And good. Hello to everybody. Welcome to Finishes
and Factions to NXT Road. We are at the theater
at Madison Square Garden in New York City. And
as ever, my name's Adam and Rich. Rich, welcome
in. Hey mate, how you doing? Before we get too
far, you keep breaking out a little bit. Eh,
I shouldn't do. Obviously that's going to cause
a problem. Any better or not? Yeah, we'll see
how it goes. We'll see how it goes. Fair enough.
We are live from Madison Square Garden's historic
theatre on the final... A final stop in the path
to stand, well, it's not the final stop, I suppose,
but yeah, to stand and deliver at WrestleMania
weekend. So - Yeah, I still haven't gotten used
to the timetable that we have with NXT yet. I
think it might be the last of PLE style event
they do before stand and deliver, maybe, possibly.
Not 100 % sure. I think it is. We'll proceed
like it is and correct ourselves later on. That's
how this shit no so yeah and as ever one of my
favorite one of our favorite ways to start any
whether it be a PLE whether it be a regular weekly
show is getting straight into some action and
match one oh 100 % couldn't have started off
any better in my opinion because much one was
a Men's tag team match seeing fraxium versus
the Hardy Boys Which I had to I had to watch
twice I'm not gonna lie purely for the fact that
the first time around I watched it because the
Hardy Boys It's the Hardy Boys right the fan
and me had to watch this match before the podcaster
and me could make notes on it So fair enough.
Yeah Had to enjoy I didn't get a tremendous amount
of notes for this match in all fairness because
I had the same problem is the podcaster in me
was at war with fucking child me that watched
the Hardy Boys growing and for both of us as
well it was Quite in like we always love watching
the Hardy Boys but to have a TNA tag title being
defended on an NXT PLE That was we had to watch
this. This was this was a massive first and It
didn't really disappointed over on paper it you
would have had the Hardy boys walking out of
this one easily, but actually Fraxium they gave
as good as they got for a majority of this match
and I Wouldn't say nearly all of it to be fair,
but we got to see a lot from both teams that
were incredible sort of bits to see. I went on
record when me and you were talking about this
Of podcast of saying what happened in this match
would have been passable for anybody to do. The
Hardy Boys just seemed to add a little bit of
prestige to it, which just took it over the top
for me. It was the nostalgia factor in this match
that got me anything else yeah i mean these guys
have been in this industry for probably just
as long as we've been alive so i mean they're
the people i think that everyone's favorite tag
team i mean i know they're definitely one of
mine so oh definitely sit and watch them was
just kind of like I'll take this opportunity,
step my feet up and just enjoy it without having
to go diving around on the internet for videos
of the match itself if it was on TNA. Yeah, this
is it. But yeah, we'll talk a lot about the Hardy
Boys when it comes to this match, but we really
can't take anything away from Fraxium here because
we haven't had an awful lot of opportunity to
see them properly wrestle. while we've been covering
NXT as they seem to have done more in TNA than
they have done in NXT, which is a little bit
odd. It's odd, but I like it purely for the fact
that they got to see more of the NXT brand before
we got to see more of the TNA brand. they've
had to send in their big guns to try and comprehend
with what we're fighting with it within the NXT
roster. It's a very strong roster. Oh, 100%.
I mean, I was a TNA fan a little while ago and
yeah, they've always had really strong talent
as far as, well, as far as any of it goes, really.
So I mean just by watching obviously we know
what we're gonna get with the hardy boys, but
we've got a lot of I made a note of a few reasonably
big spots from from fraxium and from both axiom
and Nathan Fraser and and like It started we
started off. I'm probably gonna get this wrong
but with axiom and Matt Hardy in the ring and
Matt hit in Quite a nice sit -down powerbomb
on him before a tag was made when that tag was
made and Jeff got in the ring there was more
Energy for Jeff than there was for Matt, but
there was still quite a lot of energy for both
of the wrestlers Like I said axiom hits a moonsault
from the top rope after Nathan freight and then
afterwards Nathan Fraser hits a suicide dive
onto the Hardy boys outside That's quite nice
to see obviously we've got four Well -known high
-flying athletes in the ring. I say well -known
but everyone in professional wrestling knows
who the Hardy boys are in Fractum aren't gonna
be an NXT team for much longer if they keep going
the way they're going They'll get pushed somewhere
up onto the main roster Saying that I don't really
want that to happen purely for the fact that
NXT at the moment is the more exciting program
Which I didn't think at the start of this podcast.
I'd be saying You know two months in Almost three,
but no this This is it it's a case It is a case
that it's It's really grown on both of us. I
mean I was always Sort of trying to give it the
benefit of the doubt It was kind of a case of
right. We've got to keep going with it. We can't
just Induct out on it because we don't know no
fucker and now I was done. I'm pretty familiar
I look forward to NXT during the week more than
I look forward to Monday Night Raw and Friday
Night SmackDown. Yeah, I've got to admit, if
I had to talk about the three shows in ranking
them sort of best or worst, I've got to admit,
it's a tough draw for first place. But down at
the bottom, I've got to admit, I've not been
enjoying Raw that much. No. Out of the three.
Raw has been a little bit weaker. Smackdown's
definitely had some great storylines. And yeah,
we get to see matches like Jacob Fatu and Braun
Strowman, big powerful matches where Raw doesn't
really have that. But NXT, I think is definitely
probably, I think NXT second. I think maybe Smackdown,
NXT, Raw. The it can it can change during the
week for me. Yeah after this don't get me wrong
Having already what having at this stage when
we're recording or having already watched smackdown.
I Would definitely put NXT over smackdown. Yeah,
so NXT smackdown war this first match set the
tone for the rest of the PLE And once I'd seen
Axiom hit that Spanish fly on Jeff Hardy, and
then the 450 splash afterwards, I was sold that
this was gonna be a hell of a PLE. The first
match either sets the tone, where it doesn't
get any better, and the first match is normally
boom, or it's the standard where it's like, right,
so this is where you've gotta start from, go
and make your match better. If you go by this,
if this is the standard, then we are in for,
well the rest of the PLE was incredible. I loved
it. Yeah. Not a bad match in any of it, realistically.
I mean, the fact that we got to see in this first
match, we got to see the Hardys cutting out some
of the classics that we, that me and you grew
up on. I mean, multiple. There was whisper in
the winds. There was all sorts. Swantoms, there
was a Swantom in there as well. F hits a frickin
Swantom. I can't tell you how many beds I have
brought as a child doing Swantom bombs off the
court because yeah, I'm not stupid enough to
do it on hard. Probably am now and wouldn't get
up afterwards, but Let's put it this way someone
who in the last 12 months has hit the floor like
a sack of shit Personally, I don't want to be
trying to do Swantoms Like, no, no, I'm not down
for trying to do Swanton Bombs onto the outside
of a ring. Jeff, you are an absolute fruit loop
and no wonder you had a problem with narcotics,
my good sir, because you need drugs to do some
of the things that you jumped off in your career.
Yes, most definitely. Yeah, as we have enamored
with this one, the Hardy Boys retain their TNA
tag title. belt um it's quite a large pot in
no way oh it was not in no way is no definitely
not fraxium definitely did themselves and nx
proud in yeah no they certainly did so we went
from there into a backstage segment which is
not something so normally with PLEs we get a
lot of matches and not a lot of of padding this
time we got a bit of padding but we don't mind.
So we've got a, it was a conversation between
Jada Parker and backstage with WWE Hall of Famer,
Hall of Famer, sorry, Mickie James, who I believe,
and Adam will tell me if I'm wrong here, is currently
a coach on LFG. Yeah, so she's a season one coach
for LFG. I've watched a few of the episodes for
it definitely worth a watch. I haven't caught
up yet, but Definitely definitely worth a watch
And Mickey James no stranger to TNA either. It's
where she Jada Parker towards the end of this
Towards the end of this match or the end of this
little promo makes a comment about hardcore country
which was one of the monikers that Mickey James
wore while she was during her time in TNA. I
didn't get that reference myself, not watching
a lot of TNA, especially not at the time period
when Mickie James would have been destroying
the X Division. Well, she would have been destroying
the Knockouts Division. That's how little I know
about TNA there, guys. I confused Moose's title
with the women's title. I'm pretty sure Mischa
Slamovich would... I'll be too happy with that.
No, probably not. Although I have seen some small
clips of Cora Jade and Masha Slamovich's match.
And I don't know what the result is, but it's
whatever it is. Is it a brutal match? Oh, yeah.
Go back and have a little look for that one.
Talking about brutal matches. We go into. NXT
did us brutally this time. So we've gone from
this backstage segment with Jada and Mickie James
to Roxanne Perez entering the ring to then go
to a VT of like a backstage area made to look
like a restaurant to where the D 'Angelo family
are sat around the table. So you've got Stacks,
Rizzo, and there's a third one whose name I can't
remember because he never talks. I had a feeling
you were going to ask me and I haven't managed
to get far enough back in my notes because I
did have to look it up at one point. We have
this issue every time we talk about the D 'Angelo
family. There's the one guy who is the most And
he's the most forgettable dude in the world at
this present moment But he's he's in there too
and it's basically a conversation about how stacks
feels it's his fault that Tony lost his title
and then But you know, we're not gonna get into
that too much and He's basically set up a six
-man tag match for next week for which is basically
the D 'Angelo family versus the Culling as Sean
Spears is now referring to his group of minions
from what I've worked out. Yeah I'm still sort
of referring to them as the Spears family. That's
what I've got it written down in my notes and
to be fair at the start of the program we get
to see this VT I think that is what they are
referred to, not referred to directly as, but
indirectly the Spears family. When we get the
return VT later on with Sean Spears, which we'll
go into a little bit later on, I think that's
when they pop up a visual. But I have also seen
some interesting bits online regarding WWE visuals
this week, but I'm going to get into that more
on the SmackDown episode of this week's podcast
rather than this one. Fair enough. I know which
ones you're talking about and I'm looking forward
to hearing what turned up But yes, so we've got
a six man tag match between the D 'Angelo family
and The Spears family the Cullen whatever you
want to fucking call them And that's been set
up for next week We then go I believe is in the
performance center No, I think you are spot on
there sir as normal Not always but we tried But
yeah as we get into it so we've got this Roxanne
Perez Jordan grace match Which is basically it
was a bit of a strange one to think of but we
saw after Jordan grace's match last week on NXT
she was Thank you. Yeah, it wasn't It wasn't
much of them it so last week was the Jordan grace
vs. Cora Jade man That's the stuff. Yeah, that's
the one and Obviously it like a little while
after that match last week on NXT. There was
a small clip backstage of Roxanne Perez Laying
the chair into Jordan grace and basically shouting
out of the NXT belongs to her I Have noticed
and this point is brought up a little bit later,
but all the more recent signings within WWE all
the ones that are getting their ass kicked a
majority of the time Right. So Jade Cargill is
reasonably recent Got her ass handed to her by
Naomi, right? Jordan Grace, a recent signing
to NXT, had her ass handed to her by Roxanne
Perez backstage with that chair. You've then
had Ricky Saints. When he first signed his NXT
contract, he got done over by the four masked
homies that we do not know who they are. So the
last - they're playing that storyline low and
slow they are um and again yes i've i've mentioned
our master amigos we will probably end up talking
about them at some point we always seem to end
up having to discuss them when there is a title
involved or someone who just needs bringing down
a peg or two i'm surprised they haven't done
any thought yet because he needs to be brought
down a page or two Anyway, so we got we had the
Roxanne Perez Jordan grace match which was the
Follow -through from last week. I did not get
a huge amount of notes for this And I'm not entirely
sure if it's because it was a really good match
and I got sucked in or It was a really poor match
and I got bored So it was my notes of this maybe
like six lines long. There was six lines. It's
not a huge amount of notes at all, but it wasn't
a hugely long match either. No, it wasn't. And
I didn't get a massive amount of notes either.
And I've put this down to the fact that I, again,
I enjoyed this match. It's a case that it was
a really enjoyable match to watch despite the
fact that It was sort of predictable to know
who was going to win this. Yeah. In my opinion,
I think if you've been watching NXT programming
the last few weeks, you will understand that
they weren't going to let Jordan Grace have a
match at PLE in Madison Square Gardens and lose.
Where on the other hand, Roxanne Perez has been
all over the place. We saw her in the elimination
chamber. We've seen her on Raw. We've seen her
on NXT and we saw her at Vengeance Day as well.
I think she maybe could have done with the wins
slightly more as the extra add to her character
build. So this is the thing is that this match
did nothing to diminish Roxanne Perez's character
because she's still playing a bit of a heel role.
Yeah. She did that in this match and did it well.
She did. But we know what we're getting from
Roxanne Perez though. You're getting a very rounded
package where to start off with we had no idea
what we were getting because she wasn't very
easy to follow. What I felt she wasn't very easy
to follow because one minute she was being nicey
-nicey the next minute she was being an absolute
bitch. It was whether they were trying to work
out which way they were going to... No, I think
they knew where they were going with her from
the offset I'll be honest it's been a case that
She's yeah Yeah, it's a case that I think more
females will probably Sort of relate to her character
than anything else and that's not me being sexist
or anything Those lines, it is more the case
that I think every woman at some point or another
has known somebody like Roxanne Perez. Yes. It's
basically, Roxanne Perez is the bitch who's nice
to your face but will stab you in the back any
chance she gets. Yeah, and then fuck your man
just to make you feel bad about it. We all know
those types. yeah no i really i was a little
bit undecided on this match i wasn't 100 sure
which way i went with it there were some there
were some some pretty big high points within
the match but a lot of it was just roxanne perez
just grinding jordan grace down just trying to
take her like her arms and her knees out from
her and she does do a good job of taking the
one knee out quite well with a kick into the
steel steps on the outside after uh There was
a series of different moves between the two of
them. There was quite an offensive spine buster
from Jordan Grayson for a quick pin, but it was
only sort of a one count. And then as they kind
of both rolled away from each other, they were
closer to the corner, they ended up on the outside,
so they just kind of had a bit of a go on the
outside. Where let's say the knee got taken out
you could see throughout the match Jordan grace
was struggling trying to kind of with her knee
and trying to keep her base and She sold it really
well But the only problem I had personally was
the the cell back into I'm okay now wasn't gradual
enough It's kind of as though they were told
to hurry the match up a little bit She went from
being all many really hurts many really hurts
to boom fine Powerlifting you for fun Yeah, I
can sort of see where you're going with that
it's Yeah, it didn't make her like a phenomenal
amount a sense really but Do you know again?
it was for all its shortcomings because I've
got a feeling that they were possibly gonna try
and build more of an angle for Her and Cora Jade
and because of Cora Jade be next out of the match
last week it was a case that they just they had
to throw somebody else into mix and Roxanne Perez
fit the bill sort of thing, but having said that
it still came out as a I mean watching Roxanne
Perez lock that crippler crossface in on Jordan
grace was funny Because I'm surprised Jordan
grace bends the way she does muscle structure
she has I'm pretty sure those legs like elastic
bands they only go where they're supposed to
like they don't go very far and yeah to get that
cross face locked in you're not pleasant no definitely
not my knee doesn't go that way so I don't want
that locked in with me either no you and me both
but yeah I mean ultimately Jordan grace walks
out of this with a victory as we've already mentioned.
It's there were some I Mean two matches in and
already had some absolute bangers instant classics
to a certain degree and I would put the Hardy
Boys much over the Roxanne Perez Jordan grace
much, but they were still very good matches.
I think that is more because it was the Hardy
Boys are nostalgic and I'm still reading the
first oh yeah hyper moment it was a good match
don't get me wrong it just wasn't better than
what fraxium and the hardy boys produced no but
still a very good match um we went tea this week
was the gift that kept on giving though because
we had a backstage segment with oba femi and
moose it starts off with moose walking into the
building i'm guessing it was more of a like walking
around backstage Then we've got over Femi doing
the same thing What I can work out because of
the running of things I think they were walking
from the changing rooms down towards like gorilla
position to get ready to go out But we see over
Femi walked past Hall of Famer in the corridor
and Adam which Hall of Famer was it? Well one
of Teddy Long's favorites to stick in a match
it's if you were going to be stuck in a match
you were either going to be Tag team or you were
going to go one -on -one with the Undertaker
and that's who over Femi runs. I mean, he didn't
even look scared either, did he? If I walked
into the dead man, I think I'd be a little bit
like, ooh. I mean, I'd be starstruck and bouncing
around like a 14 year old child. So I'd go, oh
my fucking God, it's the Undertaker, what the
fuck? But yeah, on the outside I'd be like, ooh.
Oh shit, you're scary motherfucker. You're big
and huge. I mean, Oberfemme is not exactly tiny
guy. No he's not. Oberfemme is a big motherfucker.
So is Moose though. Oh, 100%. Yeah, this was...
Yeah, I mean we haven't even got to that point
just yet We've still got something else to cover
between between now and then but yeah, basically
Basically undertaker is telling you go out you
defend your yard boy or don't come fucking back
Yeah, pretty much. That's what takers said to
him. You don't need to ask don't come back on
to the end of it It was the look that taker gave
that basically knows you you know the deal here
you lose You don't get to get changed in the
locker room you're gonna go and share the broom
cupboard with the maze the maze He got kicked
out to the broom cupboard at one point Eating
chicken over somebody else's bag bastard Anyway
we went from there into a VT promo basically
just detailing the building rivalry between Eddie
Thorpe and Trick Williams, basically building
up to their underground match. Now, when they
originally said they were going to the underground,
I misunderstood completely, thought it was like
an NXT version of Saturday Night's main event,
maybe, or something along those lines. Quite
a BLE, but not quite a weekly show either. I
mean, that would be pretty cool. NXT this Saturday
night main event. I mean, there's nothing stopping
WWE sticking some of the may stick in some of
the NXT in event realistic. But yeah, the last
match we saw Eddie and trick Williams competing
was a strap match, which was very much apparently
Eddie Thorpe's forte. And yeah trick Williams
is basically saying now underground match my
match I'm walking out of this one with a winner
and yeah I mean we know what sort of match to
get from these two now it's you know what expect
I'm interested to know what an underground matches
I've never seen one before so when I get to sit
and watch this it's gonna be a whole new experience
for me So I've never sat down and watched one,
but I do understand the premise of an underground
match. So an underground match basically is the
underground matches, as far as I'm aware, can
only take place in the performance center because
essentially what they do is they remove all the
ring ropes and it is a, for all intent and purpose,
a false count anywhere match. Hmm But you've
got a ring with no ropes, so there's no running
the ropes There's no fucking springboard moves.
It is a straight -up fucking brawl Not something
you see very often they do it sometimes in the
Indy but WWE have not done many of this match
type to my to my awareness And all of them have
been done in NXT. But yeah, I mean, we went from
there into the men's NXT heavyweight championship
match, which saw Ober Femi defending his championship
against the X division champ from TNA Moose.
Yeah. So we've only seen Moose wrestle once before
in NXT and that was with Alexis King in Ohio.
But this guy's an absolute beast. He's huge.
I mean, they both are, but damn. And the worst
thing about it, one of the, I say the worst,
one of the most intimidating things about Moose
is that he's versatile. He's a big guy that can
fly. There was a movie hit I think it was a suplex
There was a big movie he hit off the top of the
rope And it was like holy shit That's incredible.
I think he jumped up and onto the top rope and
Once it was a flip or something, but I just did
not see it coming Yeah, I mean these guys were
going pretty, trying to go for as much as possible
blow for fricking blow. Yeah, there was six pounds
worth, almost 700 pounds worth of Rassler trying
to, between the two of them, beating living shit
out of the other one in the middle of the room.
I mean, a lot of the notes I've taken seem to
revolve around some of Ober Femi's moves more
than Moose's. It just seems to be what I seem
to gravitate it towards. Early on in the match,
Femi does a running chest chop that just takes
Moose out on the apron so he gets put the fuck
down. There was no way that wasn't going to hurt,
let's face it. One of the interesting things
the announce team actually said during this match
is that traditionally at Roadblock the NXT title
has always changed hands so it really didn't
look good from a history point of view. not just
having a match against another NXT superstar.
He was having a match against someone who could
take his belt out of that company, take it to
TNA and lose it to someone else in TNA. And you
don't know what you're going up against then.
Like there is some hidden, like I said, we've
got hidden talent on both rosters, but Oberfemi
could not afford to lose this because he didn't
know when he was going to get an opportunity
and who he was going to have to go against to
get it back. No, this is it and Yeah Storyline
would be pretty cool though over Femi loses his
title He gets really depressed about it gets
exiled from NXT Has to go back to TNA fight through
the TNA ranks to get back to a championship opportunity
Let's say like bound for glory or something and
then takes his title back at bound for glory
allowed back into NXT with his title Yeah, it's
I mean we could still see something like that
necessarily him losing his title, but him basically
making that making their way through Making their
way through Are we time -stamping our calls now
just to make sure that if anyone else tries to
get it in there I had this on this podcast episode
at this time, motherfucker. That's mine. You're
not stealing my story, Sportskeeda. We were joking
in an episode of SmackDown, I think it might
have been last week's episode of SmackDown actually,
about how we thought Shinsuke Nakamura was getting
towards the end of his contract because he dropped
his title so close to WrestleMania and hadn't
really defended it much. He lost his brother
a few weeks prior. And then it comes up on Sportskeelers
website the next day that Shinsuke Nakamura's
contract could be getting, like, not renewed.
And it was like, God damn it. How did we manage
to pull that one up? Yeah, this is it. But yeah,
talking about pulling some things out, so, right,
we've got, like I said earlier, we've got two
guys in the ring equated just below maybe 700
pounds in weight, right? Ober Femi is six foot
three and three, well I'm sorry, Ober Femi managed
to bench press a guy who was six foot three and
300 pounds up in the air like he was a rag doll,
like a bag of concrete and then just tossed him
like a plastic bottle over the top rope onto
the floor. How would you just throw a guy who
was like 300 pounds like he's Plastic an empty
plastic bottle like off you go think I Mean these
guys were trading power move for power move.
It's It was they they were no small hits there
were no Small moves. It was all just one after
the other after the I mean we've got a note here
if of a few different things, but we've got moose
with diving headbutts on the second rope, suplexes
from the top rope to then roll through it and
hit another suplex straight afterwards. Well,
I actually got a note about that as well. So,
yeah, we've got moose hitting a huge superplex
off the top rope onto Oberfemi. For Oberfemi
to almost counter that with a suplex of his own,
which was insane. Yeah, it was it was nuts and
then This isn't something you see as much on
NXT as you do on the other programs But moose
put Oberfemi through the god damn announce table
We are constantly told as well the last few months
that these announce tables are reinforced And
I think that is try and reiterate that you know
how hard it is to put a superstar through these
announce tables But yeah over Femi did not have
a problem going through that announcement It
was absolutely destroyed and so was over Femi
by the time he worked out where he was what was
going on Yeah, and regardless of all of that
over Femi still manages to retain the NXT title
Moose doesn't hit a limp spear. That thing was
a proper missile. So he still, like I said, yeah,
managed to get up from all that pain and retain
his title. Yeah, I mean, again, taking nothing
away from either one of them. What an absolute
banger of a match. Oh, it's incredible. I wish
we saw more of that on WWE programming just two
big guys having to I know we're seeing a little
bit on Smackdown with Braun Strowman and Jacob
Fatu But just we need more big guys having more
bangers of a match like that and we don't get
me wrong I appreciate the luchador style and
the other bits that we get within the WWE package,
but I absolutely love this match I Am probably
willing to say that I could put this as a contender
for match at the PLA I would be willing to say
the same thing if I didn't already know what
was coming. So, I mean, we go from that match
into a VT promo showing. So a few weeks ago,
we saw Sol Ruka trying to sort of get through
to the human side of Zarya with some rollerblading
beach volleyball, ice cream, very much her surface.
This week we've seen Zarya trying to unlock Sol
Rooker's aggression in a rage room with some
axe throw in. You know what? That rage room looked
like... I think I might need to visit one. I'm
not gonna lie, that rage room looked incredible.
Oh, it looks like a men's fun, doesn't it? Just
being allowed to walk into a room... with a baseball
bat and told to fuck it up. You know what, the
only person in this situation who seems, I feel,
is losing is the person who's got to clean up
after someone like me has gone away. I'm an angry
person. So yeah, I go into a rage room. I'm gonna
cause havoc. It's not gonna be... Yeah, I can't
imagine I'm not walking out there leaving a fucking
mess to be quite honest I mean, I'll probably
walk out of there a mess on its own. It's a case
of Oh 100 % Definitely bonding and making I mean
making the strength between the two of them as
a tiger a lot stronger with this This next bit
I got a little bit confused with. I'm not going
to lie too much to you. So if I remember correctly,
this next section is the Fallon Henley Ava conversation.
Yeah, so Fallon Henley and the rest of Fatal
Influence have been haranguing Ava, the general
manager, about the Women's North American Championship
and how Fallon Henley has yet to have a rematch.
Yes. But rematches aren't always written in the
clauses these days, are they? No, but I think
as unless particularly stipulated It's fair to
assume nine times that that We will have some
kind of rematch clause in there. It's just not
necessary always guaranteed that We will get
It's not always guaranteed that they will be
like the next the first defense of the titles
sort of thing I mean I can sort of understand
why she's upset Because it is a case that obviously
the main event of roadblock is the title versus
Yeah, Julia vs Stephanie Vacure and yeah, we'll
get to that. We'll get to that shortly afterwards.
Now the other person that gets involved in this
promo is Ricky Saints. We've been quite vocal
about Ricky Saints and what our thoughts are
of him and Yeah, it's fair to say that we're
underwhelmed thus far. But it would appear after
this, I mean, everybody seems to, a lot of the
roster seems to be jumping on sort of a similar
branch to the same tree to us is that we're sort
of been saying that we're a bit underwhelmed
with how he's come in and everything on those
lines built up to be this amazing superstar and
we just haven't seen it everybody else is sort
of saying well you don't belong here dude fuck
you doing fuck off um i think he got over hyped
and a lot of them didn't get that same hype up
if you get me but i think what we have had with
ricky since so far even though it's not been
a huge amount i've seen some clips of some of
the promos and some of the stuff he's done when
he was at AW and it looks pretty good to be fair.
There's one clip, he destroyed MJF in one clip
I saw and it was like really good sort of promo
cut between the two of them. So if we can get
the Ricky Saints of that in NXT, it's gonna be
incredible. It actually ends up that Ricky Saints
has a singles match, which should give us a much
better view. First hand, Next Week versus Ridge
Holland. Yeah, and just as this promo ends, we
see All Ego, Ethan Page come to... Just sort
of poke a little bit of fun before he goes to
participate in his own match, which is Next,
which is a New York City street fight where Ethan
Page takes on the bouncy Jevon Evans. This was
the one match within the card as we were in the
build -up to to roadblock that I was really interested
about watching purely for the fact that we've
seen quite a lot the last like three months almost
of um of Ethan Page and Siobhan Evans with the
jaw breaking and the taking the smile and and
the unsanctioned match they had and all the they've
had some some good matches but you've always
seen Ethan Page come out on top of those in those
matches. So for this one, it was very much like,
oh, what are they going to do? And what are we
going to see now more from Siobhan Evans? Because
obviously he's lost a few times now. What else
has he got left in the bag to try and make sure
that doesn't happen again? And I think to be
fair, Siobhan Evans bought it. He brought the
smack earth down and he laid the smack earth
down as well. Yeah, I mean, remember watching
this match with you on discord it was a case
that this was just a it was such a like a well
put together match to go through it was it was
beautiful basically we started off on the ramp
and they went straight into the crowd and then
that was it yeah absolutely nuts now i've got
a note here and i can't remember why i wrote
this down but it's something about a lions den
match in 1998 and i can't remember why i've written
this specific note down i think the guys on commentary
were discussing something to do with that match,
but I can't work out why I've written it down.
No, I can't quite remember myself as I didn't
make any notes about a Lions Den match of any
kind. It's not on today. I think they were talking
about the... The match that we were in I think
it's a unique cage match featuring a ring canvas
with no ropes or turnbuckles where every match
should Had to either end in knockout or submission
Although they were talking about care Kevin Owen
Ken Shamrock in Owen Hart at summer slam 98 and
I think there was a VT with it Right, okay conversation
they were having but I can't understand remember
why For that note to be there, but it is in there
So it must have been something important Because
I put it in yes with such things as Javon Evans
hitting Ethan page with a chair and Ethan page
throwing him into the steel steps as a return
for it So Javon Evans sold in something and Ethan
page gave her a receipt Yeah, 100%. I mean, everything
about this match was receipts from Javon Evans,
let's face it. Definitely. It was just one entire
receipt, to be fair. And we saw all sorts of
fun in this match as well. We had chairs and
tables. I mean, I found this to be a little bit
more competitive than their previous matches,
as we've seen. A lot of Javon Evans dominating
throughout the match. and then Ethan Page either
having a well placed jab to the jaw I mean we
saw that during this match as well but there
were bits in this match that I remember sitting
on here and it was like you were I think you'd
managed to finish it by the time before I had
and it was a case that I was reacting genuinely
to some of the shit I was seeing during this
match and it was like Oh, I think I know what
bit you've just got to, or... And, yeah, I mean,
Evans sets up the chairs to use as a platform,
but whatever move it was he was attempting is
reversed, Paige props Evans up on the top rope,
on the top turnbuckle, and then rag doll tosses
Evans back first onto these chairs. I mean, that
was absolutely insane. That has to have shortened
a young Javon Evans's career by at least five
years. One manoeuvre. I mean there was that one
section where Javon Evans brought out that table
and put it in the corner. Ethan Page, he tried
to like Alabama slam him through the table but
they end up kind of counteracting themselves
through and then there's a combination where
they both end up like drop kicking each other.
not drop kicking each other sorry trying to like
super kick each other and then they're going
to swing at each other with steel chairs but
the chairs hit and I think I'm pretty sure he
bounced off his forehead and did a Kevin Owens
with it too because he looked rocked for a little
while after that. Yeah I know which bit you're
on about. While you mention tables I think one
of the most brutal bits of this match that we
saw all in all Was the over -the -top rope cutter
through a table that Javon Evans managed to pull
off? Yeah 100 % I mean We know to expect from
Javon Evans now that we're gonna get some high
-flying in during his match it's it's not a maybe
this will happen it is a Definite this is going
to happen sort of thing But the stops that these
guys pulled out during this match I mean the
ultimate receipt that that Javon Evans carried
out was the finish to this match I saw this clip
on social media before I got the opportunity
to watch NXT but it wasn't like the full clip
if you get me so I didn't see the pin to go with
it but it was filthy I'm gonna let Adam go back
over it See I was gonna let you go through it,
but if you insist so Evans Javon takes a chair
and basically loops it around the face of page
encapsulate in his face in with this now we've
got to remember the reason this feud started
is Ethan page decided to rob Javon Evans of his
smile and ability to eat solid food for a good
couple of months and by royally shattering kids
jaw and Javon Evans this complete lunatic decides
to hit a springboard cutter on Ethan Page while
he's wearing this chair that's trapped around
his head to win this match and yeah it was it
was near sickening to watch but absolute Beauty
in carnet on that on that cutter. Yeah It was
just a shame that Joanne Evans didn't have a
lot of time He didn't get to celebrate at all
because our four master sailors Decided to come
and give him a bit of an ass kick and he wouldn't
remember The worst thing about this four is well
two things a we don't know who the fuck they
are and B we don't know what the fuck they want
Because there's no rhyme reason or pattern to
who it is they're attacking Nope is they've had
Jovan Evans about Ricky Saints about the entire
tag division Oberfemme So, I mean he's mainly
for them they're obviously focusing on the male
side of the Ross which is I suppose a breath
of relief for the women in the division, but
There still seems to be next to no rhyme or reason
for For who they're attacking when and why Google
still has him down as an American football player
But then that's Dion Lewis Yeah, but that doesn't
really give us an awful lot of insight into Who
the other three are and Yeah, they seem to be
playing this storyline low and slow as it goes
I Originally thought it might have just been
like a group of local wrestlers. They just got
in for the night to do something cool It's definitely
not the way that's going No, definitely not Now
we go into a selection of promos starting with
a VT featuring the members of the Spears family
Yeah Someone got caught in my throat there. I'm
not sure what happened It was all the balls actually
Oh Anyway, yeah, so Basically, we had the the
Spears family or the culling or whatever it is.
They call itself discussing their next move which
is obviously the six -man tag match they've got
against the D 'Angelo family next week on NXT.
Yeah, we then go to a ringside promo where we
see Sarah about the NXT Underground match next
week. Yeah, so she's talking to Eddie Thorpe
about that one. I didn't get a huge amount from
this one apart from we got a little bit of a
guest and a little while but it was mainly just
Eddie Thorpe kind of saying that he's the man
even though everyone else thinks the man's actually
trick Williams it's not it's Eddie Thorpe and
he's gonna start making everyone believe it and
show them that he's the man when yeah not quite
he's not quite as over with the crowd as Trick
Williams is anyway. I mean in fairness that is
Eddie Thorpe's entire MO. Yeah he's definitely
not trying to be everyone's best friend he's
definitely trying to piss people off and Trick
Williams is doing everything at the moment right
to play that face character in this feud well
including coming out and giving the heel an ass
whooping and bouncing him off the announce table
and then throwing him back into the ring after
smashing his head off the announce table a few
times to hit him with quite a ruthless spear
to be fair and then just carry on the ability
to just ground and pound on him. There wasn't
much that Eddie Thorpe was doing at that point
apart from covering his beautiful face. Yeah
and I mean... It is a case of... Yeah, there's
definitely no love lost between the pair. Now,
we are sort of moving into the closing throws
of NXT Roadblock here, but we've got one or two
bits just to cover before we go any further.
One bit I don't think Rich has any notes on at
all just because I've got his notes in front
of me. and I can see that he doesn't have anything,
is that we find out, basically, United States
Champion Chelsea Green is not overly impressed
about having a title defense on NXT next week.
And we find all this about a post from, yeah,
I mean, she, just before watching this match,
we saw that she was or I saw in social media
that she was attending a wedding in Devon. She
then had to make her way over to I think it was
Barcelona for Smackdown. Then she's having to
jump back across the pond to the States for NXT.
Girls gonna be racking up some air miles Especially
if she's got to be back in Bologna Italy for
next week's smackdown So yeah, that could definitely
be some air miles being racked up there Making
some decent money for doing it. So it's worth
it. Oh 100 % But this is when we go into the
main event title versus title winner takes all
NXT women's champion versus the women's unite
at That's the one Green is not in this match.
Do not worry. You don't have to deal with that
twice in five minutes No, definitely not. This
is Stephanie Baker versus Julia and this was
This has been getting hyped for the last few
weeks and I think it lived up to the hype. I'm
not going to lie to you. I think I've got more
notes for this match than I have for some of
the matches. Not as many as I thought I had.
This is the one match I think I got sucked into
and just could not stay away from. So, it was
important to realise that this wasn't a match
built out of a grudge. This was Both women had
something to prove to one another Yeah, and That
basically says to us that one of these two women
Was like they may be losing a title tonight,
but I think they're gonna gain something a lot
bigger. I Personally think whoever loses this
much is gonna end up getting taken to Raw or
smackdown very soon I mean it is a very real
possibility but for tonight... I can't think
of any other reason why they'd have someone drop
that title but for tonight we've got a hell of
an exhibition match with titles on the line.
Yeah so somebody's walking out of here a double
title holder which has only been done like three
times previously in NXT history as much as my
And either one of these are going to write history
regardless because they will be the first women
in NXT to hold two titles at once But what a
match I mean there was no malice behind any of
it at least in the beginning but Julia just kind
of just set the match up just kind of said, you
know, you think you're the best I think I'm the
best. Let's just see who's the best Yeah, let's
do get out and figure out where we both stand.
So maybe one of us can call ourselves the best
Yeah, and I mean They got some fantastic little
spots in this match We saw they could pull out
the classic dragon screw to Julia out of the
corner that brutal leg drag It makes me fuck.
It makes me wince every time I think about Yeah,
that wasn't even the first one Julia hit a massive
missile dropkick on Stephanie Baker pretty much
just off the belt They spent a few minutes like
a few moments sizing each other Then yeah, once
they really kind of said right sod it. We're
good. Let's get going It was very much offense
from both teeth like both both sides. There's
no defense being played at all No, this is it.
I mean interesting I got a few I got a few bits
here that sort of Julia Julia managed I noted
down that she managed to do a double underhook
superplex to the cure which Oh, 100%. There is
nothing to be understated about how brutal that
movie looks. And I mean, I've got even something
that the cure managed to manage to pull off.
So, oh, no, it was Julia who managed to pull
it off. So Julia kept the cure off the top rope
in a triangle choke that admittedly she can't
quite lock in properly so switches it to a rings
of Saturn submission which the only way the cure
has to break that is with a foot on the rope
yeah or risk disqualification A lot of big car
moves being done in this one, like I said, at
one point there was SVBs. Well, we had four SVBs,
I believe, in this match. I just took note of
the two SVBs that Vakul managed to hit back to
back to actually get the pin for himself. Yeah.
Which then, yeah, leads us into it where Stephanie
Vakul managed to pin Julia after the three SVBs
to be the first woman since Becky Lynch to hold
two singles titles at the same time in WWE, where
Becky Lynch beat Charlotte Flair and Ronda Rousey
for both the Raw and SmackDown Women's titles
in a triple threat match. Stephanie's managed
to walk out with both the titles in just having
a solo match. Yeah, and I mean there's an upsides
and downsides to that I'm sure bigger paycheck
for Stephanie Viqueur at the same time It means
that in any one in any one show. She could be
pulling double duty Exactly 100 % but Yeah, that
brings us to the end of NXT roadblock and What
what a PLA No, definitely not I Mean yeah, I
mean if we had to sort of pin down a match of
the night See I'm still going with Javon Evans
and Ethan Page I think the lack of I Think the
lack for me it was as much as I enjoyed the fact
that there was malice behind any of it not having
much of a good guy bad guy storyline to a title
versus title match is It sort of takes away from
the the gravitas of it. Whereas there was no
title on the line for Javon Evans and Ethan Page.
It was all malice. And that just bypassed it
for me. But yeah, I mean, I suppose if you've
got nothing left, we've only got time to basically
say thank you all for tuning in for Finishes
and Factions. NXT Roadblock 2025. We will be
back, of course, when Finishes and Factions breaks
down SmackDown, the start of the European tour
for WWE. Live from Barcelona, SmackDown is, so
we will see you in the next episode of Finishes
and Factions and I will see you in that episode
too, Adam. Yeah, see you soon, buddy. See you
later.