NXT Review: Orton vs Evans, Tag Team Title Match, More

it was from the factory in Saint Louis, Missouri. So interesting actually, So I watched one in I RAW on Monday, which was from Saint Louis, and then I watched an XT and I just originally thought that the NXT episode would be from the same arena as uh, excuse me as the RAW episode, and then when I when they

came on for the episode, it was obviously not. It had a little bit of a of a TNA feel if you've watched, ever watched a TNA wrestling event, it had a little bit of that feel, that vibe that the whole thing with the people sitting on the ramp on either side of the ramp as people would as the wrestlers would walk out from the backstage area was weird.

It was really weird like and then they were look like they were, if I remember correctly, kind of like they were facing in towards each other, so like when they wanted to watch the wrestling matches, they had to turn. I don't know, the whole the whole thing, the whole thing with them being on the ramp was weird, but

the venue was really cool. Actually reminds so I'm from the Hudson Valley area and back when I was a kid, we used to go watch wrestling events at the Mid Hudson the Civic Center in Poughkeepsie, and they used to do money net ross from there too. And the funny thing is I'm trying, I'm gonna try to describe as best I can. So basically, it's an auditorium. There's a stage on one side, there's just a square I guess floor in the middle, and then seats that go up

just on one side. So there's walls on either side of the floor, and then the backside of it has has like you know, seats that go that go up and and it's funny because they but when they would tape Monday Night Raw this, and I say tape because it was taped back then they would put the camera on the stage facing the seats, so it looked the Civic Center looked like a lot bigger than it was. And I kind of got that feel from, you know, not exactly, but I kind of got that general feel

from from this arena arena. It was a small facility. But I have to tell you this is why it worked. Last week they were in Chicago, they did this huge arena event, place was packed, people went crazy. This week they did it in a smaller venue, now not as small as the Performance Center where they have usually do NXT shows, but it was kind of in between, in between the arena and the Performance Center, and so it

seemed like their goal. I'm wondering. It seems like the goal was they're stepping down, starting in the arena in Chicago, the All State Arena the first week, the Factory in Saint Louis, which was obviously not the big arena in

Saint Louis, and then now stepping down. Next week they're gonna be back at the Performance Center, I'm assuming, because they haven't made any announcement otherwise, so it seems like now they're stepping down to the performance center, which you know, for somebody who hasn't watched NXT before it was on the CW, you know, they're kind of fading it down, which makes sense for those of us that have been watching NXT for for a better part of a few

years or however long you've been watching it, you're just gonna be like, oh, now they're back at the performance center. So I thought that was a really interesting concept. The episode of NXT from last night was not nearly as to me, for me personally, it was not nearly as good as the one from last week. But the one from last week was like that was like the first one on the CW. We're running out of the gate.

We're punching you in the face with the best stuff we have, and they did and it worked this week. It was by halfway between last week and what it usually is. I will say that, you know, we're gonna go through the matches and the backstage, the backstage stuff, and I'm gonna kind of give you my opinion on

some stuff. Some stuff was great and some stuff. So this way on this morning, on my way to work, I was listening to Matt's Raw review, and a couple of things crossed over from the from RAW to NXT. So I'm so I always wanted to listen to see what his thoughts were on something. But I'm just gonna get this out of the way before I say anything else about the NXT show. Please stop a sexy red please it's it doesn't work. It doesn't work, and I'm

sorry to anyway. So they brought her in to quote sing one of her songs, which she did sing, but basically she did the same thing that when I turn on my radio and I sing to my radio, that I do like. She sang to a recording of herself singing her song what please Stop. And I've never been so happy. And now listen, I've said I think I've said to you before. I really like Ethan Page. I love his heel character. I think he's he's just great

at it. But I've never been happier to see him walk out while she was quote singing her song and interrupting her. I know it was supposed to be a heel move. And I know they're trying, I mean, Matt said yesterday, they're trying to open up to a wider audience, and I get that, but like, find somebody else, Please, find somebody else. It doesn't work. She doesn't work, she's annoying.

And maybe it's just because of my background. I don't really prefer that kind of music that she has that she does, but it doesn't work, and they need to This is not the first time they brought her in. They even felt they need to bring it a raw two days ago. Well at this at the time of recording would be two days ago. It just was not good and they need to stop. They just need to stop.

Personal opinion. I understand that maybe some of you listen to it, you know, listen to this podcast, so like, no, it's wonderful, blah blah blah. I mean, please, if you think it was wonderful, justify it to me in the comments, because I don't. I don't see. I can't see how it was anything but just god awful. And I know that's extreme, but that's the way I feel. Okay, So the show opens up with a package recalling what happened

last week. I'm not gonna go through it because I went through it for an out half an hour last week, but the two highlights were Trick Williams obviously winning the NXT title from Ethan Page. And they touched on this last not last night, but two days ago on Raw about how see him punk quote cost Ethan Page the title. If anybody saw it, you realized that didn't happen. He attacked him after the match, Well, they attacked each other

after the match. But I was kind of to be honest, and I actually said this in the comments of one of Matt's recordings recently about you know, they don't have anything for punk to do. And he obviously came out on Raw, you know, beaten and battered from the hell

in the cell match, which wow. And I'm still like, I know this is not a main show review, but that bump that Drew McIntyre took where he went for the claymore and knocked and hit his back on the corner of the stairs, Like to this day, it just gives me like the willies just thinking about how much

that had to hurt. Anyway, going back to my point, so Ciampunk for a while is not gonna have really a program with anybody, and I know that he had one point he did say that, So that's that he wanted to go for the world title and to be honest I had said that maybe he could do a mini program with Ethan Page. Doesn't even necessarily have to be an NXT but Ethan Page right now, I mean, he's he's going to be in a triple threat match next week for the you know, to be the number

one contender for Trick Williams title. Okay, fine, but he doesn't really have a program himself. So this whole NXT in the last two weeks, the whole thing just seems to be one big reset. And it started out and we're going to talk about the first segment, which was which was Trick Williams coming out and kind of doing a victory lap with the NXT title. And it's clear

to me, it's clear. I think it's clear to pretty much everybody that Trick Williams is now the new the new face of NXT, and they're going to be marketing him first, which I think is great. I love Trick Williams. I honestly think I think he'll be in the main I think come the draft of twenty twenty five back, you know, I guess said in April or May or whatever it is, I think he's bound for the main roster.

And if he doesn't get to the main roster, then I'm gonna wonder why, to be honest, because he's he's got it all. He's got it all. He's got the personality, he's got the charisma, he's got the skills like he just he needs he's you know, let him cook a little bit with the title. I think you let him keep it till Stand and Deliver, which is the WrestleMania weekend at p l E. But let him let him cook,

let him simmer, and then unleash him. Uh next next summer, just unleasham they like they did similarly with Carmelo Hayes and Brown Breaker this year. That's my own personal opinion. I think he's great. I think it's I think it's very smart. It's extremely smart that they are making him the face of NXT right now, and they made it. They did it in the fashion that they should have with making him win the title in the first episode, as as if NXT is saying to the CW world,

here's our guy. This is the guy you need to look at. Oh yeah, we have out the other other people too, but this is the guy and he is the guy. So in the beginning of NX team, we'll talk about talk about the review in the dading and it was t Trick Williams opens up the show for a promo to address the NXT NXT Championship title win, and then as he's giving himself his props, rightfully so out comes Wesley. He's in the balcony of one of the sides of the arena. And again it's a small arena.

So like if it was if this, if that was done the balcony of a big arena, like it would be he would be completely excrew, like crazy far away. But doing it in this little venue, he wasn't that far away from the range so they could talk to each other. They talked to each other. Trick Williams calls Wesley light skin, which okay, that's fine, and they uh and Wesley basically says, you know, I you you know you had a major win, so did I last week?

I got rid of some extra weight, he said, he claims, and that he wants to go against Trick Williams for the title and uh, and Lee thinks that he's gonna leave him in the desk based like he said, like your partner did, which I'm assuming he means Carmelo Hayes and then they're both interrupted now now and again this is a main this is a main roster guy. But

they're interrupted by jay Uso, main event. Jay Uso. He kind of he comes out of the crowd, which in this in this venue took a lot less time for him to get from the hallway to the ring because it was such a small such a small venue. And here's the thing, like jay Uso right now and then he did He's not like, yeah, he's got the Intercomental title and you know, it puts a lot of credible credibility on him. But he could have done exactly what he did last night in n XT without the title.

He could have done exactly the same thing. All he did. All he did last night was come out congratulate Trick Williams. They went back and forth with whooped that trick and yeat and that was the end of it. He didn't really even do anything. He didn't say anything. It was just Hi, I'm jay Jusso, yeat, Hey, this guy's good. Whooped that trick? Back and forth bye, and that was

the end of it. But he didn't have to like it was just it was like you know you kind of like like, oh wow, he like, I'm so happy to see him here. And that's the way I felt, and I could tell the crowd felt the same way. They were just happy to have jay Uso in the building. And it was it was a cool thing. Again, didn't do anything, but it was just he just was there.

So anyway, that ended, and then we had the six woman tag team match, which pitted Bianca bell Air, Jade Carr Gill and Keanni Kilanni James versus Fatal Influence of Fallon Henley, j C Jane and Jasmine Nicks. And this was an okay match. There's a lot of of uh, what is it the the script of a Jade and

Bianca match? Where Jade goes out there, kicks some butt for a while, gets her butt kicked for a while, hot tags, hot tags Jade to come in, and then Jade just beats the crap out everybody this time, though there were some there were some times where the three of them would and Colonie Jordan would join them and beating up everybody, and then at the end it was very cool. So at the end they did Brianka and Jade did their finisher. I don't know what it's called.

I forgot what it's called. But then they allowed Colonie Jordan to do her split legged Moon Salt and pin Fatal Influence for the wind. So ultimately this helped push four people in the next day. It helped push the three members of Fatal Influence and extremely helped pushed, helped push Jordan, who, by the way, she's a North American champion right now, she doesn't really need a huge push.

It was cool to have it, and maybe they're setting her up for in the future to go for the world title, which which right now is clogged with people, which we'll talk about. The NX Team Women's title is clogged with people in a good way. And I know that sounds weird, but I'll explain later. So anyway, bottom line is is that Jade, Bianca and Kloni got the win and it was just again, it's nice to see the main talent roster main talent roster people come down

and do a little something. Later on in the show, there's actually an interaction between Jade and Bianca and metaphor lash Legend and I forgot the other person's name. It's your somewhere anyway, and they actually set up a match for the two of them Meta from Metaphor to go

onto SmackDown. So this this Friday night on SmackDown, it'll be metaphor Or against Jade and Bianca for the tag team titles because basically, Beyanca's like, they want a tag team tunnel Matching back, He's like, well, we're not coming to you. You got to come to us. You have to come to smack Down, which I mean, you're there now. I don't understand, but whatever. If you hear Matt, he calls them the mean girls, and they it's what it

kind of is. They're kind of like demean girls. But anyway, so after the match, backstage, we've got Randy Orton and Randy Orton and he sees Proxium, which is Nathan Fraser and Axiom, and they he asks them how fast Javon Evans is because in case, you know, in case you forgot, the main event that night was Randy Orton versus Javon Evans, which we'll get to you later about how that match went. And Axiom says, uh, oh, he's the fastest guy in NXT.

And then Nathan Fraser's like, dude, I'm right here and he's like, he apologizes and uh and says and then uh and he says, I'm sorry for being a hot head. And Randy says, you don't have to feel started for being a hot head. You can be a hot head sometimes. Anyway, after that interaction, then we had Roxanne Perez come to the ring and to do a promo and she was bad mouthing the fans for hyping up Julia and thinking that she would win the title, but she did not.

Then again Roxanne did get help. But when everyone props up another person to fight her, she she'll be drinking. I love this line. She'll be drinking the tears of all the fans when she retains. Again it's a great line. It was such a great line. But she but now she's like, now she says she won't be drinking alone anymore. Now she is going to have courage aide and that and then courage Aid comes out to do the promo with now courage aide. Coury j Aid looks great. She's

extremely good looking. She looks the part, but her promo skills she needs work. Like Roxannis is choppy times at times doing the promos. But Kora j aide is very choppy, and I'd like you to if you haven't seen it yet, I'd like you to watch it and just let me know if you think that I'm right, because it was just awkward. You know, it was very awkward, and then unfortunately you've got well, we'll talk about it in a second. I'm jumping ahead. I apologize. So she's talking to the Cory.

J talks about singing home, hearing how everybody talks about the women's division, and not giving her enough props when she came back. She wanted to make sure that everyone paid for forgetting about courage aid. No one saw it coming that she cost Julia the match, including even Roxanne. Jade used to be the young girl trying to make it at an NXT, but the woman she is now is the woman who will make NXT, who will make NXT. Yeah, okay. Roxanne deserves to be champion and that is her version

that she always wanted her to be. So she talks a little bit about it, and then all of a sudden, Julia's music hits. Now I forgot to mention earlier there was an interview done with with Julia, and in the middle of this you know in the beginning of the ending, before Julie Reeling got to talk, somebody walked in the room that you couldn't see and she's like, Julia is ah my old friend, and then they cut, so we

didn't know who the old friend was. Come to find out, Julia comes out and before she hits the ring, Stephanie Ricord's music comes out and the two of them come out and just start beating on Roxanne and Cora, and at the end, both of them picked up the belt that Roxanne left in the ring. Roxanne and Cora were outside the ring, both of them picked up the belt upside down. I just I noticed that. I thought that was kind of weird and just stared at them. I don't know it was it was weird. I just I

didn't understand exactly what that was all about. So they had they hold they hold the championship together. I don't know, it was kind of weird. Backstage, no quarter Catcher then approaches Lexus King, who is watching the match with Ora Mensa back on tablet. King Lexus King asked for some advice. Charlie Dempsey suggested an Admiral Lord Mount Evans Rules, which is a Gentleman's Battle of Sorts. So I've never heard

of that. I'm sure they'll explain it next week. But next week there will be there will be another match between Oramensa and Lexus King, and it will be the let me sure I get this right, Admiral Lord mount Evans Rules. So yeah, I guess it's something that was in England, because if anybody doesn't know, Charlie Dempsey is the son of Stephen Regal, William Regal whatever his name is,

and so and obviously he's from England. So anyway, the next match after that is the North American title match between between Obafemi the Champion and Tony di'angelo the challenger. And this match was it was okay, some really cool spots. Uh Well, at one point Obafemi goes out and starts talking smack to the family and he pushes I think he pushes. He pushes one of them and then oh my god, I can't remember her name, Rizzo falls over. Rizzo gets pushed and falls over, and Tony just snaps.

But it was weird. So he snaps and he starts beating the crap out of Obafemi, and but then he starts getting beat up himself again. At one point though, it was really cool. They were on the far side of the ring by the announcer's table and Tony D'Angelo takes Obafemi and gives him a spinebuster through the announced table, which was really cool. Then they get back on the ring. He does another spinebuster in the ring and then doesn't

get him covered. Obafemi like hulks up for a second, goes to choke slam Tony D'Angelo and he does a sunset flip during the choke slam and zesty pins him. You know what his zesty pin is is when you kind of like fold the person in half and stand over their legs. That's called that a zesty pin and gets to win, and Tony D'Angelo is now you're a new North American champion. Now, Tony D'Angelo. His character work

top notcher. I never particularly care for the whole Rocky thing when they were like trying to get him like not be scared quote unquote of Obafemi, But generally speaking, I love his work. I'm an Italian American myself. I know I don't sound it, but I am, and I love like the whole family, the whole Tony D'Angelo, the don of NXT. I love that. So he deserves a title title winning like I'm not the Heritage Cop I mean to me, I don't consider the Heritage Cop an

actual title. I consider it a piece of a piece of equipment that people carry around to say they're the Heritage Cup Champion. I'm talking about an actual title belt. The North American title has been around forever, and he deserves that title now. Obami, hardly anybody thought he was

going to lose anytime soon, and he did. Why, I honestly think that they're starting to groom him to go north, to go to the w w A. Eventually they're either they're either gonna a put the n XT title on him within the next year and then move him up, or they're just gonna say, you know what, he's ready to go. I think that's gonna happen sooner than later. My own personal opinion, but I think the main roster needs an Oba Femi type character, somebody who's big, who's scary.

I would say, I would say that if he was to go on one show or the other, it would be SmackDown because and and to to basically be an to come in as an as a US title contender, only because Ross still right now has Bronson Reid, Bronstrowman, like they have the big guys. They don't really need him, but I honestly think he would be great and SmackDown just a personal thought. So anyway, Oba Femi loses the title, Tony D'Angelo is the North American champion, and then next

week they're planning on doing a celebration. I don't understand. I don't understand. They seem to do this every week, every time there's a title change, especially on a especially on on a regular show that they do this. They do a celebration, like did it with jay Uso recently with the intercontinental title. They did the celebration with when when Chase U won the tag team titles, and then they did a celebration the week after and they ended up losing them that show. Anyway, but it was a

decent match. I like the match. I like the result. Oba's He's Obami did not lose anything by losing this match. He's still amazing, he still lowesome, and he's still gonna kick him butt just a matter of where. That's what I think it's just a matter of where. Then backstage, Colonne Jordan tells Bianca and Jade that she appreciates them having their back, and I mentioned this early, but she

has it from here. They interrupted. They're interrupted by Jakara Jackson and Lash Legend, who want a tag team title shot, and they said if they want a match, they need to come to SmackDown. So on Friday, as I said before, on Friday, there's a tag team title match. And let me tell you, if you've never seen lash Legend, like Jakata Jackson, she's okay. If you've never seen lash Legend, she is a beast. She's amazing, and to be honest, I'd love to see her against against like a Ria

at some point. But if you don't watch SmackDown, which I mean you must watch SmackDown. If you're watching NXT, I'm assuming you watched SmackDown, but check out that match just because his Lash Lash and then Bianca and Jade Cargo will be I think it has has a chance to be freaking amazing. Okay. Then backstage, Lolavice wants able to give her a match with Jada Parker, and then we get a returning Nikita Lions, who I feel like

she returns every few months. Hopefully this time she won't get hurt again, and she has an appointment with Ava during the show again, which again there's one hundred and sixty six hours of the week aside from the two hours that aside from the two hours that Negata next t is on why do you have to have a meeting during the show? But anyway, I guess it's just I'm a cynical. I think I'm kind of like mad

and like both cynicals when it comes to stuff like that. Anyway, So basically, Ava says, you know what, we were here to talk about Nikita's first match back, So it looks like it's going to be Lolavice. So next week there'll be a match between Nikita Lions and Lolovice and that should be a great match. I love Lolavice and Nikita Lyons is fairly good too. I mean, I'm playing it down.

Then we have the NXT Tag Team Championship match between Phraxium, which again Nathan Fraser and Axiom against a town down Under and this match listen, there's never there's never a bad match between when when it comes to Nathan Fraser, and Axiom. They are, They're amazing. The stuff that they do was freaking amazing. And A Town down Under came down from SmackDown to put them over, and they did, and they made Phraxium look great. Phraxium already look great,

but they made them look more, great, greater. Whatever it was, it was great. What are they gonna do? I don't know that. I know that they say this about every show, but the tag team division on every single show is so they're so not good right now? Who is Phraxiem gonna face? Chase University is out there fighting with Rich Holland talk about that in a second, and what other like Hank and Tank? No, No, who are they gonna fight?

Who are they gonna face? I look forward to seeing this because right now I don't really see who they can face anyway. End of the match, Phraxium ends up defeating a Town down Under. So it was a pretty decent match. Like I said, it was a good things. You can't you can't get a bad match with Phraxium. Okay, then we have Sexy Red come out. I'm not gonna go through this again. I don't like the whole thing. She needs to not be back again. And that's all

I'm gonna say about that. So then is the match between oh oh yes, yeah, oh then yeah, then the match between Randy Orton and Javon Erin Jevon Evans. To be honest, I love Javon Evans. Obviously, Randy's the goat. I mean, I know they called John Scenea the goat, but I like Randy better. I like his character better. That's just me. I mean, don't get me wrong, love

John Cena two, but it's Randy. Finally. I finally got to see him in person a couple couple of months ago at Wellhegan Son in Connecticut, Like I've never seen him in person before. Dude's huge. Anyway, this match was just okay. Randy kind of like kind of walked through the match. I would say, I'm not you know, Javon

tried to do the crazy moves that he does. The match ended where Javon Evans was trying to do this this flippy move that he does off the top rope, and the idea was that Randy Orton was supposed to catch him while he did the flippy move and put him in a an r KO and they both missed. I mean it wasn't like Randy missed. It wasn't like he like Javon missed. They both missed, and it just got completely screwed up. Then Randy basically and so it was supposed that was supposed to be the end of

the match, was supposed to be the RKO. Clearly he was supposed to try to do the r k O. When he did it, it didn't work out, so that Randy basically picks him up and says screw this and just gives him a regular r KO, wins the match,

and Javon Evans, Jovon Evans had a good showing. I mean, it's Randy freaking Orton, like, come on, but Javon heavens Evans had a good showing, which then the the after that match, the very last thing that happened was there was a another backstage segment to end the show between Ava and Ethan Paige, and Ava informed Ethan, Page and Wesley that they will have a Number One Contenders match next week and that Javon Evans will also be there

because of the performance he just gave. I don't think the kind of thing he couldn't have done to not get this obviously, and so it'll be a three man triple threat match and the winner will face Trick Williams at Halloween Havoc on October twenty seventh. That brings me to something I just wanted to tell you. I'm doing the NXT reviews every week for Matt for the WWE podcast,

and I'm also going to be reviewing the nxtpls. So the week of the ples, so Halloween Havoc is October twenty seventh, and then the twenty ninth will be the next NXT show. That week, I will be doing two NXT reviews, one for Halloween Havoc, which, again NXT ples are off the charts. Please watch it. Tell your friends just watch it. The performance during nxtpl is off the chart. Get people to watch it and then listen to my review.

Tell me if you agree. So that week I'll be doing two reviews, one for the twenty seventh Halloween Havoc and one for the twenty ninth for the NXT show. So if anybody has any questions or comments, please leave them for me. I want to hear what you think. It's been eerily quiet in the Patreon comments session. Again, listen to Patreon if you don't want to listen to the commercials on Spotify or Apple podcasts. I'm a Patriot.

I'm a Patreon member for the ww podcast. I listen to Matt Show without commercials, so I also check to see my show if there's any comments, and there's never been any comments. Still there's been one like so far. I hope to get more someday, maybe this week, who knows, but but yeah, do Patreon five dollars and there's different tiers. I'm a five dollars SmackDown tier, but you could choose another one. And then also you got ad free version on Apple podcasts and each one of those they also

have a seven day free trial. Try it out. If you don't like it, turn it off, and you don't have to pay anything. But I guarantee you with all the commercials. And you know, he's we gotta do the he's got to do the commercials. We gotta do the commercials in order to pay the bills to get to keep the lights on. But if you pay the fee, you don't have to listen to the commercials. And it's it's such a great experience about the commercials. That's my plug. Anyway,

I will talk to you next week. Let me know what you think in the comments and tell Matt if you think I'm doing a good job. All right, I'll talk to you soon.