Hello there everybody. Thank you for tuning in
to Finishes and Factions does Tuesday Night NXT.
This is the NXT episode from the 25th of March
from Orlando, Florida and the WWE Performance
Center. For those of you that have never watched
the podcast previously, my name is Adam. I'm
normally joined by Rich, who can't be here this
evening. Some other things have come up, but
you'll just have to make do with me. And we are
so, so privileged this evening to be having not
one, not two, but three different title defenses
on this card. Two of them are involving... the
same superstar. That's right, you heard it. We've
got Stephanie Vacure, our newly crowned double
champion, doing double duty in a double title
defense this evening. We've got her defending
her NXT title, which she won more recently against
Jada Parker. And we finally have been given Fallon
Henley's rematch for the North American title,
which Stephanie Viqueur is also the holder of.
So now you are all caught up. We will get straight
into the action, which basically started with
a VT promo explaining exactly what I've just
said. We then go into the first match. which
is the Women's NXT Championship match, which
is, as I mentioned already, Stephanie Vacure
versus Jada Parker. Now, this match... Obviously
Jada Parker has been doing some fantastic work
down in NXT more recently. We've seen some fantastic
work from her and despite all of that, the crowd
in the Performance Center on this particular
evening seemed to be really behind our NXT Women's
Champion. I mean, after that match from last
week, who can really blame them? Let's face it.
It's also mentioned during this match that apparently
nobody has ever been able to successfully defend
two different singles titles on the same night.
Now... I didn't do a massive amount of research
into this to find out whether that's true. Of
course, if it isn't, feel free to at us on Twitter
or send us an email. Just look up Finisher's
and Faction's podcast. You will find us. We are
there. So, yeah, the crowd seemed to be really
behind Stephanie Vercure during this match. And
do you know what? Some superstars might be tempted
to go half cocked into the first of two challenges
when they have to do, when they are forced to
do sort of double duty. Not Stephanie Vacure,
she put her heart and soul into this first match.
And both women gave as good as they got. Vekul
sort of going more towards a wear them down sort
of job so it was very much a case that she was
using a lot of submission holds we saw her with
a leg lock out trying to wear Parker down. Vekul
even manages to get a triangle lock over the
top rope. and just generally trots out the Vacure
classics, the Punisher where she's smashing somebody's
face into the mat and one of Booker T's personal
favorites. Jada Parker herself came up with a
broken arrow for a two count. Now, this all seemed
to go a little bit wrong for Jada Parker when
we found that Jordan Grace had come out for a
distraction. She didn't physically get involved.
It was just a distraction, but it was enough
that It was enough to have Parker distracted
enough for the cure to pick up the win with a
small package. A small package pin maneuver,
which... isn't a bad way to win. I mean, you
win by any means necessary, I suppose. But that
is Vikkur's first match done and done. She retains
her title. Now, this doesn't end here as Jada
and Jordan start scrapping on the entrance ramp.
Obviously, Jada's not very happy at the fact
that Jordan has come in and ruined her match.
Now, not to leave the champ out here, but...
We then see Fatal Influence, this is Fallon Henley,
JC Jane and Jasmine Nix invade the ring and basically
put a beat down on our double champ which is
bound to have some ramifications for her match
later in the evening. Now we jump out of the
ring and into backstage where we see Trick Williams
who promptly gets confronted by one bouncy Jovan
Evans who's not feeling all too bouncy during
this interaction as He's just a bit sick and
tired of being pushed to the one side all the
time I mean he is one of the youngest superstars
on the roster and Yeah, I think trick Williams
really treats him as such. It's I Think the fact
that you've managed to make it into the WWE at
20 years old is Enough kudos to be able to say
do you know what actually? Yeah, you're still
a rookie. You're still sort of You still got
a lot to learn, but you've obviously learned
enough to make it here kid but trick Williams
has said gone on record many a time and said
that He's out for himself. He's focused on over
He's focused on the NXT title and getting that
back as we know he just has not been the same
since returning or losing that title at New Year's
Evil Now, Javon Evans has just been trying to
warn or was trying to warn after the underground
match over Femi and Tripp Williams about dark
state, which is the mysterious foursome we found
have been running rampant in NXT recently. We're
still not sure of who the. Of who they are they
haven't been officially identified just yet Although
as soon as we know you guys will know of course
But yeah, this is trick and Evans having it out
over last week and Evans for all of his youthful
bluster basically goes on record and says do
you know what? trick for how focused you've been
on the NXT title. I managed to take out Ober
Femi no issue yet last week. As we know, he came
in and well and truly put the champ down last
week after after the NXT underground match after
the dark state invasion and everything else.
It was a case that that that If you manage to
miss that then I challenge you to say you weren't
watching NXT last week But It's all sort of comes
to a head where trick Williams starts being in
my view quite condescending towards the young
Javon Evans in the sense that Javon Evans has
never held a singles title in WWE He's obviously
been just focusing on getting the craft right,
which is all important. We all know this. It's
a case that we've got to get the craft right
to get everything else right. So yeah, it's a
case that is... Evans has got a title match for
the Heritage Cup Championship against Lexus King
later on this evening and he will go on to have
that match. Now, Tripp Williams still keeps going
with this and says, look, until you've... competed
for a title until you've held a title, you're
really not going to understand why it is that
me having the NXT title and losing the NXT title
has had such a detrimental effect on me. Basically,
I feel like Trick Williams has just been antagonizing
Javon Evans at this stage, when realistically
we would have expected a little bit more. Now
we go from there into a Another backstage promo
which sees Ava and the rest of the women's division
obviously having watched Stephanie vacuous first
NXT title defense on a monitor in the back and
Yeah, it seems that lash legend After Ava announces,
I'm going to go and check on Stephanie, our double
champion, which of course the general manager
should be doing. The Metagirls or more specifically
Lash Legend says, actually, I think what you
need to be doing is focusing more on why Gigi
Dolin and... Tatum Paxley, I've got a title match
on TNA this week. What's going on with that?
And this just screams of some out and out jealousy.
Now, we've seen in the women's division a lot
of Sol Ruka and Zarya over the last few weeks
and now we've got the re -entrance of Jakara
Jackson and Lash Legend, the Meta Girls as well
as Dolan and Paxley, both phenomenal teams in
their own right. We'll never ever put that sort
of past them, but. basically this question seems
to spark some real chaos in the back in the women's
division which when you've got so many so many
well so many superstars in general doesn't matter
whether it's male or female it is a case that
they are going to be combustible elements which
will blow at any moment and from there as that
sort of erupts into chaos we are then taken to
a pre -recorded promo so this isn't live this
was pre -recorded where we see Vic Joseph interviewing
Ricky Saints now myself and Rich over the last
few weeks have been saying That Ricky Saints
were not really seeing what the big deal is for
him now I will admit that I've never seen any
of what Ricky Saints did before he came to WWE
so I've got a fresh view of What he is doing
and what he does and so far just thoroughly not
impressed fantastic mic work can't fault his
promo ability but his in -ring ability is just
leaving a little bit to be desired or a little
bit to be desired for myself anyway. Now, this
was basically a get -to -know -you session for
Ricky Saints. This gave me a lot of information
about him that I wasn't aware of, more so to
do with his personal life than his professional
career, which I suppose I'm going to have to
go away and... and figure that out all on my
own. But yeah, he feels that his arrival, while
a lot of people are saying that Ricky Saints
doesn't belong, and I suppose I'm one of them,
it's a case that we're seeing a or he feels that
his presence is forcing everybody that were sort
of quite happily tootling along before to really
raise their game. And do you know what? I suppose,
yeah, we have seen an elevation in competition
between some of the more prominent superstars
up to this point. Now he does go on to say, or
sort of gives the impression to me that he's
trying to look for a little bit of sympathy.
He's trying to reach out to the heart of the
universe or heart of the WWE universe at least
by saying about the fact that in his early career,
he was living in his car, which is It isn't uncommon
for people in the wrestling industry to start
off on the balls of their ass for them to rise
to great heights and yet nobody in the wrestling
industry is handed their spot apart from a very
small number but even then a lot of them who
have come who are second, third, the odd fourth
generation superstar is not completely without
they don't They're not handed their spot, they're
not said, they're not told that here's your spot,
we're going to start you off on two mill a year
because of who your dad was or who your granddad
was or who your uncles were. It's a case that
they have to work, fight, earn, bleed and sweat
for every last thing they get. Now... At this
stage we see none other than Sean Spears interrupt
and actually physically take over the interview
from Vic Joseph at this point and Spears and
Saints obviously have a lot of a lot of history
between the two of them. They're not unknown
characters to one another and it really shows
in how they interacted with one another in this
segment. And one of the first questions that
Sean Spears really asks about or to Saints is,
why is it you think I never asked you to be part
of the culling? Now, I think it's pretty obvious
from... Ricky Saints reaction to this question
that part of the reason he was never going to
get that offer Was probably because there's some
bad blood between Saints and Spears now. I'm
just theorizing We know a little bit about Sean
Spears past career and not a much else from there
but It's a case that Yeah Saints reckons that
he wasn't given the opportunity because he would
have told him to go and stick it up his ass with
the rest of the shite and Yeah A little bit of
back -and -forth after that, but Saints basically
declares that he's coming for Spears brand new
North American title and That's the title that
Ricky Saints has set his heart and his eyes on
which yeah Fair enough. Do you know what? Have
at it, kiddo. I'll say that. Ricky Saints is
probably a little bit older than I am, so calling
him kiddo feels a bit condescending. But then
we cut to the locker room where Wes Lee, Tyson
DuPont and Tyreek Igwe are watching the interview
and they don't seem overly impressed with Ricky
Saints from the get -go. They've had a bit of
an issue with him since they came in, but...
Wesley is very much one of these people that
is saying oh well you're an outsider I really
don't see why you should have to come in and
all the rest of it it just feels a bit unnecessary
and yeah do you know what I can sort of understand
why I can sort of understand all the trepidation
around it but seriously dude get over yourself
there is always a bigger fish now Tyreek and
Tyson have a match later on in the card. So they
go off to go and prepare for that this leaves
What I felt was actually quite a haunted looking
Ethan page now the last time we saw Ethan page
properly He was having his ass handed to him
by the bouncy one Jevon Evans and since then
haven't really seen much of him at all. It's
a case that he's been very much off radar. But
Ethan Page is in the locker room along with Andre
Chase, who is somebody else we've seen even less
of. Cale Dixon and Uriah Connors as well. As
Dickson basically accuses Ricky Saints of pulling
an Ethan Page. We know that Ethan Page is his
moniker, his nickname, whatever you want to call
it, is all ego Ethan Page. And yeah, so far that
I've seen of him, he really lives up to that
name, realistically. It's not a case that he's...
he's without ego at all. Now, Ethan Page obviously
takes great exception to this and threatens to
basically put Dixon's lights out if he doesn't
shut his trap. So shut your trap, talk shit,
get banged, I think is the turn of phrase I'm
going to go with on that one for it. And Uriah
Connors tries jumping into to Dixon's defence
to basically be sat back down little boy by Ethan
Page and this is where out of character for what
we've seen recently Andre Chase gets involved
and yeah very much jumps to the defence of his
followers as they have as Connors and Dixon have
very much been Andre Chase's little shadow cheerleaders,
whatever you want to call them, they've been
there and they've been supporting him, which
is great for Andre Chase, as he definitely seems
to have been in a bit of a funk since the collapse
of Chase U, which we've discussed in an earlier
episode. This basically all boils over page telling
chase to teach them that their actions and words
have Consequences and this sort of puts pay pushes
page past boiling point or more so making a page
making a Comment about chase you being a defunct
institution, which I suppose isn't wrong considering
it was closed but this well and truly sparks
the fire in Andre Chase and basically Chase to
lay down a challenge to Ethan Page, which again
we see later on in the card. Now, this brings
us nicely to the second match of the night, which
is a men's tag team match featuring Hank and
Tank versus Tyson Dupont and Tyreek Igwe. Now,
Hank and Tank have a little bit of a pre -match
promo on their way to the ring where they're
very much sort of hyping themselves up. Whatever
these guys are on, I want some sort of thing
because they've got way more energy than I've
ever had. But it's a case that they even get
Like a nod of support from machine motor city
machine guns Which it seems that Hank and tank
have tried to better themselves by trying to
learn off different tag teams. So going around
different tag teams and basically saying to them,
look, I want to improve. This is how I, this
is what I do now. What is it I need to do differently
to reach that next level? Which I think we can
all sort of learn something from whenever we're,
whenever we're doing something, whether this
is our schoolwork, whether it is our jobs that
we get paid for, whether it is our hobbies like
this one being mine. It is a case that we constantly
ask for feedback because we want to do better.
We don't want to suck at what we do. And it's
a case that unless somebody tells us that something
ain't right, we're going to keep going until
some until it basically sticks. So. But yeah,
so Even sort of so after Hank and Tank's entrance
once they're in the ring the edit that I watched
of NXT Dips out and we come back to this match
in progress now This is one of my pet hates of
the editing of Netflix is that we are rejoining
matches or joining matches that are in progress
and The sooner they get this sorted the better
for me because Just feel like we miss out on
such we can sometimes miss out on Such a lot
from the entrances of the opponents or the beginnings
of the matches However, it is that we sort of
make that association with the match we need
to see the entire thing not just the bits that
Netflix wants us to see sort of thing and this
used to happen when they were on when it was
live broadcast on regular TV not just a subscription
service so this has been a long time issue with
me but I'm putting the onus on Netflix because
they're the they're the medium that we watch
them through now But yeah, it's a case that,
do you know what, I actually really enjoyed this
match. Hank and Tank are growing on me despite
the fact that I can't look at Hank without seeing
Seth Rogen's face staring back at me. That's
how bad it's gotten. Now... Once we've got back
into the match, we see that Hank and Tank are
very firmly in control and it sort of progresses
through the throws of a regular match really.
Some regular tags, really love to see it. Not
too many sort of big spots until the end. I saw
that Tyree Gigway got a massive stomp or tried
to attempt a massive stomp. to Tank and basically
misses his target and seems to sort of tweak
his knee a little bit. Now, I've got down here
that Tank throws Tyson out of the ring as...
Hank suicide dives out to take them both out
at ringside. Now this isn't the first time we've
seen a human fly through the ropes or anything
like that. They seem to very much take a lot
of heart from, or a lot of different bits and
pieces from... that's the word I'm looking for,
from Motor City Machine Guns. The way they presented
that suicide dive was very Motor City Machine
Guns to me. And yeah, that's how that sort of
progressed through. But we went from there, that
was sort of very towards the beginning of the
match. We had a lot of back and forth between
the... between that point and our next one which
is Wesley distracting the ref so that Tyson pushes
Tank off the top rope so Tank is perched on the
top rope getting ready to do a double team move
and this sort of spells the beginning of the
end for Hank and Tank I think it was just purely
bad timing to do high risk but again top rope
is high risk. That's how it's presented to us.
And you accept the risk when you go up to that
top rope for it. Now we go from there into the
action in ring. No, we go from the in ring action,
sorry, to the backstage area where we see Stephanie
Vecchio and Ava in the trainer's room after obviously
the Attack from fatal influence earlier in the
night. Well during that first match basically
and While we see Vic you're with a fair amount
of ice wrapped around her midsection It is a
case that she is very much. I'm lapri I am lapri
Mera. I am the Women's champion. I am the representative
of the division and I am not letting this division
go down without a fight so 100 % I am maintaining
my title defense for later on in the evening
and there is nothing that you You or anybody
else can say to me to to tell me otherwise basically
and yeah, that was very much the at the end of
that promo. I mean, even at the very end, we
have Ava ask the trainer that was attending to
Vicure, like, can she actually go on? Is she
medically cleared? And it's a case of completely
down to her and her tolerance. So we carry on
from there. Now... We go from that backstage
promo to a different area of backstage where
we see Sarah Schreiber interviewing Fraxium the
NXT tag team title holders now the last time
we saw them was at Roadblock facing the current
TNA men's tag team champions being the Hardy
boys Where Fraxium were unable to win their match
against the Hardy boys, but put up one hell of
a fight. Now different things have happened since
then. We've had, obviously, main roster have
been on their European tour, and Axiom himself
actually made an appearance at, I believe it
was Raw in Barcelona, where he was called upon
to wrestle Gunther, the current Raw heavyweight
champion. And in fairness, he had a really good
match. If you haven't seen it, we've covered
it. You just have to go back to the Barcelona
match or the Barcelona episode of Finishes and
Factions in our back catalogue. But. don't have
time to listen to wait for you to listen to that
episode as I believe it was roughly about an
hour and a half long if not more so I'm gonna
carry on so fair warning spoilers ahead it's
a case that Axiom talking about how honored he
felt sort of following his match with Gunther
in Spain it was his home country he had family
there he had friends there he got to wrestle
his heart out and he pushed Gunther to the limit
like this look this guy he could have quite easily
been squashed by Gunther but no it was a really
well put together match and I genuinely thought
in a few occasions that we were gonna see Axiom
knock off Gunther but literally it was not to
be and honestly all Nathan Fraser can talk about
is the fact that he's just a bit pissy that he
wasn't there and it just smacks of jealousy I'm
not gonna lie he's just incredibly jealous that
Axiom got this opportunity to go and do this
amazing thing and he wasn't even invited to go
and share that glory And Axiom sort of draws
attention to the screen that has been sat behind
them up to this point as we see a live video
feed of NXT Men's Champion, Ober Femi, arriving
at the Performance Center, getting out of a car
and looking pissed off to fuck. Now... While
Sarah Schreiber and Nathan Fraser are taking
this site in Axiom decides this is the perfect
moment for me to off I fuck and off he fucks
he does as he makes a stealthy exit to avoid
any more of Nathan Fraser's stinking attitude
basically And that takes us neatly into match
three, which is our NXT Heritage Cup Championship
match. Now, this is our only men's championship
match on the card tonight, but it sees Lexus
King as the champion. Defend against Javon. Evans
Now this is I believe Lexus Kings maybe second
or third that I have a feeling it's there is
it may have be No, it's either his second or
his third Heritage Cup Championship defense since
winning the title Winning the title someone at
some weeks previous now Javon Evans we know was
quite a light -hearted jovial. He's a 20 -something
year old guy. He's not carrying the weight of
the world on his shoulders normally, but we see
a massive aggressive streak in him today. I mean,
it's a Javon Evans match, we know it's going
to be full of spots. Now I've got a few listed
down here that I was really impressed by. Javon
Evans with a springboard Hurricanrana, pretty
standard for Javon Evans as it goes. Evans even
does a suicide dive through the... Between the
top and middle rope which is unusual as we would
normally see him do what is otherwise known as
a topate suicida Which basically stands for suicide
dive over the top rope Now King Lexus King does
pull off a rather interesting move at this point
or at some point during the match which even
commentary are not entirely sure what to make
of it. I think Corey Graves ends up dubbing it
something along the lines of a fisherman's buster
and goes for a spin attempt off that which quite
honestly probably would have won him the match
had he actually got Javon Evans's shoulders on
the mat which he didn't have so because his shoulders
weren't down flush on the mat the referee did
the right thing in calling that match in calling
that a no -pin attempt until there was a shift
of weight Javon Evans's shoulders hit the mat
and then the ref began to count so 100 % not
believing the stuff that Not believing the shit
that Booker T is peddling there about the ref
being out of position. Ref was in the perfect
position to see what he needed to see. Now, I've
also got down here that Evans hit what I've dubbed
as a disaster kick. Disaster kick and then a
five -star frog splash. And, yeah, Lexus King
was focusing majority of his offense on Evans'
jaw, which is well documented at the fact that
it has been well and truly messed up after a
rivalry with Ethan Page, which started back before
our coverage began, but started sort of mid -December,
I believe, when Ethan Page decided to completely
decimate Javon Evans' jaw. Now... Towards the
end of this match we see Ober Femi himself come
out and attack Javon Evans by hitting a fall
from Grace right onto the edge of the edge of
the ring apron which the ref hadn't seen at the
time as they were King and Evans were outside
the ring Evans very much in control, rolling
King back into the ring due to go back in himself
when he gets attacked from Oberfemi behind and
then you're caught up to where we get to now
because the ref was busy tending to King at this
point he didn't see Oberfemi come out he didn't
see Oberfemi attack He didn't see Oberfemi attack
Jevon Evans. It's a case that all he saw was
he turned round, saw Jevon Evans on the floor
outside of the ring and Oberfemi was there as
well. The two events could be very easily misconstrued
if you don't have the proper context behind it.
So the ref called it right down the middle. 100
% agree with the call on that one. but begins
the ring out count and because of Ethan Page
having taken a fall from Grace right on the ring
apron it is a case that he's not getting up quick
enough to make it back into the ring and ends
up losing this match via count out which is an
abysmal way to lose a match but under the circumstances
I think we can very much very much forgive the
young man for it. So Evans does eventually make
his way back into the ring, but makes his way
back into the ring having been being stalked
by the ruler himself, Ober Femi. And as Evans
gets to his feet, Ober Femi and Evans get into
it. As that happens, we lose the lights in the
performance center the lights just go completely
out and when the lights are returned to us it
is a case that we see that dark state have appeared
around the arena or around scattered in among
the the audience and instead of them physically
getting involved apparently their very presence
was enough to spark utter chaos but Not that
Oberfemi and Jevon Evans were able to see any
of that as they were too busy fighting with one
another. Oberfemi gets Evans in a position for
a fall from grace where Evans ducks out of it.
and unfortunately just really cannot catch a
break as he manages to catch a trick shot from
Trick Williams who comes darting into the ring
and yeah Evans is just completely knocked out
of the ring and we don't see him for the rest
of the segment now It is at this point where
we have Ober Femi and Trick Williams in the ring
together where they will Where they well, yeah,
everybody just wants them to get it on get it
get the fight over and done with let's get it
Let's get it done. Let's get it sorted and At
this point every ref security guard official
in the building comes out to make sure that that
basically doesn't happen. I think what we're
essentially building to here is an Obert Femi
versus Trick Williams at Stand and Deliver which
is obviously WrestleMania weekend which is fast
approaching. Now that is sort of the end of that
little segment. we go in the edit it basically
cuts out the the video and then fades back up
on Gigi Dolin and Tatum Paxley coming to the
ring for a tag team match versus the Metagirls
Lash legend and Jakara Jackson. Now this match
was born out of the chaos that erupted backstage
in the women's division following Stephanie Vacure's
match. at the beginning of the card or following
the conclusion thereof. Now, it's important to
know that we found out obviously that Gigi Dolin
and Tatum Paxley have a match versus the TNA
Women's Tag Team Champions whose names escape
me at this moment. on Thursday So that would
be if this is the 25th the Thursday would be
the 27th. So on the 27th of March They have a
match for the TNA tag team championship belts
now I'm recording this on the 28th and honestly
haven't a clue who won. I wasn't even aware of
the match until I finished until I finished making
notes, which was about 20 minutes before I started
recording this episode. So I'm not sure who it
is who won that match, but I'm sure we will find
out on NXT next week. Anyway, this match, I'm
always a fan of watching Gigi Dolin and Tate
and Paxley and that entire clique. sort of perform
because they are so unusual and resourceful and
yeah, just so unorthodox. It's really entertaining
to watch. But having said that, I am a bit of
a fan of the Metagirls as well. They're a bit
more grungy. They are sort of really down in
the depths of it all. It's a case that they will
ground and pound the hell out of you. So two
vastly different teams, equally as successful
in my view. So really enjoyed this match. One
of the spots, and I feel like we're going to
do this every time we see Tate and Paxley wrestle,
because every time I've seen her in a live TV
match so far, she has pulled this weird ass submission
move, which is a little bit like a cross between
a camel clutch and a rack. where she's literally
on her back on the bottom suspends her opponent
using her arms and legs and Holds in this really
weird position. It's difficult to So you have
to see it to believe it but it is incredibly
impressive and incredibly effective as well now
I didn't get a massive amount other than this
as Yeah, I just genuinely enjoyed the match.
But I did note that at one point, the Meta Girls
had a rare miscommunication where they did actually
end up running into one another. And Tatum and
Gigi hit something called a Cemetery Drive, which
is like a tag team finisher. And it was beautiful.
It's like a pendulum cartwheel slam sort of thing
but they both do it so they've got fantastic
teamwork to be able to pull something like that
off in my view and just really really good to
watch but they got the three count to win which
gives them amazing momentum going into that tna
tag team match now The next thing we got was
a VT promo featuring Tony D 'Angelo at the Don,
in that restaurant setting we see him in so very
often, seemingly flanked by a couple of goons.
I'm calling them goons not because they are in
any way sort of goonish, but more to say like
hired goons. They are mafia goons. They are...
muscle, bodyguards, essentially. And we then
see the rest of the family come in. We see Rizzo,
Crucifino, Stacks, all come in, sit down at the
table. And first thing, Crucifino pipes up and
says, Oh, Don, are you OK? Obviously, last week
we saw Tony D 'Angelo was backstage for the six
-man tag match between the D 'Angelo family and
the Culling and the Culling ended up walking
out victorious because Tony D 'Angelo got attacked
by Dark State backstage. The Don says he's okay,
but he's not happy at the fact that they don't
seem to know anything about Dark State. And the
Don is very much in the same boat as we are.
We don't know a massive amount about them either.
So the Don sends Rizzo and Crucifino out to go
and get some intel on Dark State so that they
are better prepared to deal with them. So it
seems like the family is really stepping up to
deal with the Dark State. Problem if you want
to call it a problem, but yeah one way or another
we're getting a solve to this issue now D 'Angelo
asks stacks to hang back and he starts talking
to stacks about trust now I very much got the
impression that D 'Angelo is starting to really
mistrust Stax's motives. Whether he thinks that
Stax is vying for control of the family, I'm
not sure, but ultimately it's all going to come
to a head soon, I think. I don't think the D
'Angelo family unfortunately has much more legs
left in it. Hopefully they uncover some useful
information about Dark State before that ever
comes to pass sort of thing, but we'll soon see.
We then go from that VT into a backstage promo
where we see Hank and Tank talking to Motor City
machine guns. about what they may have done wrong
in their match. And Motor City Machine Guns,
really supportive, can't fault them for that
because they basically said, you know what, in
our view, you did a really good job, you were
just really unlucky, but... In terms of getting
to greatness, Motor City Machine Guns very much
feel like Hank and Tank are going to be championship
contenders soon. They've just sort of got to
trust the process a little bit. Very much, they
can't afford to continue to compare themselves
to all these big time tag team champions because
realistically, it's a case that... They're gonna
they're not gonna follow the same path progression
as the Motor City machine guns did as the Hardy
boys did as the Street Profits did as DIY the
war Raiders The Dudley's Edge and Christian so
many tag teams followed so many different progressions.
I mean team hell no one of the most dysfunctional
teams ever going, but they secured championships
at the end of the day. So whatever they did worked.
So yeah, Hank and Tank have just got to sort
of stick with it. The payout is coming. They've
just got to keep, stay the course, keep up the
energy and they will get there. Next up on the
card was the... Fifth match of the night was
a men's singles match, which sees Ethan Page
versus Andre Chase. And Andre Chase is accompanied
to the ring by Cale Dixon and Uriah Connors.
Neither of which have much consequence, if I'm
completely honest with you, but yeah, it's one
of those. But... We see. The most interesting
point to begin with is that this match was obviously
born out of a backstage promo earlier in the
night, where Andre Chase and Ethan Page have
some cross words, basically, about things that
Uriah Connors has... No, about things that Cale
Dixon has said. Now... During Ethan Page's entrance,
we see Ricky Saints just sort of completely blow
past Ethan Page. Now, Ethan Page and Ricky Saints
have had crosswords in the past where Ethan Page
is another one of these people that says that
saints doesn't belong and that he is... Yeah,
he's basically he's no good. But Ricky Sates
blows past Ethan Page in his own entrance and
goes and takes up a commentary position, which
is where he stays for the entirety of this match,
basically. And even then. When he's on commentary,
he doesn't have an awful lot to say when he's
there I feel like it was just an excuse to maybe
try and get in Ethan Page's head potentially
or something along those lines I think he was
actively going out of his way to find a way of
getting under getting under his skin basically
Now So, Ethan Page, we've seen it before where
he deals some quite clinical damage. It's a case
that he's very, when he competes, he is very
sort of precise with his movements. Nothing is
ever out of place. It is a case that everything
has a time and a place for when he wants to commit
to that move. This in the case of when you're
facing somebody like Jevon Evans who is high
-energy high -pace high -flying Isn't up an approach
you want to be able to do it's a case that you're
gonna you're gonna struggle otherwise but in
the case of going up against somebody like Andre
Chase who hasn't really competed the last time
we saw Andre Chase compete it was a bit of a
squash match to be honest it wasn't the best
showing for him considering it was mine and Rich's
introduction now this version of Andre Chase
that we got on this match was a little bit more
Little bit more what I came to expect from the
leader of a previous faction sort of thing No
There weren't sort of met too many high spots
as such it is a case that It is a case that We
saw Page getting distracted by Uriah Connors
and Cale Dixon at ringside, which earned him
a super kick to the chops, which after everything
that he did to Jovan Evans, I'm always happy
to see Ethan Page get kicked in the trap. And
yeah, I feel like we, at one point we saw some
hints of what the old Andre Chase was like when
chase you was a thing but he sort of he very
much sort of caught himself he was in a fight
with himself to sort of let that individual loose
but regardless it is a case that chase still
manages to deliver a awesome looking neck breaker
on the apron as well as a tornado DDT from the
top rope but ultimately it is not Andre Chase's
night to win tonight. It is a case that he took
the bump, he took the drop, whatever you want
to call it. He took the L on this one as Paige
hits a twisted grin for a three count. And yeah,
it's after this match that the real sort of storyline
stuff gets kicked in. Paige and Saints get into
a bit of a shouting match but the shouting match
is cut short by none other than Sean Spears and
the rest of the culling as they go and blindside
Ricky Saints at ringside and yeah it's it's a
case that he in doing this Sean Spears pretty
much cemented Ricky Spears is united North American
Championship match for next week, which has been
announced so NXT next week We get to see Ricky
Saints versus Shawn Spears for the North American
men's title Which is most likely going to be
the main event. Let's face it now Following on
from that we see a very short social media VT,
which is basically a video pulled from Axe, formerly
Twitter, which sees the members of Dark State
recording themselves out in the parking lot being,
well... pretty proud of what they've managed
to achieve and reveling in the fact that they
don't even have to get their hands dirty to cause
utter chaos in NXT anymore. I mean, yeah, what
more could you ask for as somebody coming in
wanting to cause interference at the end of the
day? We then remain in the car park, just a different
part of the car park, where cameras seem to catch
up with Trick Williams on his way out of the
building, asking if basically he meant to hit
Jevon Evans tonight. Now Williams is sort of
unapologetic, but does say that he was aiming
for Ober Femi, in which case I think Jevon Evans
might need to go to Specsavers if he can't tell
the difference between the human gorilla that
is Ober Femi and the human pipe cleaner that
is Javon Evans. He definitely hit the harder
to hit out of the two. It's a case that you don't
get those two mixed up. And basically... Trix
doesn't feel that Dark State is his business
even though this is now the second time in a
row that they have been in the arena, been present
and known at the same time as Trix Williams is
out there and honestly at this stage it wouldn't...
I floated a theory last week between myself and
Rich that... Jevon Evans was going to find some
way to be involved with Dark State potentially
just because of his youth and all of that. I've
got an odd feeling that Dark State is going to
have been whipped up by Trick Williams and we're
going to see that unfold as the weeks go forward.
It just seemed a little bit coincidental that
the distraction was good enough to benefit Trick
Williams and he seems to have been the only one
that has benefited thus far so yeah it's it's
a bit odd it wouldn't shock me if Trick Williams
ends up with dark state in some way shape or
form but we don't know anything just yet now
this brings us to the final matchup of the evening,
the main event of the evening. The Women's North
American Championship title match between Stephanie
Vacure and Fallon Henley. Now after what happened,
I will be honest, I doubt I'm in doubt of Ava's
decision -making ability as I possibly would
have banned the rest of Fatal Influence from
ringside to prevent any further involvement and
because that didn't happen in my view sort of
it just gave the nod for Fatal Influence to get
involved any which way they possibly could which
they 100 % did. It is a case that We saw pretty
much from the offset, JC Jane got involved trying
to distract Stephanie Vacure and sort of Fallon
Henley very much zeroing in on those injuries
that they caused earlier in the evening. And
do you know what? This was a real uphill battle
for Stephanie Vacure. I mean even if she hadn't
been brutally assaulted after her first match
she'd only really had about 90 minutes give or
take to recover from that match and It just isn't
it wasn't ever gonna be enough realistically
No It's a case that the numbers game very much
plays again sort of plays out and is very much
against Stephanie v cure as it was always going
to be realistically But Yeah, I feel like I Feel
like the ref may have missed a few opportunities
to have kicked the rest of fatal influence out
the ref was more than aware of what was going
on it wasn't that they were completely oblivious
to it i just feel like they they turned a bit
of a blind eye to it there was no there was nothing
to be gained from that realistically but as far
as i'm aware Stephanie Vacure ends up doing something
that we've never really seen anybody do before
and that is she successfully defends two different
singles titles on the same night as obviously
she retained her NXT Women's Championship against
Jada Parker at the very beginning of the card
and at the very end despite having to go through
absolute hell. And I mean, she gets... thrown
out to ringside for Jasmine Knicks to hit a Knicks
kick a Knicks kick pretty much square in the
middle of the face and yeah it is a case that
she very much struggles to get any offense going
because of the injury she suffered to her midsection
during that assault earlier in the evening by
her current opponent and But she, so Jasmine
Nix jumps to the apron to basically try and cause
yet another distraction. It comes at turnabout
fair play as Fallon Henley is pushed into Jasmine
Nix to knock, to knock. some sense, either into
or out of both of them to then go, as Viqueur
manages, despite the midsection injuries, manages
to hit an SVB to retain the second championship.
And Fatal Influence do what Fatal Influence always
do. They have an entire grip of sour grapes.
as they set about Roy just trying to do as much
damage as they can to an already banged up Stephanie
Vicure who quite honestly didn't seem able to
work to defend herself at all which is when we
see Jordan Grace come out and save the double
champ to the point that I think she picks up
I think it was JC Jane she picked up and and
Kicked Fallon Henley and then used JC Jane on
her shoulders to knock down Jasmine Knicks as
well. So Literally, it was everything everywhere
all at once and it was it was a sight to see
it really was but after clearing the ring of
fatal influence we see that Fallon Henley collects
up Stephanie vicuose defended championship belts
hands back the North American title with no issue
at all But very much lays her makes her intentions
known that she is going gunning for that NXT
women's champion a championship as she Struggles
to let go of that championship belt when hanging
handing it back to La Primera And, do you know
what? I've actually got a bit of a theory. Now,
Jordan Grace, Jordan Grace's contract with TNA,
when she was previously with TNA before coming
to WWE, ended pretty much as soon as she'd managed
to get pen to paper with WWE. The transition
was almost seamless. And I questioned it at the
time, but didn't really have enough to go on.
I've got an odd feeling that... She's gonna challenge
for the NXT Women's title and get the NXT Women's
title. We're then gonna see her reveal that she's
worked for TNA all along, or she's gonna go back
to TNA with that NXT Women's Championship. And
it's, yeah, I feel like that's how it's gonna
work. And it's all gonna sort of come. it's all
going to come to a head at stand and deliver
which just makes it all the more exciting for
us wrestling fans. Now the action in ring wasn't
quite done there as Jada Parker comes to try
and take a shot at Jordan Grace but ultimately
gets knocked back as the juggernaut goes into
beast mode and we cut to backstage where the
rest of the women's division was obviously as
the same as they were with the first of Stephanie
Vacure's matches. They were watching on the monitors
and this is where I sort of had to feel sorry
for Ava a little bit as she was then flooded
with different superstars coming to her saying
I want to be the next opponent that bitch is
mine and they want a shot at the belt and Ava's
got to come up with a way of trying to determine
who the next number one contender is. So I smell
a tournament of brewing. And NXT this week finishes
cutting back to the ring with Jordan Grace and
Stephanie Vecure nose to nose. Obviously. animosity
brewing for both La Primera and the juggernaut
and we are on the well and truly on the last
ditch road to stand and deliver now I have covered
everything and I mean everything to do with NXT
this week and it has been my absolute pleasure
to host this episode of the podcast. Now, we
will return back to normal form when we do Finisher's
and Faction's does Friday night smackdown from
London, England. It's getting ever closer to
mine and Rich's home turf here and we are Loving
it. So thank you so much for coming to listen
to me blather on for over an hour about wrestling
and WWE and NXT. And we can't wait to see you
back here again. So see you later, taters.