NXT – April 19, 2022: A Big Step Back

NXT
Date: April 19, 2022
Location: Capitol Wrestling Center, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Wade Barrett, Vic Joseph

Things are both picking up and being let down around here. While Pretty Deadly and some other imports are a nice upgrade, the NXT Title picture is leaning more into B movie territory as Joe Gacy becomes more of a Bond villain parody. Hopefully the things in the middle can make it better so let’s get to it.

Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.

The opening recap looks at Pretty Deadly winning the Tag Team Titles and Joe Gacy telling Bron Brakker he needs to make a sacrifice.

Here is Pretty Deadly for a chat. They have dominated England and decided it was time to come to America and dominate here as well. And it wasn’t even that hard! Cue the Grizzled Young Veterans (with the graphic ignoring their first names, which has me worried). Drake says Pretty Deadly wouldn’t have won had they been here and it is time for the Veterans to win the titles. Cue Legado del Fantasma to brawl with the Veterans though and all four of them go to the back.

As the brawl is on, cue Bron Breakker through the crowd to tell Joe Gacy to get out here right now and see what he is willing to sacrifice. A recording of Gacy pops up on screen, saying he isn’t hard to find and all Breakker has to do is come fine him. Breakker goes off in search.

Over the weekend, Carmelo Hayes promised to get the North American Title back.

Santos Escobar laughed at Hayes, saying his place is in the back of the line.

Trick Williams and Carmelo Hayes laugh off what Escobar says and a match is ready for this week.

Tiffany Stratton vs. Sarray

Stratton’s theme song is now about being Daddy’s Little Rich Girl. They go toe to toe to start with Sarray taking her down and into a Muta Lock, sending Stratton straight to the rope. Stratton avoids the running dropkick and hits a hip attack, setting up the chinlock. That’s broken up and Sarray hits a German suplex into a middle rope double stomp. The Sunray dropkick sends Stratton outside so Sarray sends her inside for another German suplex. That’s broken up with a clash of heads though and the corkscrew Vader Bomb finishes for Stratton at 4:20.

Rating: C. The more I see Stratton in the ring, the more I like her. She isn’t going to be the next star but she is seeming more and more confident out there. The gymnastics background helps a lot and she is rather athletic. Give her something with a bit more to it than the Daddy’s Little Rich Girl deal and she could go somewhere. Sarray….I’m not sure even NXT sees it anymore.

Bron Breakker is looking for Joe Gacy but hears his dad’s voice saying “BRONSON (Breakker’s real first name) UP HERE”! Breakker finds the cage his dad was trapped in but it’s just a recording of Gacy and Harland torturing Rick Steiner two weeks ago. The hunt continues.

Pretty Deadly runs into Indi Hartwell and Persia Pirotta backstage and the women would like a match. Things get rather suggestive, but it turns out that the match is for Dexter Lumis/Duke Hudson, which has Pretty Deadly running off. This is up there with the worst things on NXT at the moment.

Grayson Waller blames Sanga for not winning the North American Title because Sanga screwed up the perfect plan. Andre Chase/Bodie Hayward come in to say this is teachable moment and brings up Ben Franklin, which has Waller asking who Franklin ever beat. Cue Sanga to chase Waller to the ring for their scheduled match.

Sanga vs. Grayson Waller

Waller’s shot to the back earns him a toss across the ring and there’s another to bring him back out of the corner. Sanga does it over and over until Waller just grabs the rope to save himself. That doesn’t work for Sanga, who drops an elbow on the back for two. Waller bails to the floor and has to escape a chokeslam. He goes up the aisle but runs back in for the running Stunner and the pin at 3:25.

Rating: C-. Good. NXT (and WWE as a whole) has WAY too many intimidating looking monsters and doesn’t need another one being built up with almost no chance of going anywhere. Waller is much closer to being a star and giving him a win over another lumbering monster is a good idea. Not a great match, but the result was a sigh of relief.

Video on Cora Jade meeting Natalya last week and getting beaten up. Now Jade wants to take Natalya out.

Roxanne Perez (Rok-C) talks about growing up as a gamer and being told that her character would be the closest thing she would come to making it in WWE. Now she is making her debut next week to make everything real.

Perez is ready for next week but Toxic Attraction comes in to say the butterflies you feel around them are real. Just don’t set your bar too high because you’ll never make it. Perez doesn’t seem impressed so Toxic Attraction thinks we should make the debut tonight instead. Perez says she can figure something out.

Legado del Fantasma vs. Grizzled Young Veterans

The Veterans do seem to have lost their first names as Legado hits a flip dive to take them out before the bell. Back in and Gibson fights out of the Legado corner, allowing Drake to hit an enziguri. Wilde fights out of the corner and brings del Toro in to clean house. Everything breaks down and Gibson gets caught with the tornado DDT, setting up the big boot/Russian legsweep combination to finish Drake at 3:56.

Rating: C+. This was fun while it lasted, much like calling the team the Grizzled Young Veterans as the name change curse strikes again. Other than that we had a fast paced match between two teams who can work that style well enough. Neither has any real chance of getting near the titles soon, but that’s NXT/WWE for you.

Wes Lee is feeling lost since everything happened but Xyon Quinn comes in to say he needs to teach Lee a lesson. Lee knows he belongs in the ring and maybe that can bring some peace to the chaos. Thank goodness this isn’t a Jaxson Ryker situation where Lee is getting punished because someone else did something stupid.

Santos Escobar vs Carmelo Hayes

Trick Williams is here too. They start fast with Hayes sending him into the corner but Escobar comes back with a missile dropkick. The distraction lets Hayes hit a quick clothesline and the confidence starts going. Hayes slips a bit but is fine enough to kick Escobar in the face. A neckbreaker connects and we take a break with Escobar in trouble.

Back with Hayes working on the leg and grabbing a half crab, despite his own back being banged up. Escobar fights up and takes him down for two more as Hayes’ back is in trouble. That means a delayed vertical suplex drops Hayes onto his back to leave both of them laying again.

Hayes can’t hit something out of the corner so Escobar unloads with right hands. That earns him a face first drop onto the top turnbuckle and Escobar runs him over a few times. Escobar hits a big dive to the floor but here are Tony D’Angelo’s goons to take out Escobar’s knee. The top rope ax kick gives Hayes the pin at 13:41.

Rating: B-. They were starting to roll until the ending when the over the top stuff brought it back down. Escobar might be a bit too old for WWE’s tastes but he can still get out there and work well with anyone. Hayes continues to be one of the smoothest stars in NXT and I could go for seeing more of him near the top of the card soon. Would Hayes vs. Breakker wound Summerslam weekend be that insane?

Post match Hayes challenges Cameron Grimes for the title at Spring Break In in two weeks. Grimes comes out to say it’s on but here is Solo Sikoa to jump Hayes and Williams from behind. Sikoa says he has next and walks off, with Grimes not saying no.

Bron Breakker gets out of an elevator and continues looking for Joe Gacy, seemingly finding the evil headquarters. Gacy pops up in a mirror but when he turns around, there is no Gacy anywhere. Breakker breaks the mirror and screams WHERE ARE YOU, because somehow they have dragged BRON BREAKKER into this dumb horror movie storytelling garbage that they just love to do.

Diamond Mine is happy that Ivy Nile is over in NXT UK because she can dominate. Roderick Strong talks about how the team has struggled in the last few months. Strong is ready to start making examples out of people and if they don’t agree, they’re enemies of Diamond Mine.

Natalya vs. Tatum Paxley

Natalya shoves her down to start and then grabs a headlock takeover. Paxley comes back with the wristlock but Natalya reverses into one of her own and flips her over into an armbar. Back up and Paxley sends her outside, where Natalya grabs a suplex to take over. Paxley fights back inside and grabs a suplex of her own but Natalya runs her over again. The Sharpshooter finishes Paxley at 4:55.

Rating: C. This was just a step above a squash to establish Natalya as being a thing in NXT. You know what you’re getting with her and she is going to be one of the better stars as long as she is here. Then you have Paxley, who has barely been wrestling for a few months now and was fine enough. This could have been a lot worse for her so there is definitely potential there.

Tony D’Angelo had nothing to do with Santos Escobar being attacked earlier but does find Legado del Fantasma’s car.

Nathan Frazer is coming.

Duke Hudson doesn’t want to dress like Dexter Lumis but does try talking strategy with him. The problem is Lumis doesn’t flinch no matter what Hudson says, though Indi Hartwell says it’s written all over his face. Just try and speak his language. This results in Hudson mugging in Lumis’ face but Hartwell says Hudson isn’t saying anything. Persia Pirotta is confused too.

Xyon Quinn vs. Wes Lee

Quinn gets knocked to the floor to start but drops Lee onto the apron for an early two. An elbow to the face puts Lee down but he manages a small package for two. A superkick rocks Quinn and Lee strikes him down but a slip lets Quinn get in a shot of his own. The running fist finishes Lee at 3:30.

Rating: D+. I wasn’t feeling this one and it seems that Lee is going to be little more than a jobber for the time being (and probably the rest of his time around here). I’m higher on Quinn more than most people but he does seem fairly limited in the ring so far. The good thing for him is that his look is going to carry him for a long time and maybe he can improve along the way.

Natalya is sick of people coming to the main roster to go after her so she came here instead. Nikkita Lyons pops up to put Natalya on notice and is coming for her after she gets rid of Lash Legend. Natalya threatens her with the Sharpshooter but Lyons says she’s flexible.

We look at Ikemen Jiro being tossed into the crowd by Von Wagner. Jiro is out for about a month due to injuries and Wagner has been fined/suspended.

Roxanne Perez vs. Jacy Jayne

The rest of Toxic Attraction is here too. Perez grabs a rollup for two and Jane does the same to even things up. They trade more cradles for two each before Perez snaps off some armdrags. Jayne sends her into the corner and hits a superkick but Wendy Choo pops up on screen. She has, ahem, remodeled the Toxic Attraction lounge, allowing Perez to hit the Code Red for the pin at 2:14. Vic Joseph: “ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED FOR ROXANNE PEREZ!” Nice debut for Perez and they got her in and out fast.

Legado del Fantasma finds a boot on their car and a dead fish on the hood.

Joe Gacy is watching Bron Breakker and says it’s time to end this. How in the world did he get access to that much surveillance equipment?

Tag Team Titles: Pretty Deadly vs. Dexter Lumis/Duke Hudson

Pretty Deadly is defending and take over on Lumis to start. An atomic drop has Prince in trouble so it’s Hudson coming in as the fans keep chanting for Lumis. That doesn’t last long as Pretty Deadly goes to the floor to put their arms around Persia Pirotta and Indi Hartwell, earning themselves a double beating. Hudson and Lumis hit a double suplex and the champs are in trouble as we take a break.

Back with Lumis still in control but Wilson pulls Prince out of the way of a corner charge. The chinlock goes on but Lumis fights up and brings Hudson back in to clean house. Prince grabs a quick two and they collide to put himself and Hudson down. Lumis gets knocked off the apron but Hudson grabs a powerslam for two. Back up and a Wilson distraction lets Prince hit a running boot for the pin at 11:45.

Rating: C+. I don’t think there was ton of drama on the ending and thank goodness for that. Pretty Deadly might not be the greatest team in the world and they certainly aren’t reinventing the wheel, but I’ll take them over wacky tag partners who happen to work well together. The Creed Brothers seem destined to take the titles from Pretty Deadly, so maybe that is where we are headed soon enough.

Joe Gacy pops up on the platform and says he’s right here because he isn’t a hard man to find. Cue Bron Breakker to go up to Gacy, who has the Hall of Fame ring. Breakker can have the ring back in exchange for a title match in two weeks. Deal, so Gacy puts the ring in Breakker’s pocket. Then Gacy shoves Breakker off the platform, because Breakker not only stood there when Gacy had the ring in front of him, but then stood there as Gacy shoved him down. Then a bunch of guys in hoods show up to surround Breakker to end the show.

This story had been getting more and more annoying all night long and now it goes over the edge. Breakker, who looks like a can’t miss prospect, has spent the whole night looking like a moron because he can’t find Gacy, literally stands there and gives Gacy everything he wants before being shoved off a platform with no resistance. Then Gacy suddenly has minions, because of course he does. It feels like a bad B movie plot and I’m terrified if this is the best they can do with Breakker so soon.

Overall Rating: C-. I wanted to like this show. There were good parts to it throughout and some nice action, but it’s a case where the everything else ruined what good they had. This show was full of dumb angles and characters (a dead fish on the car, Wendy Choo, the Breakker/Gacy stuff) doing dumb things and it killed what positives the show had built up. It came off like someone saying “this isn’t good enough so let’s add some spice” without thinking about how bad that spice would make things. This was a big step back after some better weeks and I’m really disappointed.

Results
Tiffany Stratton b. Sarray – Twisting Vader Bomb
Grayson Waller b. Sanga – Rolling Stunner
Legado del Fantasma b. Gibson/Drake – Russian legsweep/running big boot combination to Drake
Carmelo Hayes b. Santos Escobar – Top rope ax kick
Natalya b. Tatum Paxley – Sharpshooter
Xyon Quinn b. Wes Lee – Running punch
Roxanne Perez b. Jacy Jayne – Code Red
Pretty Deadly b. Duke Hudson/Dexter Lumis – Big boot to Hudson

 

 

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