Welcome to the ring, it's rich and atom.
Breaking down the fights with flair and passion.
Tag teams grappling, belts are clashing.
Finishes and factions catching action.
Hello everybody and welcome to finishes and factions does nxt from Cincinnati, Ohio.
It is me, Adam, and we've got my co-host rich rich. How's it going?
How's it going? All good, mate? How you doing?
Yeah, not too bad. Thank you. Not too bad at all.
Hope you listeners are all doing well as well.
Of course. So in Cincinnati, Ohio, we are coming in from the Andrew J. Brady Music Centre,
which commentary took great delight in reminding us constantly that the venue was more or less sold out,
that it was standing room only and had a very sort of PLE type feel to it, which,
do you know what I can't really disagree with?
I mean, to be fair, if you look at the match card, it's a PLE match card.
We've got several title defences, you know, several title matches.
We've got a TNA and nxt crossover match as well, or we've got two of them. Sorry.
Both of them are title matches.
So automatically, we've already got three huge matches already coming up.
They've got titles on the line for and then we've kind of we've already got that massive tag match at the end.
So yeah, it's definitely a PLE style weekly episode.
Yeah, most definitely. And I mean, let's go. Let's start as we mean to go on.
We're going to dive right into match one, which is where nxt started this week,
which I love about nxt for doing this as well.
Straight into the meet and veggies.
Oh, 100%.
And this was a women's North American championship, championship defense match,
which sees Stephanie Vacura, the current champion defending against Carmen Petrovic.
Who came to the ring as well with was it a shantier Donis?
Yeah, that's him.
That's the badges. So we've got the three of them ringside and what on paper is meant to be a very good match.
Obviously, we know Stephanie Vacur can go.
She took this title off Fallon Henley vengeance day.
So we've seen a lot from Carmen Petrovic the last few weeks in different matches with Jada Parker and Kalani Jordan.
So we're on paper. This is a great match.
And it definitely gives us a great way to start off this week's episode of NXT as well.
Oh, 100%. And you know what?
I think it was this was definitely the way to open NXT as it was a phenomenal match,
phenomenal performance from both women in this match in this match as it goes.
I mean, this was this was Petrovic's first championship map championship, like opportunity in at least in WWE.
I'm not sure of the wider sort of Indies or anything like that.
Certainly within WWE, this was Carmen's very first opportunity at championship gold.
And not going to like she did put the work in for it.
I mean, Carmen got some very has got a very interesting like approach to offense.
I mean, at one stage, she'd managed to get some kind of like modified full Nelson hold.
Yeah, which I'm not going to lie, even made me sort of comment out loud to a completely empty room.
Oh, that's how she used her legs.
Yeah. Yeah. No, that was yeah, that was a really impressive move to use your legs to put son into a full Nelson.
That's a yeah, you've got some strength in your hips and thighs for that.
Oh, 100%. It's bordering on Brazilian Jiu Jitsu to be doing that sort of shit.
So yeah, even I put it down as it looked like it was MMA inspired more than anything.
I couldn't work out sort of which one of the martial arts you could have picked it from.
But I just I knew that was a martial art move.
Yeah. So and I just got down that it was a fantastically technical match, which we've come to sort of expect from NXT from NXT's women's division is that
while they can go for the flashy high flying, all singing all dancing moves, these women can get down and do some proper wrestling.
And as it goes as well. So we really don't know what we're getting from one match to the next with with a lot of the female superstars.
You don't. And it used to be a case of you could pick the female matches were never going to be as good.
Although always going to be the weaker matches on the card where these days actually that's not the case.
I think some of these women's matches completely outshined some of the male matches on the card these days.
Because of how good the female talent is within the women's division and all three brands at the moment.
I think it's also sort of props to the establishment as well to a certain degree.
You think back to like the attitude era and the golden era is and like way back when when a lot of promotions didn't give women the time of day.
And if they did, especially with this is more at the attitude era, they would kind of use more in a more vulgar way.
Lots of bra and panties matches and lube fights and shit like that where these days they're actually trained athletes as well as just kind of being there to satisfy vintzes.
So deprived needs.
Allegedly.
Yeah.
Yeah, allegedly.
Apparently nothing has been proven or if it has it's been cost effective.
Very cost effective.
But yeah, I mean, we can't put anything we can't sort of put over the champion in this case enough either because Stephanie Vicott we already know is an extremely talented individual and.
She.
Yeah, just very much bought the bought something a little bit extra to this this being her very first title defense.
And we saw a few new new few new moves from her as well.
I can't remember seeing her hit a 619 in previous matches.
They referred to it as a tiger faint kick the commentary team did but it was definitely a 619.
So it's that's become a regular move set for for Stephanie in recent weeks because I normally always make a point to mention that she in pretty much all of her matches we see her hit this 619 and it's done beautifully.
But it is a case that yeah they're not referring to it as a 619 even though anybody with sort of half a brain cell can see exactly what it is.
So they're not fooling anybody if they think they are.
They're certainly not.
Well they haven't fooled us anywhere but fooled you.
No this is it but yeah I mean one of the other things that we've one of the other moves that seems to be something that Stephanie Stephanie is particularly known for is a dragon screw leg drag.
Oh yeah you've commented on this before rich.
It's naughty the way she it looks like such a mediocre move but in theory and with someone who's got knee issues themselves that's got a bitch.
And yeah I know I've pointed out before it is a beautiful looking move.
And I mean the one that she pulled on Petrovic in this match even the commentary team sort of mentioned this move as some extra Petrovic soldier so well as well.
Like we talk a lot about some of the moves that a lot of these superstars pull off and obviously you know they're only half the move if the person giving it the person taking that move is probably actually a lot more important.
And some of the way that some of these superstars seller movies incredible and Carmen Petrovic is nailed the way she worked with Stephanie they care and the way she sold each individual move across the course of the match.
But she sold them all so so well.
I mean the good thing about professional wrestling now is the the secrets of the business aren't that much secret anymore which is a sort of a double edged sword because it's a good and a bad thing.
It's good in the sense that people like me and you can sit here and talk about it.
Have you ever set foot in a wrestling wing ourselves. But I suppose it sort of takes some of the mystery out of it as well like we know that nine times out of 10 if if a wrestler gets some color or ends up bleeding for any reason it's normally done completely on purpose.
Yeah. And normally done by the wrestler themselves who gets color and even things like the basics of professional wrestling one of the first things that you learn you learn to take a bump.
And then you talk about the art of selling a move which is obviously what Rich was just talking about that you've got to be able to make the audience feel the pain you feel and we get examples of like there's so many different even just TV shows that depict behind the curtain for
professional wrestling I mean probably not the most like well known or reliable source was the TV series they did for Dwayne Johnson.
What was it young rock is that
possibly not really follow the off I spend enough time each week watching wrestling as it is I don't think I could sit and watch their offshoots as well you know WWE suck enough of my time.
Don't get me wrong these are bits and pieces that I've sat and watched like prior to.
Just for the love of just for the love of wrestling really did really enjoy the page byopic but apart from that I'm really really watch much else outside of.
Yeah which again shows a wrestling Academy that page was a part of where she where they were teaching kids to run the ropes and take bumps and.
Yeah selling moves and shit like that it's all this these little little nuances that.
Seemed like we wouldn't even think about it if we didn't know about it beforehand it'd just be part of the performance.
Yeah of course.
But sort of coming back round because we digress enough on this podcast as it is. Yeah this match I thought was a phenomenal first match a real contender for match of the night as it goes.
But.
It is hit with an SVB for a three count and the cure ends up retaining her championship which.
Was well deserved a vehicle.
Yeah I'm not I'm not about the result at all it was a clean decisive when that makes patch of it still look pretty.
Pretty big like it didn't hurt her too much losing to a champion here so it's not the end we're going to see these two ladies for this title I don't think.
No.
But I think the most intriguing part of this match and the bit that I definitely enjoyed the most is what came after after the bell so to speak.
So you had your your standard little.
Sort of.
I don't know what you'd call it to be fair.
The embrace that the women normally do there's normally a sign of respect between the women and some of these matches at the end with the winners.
Yeah.
I know what you mean I can't quite think of the name either but yeah know what you mean.
But yeah we had at the end of this match we had the NXT women's champion come out Julia.
Yes she came in front of Stephanie of a care in the ring.
And we know from previous weeks that Julia and Julia and Stephanie have got their friends for the most part.
So she came out to congratulate Stephanie and I'm not going to lie they've set up for one hell of a match which I am really looking forward to.
So what they've set up for is a match at NXT Roadblock in two weeks time.
Yep.
Two weeks to roadblock two weeks to roadblock.
Yes.
So we are going to have Stephanie of a curve versus Julia in a title versus title match which means that the winner of that match will walk out with both of those titles.
Since this went live and we are doing the recording for it.
I have seen a story online which basically hints that Judy has got an injury that she was requiring surgery.
And this could be a useful spot for her to drop her title and then come back for it after she's had a surgery.
Ah, OK.
So again nothing official from WWE or anyone like that but I have seen that theory floating around on social media.
So that could be an interesting change there.
But as long as they do it they've now the difficulty they're going to have is obviously making sure that that is done in a way that protects Julia from looking too bad.
You don't want it to be a squash match.
This is a champion versus champion match.
Yeah, so we're going to get a hell of a match out of it.
So they've got two weeks they'll try and protect her I reckon over the next two episodes.
Until we go into roadblock they'll give her a probably a 20 minute match at roadblock and probably not even that probably about 15 minute sort of like thriller for this champion title versus title match.
And then they'll probably won't see much of her for a month or two depending on what that injury is if that is true.
No, this is it.
So we're going to have to try and just keep an eye and find out what to be interesting what they do with it.
At the moment both Julia and Stephanie they occur a baby faces.
So it's be interesting to see if they keep it that way or if they they keep us they have one of them has a heel turn maybe in the next four night.
I really hope they don't try and throw in a botched heel turn like a like a fast heel turn.
Sometimes it's nice to see the breakdown of the baby face before you get that turn.
If you get an instant turn sometimes it doesn't have the shocking reaction you want it to.
Don't get me wrong sometimes it does like when Seth Rollins put the chair through Roman Reigns and the shield like you couldn't have built up to that too much you needed to just kind of hit him.
I'm hoping they don't try and they can't be packaged one of them.
If it really is an injury they're not going to try and repackage Julia into a heel just to have her go off for surgery.
And they can't really do too much with Steph's Stephanie may cause character at the moment purely for you know they've just made her a champion and given her a retention.
They're not going to mess too much without finished product at the moment.
No definitely not and just because it's the beauty of it is because it's a champion versus champion match we don't necessarily need a heel and a baby face.
It's a case that we have the option of just having it as it could almost be like an exhibition essentially is champion versus champion and obviously the assumption is because.
For lack of a better way of putting this Julia is the.
Higher champion if you like she's dominant champion with her belt being the women's title rather than the North American title.
Yeah so it is perfectly possible that she get that.
Or it is expected that she would win that match.
So it would be one hell of a it would be a one hell of an upset victory for the fake.
Julia for Julia to lose that.
Yeah.
So it'd be interesting to find out how that one how that one sort of plays out but.
What a way to one person to push either way on it but yeah no that was definitely a way to start.
And what a light about what NXT did here.
You I know you're correct me if I'm wrong with this is we got to the end of the match we had the promo and then we went into the next match.
So there's a few different promos that we went into.
Yeah you've got the one with Ariana Grace and Santino Morello.
Yeah so this was basically Grayson Morella were patting themselves on the back for how well they've done with the collaboration which 100% not going to take that away from them.
No it was it was a good set of collaborations.
But then we have Lola Vice now we haven't seen a lot of Lola Vice I've got a feeling we have already seen her.
But not under that package name I don't think I recognize their face but I really can't think where I've seen her.
I think we've seen her under this name but only once.
I feel like we've only seen her once and that's it.
Was she backstage doing something completely irrelevant.
No I think she had like a one off match with some but I could be wrong I could be thinking of somebody else.
And the more I talk about it the more I'm thinking I'm thinking of somebody else but.
Yeah she comes in basically she wants a fight and ends up challenging Ariana Grace herself to a match later on in the night.
Much to the seeming displeasure of Santino Morello but he doesn't really get a say in this unfortunately.
And then we go from there backstage where we see Lexus King and Lexus King on his own is completely ridiculous.
The painted on facial hair really it's just something that really drives me up the wall.
However the only other more ridiculous thing is the size of that damn heritage cop.
Mate and he runs around with it all the time like I'd be leaving us somewhere on the side of the ring and letting someone look after it during the episode.
I would not be running around with that.
Well I quite like the fact that it's something different.
Any other championship in any other promotion is a belt.
So I like the fact that this is different and I like that that's how they've chosen to accept it.
Do you have a ring for the heavyweight championship.
No I'm sure that a W are still using a belt.
I thought they had a ring because Cody at one point had a champions ring when he was over there.
That's the only reason I thought.
They didn't while I watched it but I haven't watched it in quite a while so it's possible I suppose but not that I'm aware of.
Yeah but he carrying that massive cup round backstage comes across Oberfemi who seems in quite good spirits actually all things considered.
And basically King bragging about the match at his match with the TNA exhibition champion Moose later on.
Yeah that's not later on tonight though is it.
Oh wait a minute oh yeah no Alexis King and Oberfemi sorry.
That is the next match.
It is but Oberfemi faces Moose at NXT roadblock in Madison Square Gardens in two weeks time.
He does we find that out after the next match for it.
But we go from one more thing just before that and this is where commentary sort of show us a bit of an image taken from social media where we see this mystery for that have been well absolutely reeking havoc everywhere and anywhere they go.
Outside of the picture taken and uploaded to uploaded to social media of the four outside of the arena for it.
Yes the baiting us quite hard with this mystery for I'm liking to build up to it to be fair really want to know how they're going to like utilize them and whether we're going to see another faction come from somewhere to go up against them.
So there's not really much in NXT they're going to stop them especially last week after they laid Ricky Saints out.
They've had some big scouts to refer these guys they've already laid over for me out they've done Ricky Saints they'd laid out.
Other people they've got another lot of people I can't remember who they were off the top of my head.
They've gone through quite a lot.
Yeah they have us.
And they don't seem anywhere close to stop in just at the moment.
They don't seem anywhere close to kind of pinpointing out who their main target is either they've already hit some big names so who else they could be looking to pick a fight with is kind of unsure.
I don't think there's a main target I think the target for this group is just to make the biggest impact.
And it's not entirely clear whether these guys are from whether they're well we've said that I'm sure it's been mentioned somewhere that who they are suspected to be are in the formant center.
Yeah.
So it's assumed I think that they are WWE born but we can't rule out the fact that these guys could be from TNA.
They could be and say we've got a name and Google says that person as an American football player not a professional wrestler so we can't even use that as our sort of guidance at the moment.
No and this is it is that it's so difficult to try and pin this down to any one or two individuals that it's it's difficult to get a read on who they are until they give us some more information but.
We then go into match two which is our men singles match for the TNA X division championship match now this is history first.
You're just a bit of a first for a non WWE title to be defended on WWE's programming.
Yeah, and I'm not gonna lie.
I was not Lexus King is not the person I'd have given that responsibility to if I was a person for when it comes to being an XT's half of that TNA X division championship match.
Yeah, there are definitely people I would have given that to other than Lexus King but I suppose Lexus King was also the one that put his name forward for it maybe.
So Lexus King's hometown in Cincinnati, Ohio so I suppose they have the you've got the hometown boy going for a title match.
He was going to get always get the crowd behind him for this one wouldn't he so it kind of gives you a little sort of David and Goliath feel to this much.
Yeah, very much so.
And I mean the size difference between the two is very David and Goliath as well to be completely honest with you.
Lexus King looks like nothing when he stood next to Moose.
And you look at Lexus King normally and think oh he's a big boy.
You know, he's bigger than I am.
And yeah, Moose just towers over him.
Makes him look like a bitch.
Yeah, and the performance in the match doesn't leave much more to the imagination realistically.
No, I'm not going to lie.
I've never seen Moose wrestle before.
I don't watch TNA.
I might have to start after watching this match if I can find time in my schedule.
But goddamn, for a huge dude, he can hit some moves.
Oh, 100%. I mean, I did not expect this guy to move the way he did.
Like he started off very much doing what I expected him to do which was using his size and everything else to pretty much dominate the competition.
And I think he started flying for a slap for a chop contest, you know.
Oh, 100%.
Yeah, but you say this guy flies.
That is an interesting sort of dream match then really.
Gunther versus Moose.
Well, yeah, I mean, I didn't even think about that.
But yeah, no, the way Moose chopped Lexus King then, Lexus King went down like he'd been chopped.
And then for, you know, a little while later, what would I be wrong in saying Moose hit some form of Frankensteiner?
Is that the move that he, for some reason, literally climbing through my notes to see if
Or is it Hurricane Rana or something along those lines?
I remember him hitting something with Lexus King being up on the ropes that was more of a like a holy shit.
And...
I don't...
Oh, Dropkick's King out of the ring after he was sat on the top turnbuckle.
Springboard, crossbody, slam.
I don't have anything about a Hurricane Rana.
So either I missed that completely or just didn't make a note of it.
I'm not sure.
I might have, might have dreamt it.
It has, but no, I'm sure I saw something somewhere along those sort of lines.
But I might have to go back and rewatch it just to, to re...
Remind myself.
But apart from that, this match had some quality moments in it.
Oh, 100%. If this is what we've got to look forward to from, from like the future.
Especially with Moose holding that title.
That's, that's, you know, for a fact, at some point we're going to end up with Moose versus Oberfemi for a title match.
But I'm not sure which title it's going to be.
If you see Moose put that thing up in more often in NXT, someone's going to snap his hand off at that.
100%. And I mean, so King does not walk out of this.
Well, I'm pretty sure he didn't walk out of this at all to be honest.
I think he was part of that, this be fair.
He barely kicked out of that Jack Knife powerbomb.
So, you know, when he, he kind of, he had that last sort of boot in the spear, he wasn't moving.
No, definitely not.
And yeah, we, we definitely, we've definitely not seen the last of Moose, which I'm always happy to do.
I will be glad to see some more of him because he certainly wasn't there when I was originally watching TNA.
I've seen some bits and pieces online on social media, but TNA is not something I've been, been watching as of late.
And yeah, like yourself, I'm wondering what I've been sort of missing out on almost.
Yeah, well, one thing we're not missing out on is the fact that after, you know, Moose has finished,
I wouldn't even say you got the opportunity to finish celebrating.
He was in the process of celebrating.
We've got Oberfemi come out, which is obviously the NXT World Heavyweight title holder.
And a great job he's done with that at the moment to confirm the match between both Oberfemi and Moose at Roadblock
and in two weeks time at Madison Square Gardens, New York.
Yeah, which is going to be a hell of a match.
Oh, 100%. I am 100% there for that match.
Because again, it was teased as title versus title.
But I'm not sure if they're just showing off the fact that they were both title holders.
Yeah, I got the impression that it was very much put down as a title versus title match,
but it could just as easily.
I think somewhere later on in the episode, it gets confirmed as Oberfemi.
I think Oberfemi is defending the NXT title.
I think so, rather than Moose offering up his...
I will have it noted down somewhere towards the end of my notes to when they actually did it.
And yeah, so we'll confirm that.
One thing I'm going to need your help confirming as well is the next VT.
Was this the DeAngelo family one, wasn't it?
So I've got the next VT as being the Sean Spears one.
This one's been put out on social media, this particular one.
This was... it felt a little bit like an infomercial type thing, if I'm honest.
Because this was Sean Spears going through, essentially, everybody who's in his crew
being Brooks Jensen, Nico Vance, Izzy Dame, basically say, yeah, this was then before
and then after the Sean Spears treatment, they're 100% better off than they were before.
Or something to that degree.
Yeah, he's really kind of taking steps here about kind of trying to make sure that you can see
there's a difference in level between Sean Spears and the rest of his cronies.
He's definitely trying to increase that level.
He's always trying to turn himself into like a cult god, if you know what I mean.
I think that's how they're trying to portray him at the moment.
Yeah, I mean, he does seem to very much suit the role almost.
Definitely. But this is where we find out that next week there is an NXT Men's North American
Championship match between Sean Spears and Tony DiAngelo.
I mean, we haven't seen Tony DiAngelo since his last title defense in the steel cage,
where it was Sean Spears giving the ass kick in them, wasn't it, that sent him into overdrive.
Sean Spears, Nico Vance, this is where Izzy Dame turned on him.
Yep.
Or revealed herself as not part of the DiAngelo family, which in fairness, she always said she wasn't.
Yeah, she never claimed she was part of that. She just hung around with the right place at the right time.
Yeah, and obviously said all the right things and all the right ears as well.
We then went to a small social media VT where we see from Anna Grace's social media, we see that it's her and Kalani Jordan just arriving at the arena in Cincinnati.
And I'll be honest, I'm not sure why Kalani Jordan would be on that bus.
It's only something I thought about afterwards because she plays no active part in this card.
So why would they bother bringing her out? Why would she have been on the bus?
But regardless, she was on the bus talking about Jada Parker, who basically was in the background.
Words were exchanged and the VT cuts out just as I think the first punches are thrown pretty much.
So things heating up between Kalani Jordan and Jada Parker as well.
And I have mentioned it and I've just scrolled through my notes. That is mind blowing.
Yeah, it's something that never dawned on me.
I bring it around.
And till that point.
Right. She's got no place in the card at all.
She does not feature in this episode apart from in that VT. So if they bought, they bought her along literally to appear in a 30 to 45 second long video.
I mean, that's the easiest payday she will have ever had.
Definitely. But then, you know, if you're an idiot like me and you missed an episode and Netflix doesn't like the fact you missed an episode.
At least she didn't spend 20 minutes this morning making the notes on a three week old episode.
I mean, we didn't go back to Kalani Jordan.
Um, yeah, this is true.
We forgive you. You're in discretions. It's fine.
Right. Anyway, we, uh,
we go from there to an in ring promo for Jordan Grace.
Yes.
She basically
like this promo.
No.
I mean, apart from getting to see the greatest free agent that TNA ever let go, you know, there's one aspect to it.
Um, the other aspect is she had a great match last week with, and she teamed up with Julia and Stephanie, they care that I was kind of hoping we'd get to see a little bit more action this week.
It turned out it was, you know, a promo more than a match, but, you know, it's better than nothing.
It was. Um, so basically, uh, this was Jordan Grace laying out the expectation of what we can expect to see from her.
Now she's, uh, now she's NXT rather than TNA.
Um, basically looking for gold as every wrestler should be. They should all be chasing gold.
Um, and she's made no qualms about who she's coming in and looking out.
We saw her looking at both titles last weekend when she was stood in the ring with Stephanie and Julia.
Yeah, this is it. I mean, she was having a good old past.
She'd be a perfect fit for either, for either title. So interesting to see which one it is that she ends up going for.
Because I mean, after, after roadblock, we could very well, they could very well be against the same person anyway.
Oh, and that leads, that would lead into a nice one, wouldn't it?
You have Stephanie, they care come out roadblock holding both titles.
And then obviously because she's a young, one of the younger, less experienced guys in NXT with a title,
have her drop the main one to someone like Jordan Grace for a couple of months after she's kind of had an opportunity to,
to jump herself in with a few matches and get herself up to, up to speed.
Yeah. And it would also build on the Jordan Grace character as she pulls herself the juggernaut.
And, you know, she's just come straight in destroyed walked off with the title.
Yeah, this is it.
Like a sort of thing Charlotte Flair would do, but we actually want her to do this.
Yeah, this is a blonde wrestler that we can actually stand.
Rather than Charlotte Flair being a blonde Skeletor that we can't stand.
So she's got a dad.
Yeah, the one thing that we that we weren't expecting from this was a visit from one Roxanne Perez.
Yeah, someone was testing out the size of their Cajones,
which is a little bit strange considering how much time she's been spending on raw.
And with her spot in the elimination chamber on Saturday as well.
Yeah, it was not, not expected to see a show up in NXT.
And Perez was not shy about me. She did not mince any words in this promo.
I mean, she never does.
She's an angry little dwarf and she says exactly what she means.
Yes, very true.
And yeah, I mean, Perez talks about Grace having been a big fish in a small pond when she was with TNA with the TNA knockouts.
She's not wrong, but that's still a little bit disrespectful.
That was a, it was definitely a very Roxanne Perez style promo this one that she cut.
Oh, but Jordan Grace does not take this line down because at one point Perez is like,
I don't know what you're coming over here for coming into my division.
And Jordan Grace comes back with, I'm not going to lie, really simple line, but it hit hard.
Where's your title?
Perez. Yeah, where's your title to lay claim to this, to lay claim to this being your division, but you're not holding a title in.
Right.
And that was saying she's had one for, in raw for the last few weeks as well.
So it was definitely a surprise to see her.
I mean, Perez tries to come back at Jordan Grace basically saying, well, previous event, I was the champion,
you came in to try and take that championship from me and failed.
And then Perez goes on to set some lofty goals for to become Roxy to belts as she seems to think she's going to go on to win the elimination chamber and then beat rear Ripley at at WrestleMania to become the Raw Women's Champion.
And then come back to NXT to take the NXT women's title as well to become a record, record holding three time NXT women's champion and also go by the name of Roxy to belts.
I mean, those are some very lofty ambitions for such a small person.
Yeah.
In the crowd would gain right behind that.
Not Roxy to belts.
They were chanting that for a while.
Yeah, I mean, as much as I would love to see Roxanne Perez get get a push, I think going on that kind of a push would be going overboard.
Yeah, she's not being rare.
Might not even be real.
It could be.
Yeah, I mean, if EO skies to would win her title shot at next week's Raw.
It's a case that she will go on to potentially in the in the reality where Roxanne Perez comes out of the chamber as a winner.
She would go on to face EO sky, which I'm not going to lie would be a very good match on paper.
That's very good much.
But that's dream much material there.
Realistically, we're not predicting in any way, shape or form that Rhea Ripley is going to end up dropping a belt next Monday.
So no.
No, definitely not.
But yeah, it's this is all sort of this.
All of these fantastic points are rendered mute when or moot when Jordan Grace decides to just plain old cold cup.
In the middle of the ring, in the middle of the ring, sending a sprawling rather unceremoniously.
The outside of the ring.
Well, Roxanne Perez came into the ring, didn't use her inside voice.
And yeah, Jordan Grace slapped her back outside.
Oh, 100%.
And yeah, we're I think we're seeing the rebirth of a rivalry here between Perez and Grace.
And yeah, I've got a feeling I'd have to go back and watch the match that she referenced.
But I feel like these two could have a half decent match, you know,
I feel it doesn't do anything for either of them.
Like, no, if you look at it, Roxanne Perez, she's off to the elimination chamber.
She's having a push in the right direction, you know, and spending more time on on raw where Jordan Grace,
she's already got that edge to her because a lot of professional wrestling fans know who she is from TNA.
I'm not going to say, you know, I didn't.
But um, yeah, she's already got that name behind it.
She doesn't need someone like Roxanne Perez to put her over so to speak.
She's she's already built it.
So it's a bit of a neither of them have really got too much to gain from it.
But like I said, it's a little start.
We might end up having things completely change the elimination chamber on Saturday.
I'd have thought, you know, no, dear God, right.
So I love it when you say that.
Judgment Day have just had a going on a bit of a run where they're teasing potentially adding a new member against a finbalas wishes.
Yeah, Alice wishes.
Do you not think Roxanne Perez would make a good fit for Judgment Day?
And now she's to live Morgan.
But that would create some tent more tension within the Judgment Day would Roxanne Perez be the little stick of dynamite
that goes and blows them all apart.
Right.
So Judgment Day currently the women's tack holders.
Yeah.
Dom's getting tasty with Bron.
Finn's not really involved in much at the moment much wise because his last match was the Rollins elimination chamber match.
Yeah.
It's possible.
I mean, there's some space in there for an extra person, but whether they use Roxanne Perez that's a bit hit or miss.
If it doesn't work, it's going to it's going to kill her push.
If it does work, it'll be really, really, really useful to her.
I mean, if they put her in, if no matter where they put her, if they don't, if whatever they do with her doesn't work.
100% it kills her push.
Yeah.
There's no two ways about it.
It's sink or swim.
She's either going to flourish on the main roster, which to a certain degree if she's booked correctly, I think she will.
Or she's going to completely flop and end up back at NXT anyway.
And that's the center back.
Re-package her and try and push her again.
Well, I don't even think they'd need to necessarily repackage her.
I think if there's a potential for a full back storyline where her main roster push doesn't go to plan, it then completely kills any confidence she had as the prodigy.
Yeah.
And that turns it into a face turn because at the minute she's quite healish.
Yeah.
She's quite standoffish.
There's definitely a potential for if they do fuck up her main roster push, they could 100% send her back to NXT, tail between a leg sort of thing, and basically try and rebuild herself from there.
Here are a couple of squash matches and then a few harder ones just to make it look like she's doing a better job.
Yeah.
Trying to rebuild her confidence and things like that.
There's a potential there.
As I said, there's there's legs, no matter which way you look at it.
Yeah, definitely.
But we'll have to wait and say it's just a thought.
Anyway, we went from the Jordan Grace Roxanne Perez in ring promo into a backstage promo with trick Williams and Javon Evans.
Yeah, so trick Williams was I couldn't figure out if he was reading something online, or if he was in a video chat with somebody else and we just couldn't hear them.
I didn't pay too much attention, but yeah,
I've put down that he was reading something online and reading it out loud to himself or thinking out loud to himself because he's blessed.
I mean, trick Williams has been the golden child of NXT for a little while now from what I understand.
And his foray into 2025 so far has been nothing short of diabolical.
I don't think we've seen him pick up a win yet, have we?
Well, no, he's on a prolific losing streak for two months straight because he lost his NXT men's title to Oberfemi on the first NXT.
On New Year's Evil.
Yeah.
And since then he has done nothing but lose.
Most recently to Eddie Thorpe in a strap match.
Yes.
At vengeance day.
So that was at the last pair, then.
It's a case that I think Javon Evans, he's quite a young kid.
And he comes up tries to try to basically make trick Williams feel a little bit better.
But I think trick Williams is too bitter to sort of see that what Javon Evans was doing was a nice thing.
He was trying to be friendly.
Yeah, we also see Ricky Saints come along and do the same thing.
And trick Williams does more or less exactly the same to him, but realising he's outnumbered.
He tells them to Foxtrot Oscar without being quite so blunt.
He's not far short of it, though.
Yeah, this is it.
But definite heat between Javon Evans and trick Williams and I'm not sure I like the look of that rivalry.
If that's what they end up trying to push toward is get Javon Evans and Ethan Page out the way and then move him on to a feud with Rick Williams.
It just I don't see it being believable.
No, and trick Williams has already stated that he's not done with Eddie Thorpe.
So yeah, this could.
Yeah, it feels like there's not much substance to this specific sort of promo.
Yeah, this is it.
Now, the next promo we go to even is where the problems begin.
Oh, so this was the Sarah Schreiber interviewing Jada Parker in the locker room, I think it was.
However, this is where I'm not sure if this is a Netflix thing or if this is a WWE production thing, but whoever one of them someone fucked up.
And whoever it is, well and truly deserves to get sacked because this promo was completely ruined by somebody's inability to edit properly.
Yeah, I mean, we do basic editing for the podcast and we could probably have done a better job like someone screwed the pooch massively here.
It's almost as if it was done on purpose with how regularly it was done.
I mean, we don't use like fantastically complex software to edit the podcast together.
I mean, I use it if if I do the editing, I use something different to what Rich uses, but we achieve the same result.
And it's a case that like, I mean, we've both edited things that are a lot more complex than than this podcast.
And yeah, I agree with Rich.
I think either one of us, given an hour, could have cut that together so much better.
It's like someone pulled over one of the filters that the basic video editing software give you for free, you know, like the effects for transitions.
It's like someone's accidentally pulled one of them into the work line while they've been editing it and not realized, rendered it off and gone, fuck it.
No one will notice.
We noticed.
Yeah, well, I was going to say finishes and factions noticed.
And yeah, so I watched this promo back a couple of times just to try and see if I could get the bare bones of what was being said.
I'm glad you did.
I didn't even bother trying.
Well, I didn't.
For the sake of the podcast, I swallowed my pride and decided I wanted to go down that route.
And from what I found or from what I managed to glean, bearing in mind, I got two or three words and then it cut out again.
Jada Parker feels that Kalani Jordan suffering with a massive confidence issue since losing the North American title to Fallon Henley.
This was before the NX, the NX, the Netflix era.
And the other bit that I got was that Parker Parker don't play no more.
She don't want she doesn't want whatever confidence struggle this is if Kalani wants to fight Jada's there for it, which yeah, that's been building for a little while though.
Yeah.
We go from there, we also see some social media footage of the from the mystery for some who are making themselves felt by showing some earlier footage from an earlier match, but I couldn't quite tell whose match it was.
Because I didn't recognize the ring gear, so I don't know if they had uploaded some footage of maybe a dark match that went on beforehand or possibility, some of those lines.
I haven't.
I was thinking about looking into whether they knew what the dark matches were for for these events, but there was so much extra information to sometimes take in within an episode that I didn't think it was needed.
Yeah, generally speaking, the dark matches don't feed into the story.
So and for those that are new to the wrestling world, dark matches are matches that have held before a television check before a television taping where it's not televised.
They're not.
The only people that see them are the ones that are there live.
And this is normally where WWE used dark matches to get a feel for unproven talent.
So, for instance, if somebody just came out of the performance center, they'd use them in a dark match and get a feel for whether they'd work on TV from there.
One of the upshots of going to a live event is that you will see so much more than what is televised.
And you may even get to see the Miz.
Yeah, there are there are pluses and minuses.
Just be aware that if you go to NXT, you won't see the Miz so you'll be fine.
Just stay away from SmackDown.
Unless they happen to relegate him down to a coach of some description.
Anyway, we move on to match three.
How we do by far one of my one of the like the all time.
This was one of the matches I was really looking forward to the new was coming on this card.
Yes.
And we saw no quarter catch crew.
I was going to say I didn't see the Dudley buts.
No, definitely got to go there.
I didn't see the no to be fair.
I couldn't resist that one.
But yeah, so nice to see Martin Jeff Hardy in a WWE ring again, even if they were offering up the TNA tag titles.
So with this one, one thing that I really want, I wasn't 100% sure what they do is I'm not sure what entrance music they're using in TNA.
But I'm guessing it's not the same one that they played at the NXT event as the NXT event played the Hardy boys from WWE.
I mean, I suppose they're on WWE TV, so I'm guessing they would use the because WWE won't have the same rights that TNA would have to be able to use their entry music from TNA on TNA TV.
But we saw Moose earlier on come out to his obviously his TNA entrance music. So I'm pretty sure the rights as per the the talent share contract that WWE and TNA have.
It's a case that we need to get to you as I said, wouldn't it?
Like, for instance, we saw we've both seen like clips of overfemme at TNA's most recent televised event.
And I saw him on a ring entrance using his NXT entrance music, which I love overfemme's entrance.
Oh, there may be just throw out there that the conspiracy is they've used the WWE entry music because when they're when their contract sex fires is going to be another return of the Hardy boys for one last run.
Even though I'm not going to like you after watching this match. I mean, do not get me wrong. Great match.
And it was, you know, caught a catch crew definitely put on a hell of a performance against these, these, you know, veterans of the ring.
But Matt Hardy looked like he was struggling.
Like he generally looked old and gassed. Yes, I know he's 50. I get it. Like, I feel old and gassed and I'm only mid 30s.
But, dude, please don't let yourself go the same way as some other wrestlers have gone. Just, just, you know, take it in your prime and go.
This is the thing, though, is that I agree with you. No quarter Tavian Heights and Miles Bourne did put on a very good performance.
And I think to a certain degree, they carried the match.
Yes. Obviously, Matt and Jeff, they are while they are still fantastic in ring talents and can still pull off a lot of the moves that me and Rich remember watching as children.
Yes. Imitating as children, despite the fact that you do not try this at home.
I'm so glad we never attempted that spear off the ladder.
Yeah, no.
No.
Yeah, no, definitely not.
Yeah, the most I ever did was a couple of dozen swan-tomb bombs off a corner post of my bed.
I delivered them to quite a degree of proficiency as well.
But this was when I was a lot younger. I think if I were to try and do it now, I'd probably make myself sick and dizzy.
Yeah, I don't know. I'm feeling some sort of pain.
Yeah, that too.
But yeah, as it stands, Matt and Jeff put on the best performance I think they could have done.
Yes.
And I agree. I think Matt is certainly starting to feel it more than Jeff.
Jeff, I mean, I think he's been preserved to be quite honest.
Well, that guy has taken enough pain medication over the years that he's going to be high for the rest of his life.
So it doesn't really matter what you put some stuff through. He's never going to feel it.
But having said that about No Quarter Catch Crew, the live audience that was there were not giving them any room to breathe,
as at one point they were chanting, you're not ready.
And it's a case that I think that's definitely very disrespectful.
Like they're not the best tag team in NXT by far.
But regardless of that, still managed to put on an impressive performance and really don't think it was warranted that the crowd was shouting at them that you're not ready.
I mean, consummate professionals that they are, they ignored them and carried on.
But you see, you've got that I I've written down and I did have to use some assistance with my notes this week with the internet.
They've got it down with them as chanting, you're not Randy to he's got a slight resemblance to Randy Orton.
Right, OK.
So yeah, that's according to the the internet with what I use this week.
Yeah, no, it says you're not Randy because he looks like Randy Orton.
Oh, then I could have got it wrong, which he's sold with his visible annoyance working on the heel aspect of it.
Hmm.
Okay.
The possibility that I got that wrong then.
I can't remember which one I didn't make a note of which one it was.
I really struggled sometimes with these tag teams to work out who the members are.
I find the names and recognize the names.
We're trying to work out which wrestlers which I'm like, fuck it.
The only one it could have been is Miles Bourne.
Well, fair enough that is Matt and Jeff Hardy certainly don't look like Randy Orton.
Nope.
And with the greatest of respect to Tavian Heights, he's black.
That's a good point.
Oh, Miles Bourne is the obvious choice for that one in in that respect because the only other the only other people out there were Charlie Dempsey and Ren Sinclair also have no quarter catch crew.
Yeah, Charlie Dempsey is definitely not bald.
Now, the one thing that I actually found funny while we mentioned Ren Sinclair is I made a note right at the beginning of the match that the pop for when the Hardy Boys came out.
When that music hit that the roof blew off.
I think I know what you're about to mention.
And it's the fact that even Ren Sinclair was doing the figure guns.
Throw up some hands.
Throw up some hands at one point and started with it and was like, I think Charlie Dempsey.
We see Charlie Dempsey give her a nudge.
It was like, fuck you think you're doing?
And she was like, oh, I'm sorry.
It's just a reminds me a little bit of Grace and Waller in Austin theory last Monday night raw with theories.
Almost as the yeet.
Grace and Waller's like, you what?
You don't you don't his thing.
Yeah.
And this is the thing is that we've got to remember that a lot of these guys are fans first.
It's not a case that they're they're completely inhuman.
They're not going to be able to sit there.
If they do, if they see something they're like, they're going to react to it.
A lot of the guys that have been in this like been in doing this for years will be able to sort of turn that part of their brain off almost.
But now you've mentioned it.
Yeah, I'm going to bring it up.
I saw a clip online of the guy.
The real life Jacob Fatou,
a wrestle con event, and he was meeting the boogeyman for the first time.
And this guy literally, like he was prancing around like a five year old child meeting John Cena.
Like he was just bouncing everywhere and like he's a professional wrestler himself.
You know, and he gets to do all this cool stuff yet meeting the boogeyman was like, oh my fuck.
Oh my God. Oh my God. Oh my God.
There was a yeah, they were getting them like videos for I'm hoping it was a promo.
But yeah, there was a video thing where he was recording a Jacob Fatou was recording the boogeyman say something and he just grabbed his phone.
And he was like, yes.
I am the boogeyman.
I think that was it to be fair.
But yeah, it was so cool just to see these guys acting like fans rather than, you know, just guys that are in the business and know the tricks.
But I didn't take a lot of notes for this much purely for the fact that I couldn't get over the fact that I was watching the Hardy Boys on WWE TV again.
I really want Jeff to get that final run.
I was in very much the same sort of headspace with it is that I sort of very much got lost in the fact that I was sat watching the Hardy Boys,
which is one of one of if not my favorite tag team of all time.
It's a case that I sat and watched these guys.
I've watched these guys in multiple promotions, not just WWE.
I've sat and watched them in.
TNAW.
TNAW, yeah, really very much sort of followed their careers as they've as they've made the rounds.
And we got to see all the things that we'd expect to see from a Hardy Boys match as well.
We got a Swanton.
We got a Twister fate.
We didn't get a whisper in the wind, which I was a little bit.
Was it Willow in the wind?
No, Jeff Hardy does deliver a whisper in the wind.
So we got Twister fate.
We got Swanton, but they played all the classics.
Yeah, it's the poetry emotion that was it.
It was the.
Yeah, that's what the whisper in the wind is in theory.
And it's just another name of.
Yeah.
I think it was more Jeff uses.
Alter ego more than when he's just Jeff Hardy is more poetry emotion.
Yes, I suppose it is.
But yeah, the only other thing of note that I hope that I had to do this, it was sort of.
We see Fraxium come and set up chairs on the ring and on the ring entrance at one point,
which causes a small distraction of major issues, though.
No, but we do see after Matt and Jeff unanimously pull off a.
A win of fate, Swanton combination.
For the win.
Yeah.
And Fraxium joined the Hardys in the ring to congratulate them and welcome them back to WWE because this is their first match in WWE and what feels like forever.
And we then get basically told that at roadblock, Fraxium will face the Hardy boys for the TNA tag championships.
Now, we know that Fraxium have done a lot of work of defending the.
NXT titles on TNA TV.
So knowing that they're going out of their way, if you like, to make sure that it's all done as fairly as possible.
Is actually quite nice.
It's nice to know that we're that TNA isn't getting more of our shit than we are of theirs, if you like.
Yeah, definitely.
But yeah, so already just from tonight, roadblock is looking phenomenal.
Yeah, roadblock is is looking fantastic.
And then it's, I think it's going to start looking even better.
So we go into a VT after this with the D'Angelo family.
Obviously kind of a response to the one with Sean Spears earlier.
They've got their match next week for the men's North American title.
Could we see that title be defended again at roadblock in two weeks time in Madison Square Gardens?
I think that entirely depends on what we see.
At the moment, this is just a it's just a singles match.
Well, it's a title match, but it's a singles match.
There's no other stipulations to it at the moment unless that turns into another thriller,
which I don't think Tony D'Angelo's got in him at the moment to be fair.
I mean, we haven't seen him since his last cage was since his last match, which was in the cage against.
I had his name on the tip of my tongue then and it's just gone like a fart in the wind.
No.
That's who he faced in the cage.
Was it?
I believe so.
No, I know they came in afterwards and gave him a bit of kick in.
No, you're quite right.
Fuck, I can't remember what his name is.
Right, I'm going to get to scrolling.
I'm turning my pages as quickly as I can because I'm looking for the name as soon as I see the name at all.
Fuck me off that I couldn't think of it sooner.
I want to say it begins with an H, but I'm not 100 percent sure.
Rich Holland.
That's him.
That's the badger.
So, yeah, no, there could be something.
Something coming there.
We could see it end up being defended in quite a quick succession, especially if it ends up getting dropped and then picked back up again a week later.
Not that they do that or shouldn't do that, but.
No, I think we've we've seen them do that on too many occasions before.
I don't think we're going to see them do that again for a little while.
Let's hope not.
We'll find out a little bit more about that after Tony D'Angelo meets up with Sean Spears next week for his North American title.
Yeah, 100 percent.
No, yeah.
So, I think we're back stage with Sol Ruka and Zarya next, wasn't it?
It was, yeah.
So this was a trainer room, a trainer room promo where we see, as you said, Sol Ruka sort of tend into what appeared to be a wrist sprain for Zarya.
Yeah, I think they've been doing handstands.
I wasn't sure if this was referencing the fact that Zarya does that move in the ring where she handstands on the top turnbuckle and then swings herself round into kicking the person in the bottom turnbuckle.
Or whether it was the fact that they'd been fucking around doing TikTok videos like American Alpha like to do.
And she'd hurt herself that way.
So I don't think that was what they were referencing. I've got to admit, when they originally said about she'd sprained her wrist, my immediate thought was she's been back on the roller skates again.
Because they've been doing some bonding outside of the wrestling ring.
Outside of the wrestling ring just trying to basically make the best of their time together, I suppose.
But what we see is something I didn't expect to see from here.
We saw the entrance in the background of Piper Niven, who has been acting as the security guard for Chelsea Green.
Yeah, I fell up here in this woman's voice right now.
But Chelsea Green is NXT's Charlotte Flair.
Well, Chelsea Green is main roster.
And plus she's the current United States champion.
So the one place we would not expect to see her is in NXT of all places.
A Piper Niven maybe, but...
So basically Chelsea Green obviously thinks very, very, very highly of herself and basically calls both Sol Rooka and Zarya trash after Piper Niven clears the rest of the training room by asking.
I wasn't sure. I'd have to point that out just in case Rich decides he wants to make a smart ass remark.
But you know me too well.
I do, mate. I do.
And yeah, so calls on both trash and Sol Rooka basically points out that a little bit like Trick Williams,
Chelsea Green's not been on too much of a win streak recently either.
No, but yeah, hasn't put her title up on her in a way to lose it either.
She's been well, it seems to have been more focused on tag team matches recently and trying to get into the elimination chamber.
But we know that I believe it is Friday on SmackDown GM Nick Aldous has got something very special in mind for Chelsea Green and Piper Niven.
We've theorized that it could well be that they end up having to face one another.
I mean, that would be interesting.
That was one of your ideas.
Now, when Sol Rooka points out Chelsea Green's losing streak, Piper Niven pulls out the one thing that I would never have thought and probably made Rich tense up just a little bit as she pulls out a taser.
You bastard. Yeah.
Yeah, no, it definitely tends to stuff a little bit with that taser got pulled.
I'm not going to lie.
Little bit of PTSD there.
But this is where Zarya challenges Piper and Chelsea to a tag match.
Nobody explicitly agrees to this match, but it's still going ahead.
Well, I think yeah, Piper challenges them and you know what the other two are like, they're not going to take an opportunity to give Chelsea Green a beat down.
Are they?
Well, Sol Rooka and Zarya are on a kind of a win streak.
Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
They're not going to miss that opportunity to give someone a beat down if that's Chelsea Green.
And that's a big name in both our hats to be taken, especially considering they've not been a type team for very long.
Yeah, this is it.
And yeah, so we're we're due to see Piper, Niven and Chelsea Green tagging off against Sol Rooka and Zarya.
And that's next week's NXT.
And I believe that is also from is that from Toronto as well?
No, it's NXT.
I believe next week is from the performance centre again.
I didn't make a note of it so that is pure conjecture memory.
Now, the next match.
I didn't get a month on because quite honestly, this much boring as fuck.
It was a squash match.
Yeah, it was.
So the next one was.
I'm coming up.
Go ahead.
I was going to say the next match was the Ariana Grace versus Lola Vice match, which is the finishing off of the conversation that was had with Santina Morella earlier.
Yeah, no, the only distressing part I find out I find about this is the Lola Grace went to both of them for a fight.
Yes.
And I don't really class what happened in this ring as a fight.
No.
No, I would agree with you on that one.
So this match really was very pointless.
It was a filler at best.
The only interesting part of that match was a small VT which played afterwards, which seemed to come as a shock to everybody.
Where there was a commotion from backstage where we see some like possibly the mystery for have made their way backstage and the Lees out.
No quarter catch crew quite well.
I only saw like two, maybe three people in masks, which is what makes me think it's the mystery for but we don't really get anything else other than that.
So yeah, a little bit of an odd one, but we move on.
I am just going to clarify before we push on too far is yes, Lola Vice did win her match against Ariana Grace.
We didn't throw that in there, but yeah, that was won by Lola Vice quite decisively before we went into that VT.
Fair enough.
I've got to admit, I thought it was implied on the fact that it was a squash match, but yeah, I suppose we should clarify that.
But we move on. Move on from there.
Yeah, VT promo was next one.
I believe I had the in crowned interview with Eva and Sarah Shriver with the announcements for roadblock.
So I've got a VT promo with Eddie Thorpe where he talks about is he's one of the only as far as I'm aware native American native American pro wrestlers.
So Leans on that very heavily.
He does.
And I think that's where a lot of his attire comes from as well, leading into his native history.
Yeah, and he talks about how his native American ancestors were removed from this land and ignored a sort of put into reservations and forgotten about left to fend for themselves.
Thorpe likens it to what's happened to him after after vengeance day after he beat trick Williams because he just generally feels like he's been put out to pasture.
He got this massive win.
And then nothing else has been done about it, which do you know what I can actually see his point?
Didn't he have like a squash match last week?
Yeah, but that's about it.
And the fact that he just droid Andre Chase last week, didn't he?
Yeah, more or less.
But yeah, it's a case that he's calling out trick Williams one more time as if that's going to make it any better.
If anything, I'd be looking to try and see if I find a new opponent that might be able to do a little bit more for my my standing in the company rather than keep going at trick, keep beating the same drum, so to speak.
Maybe find someone who's got a strap around his waist.
Yeah, this is it.
But then we moved to the Sarah Schreiber interviewing Ava, who basically announces everything that we've already done.
We've already covered.
So this was over Femi versus Moose, Fraxian versus the Hardy boys.
Yeah, and the DNA tag championship and Stephanie versus Julia in their title versus title match.
Yeah.
So all of these we've already covered.
So skim straight past that as that was literally everything that was announced in that promo.
And then we move on to the last match, the main event match.
This was the men's tag team match, which saw West Lee and all ego, Ethan Page versus Javon Evans and Ricky Saints.
Now, I spoke to you off podcast about this match and.
We both agreed for what was really disappointed.
Yeah.
I don't think I think someone somewhere and with all the cut them out with some time, the problem I have is I don't know about you, but in the build up to this match, I had like five and a half minutes of just the NXT logo with some low music on.
And I just ended up, yeah, the production value towards the end of this episode run out the window. So it just felt like we'd lost quite a chunk and then it came in and then do match.
And then, yeah, I don't really feel that it was given the time that it needed to progress into what it could have been because we know the four people that we've got in the ring at the moment with Wesley and Ethan Page, Javon Evans and Ricky Saints that we should have a really good match.
And even though what we did get wasn't disappointing and I'm not mad at what we did get it could have been a lot better.
So this was like my introduction to Ricky Saints. I'd never seen any of his work before.
No, this was the first match I've seen.
So I didn't know what to expect. Ethan Page, we knew what to expect. Javon Evans, I haven't seen a lot of him wrestle, but I knew what to expect.
Wesley, you've seen a few a few bits here and there again, didn't see a lot, but know what to expect, especially when he comes out with Tyson DePont and Tyree Gigway.
We know that.
Realistic, they're asking.
Yeah, pretty much.
So we knew three out of the four, three out of the four men competing in the match. We knew what to expect.
Ricky Saints, considering this was his very first match on WWE and a lot of you may feel differently about it.
Wasn't great.
No, it wasn't great.
It was so much better considering how much of a caliber of wrestler we led to believe that Ricky Saints is.
I just don't think this was the best way to introduce him.
He had a bit of an explosive start to his match.
You know, like when he finally got in the ring, he had a he cleared the ring out with with Wesley.
And he then managed to take out Igway and DuPont off the apron. So he showed a bit of strength and considering he's not got a huge frame and a bit of speed as well.
But it was more of a whole match is really difficult to kind of keep an eye on what was going on, especially to make notes on as well.
Because there was just a lot of quick tags and sort of brawly moments. There wasn't a lot of big spots, if you get me.
I think considering nine times out of 10, when me and you talk about these episodes, we're normally referring to the main event as being the best match on the card.
It should be.
And that is, you're right. That is the way it should be. And that isn't what we got with this match.
No, we started off with probably one of the best matches and then finished off with something that already not going to light you.
I'm probably not going to remember in two weeks time.
No, this is it. It's going to be a case that I mean, it's not just this match.
The whole second half of the card because of production issues and the general booking was awful.
Yes, really was.
Considering like the week before we had with NXT or even the way this had like we went from vengeance day.
Really good PLA.
I was incredible.
We went to the next week's NXT. Fantastic episode. Really enjoyed it.
We then go to this week's episode where they're booking Ariana Grace versus Lola Vice as a squash match, which was dollars.
Shit. No, no disrespect to the women in it, but it was. It's just awful booking.
We had the hardies, which I enjoyed watching for the nostalgia value.
If it was based purely on the wrestling within the match, it's again, it was a passable match, but that was the beginning of the descent for this week's NXT.
And then we finish on a main event which should have absolutely torn the house down and in fairness, the crowd that were there seemed to be really behind the match.
It just didn't translate on television.
I just with production issues and things like that, it really took away from any momentum that match had going in.
We've had a lot since Ricky since Ricky Saints did his contract signing last week.
And guys, I had to him by the fatal four.
He has had a lot of screen time.
And I'm going to be honest, what we saw in that match was not worth what is not worth what we paid for it, essentially.
No.
If I bought tickets to that event and again, the crowd seemed to be behind that match.
So maybe I would have felt differently about it, but based on what I saw on screen, if I paid money, bearing in mind that the top billing is going to be that main event match.
I'd be pissed if I got, yeah.
Just and again, maybe that's just mine and Richie's opinion or maybe that's just how we sort of felt about it.
But yeah, I think it was overhyped.
Yes, I would completely agree with that.
There was no way for any of the guys in the ring to have kept up with that hype.
I mean, at one stage, Ethan Page and Javon Evans fuck off at the building in their own little separate brawl and leave Ricky Saints on his own to face Wesley and and depart an Igway.
And in fairness, he does a fantastic job of fending all three of them off and coming out with the win.
Which shows which shows a little bit of what I think we can hopefully a little bit of what we can expect from Ricky Saints moving forward.
I'm just hoping this was a little bit of ring rust.
Yes, a little bit of nervousness because this is first March, the new company.
I'm just hoping this is more we're going to get every week.
Yeah, because if this is, I'm really hoping they haven't paid top dollar for him.
Well, he's hotter than top dollar.
I knew you were going to do that.
Well, yeah, I didn't know Uncle Phil was in the game.
Who's hotter than top dollar?
Yeah.
Anyway, that's that done and that much was, as we said, finished by Ricky Saints planting Lee with a Rochambeau for the one, two, three.
Yeah. And we close out the episode with Ricky Saints celebrating his first NXT win.
And there was no other way that much was ever going to win.
It was ever going to end.
They made a big deal.
It was a big deal about the fact that he had his.
Yeah, they weren't going to let him lose.
All be unplanned debut to NXT where they shoved him out and said, yeah, talk for about five minutes.
Yeah, there's a microphone.
We need 10 minutes.
Yeah.
And then the next week on NXT, they have him signing this contract.
Which was a little bit of an event in itself.
We broke that down in last week's episode of the podcast if you want to scroll back down a couple of episodes and find that one.
Yeah, 100%.
I mean, the promo itself.
Fantastic.
Love the promo that was it was all put together really well.
All the players mixed really well.
It fantastic.
So I'm hoping that we don't have sort of maybe an Enzo or more a style wrestler.
All Mike skill and no substance and someone that we can kick continuously in the bollocks on promos on 2k 25.
Yes, there is that.
There is that.
And so more at the moment after that video, you sent me the other day someone shoving a traffic cone at the rocks ass with a finishing.
We'd have had so much fun with that.
Right, enough of our adventures into 2k 17.
Yes.
Right, there that is finishes and factions does NXT.
And yeah, we're going to leave you all to do whatever it is you do throughout the rest of your week and we'll be back with NXT does Smackdown.
And of course, we've got a bonus episode this week because on Saturday evening, we have the elimination chamber.
So over the weekend, there will be some extra episodes popping up as we break that one down for you in our normal PLE style.
Yeah, we did the same thing with our Royal Rumble.
So we'll be doing sort of both record and record ourselves, record ourselves watching the chamber matches and then break the other regular matches like the unsanctioned Sami Zayn versus K versus Kevin Owens match.
Yeah, baby.
The rest of the make up the rest of the card in our normal format.
So keep your eye out.
Thank you for listening.
Yeah, 100%.
Peace out.
Peace.