NXT once again emanates from the Performance Center in Orlando tonight on the heels of two weeks of Revenge, several main roster callups, and the WWE’s annual spring cleaning roster purge. Planned for tonight are a NXT North American Championship match, the debut of an exciting addition to the NXT women’s division, plus, a former champion has his NXT farewell match before his Smackdown debut next week. Be sure to tune into the action on the CW starting at 8 PM ET, and follow along with all the action right
here on Cageside!
Who’s Left?
The biggest story heading into tonight’s episode of NXT, unfortunately, is not centered around anything that will be happening in the ring in the Performance Center. Instead, the talk the last few days has been focused on the massive roster purge that happened at the end of last week, and all of the NXT stars that were promoted to the Raw and Smackdown rosters.
NXT hadn’t even recovered from losing the awesome trifecta of Oba Femi, Trick Williams, and Je’Von Evans earlier this year, and now, ol’ HB-Shizzle will have to pick up the pieces and regroup on a massive scale. Three quarters of the Stand & Deliver main event earlier this month were all promoted, leaving only new NXT Champion Tony D’Angelo in Orlando. On Monday nights, Ethan Page has immediately interjected himself into the Intercontinental Title picture, while Joe Hendry’s concert tour has resumed with the red brand. Ricky Starks, on the other hand, will face Shiloh Hill on NXT tonight before heading to Tulsa, Oklahoma to make his Smackdown debut. Will The Absolute end his NXT stint on a winning note? Or will the Season 2 LFG winner score the biggest win of his young career?
The NXT women’s division has taken a pretty big hit in the last week as well. Before losing a grueling Last Woman Standing match to her best-friend-turned-enemy, Zaria on NXT last week, Sol Ruca made her Raw debut with a great showing against the new World Women’s Champion, Liv Morgan. Then, on Friday, Fatal Influence made a huge splash on Smackdown when Jacy Jayne, Fallon Henley, and Lainey Reid debuted and attacked three future hall-of-famers and one current one during a tag team match. Later in the evening, Jacy shot her shot with the new WWE Women’s Champion, Rhea Ripley, and proved she belongs with a strong showing before her Fatal Influence comrades attacked the champ and got Jayne disqualified. Also on Friday, a new bubble bath vignette aired, promoting Blake Monroe’s arrival on the Smackdown roster.
With these four women moving up, new opportunities are sure to be available for the NXT women’s locker room in the coming weeks. Izzi Dame seems to be the first one up to challenge Lola Vice after attacking her last week. Will a title match between Izzi and Lola be made official this week? Or will other challengers like Kendal Grey and Kali Armstrong continue to make sure Lola knows that they’re gunning for her?
The Ever Darkening State of DarkState
After weeks of turmoil, DarkState seemed to be back on the same page last week for much of Dion Lennox’s North American Title match against Myles Borne. They were playing the numbers game well until the very end of the match when they tried to run a play and Dion ended up getting shoved into Saquon Shugars, who was inexplicably halfway into the ring. Borne hit the Borne Again and retained his championship as the state of DarkState continued to grow darker.
Later in the evening, Saquon revealed that he had a conversation with Robert Stone to plead him for another North American Title shot for DarkState. Unfortunately for Dion, Stone only agreed to give another shot to the group on the condition that it was Shugars facing Borne, and not Lennox. That match will take place tonight on NXT. Will Dion be as enthusiastic for his DarkState comrade’s opportunity as he was for his own? Or will the tension in the faction continue to bubble over, leading to yet another successful title defense for Myles?
The Debut of Lizzy Rain
Last week on NXT, we saw a video promoting the debut of Lizzy Rain this week. The former PROGRESS Women’s Champion, who wrestled as Rayne Leverkusen and is known as the “Maiden of Metal”, will look to add some new flavor to the NXT women’s division and fill the void left by the recent call ups. Who will Lizzy face in her debut match?
Quick Hits
- Zaria survived a brutal Last Woman Standing match by throwing Sol Ruca off of a 10 foot perch thru a Slim Jim table. With Sol moving on to Raw, it’s time for Zaria to move on to what’s next. Does the Aussie star have championship gold in her sights?
- Lexis King brought gold back to Birth Right last week by winning the Men’s Speed Championship. Two of the men he outlasted in the tournament,
Eli KnightEK Prosper and Dorian Van Dux will team up tonight to take on King’s buddies, Uriah Connors and Channing “Stacks” Lorenzo in tag team action. Can Birth Right continue their winning ways or will Prosper and Van Dux come up with a huge win? - NXT Champion Tony D’Angelo is set to appear on tonight’s show. With three of his top challengers all promoted to the main roster, it seems like Keanu Carver might be next in line for a shot at NXT’s top prize. Will their paths cross tonight?
- Tatum Paxley improved to 2-0 in Casket Matches last week when she closed the lid on Blake Monroe and retained her NXT Women’s North American Championship. Who will be the next one to step up to the champ and what kind of shenanigans will Tatum and Shiloh get into this week?
- With Blake Monroe heading to Smackdown, it appears Vanity Project has found a new companion in Myka Lockwood (formerly known as Bayley Humphrey from LFG). Will any tag teams step up to Smokes and Baylor and challenge for the NXT Tag Team Titles? Will we get to see Myka hit somebody with the crazy finishing move that was discussed in the Rumor Roundup last Thursday?
All this and more on NXT on the CW tonight for as WWE’s developmental brand picks up the pieces from the latest main roster callups. Let us know what you’re most excited for on tonight’s episode in the comments below, and be sure to follow along with the live coverage here on Cageside tonight, starting at 8 PM Eastern!
