NXT airs on CW tonight from the Performance Center in Orlando, just 5 days before Vengeance Day this Saturday night. A huge NXT Women’s Title match is scheduled, along with a 6-man tag match featuring the new NXT Tag Team Champions. Plus, Ricky Saints hosts the Absolute Experience and Izzi Dame and Tatum Paxley come face-to-face before their title match this weekend!
It’s Zaria’s Time
It finally happened.
After months of tension amongst best friends, Zaria finally had enough last week. Instead of even letting Sol Ruca have a chance to win the NXT Women’s Championship from Jacy Jayne, Zaria brutally attacked her before the match could even start. As our man Gomez pointed out after the match, Sol foolishly agreed to let the match begin despite barely being able to stand, giving Jacy Jayne an opening to hit a Rolling Encore and score an easy victory to retain her championship.
Interim NXT General Manager Robert Stone made a questionable call and rewarded Zaria’s bad behavior by making her Jacy’s new #1 contender. That title match will take place tonight on NXT. Will Zaria’s betrayal pay immediate dividends in the form of the NXT Women’s Championship? Or will Sol Ruca return the favor and make sure her former best friend doesn’t leave the PC with the gold?
Izzi & Tatum Face-to-Face
Months before Zaria betrayed Sol Ruca, Izzi Dame and The Culling cut ties with Tatum Paxley and cost her the NXT Women’s Championship at NXT Gold Rush in November. Several intense showdowns (with a few of them involving a chainsaw) later and the two former friends will meet at Vengeance Day this Saturday with Izzi’s Women’s North American Championship on the line.
Before we get there though, the two women will meet face to face in the ring tonight. Will Tatum bring the chainsaw, or any other electrical power tools with her? Will Shawn Spears and Niko Vance be lingering around to make sure Izzi’s able to get the upper hand before her title defense?
New Champions Begin Their Reigns
New champions were crowned last week on NXT and tonight’s NXT will mark the beginning of three new title reigns.
The Vanity Project benefitted from Tony D’Angelo’s continuing crusade for revenge against DarkState and became the new NXT Tag Team Champions when Tony hit a brutal spinebuster on Saquon Shugars on the ring apron. Later in the night, they got into an altercation in the locker room with Hank, Tank, and Shiloh Hill, which set up a 6-man tag team match for tonight’s show. Will Hank & Tank stake their claim to a title shot by coming up with a victory over the new champs? Does the unhinged Shiloh Hill have any desire to challenge Jackson Drake for the Men’s Evolve Title? Are any other NXT tag teams lurking and looking to get involved?
Unfortunately for Ethan Page, the Vanity Project’s luck didn’t carry over to him, as Myles Borne put an end to All Ego’s Men’s North American Title reign last week. Will Ethan be looking for a rematch or is he moving to bigger and better things? Now that a Canadian is no longer champ, will Myles Borne replace the maple leaf with the stars and stripes or go back to the original belt design?
French luchador Elio LeFleur won a triple threat match last week to become the new Men’s Speed Champion. Will a new tournament to determine a #1 contender get started this week? And what’s next for former champion, “the Mounsta”, Jasper Troy?
Quick Hits
- New NXT Champion Joe Hendry is scheduled for his next title defense this Saturday at Vengeance Day against Ricky Saints. Prior to their match, and in lieu of another Joe Hendry concert, the #1 contender will present the Absolute Experience tonight. Will it be a concert? A dance party? There’s no way to know, but we’ll find out tonight!
- Kelani Jordan and Lola Vice will write the next chapter in their personal rivalry this Saturday when they compete in an NXT Underground match. Will either woman be looking for a tune up tonight, and will they cross paths at all before their brawl this weekend?
- Birthright started off on the right foot last week when Uriah Connors defeated his former Chase U classmate Kale Dixon. Does this new faction of nepo-babies (and Stacks) have their next target in mind or will Andre Chase stand up for his last remaining student and try to get some revenge?
- Keanu Carver made quick work of Sean Legacy on NXT last week. Will anybody in the NXT locker room make the awful mistake of getting in Carver’s way this week?
- Blake Monroe got screwed out of her Speed Tournament match by Jaida Parker last week. With their showdown looming this weekend at Vengeance Day, will the Glamour get Hypnotic again or will Blake Monroe find a way to get one up on Ms. Parker?
- Tony D’Angelo started his DarkState revenge tour successfully last week by costing Shugars and Griffin the NXT Tag Team Championships. Now, without gold to worry about, will the DarkState boys find a way to make Tony D pay, or will the mob boss turned vigilante continue to make them suffer?
All this and more on what’s sure to be an eventful episode of NXT on the CW tonight, with Vengeance Day on tap this Saturday night. Follow along with the live coverage here on Cageside, starting at 8 PM Eastern!
