep it PG. Then the fifth match we have is Wes Lee against Yo Yoshiki anymore, I never I'm never gonna say his name right, another great match. I like Yoshiki, like his style. I hope to see more of him in singles competition. I mean he's good

with Josh Briggs, Don't get me wrong. But like him in singles competition, and he's like, I guess he's like a mini sumo wrestler, Like he kind of did some sumo moves, but he's not like like a huge sumo wrestler like obviously yokozuna, you know, Rodney andoy he was bigger than life. But even like even like the regular size sumo wrestlers are pretty decently sized, he's not very big. He does the sumo thing, so I'm guessing that's his that's his stick in Japan, which is fine. He's uh,

he was, you know, he was. It was a good match. Not the match of the evening. I mean, Wesley is always Wesley, but it was it was a very good match. I know I'm going through these these things quick, but there's a lot going on and I need to I need to have dinner, to be quite honest, I'm gonna have dinner. But I wanted to get this done because I wanted I wanted to be sure that you guys had a chance to hear it before the weekend. Then. Uh so the winner of the match ended up being

Wes Lee. Uh he ended up doing a cardio kick to get to win. So I literally you know, the cardio kick is really cool too. Then we have a promo with Obafemi. He says, Dark State, your presence in here in NXT seemed to put the entire locker room on edge. Everyone is wondering what you will when you will strike, and where you will strike from. And the Ruler knows all too well about that. In addition, you

attacking you're attacking me last week. I haven't forgotten about what you did to me at Vengeance Day because you hit me with your with your last shot, with your best shot, and you fail to put me down. So tonight I'm going to return the favor. And when I'm done with you, you four fools, I will turn my attention fully to Trick Williams and Javon Evans, because in two weeks I will be it will be there, it's

only nine days. It will be their opportunity to hit me with their best shot, and they will find out the hard way that the Ruler can't be stopped and they will suffer the same fate that Dark State will suffer tonight, and that is defeat at the hands of Obafemi. So the sixth match we have is is he Dame versus Ren Sinclair again. I love Ren Sinclair. I think she's funny. If you ever ever watch her TikTok, she does like this this Wednesday, every Wenesday. Every Wednesday, she

comes out with a TikTok. It's funny, it's cute. There's no she had no chance against Izzy Dame and even if she did win, for some reason, she would have had zero chances, the same as when she was in the Irish Iron Survivor Challenge earlier this year, like she would have zero chance of winning. But she didn't even qualify. Izzy Dame Pope came out on top decent match. All the matches were decent tonight. I mean there was the one, the one tag team match with Fraxinem and Swipe Ray.

I think to me took the night, but it was that was about pure wrestling style. But yeah, no, it was a decent match. And Issy Dame comes out on top of winds. And so now we have four four people involved in the the women's ladder match for the women the North American title. We have Zoe Ruka so Ruka Zaria, we have Izzy Dame and so somebody else I can't think of right now. I'll let you know next week. I'll let you know next week when I do my when I do my predictions. But we still

have two more qualifiers for next Tuesday. We'll find out who the other two other qualifiers are and then we will get ready for the match on like a week from Saturday. Who Ava tells. Then David tells Roxane Perez, Last Last Legend and Fatal Influence that there won't be any last chance qualifying match this year and they should have won their matches. Ava has an idea for standing deliver in Roxanne says that she could not be not be a tag team because she doesn't have a tag

team partner. It seems like they're going to be doing Fatal Influence versus the Meta Meta girls and Roxanne. Great, you know, great idea. I think it's just a way to get Roxanne and Lash like on the card because like Roxanne like she's I think her next step is to go to the main roster. I just don't know how it went. So h Then you're Riah Connors and Cale Dixon still wants guidance from Andre Chase. There's a

little thing about that. Then we have Hank and Tank talking to the street Profits in the backstage area, and then they said they're going and there's going to be in the street. Profits say to them there's going to be ups and downs, and Ford tells Hank and Tank to lean into who they are. They don't have to be doing it, they don't have to do anything different.

They just be Hank in Tank and the Profits tell Hank and Tank that there will be a tag team goal in match next week and the winners will battle fraxing it for the NXT Championship at Stand and Deliver and it's time to lock in. It's time to stand and deliver. And this is where I think that they they elevate Hank and Tank, right, So they've built so every other tie team so far has been a subplot to Hank and Tank constantly losing. However, there's by the way,

I hate Gotland matches. I think gonlet matches are the stupidest things in the world. The fact that somebody has to potentially go for like for like four or five matches, depending on how many teams or people are in a gantlet matches. It's ridiculous. Hate Goldlet matches. There's gonna be one for the women's tag team titles on UH on SmackDown. I think there's gonna be a goal on the match for the women's tag team titles, and now there's gonna

be a goallet match for the NXT Tag titles. And again I just to me, it's it's I wish there was a better way to do it. But either way, like like I like the whole tag team Battle royal thing.

That was really cool. I should bring that back. But anyway, I have a feeling that this is this is a way to get Hank in Tank to be able to to be able to go against Fraxing for the tag titles and potentially we're the tag titles and not because they're obviously they're not better than Phraxing, but you know, Frank Fractionings had the titles for a while, and who knows what I mean now that they're kind of playing with them on the main roster, like both Axiom and

Nathan Fraser, maybe they're trying to maybe they're trying to see about moving them forward. Who knows, we'll have to say. But anyway, there's gonna be a go on match next week, so we'll see how that goes next week on XTVE and Page will battle West will battle Wesley Kay and Ethan Page for a fatal four way match in the winner will go against Rickey Saints. I'm totally missed that.

I totally miss that. You know, when it happens, I'm watching it as I go through my day, so sometimes you know, I'm making dinner while I'm watching it and I miss something. But so anyway, so Ethan Page will go against Wesley lexis Ki and what's his name Eddie Thorpe for on a fatal four we match, and the winner will go against Ricky Saints for the North American

Titles standards delivery plus the final two qualifying matches. So this is this is I honestly think that this is just a way for Ethan Page to qualify to go against Ricky Saints. How could you not have Ethan versus Ricky Saints. You have to you have to, right right, you have to final match, seventh match. There were seven matches, seven matches on Tuesday. Then we have Obaa, Trick Williams and Javan Evans versus Dark State. This was a fun match.

At the beginning, you didn't really know who the three members of the four of Dark State were going to go against each other. To be honest, I don't remember other names, so I know three of the guys ended up being in the match against Oba, Trick, and Javon. Javon is trying to be the kind of the glue that keeps him together because, you know, like the cheerleader, let's go, guys, we can beat him, YadA YadA. Turns

out the answer to that is no, you can't. And the reason why was because Oba and Trick ended up getting into a brawl on the outside, which left Javon Evans in the ring by himself, and he got destroyed by Dark State. He got destroyed by them. They did that whole power bomb thing. We're two of the guys like kind of like a kind of like a Bloodline two point zero power bomb, but got Jacob two power bomb with one guy doing a power bomb. But anyway, it's hard to describe. One guy's on the ropes, two

guys are pushing him down. Great move. They didn't They didn't really execute it very well, to be honest, but it's a great move nonetheless, and they painted Javon Evans, so Dark State actually won the match, and then after the match, Stacks gets up and says that next week they're they're going to do a match between a three way tag match between the family, the D'Angelo family versus Dark State, So we're looking we have to look forward

to that next week as well. Wow seven, with all the other stuff going on, it was so packed this week. I didn't realize how packed it was until I started doing this review. Hey guys, listen Patreon ww podcast at Patreon. We got seven day free trial. You've got seventy free trial on I believe, seventy free trial on Apple podcasts as well. All you can listen to us on Spotify and there's a link to Spotify to Patreon, so you

can get it all done in one shot. No commercials, because every time you hear my illustrious voice boom, there's a commercial interrupting me. If you're if you're on either Spotify or Apple without without having paid paid to not have the commercials, do without the commercials, then you get me, You get all the other guys, you get mad, You get all the shows without commercials. So much better. You have no idea it's so much better unless you're just

constantly hitting that advanced button for the commercials. You shouldn't do that though, That's how we get paid anyway. Anyway, can't wait for next week, can't wait for stand and deliver, can't wait for WrestleMania weekend. Man, I'm literally gonna be sitting in front of my TV from Friday night at SmackDown till Tuesday night at n XT. And it was just it's just gonna be nunst think about it. It's like it's like, what two So SmackDown is two three hours,

so that's three and standing delivered another three hours. That's six WrestleMania probably four hours one night, that's ten four nights to the next night that's fourteen raws, and to say three hours just for sake of so that's sixteen and then stay and then next on Tuesday two hours. That's eighteen hours of wrestling over an entire weekend. And the way I haven't even mentioned I haven't even mentioned the Hall of Fame, the Slammies, the other they have

roasts and stuff going out. That's like a whole big thing, Like it's gonna be it's gonna be great. And unfortunately, unfortunately, my dad's not doing well. He's in the hospital this week, not feeling well. He's got a bit of pneumonia and so unfortunately we may or may not be able to watch it together. I hope he gets out in time for us to watch it, but if not, I'm still gonna watch it, and I'll watch it again with him,

because that's our thing. And if I don't talk to you before, I will talk to you next week.