NXT LVL Up – March 22, 2024: There’s A Nice Surprise
NXT LVL Up
Date: March 22, 2024
Location: Capitol Wrestling Center, Orlando, Florida
Commentators: Blake Howard, Byron Saxton
Every week when I get ready to watch this show I hope that we get some star power around here. There is only so much you can get out of having those lower level stars on the show and that becomes more and more obvious every week it happens around here. Hopefully it isn’t the case again this week as it can make the show that much better. Let’s get to it.
Here are last week’s results if you need a recap.
Opening sequence.
Tavion Heights vs. Saquon Shugars
This is Shugars’ debut. Heights takes the oddly dressed Shugars down without much effort to start and then drops down to let Shugars have a free try. This goes rather badly for Shugars, who is quickly wrestled down and then rocked back and forth into a gutwrench suplex. Back up and they run the ropes until Shugars pulls him throat first into the middle rope. A neckbreaker drops Heights back inside and we hit the chinlock. That’s broken up and it’s a slingshot Fameasser to put Heights down again. Another chinlock doesn’t work and Heights fights up, including A Sling Blade. A belly to belly finishes Shugars at 5:44.
Rating: C+. You can tell that Heights is on the way up to the next level around here and that is not a bad thing. He has the amateur style that works rather well and it was on display here. Shugars is off to a good start around here though like so many others around here, he has a very long way to go.
Uriah Connors, who got wrecked on NXT by Shawn Spears a few weeks back, is ready to try again against Eddy Thorpe.
Lainey Reed vs. Jaida Parker
Reed is a southern belle and they fight over arm control to start. Reed avoids a charge in the corner and gets two off a sunset flip as the fans seem to be behind Parker. A hair slam takes Reed down though and Parker hits a running shoulder in the corner. Parker puts Reed on the middle rope and sits on her stomach for two. The abdominal stretch goes on until Reed slips out and slugs away. Parker escapes…I think an atomic drop and hits a Rough Ryder for the pin at 5:14.
Rating: C. Parker is in a weird spot as she is starting to get it together as a powerhouse but it is going to take something special to get her out of the shadow of Lash Legend who is doing something similar but better. As for Reed, she is the latest in shape young star who did well enough in a short match. Again that is going to take some effort to stand out and this only got her so far.
Eddy Thorpe vs. Uriah Connors
Thorpe backs him into the corner to start and grinds away on a headlock. Back up and Thorpe snaps off another headlock takeover but Connors reverses into an armbar. A dropkick puts Thorpe on the floor to set up a suicide dive and they head back inside. This time Thorpe strikes him down with a kick and elbow for two, followed by a snap suplex for the same. We hit the chinlock but Connors is back up with a suplex of his own. Connors hits a running elbow to the face and a Blue Thunder Bomb gets two. Thorpe is right back with a backbreaker into a penalty kick, followed by an implant DDT for the pin at 6:58.
Rating: B-. This was a heck of a match by LVL Up standards and I was digging what I was seeing here. Thorpe is someone who has shown quite a bit of promise in his time around NXT but there is only so much he can do without being on the main show. At the same time Connors got a really good showcase here, which shouldn’t be the biggest surprise given that his father is one Fit Finlay.
Overall Rating: C+. That main event brought this show up after a not so great middle match. The opener worked rather well for a debut and it made this show feel like a nice mix. I can go for a different kind of vibe around here as the worst thing that they can do is put on the same boring show every week. Not a bad time at all here, with Connors and Thorpe having a heck of a nice surprise.
Results
Tavion Heights b. Saquon Shugars – Belly to belly suplex
Jaida Parker b. Lainey Reed – Rough Ryder
Eddy Thorpe b. Uriah Connors – Implant DDT
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