Stuck With You
The men’s division continues sorting itself out this week in a pair of uninspiring matches. Well, that’s not entirely fair. One left a lot to be desired while the main event was fine. Both matches suffered sloppy endings that seemed like misfires, but also told the tale of a division still a bit out of sorts.
Lets’ start with the obvious: Grayson Waller is at the top of the heap. The champ’s presence loomed over two matches:
Saquan Sugars vs. Tristan Angels, and the number one contender match featuring Tony D’Angelo and Myles Borne.
Saquan Shugars took an L from Tristan. This after he complained about not wrestling for the NXT Championship, and angrily interacting with Grayson before the match. He talked a lot of trash about where he should be and how Grayson is a “dumbass kangaroo.” I see no reason for kangaroos to catch strays on Grayson’s behalf. Animal cruelty aside, this felt off to me. The match never truly found a rhythm and the ending not only disappointed me in terms of how but the what. Tristan defeated Saquan with what I think was a high knee? Or a knee to the back of the head in slow motion? Whatever it was, it didn’t work and looked very sloppy. And yeah, Saquan’s loss.
I understand Saquan isn’t getting a title shot tomorrow but to have him talk all that trash to the champ only to lose to a guy who doesn’t get even half of the limelight doesn’t compute. We talked in the CS offices about the territory’s inconsistency with who gets pushed. This is a prime example of that erratic behavior. Made more egregious since Saquan seemed like someone they wanted in the championship picture.
That segues into the main event. Again, a fine match that did what it needed to do. Tony D’Angelo is the next contender and that tracks since Myles has a blood feud on his hands with his former best friend. But what happened with the ending? In lieu tracking down a video since it’s not on WWE’s official channel, I’ll explain.
Myles found himself distracted by a very inconspicuous cameraman on the apron. That opened up a lane for Tony to finish him off for the 1-2…almost 3. Myles got his shoulder up on three but the ref called for the bell. Someone got their wires crossed and it looked bad on television. They quickly moved away from that as Tony briefly celebrated before signaling to the masked man to do his thing.
Shocker, the masked man was Tavion Heights. If there’s one trope WWE loves, it’s a masked assailant. To quote a colleague, NXT is turning into a Scooby Doo episode at the rate they use masked men
I liked Tavion beating down Myles in the end. No, not because Myles botched the finish, but because it was logical and filled with emotion. Tavion has a lot of frustration to get off his chest. In no world should he allow the former North American champ to live comfortably or succeed at anything until he gets his pound of flesh.
That leaves Tony D and Grayson. I can’t say I’m thrilled about this yet but I hope I’m swayed between now and Halloween. It’s just crazy thinking about all this turnover in NXT and the championship match in 2026 features two guys synonymous with a very different era for the brand. It’s not exactly fresh nor does it say anything about the future.
It symbolizes a division stuck in neutral until something bigger and better comes along to push them forward.
B-Sides
- It’s possible to win even when taking a loss in sports. I’m sure Mini Vikingo & Chaz “Starboy” Hall did that in their quarterfinal Dusty Cup match against Vanity Project. This felt like a championship match. It reinforced the Dusty Cup’s importance and hopefully elevated those two cats in the tag division. I’d love to see more matches between them and Brad Baylor & Ricky Smokes. I love their chemistry and the juxtaposition of characters. That’s all to say that a storyline featuring these four would only enhance the stakes. Fantastic opening match that shows this tournament is still a thing NXT does really well.
- EK Prosper gave Vikingo & Starboy their props afterward. Of course Vanity Project put a stop to all the good feelings. A trios match is on the horizon and I couldn’t be happier.
- Wren Sinclair had a big night. I still think she needs more mic time to truly find her voice there, but she always brings the passion which makes me believe her. She makes up for the awkwardness with being genuine. The whole thing set up a confrontation between her and Kelani Jordan. Now, for her part, Kelani doesn’t believe Wren deserves a title shot and I kinda agree with her. Hear me out: Wren was suspended (she’s not anymore), she entered the battle royal under false pretenses, and stole someone’s identity. Roger Stone was almost swayed by that logic until he let the crowd tell him otherwise. The man lacks conviction. Wren gets her shot at Kelani at Halloween Havoc.
- Interesting segment between Wren and Myles Borne. I love that NXT never forgets connections. I liked Wren checking Myles for how he treated Tavion Heights after Myles saw similarities between their actions. Wren called Myles selfish while Myles rightly pointed out his former stablemate renamed a whole group after herself (I cackled when Wren said it sounds better). Their convo led to Kendall Grey making her triumphant return. The former champ is officially cleared, which puts the Wren QCC back in full effect.
- Kali Armstrong rightly felt perturbed about the battle royal. I get it. To soothe her soul, GM Stone arranged a championship match between her and AAA’s La Catalina. I don’t watch AAA so La Catalina was a new discovery for me. I like her a lot. There’s always an extra gear from AAA wrestlers when they come to a WWE show, and she was no exception to that rule. But the story here was Kali going too far for the W only to pay for it in the end. She was so desperate to win a championship, any championship, that she peeled back the mat on the floor. Kali tried slamming La Catalina on the concrete but the AA Reina de Reinas Champ blocked it. Several minutes later, Kali’s own petard hoisted her during an exchange in the ring where her momentum carried her over the top rope, thanks in part to La Catalina pulling said rope to counter Kali coming at her. She felt flat on the concrete, which contributed to her taking the L. That was sound storytelling that played into everything Kali felt after seeing a championship shot ripped away from her. She was so eager to get a reward that she went too far and paid dearly for it. I didn’t expect her to defeat La Catalina and take him new gold. I also didn’t expect to get some character development in the process, but I’ll always take it.
- Noam Dar & Romeo Moreno are on to the next round in the cup after another fantastic tag match. They defeated Fraxiom, which put an end to their dreams of hoisting the cup. I miss seeing Fraxiom on NXT every week. They bring a high level of competition and crispness that I think the territory could use at the moment. As always, seeing Noam just makes me miss Meta-Four. But I’ll get over that one day. Props to everyone involved and I do think the right team won. While a win would be nice for Nathan Frazer & Axiom, they don’t need it at this point in their careers.
- Galeno & El Hijo del Dr. Wagner, Jr. found themselves in an imaginary, one-way pissing contest with Birth Right backstage. Just a little way to preview their upcoming tag match. It also showed Lexis King has no understanding of Spanish at even the basic level.
- Izzi Dame continued her mind games with Zaria this week. Her bottom line this week? Zaria is hiding her truth self from the world and Izzi will bring it out. Okay, sis. Do your thing.
- Dion Lenox and Cruz Montana was already personal. But whew, Tony has every right to kill Dion now. The man attacked Cruz after the former TNA champ ended a phone conversation with his mother. He then called Cruz’s mom back and talked more trash. Now, I assume this was his mom based on the conversation but I could be wrong. I hope not though because that’s just cold-blooded.
Not bad. Not great either but an okay episode bolstered by two fantastic tag matches. Do the Dusty Cup tourney year round and I’d be a happy man. I know that’s impossible but I can dream. There are still some kinks working themselves out, as is expected with a developmental territory.
What say you, Cagesiders?
