WWE NXT 8th of October 2024

Our WWE NXT results for tonight include Bianca Belair returning to NXT to team with Jade Cargill and the Women’s North American Championship Kelani Jordan against Fatal Influence, Randy Orton looking to deliver the greatest RKO in history when he takes on “the Young OG” Je’Von Evans, Tony D’Angelo challenges Oba Femi for the North American Championship, and Nathan Frazer and Axiom defend the NXT Tag Team Championships against SmackDown’s Grayson Waller and Austin Theory. Here’s our review and grades for tonight’s show, live from The Factory at the District in Chesterfield, MO.

The crowd is live as the new NXT Champion, Trick Williams, makes his way to the ring.
Williams tells the crowd to call him by his new name, Tricky Two Times. Williams says he knows there are sharks in the back who want his title. Wes Lee appears in the crowd and says he dropped some dead weight last week, and now he wants to become a triple crown champion. Williams tells “Lightskin” that he knows what type of dude Lee is.
Lee laughs and tells Williams he will say something no one around here has the balls to say: Trick, ain’t it. Lee says he’s going to leave Williams in the dust like his partner did (Carmelo Hayes). Jey Uso’s music hits. The new Intercontinental Champion Jey Uso joins Williams in the ring. Williams and Jey have a whoop dat trick and a Yeet off. Lee is in the crowd, totally annoyed. Williams and Jey ignore Lee and lead the crowd in a fun sing-along.
Grade: C+
This writer has no clue why Jey Uso was here tonight. In the end, it doesn’t matter. The crowd ate this segment up. Williams and Jey Uso in the ring together is like putting a Mentos in a Coke. An explosion is inevitable. Wes Lee got lost in this segment, with Jey walking to the ring for no apparent reason and taking the focus from the interesting promo between Williams and Lee. Hopefully, Lee will use the utter disrespect by Jey and Williams as fuel for his bid for the big belt in NXT. This may be the first time in history that a random appearance from a Uso distracted from a segment. Excited to see what’s next for Williams and Lee. Hopefully, Jey will only be involved if this gets us to a tag match at some point.

WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Bianca Belair, Jade Cargill & Kelani Jordan vs. Fatal Influence (Jacy Jayne, Fallon Henley & Jazmyn Nyx)
Belair, Cargil, and Jordan land stereo slams and flex in the ring. Jordan lands a low crossbody before tagging in Belair, who backflips over Henley and lays in the corner ten punches. Jayne grabs Belair’s braid. Belair backflips off the ropes and lands a clothesline. Superstar Press by Belair. Henley kicks out. Cagill and Belair send Henley flying with a double slam. Cargill press slams Jordan off the top onto Henley.
After the break, Jordan is getting worked over by all of Fatal Influence. Cargill gets the hard tag and clears the ring with ease. Everyone lands a big move. Jordan lands a moonsault off the top. Nyx catches Belair with the Nxy Kick. Belair kicks out. Belair counters a kick from Nyx and hits an allyoop. Cargill and Belair hit their finish on Nyx. Jordan follows that with the One of a Kind moonsault for the win.
Winners- Bianca Belair, Jade Cargill & Kelani Jordan
Grade: B
Fun match. Jade Cargill is coming into her own and works well with Belair. Jordan, Nyx, Jayne, and Henley look good as well. One thing: Fatal Influence needs to start winning matches consistently. Yes, losing to a team with the WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions is bad, but it would help them get a few big wins as a group.

NXT Women’s Champion Roxanne Perez gloats over defeating the anointed next big thing, Giulia. Perez says an old friendship has reignited, and now she doesn’t have to go it alone. Cora Jade joins Perez in the ring. Jade complains about not being listed when everyone talks about the great women in the NXT locker room. She wants to make sure everyone pays for forgetting about Cora Jade.
Jade says her friendship with Perez is bad news for the deepest locker room in wrestling. Giulia interrupts. Jade begs Giulia to get in the ring. Giulia stops on the ramp. Stephanie Vaquer joins Giulia on the ramp. Giulia and Vaquer hit the ring and attack Jade and Perez, clearing the ring. The NXT Women’s Championship is lying in the ring. Perez and Giulia both pick up the championship and stare at Perez. Perez is livid. 
Grade: C
Perez is great in the ring, but her promos can sometimes leave a bit to be desired. At times, she shows a fire in her promos that makes you believe she believes what she is saying. Tonight, that wasn’t the case. Perez and Jade worked as a face tag team due to their plucky energy and chemistry.
It remains to be seen if this will work with both women being cast as villains. Tonight’s promos from both weren’t a good start as they both tripped over their words and didn’t get the crowd to show any real animise towards the bad people in the ring. Stephanie Vaquer’s debut tonight was slightly surprising, but it was finally good to see her in an NXT ring. Let’s see where this goes.

NXT North American Championship Match: Oba Femi (c) vs. Tony D’Angelo
Femi mushes D’Angelo. D’Angelo and Femi trade strikes. Femi lands a nasty clothesline. Femi tosses D’Angelo all over the ring. D’Angelo fires up and sends Femi out of the ring. D’Angelo leaps off the apron, but Femi grabs him by the throat and slams D’Angelo onto the apron. After the break, D’Angelo back body drops Femi to avoid eating a powerbomb. Stacks slides a crowbar in the ring. D’Angelo tosses it away. He doesn’t want it that way.
D’Angelo tries a spinebuster, but his back gives out. Both men fall out of the ring. Femi lands a thunderous chop on the apron. Femi gets in Stacks and Luka’s faces. Femi pushes Luka and Stacks, but Rizzo falls as well. D’Angelo sees this and goes nuts. D’Angelo sends Femi into the ring steps and suplexes him on the floor. Femi kicks out after a spear by D’Angelo. D’Angelo charges in and gets dropkicked by Femi. Chokeslam by Femi.
D’Angelo kicks out. D’Angelo lands a flurry of offense. Femi sends D’Angelo flying with a tossing powerbomb. Femi collapses in exhaustion. D’Angelo gets to his feet. D’Angelo dives into a European uppercut by Femi. Femi tries to put D’Angelo through the commentary desk. D’Angelo escapes and sends Femi through the desk with a spinebuster. Back in the ring, D’Angelo hits another spinebuster. Femi kicks out. Femi fires up and tries another chokeslam. D’Angelo reveres it into a roll up for the win.
Winner and NEW NXT North American Champion, Tony D’Angelo!
Grade: A
This match was excellent. Look, D’Angelo’s gimmick is straight out of the 80’s; who cares? It’s fun, and he can go in the ring. The lead-up to this screamed Rocky II, which is exactly what we got, for better or worse. It’s definitely for the worse. As fun as D’Angelo is at times, having him dethrone NXT’s most dominant champion doesn’t mean much. D’Angelo has been in NXT for over two years and has been heavily featured on TV. This win would mean more to a Je’Von Evans or a Lexis King than it does for D’Angelo.

NXT Tag Team Championship Match: Axiom & Nathan Frazer (c) vs. A-Town Down Under (Austin Theory & Grayson Waller)
Frazer and Axiom are in control early, running circles around Theory and Waller. After the break, Waller and Theory are taking turns working over Axiom. Axiom fights out of a superplex and lands a big splash. Frazer gets the tag and clears the ring. After Waller pulls Axiom off the apron, Theory hits Attaxia on Frazer. Frazer kicks out. Waller tries to surprise Axiom with the Rolling Thunder Stunner, but Axiom reverses it into a rear naked choke. Frazer traps Waller in a guillotine. Theory slams Frazer on Axiom to break the hold. Axiom and Frazer land this finish on Waller for the win.
Winners and STILL NXT Tag Team Champions, Axiom and Nathan Frazer!
Grade: C+
This match was fast. Maybe too fast. It’s hard for anything to register when everyone is moving at a mile a minute. It’s hard to invest when no one is selling anything for more than a few seconds before popping up and doing some insane thing that would never actually happen in a fight. It’s odd that nothing happened after this to push forward the tension with Theory and Waller. Maybe that will manifest on SmackDown this week, but not having any follow-up here, especially with Waller eating the pin, is an odd choice.

While Sexyy Red is performing, Ethan Page interrupts.
Ethan Page tells Red that her concert is canceled. Page tells Red she doesn’t get to perform because she interrupted him on Monday Night Raw. NXT sucks no that he isn’t the champion. It’s bad enough that Trick Williams has his title, but now Je’Von Evans thinks he has the right to face Randy Orton tonight. Page exclaims he isn’t leaving the ring until he gets his title rematch. Evans walks to the ring and tries to talk to Page. Page takes a swing at Evans. Evans sends Page flying out of the ring.
Grade: D
We had to listen to Sexyy Red perform. The only reason this isn’t an F is that Ethan Page and Je’Von Evans’ presence bumped it up a grade. I don’t make the rules. Just go with it.

Je’Von Evans vs. Randy Orton
Orton and Evans lock up. Orton walks away from Evans’ dropkick. Orton smirked as Evans wondered what had just happened. Evans tries a springboard stunner, but Orton easily avoids it. Orton backs Evans into the corner. Orton pats Evans on the top of the head. Evans almost decapitates Orton with a dropkick. Orton rolls out of the ring with a shocked look on his face. After the break, Orton tries to suplex Evans on the commentary desk. Evans somehow lands on his feet. After a kick to Orton, Evans leaps to the apron.
Evans tries a dive, but Orton catches him and suplexes Evans on the desk four times in a row. Evans surprises Orton with a springboard clothesline. Leaping kick by Evans. Orton kicks out. Evans tries another springboard cutter. Orton blocks it and hits a powerslam. Hangman’s DDT by Orton. Orton calls for the RKO. Superkick by Evans. Evans finally lands his springboard cutter! Orton kicks out. Evans tries his corkscrew splash. Orton tries to grab him with an RKO, but the timing is a bit off. Orton picks Evans up and hits a standard RKO for the win.
Winner: Randy Orton
After the match, Orton raises Evans’ hand out of respect.
Grade: B-
Evans has excellent underdog fire. If there is anyone who could bring out Evan’s best qualities in the ring, it’s Orton. Orton guided Evans here, and their match highlighted the downside to Evan’s in-ring style. What happens when the person you are in the ring with is Randy Orton, and you are not going to put up with all that bouncy stuff? Evans found out today. The match was built around Evans finally hitting a springboard cutter on Orton, which Evans did to great effect after numerous failed attempts.
The one thing that fell apart here was Orton’s attempted spinning RKO. If Evans and Orton had landed that cleaning, it would have been the greatest RKO in history. Extra points to Orton for realizing it didn’t land and taking the care to hit another RKO so as not to bury everyone involved by just pinning him after the missed finish.

WWE NXT Review:
NXT on the CW looks amazing. The larger arenas give the show a much bigger feel. Including Raw and SmackDown talent on the show is not only smart, it’s a clear sign of WWE’s investment in this show’s success. Think about it: How much of the main roster talent was featured on NXT during the so-called Wednesday night wars? It rarely happened.
Sexyy Red, as always, added little value to the show. This writer appreciates that she is a wrestling fan, but that doesn’t mean she needs to be all over our TV Screens. We are moving into a new era with new champions and challengers. Wes Lee is making a bid for the NXT Championship and will make a good foil for the super-over NXT Champion Trick Williams.
D’Angelo dethroning Oba Femi for the North American Championship was… a choice. Unless Femi is headed to the main roster or winning the big belt, this one is a total head-scratcher. Why not build up Femi to be the next Goldberg? It seems like a missed opportunity, but despite the match having the wrong winner, it was the highlight of tonight’s show. Femi and D’Angelo looked like a million bucks, with Femi standing out due to his impressive power moves and undeniable charisma.
Femi is a star and needs to be handled with care before he debuts on the main roster and smashes the buildings as Snoop did to the East Coast. It’s a new day at NXT! What next for Femi? Who will challenge Williams for the NXT Championship next? Please tell us what you think in the comments!
Grade: B-

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— JJA Sport Studio (@jjasportstudio) October 9, 2024