The WWE presents their next NXT premium live event, Vengeance Day tonight from the Performance Center in Orlando, just 4 weeks before the brand’s biggest show of the year, Stand and Deliver. On the card are 5 singles matches, with 2 championships being defended, and 3 of them featuring NXT’s uber-deep women’s division. As always, be sure to follow along with tonight’s show right here on Cageside! The one-hour countdown show begins at 6 PM ET, with the show kicking off on Peacock at 7 PM ET.
Let’s
take a look at what’s scheduled for the show tonight!
Joe Hendry (c) vs. Ricky Saints – NXT Men’s Championship
Joe Hendry defends the NXT Men’s Championship on a major PLE for the first time since winning it in a wild ladder match last month. One of the men that Hendry outlasted in that match was the Absolute Ricky Saints, who gets an opportunity to become a two-time NXT Champion at Vengeance Day.
Last week on NXT, in an effort to prove that he’s a better entertainer than the champ, Ricky Saints presented the Absolute Experience. Ricky was having a bunch of technical difficulties and his performance never really got off of the ground when one of the stagehands. First, he misplaced his guitar pick, then he couldn’t get comfortable on the stool that was set up in the ring for him, so he requested a chair instead. A minute later when Saints requested a new guitar, he got into a tug of war with a stagehand, who wouldn’t let go of the new six-string. The stagehand was revealed to be Joe Hendry and the Absolute Experience ended with a guitar being smashed on the challenger’s back.
NXT closed with Hendry and new Men’s North American Champion, Myles Borne, standing tall in the ring after fending off the Vanity Project, who came to Ricky’s aide. Can Joe Hendry count on Borne and maybe Hank & Tank to have his back again at Vengeance Day? Or will Ricky become the 9th multi-time NXT Champion in history?
Izzi Dame (c) vs. Tatum Paxley – NXT Women’s North American Championship
The story between these two women goes back all the way to last spring. Tatum was down on her luck after two of her friends and her real life husband were all given their pink slips and released from the WWE. Tatum was alone until Izzi Dame, Shawn Spears, and Niko Vance took her in to The Culling. This allegiance would lead Paxley all the way to the NXT Women’s Championship when she defeated Jacy Jayne at Halloween Havoc last year. Despite her teammates, namely Izzi, urging her to be selective with who she was defending her title against, Tatum insisted on being a fighting champion. Then, just 3 weeks after winning the championship, it was Izzi that ended up being the one to end Tatum’s reign, when she interfered at NXT Gold Rush during Jacy Jayne’s rematch.
Fast forward a few months, and Tatum and Izzi have traded wins as they try to settle their personal rivalry. Izzi won their first encounter back at Deadline in December and Tatum got a bit of revenge by beating Dame at New Year’s Evil. Now, the gold is on the line in one of the more personal matches on the Vengeance Day card. After getting in Izzi’s head during their face to face on Tuesday, will Tatum parlay the momentum into a North American Championship win tonight? Or will Shawn Spears and Niko Vance ensure that Izzi Dame’s reign continues?
Jaida Parker vs. Blake Monroe – Street Fight
After a several month hiatus, Miss Parker returned to NXT with a vengeance (pun heavily intended) back in January and made The Glamour Blake Monroe her first target. After weeks of back and forth battles, both verbal and physical, Jaida and Blake will clash in a Street Fight at Vengeance Day.
Blake Monroe was thinking that her ongoing war with Jaida Parker was over a few weeks back when Robert Stone put her in a Speed Tournament match against Thea Hail. Hoping to move on to a new pursuit of gold, unfortunately for her, Blake was mistaken. Jaida stormed into the Performance Center and cost Blake her match and her shot at being a champion again. Then, this week, Monroe basically claimed she was the sun that the NXT Universe revolves around, which drew a strong rebuke from the Hypnotic one, who came to the ring and got the better of Blake after Monroe fired the first blow.
Later in the night, donning a black outfit different than the one she was wearing earlier, Blake mounted the announce table and challenged Parker to a Street Fight tonight at Vengeance Day. Will Jaida Parker prevail and come up with arguably the biggest win of her career? Or will Blake finally get the upper hand and provide proof that she is the straw that stirs the drink in NXT?
Kelani Jordan vs. Lola Vice – NXT Underground Match
Since winning the TNA Knockouts Championship at Victory Road back in September and subsequently representing TNA against NXT at Showdown, Kelani Jordan has found herself on the outs in the NXT women’s locker room. For months, one of the resident veterans in said locker room, Lola Vice has stood up for her brand and the other women that represent it.
Jordan and Vice’s beef has become increasingly more personal over the last few months, with Kelani getting the upper hand in most of their physical encounters. The most brutal blow happened a few weeks ago when Kelani smashed Lola’s hand with a ladder. A few weeks later, Jordan would take advantage of that injury by attacked the injured hand and picking up a submission win over Vice.
Undeterred and not backing down despite a doctor warning her of the possibility of permanent damage this past week, Lola was scheduled to face Kelani in an NXT Underground match. With previous wins over Nattie, Shayna Baszler, and Jaida Parker, Lola will be putting her undefeated record in these MMA catch-style matches on the line when she faces Kelani Jordan at Vengeance Day.
Speaking of Shayna, Kelani enlisted the former UFC and WWE brawler to help her prepare for the first Underground match of her career this past week. Will a session or two with the Submission Magician be enough to help Kelani beat Vice in Lola’s specialty match? Or will Lola overcome a broken hand to inflict enough damage on her rival and extend her Underground record to 4-0?
Tony D’Angelo vs. Dion Lennox
Last April at Stand and Deliver, DarkState would officially establish themselves as a force to be reckoned with in NXT when they came up with a huge win in a 6-man tag team match over the D’Angelo family, aided by the shocking betrayal of Tony D by his long-time underboss, Channing “Stacks” Lorenzo. In the months that followed, Tony would see his family completely crumble, culminating in July when he would defeat Stacks and Luca Crusifino in a Triple Threat match to put the final exclamation point on the D’Angelo Family’s run. A few weeks later, a cryptic pre-taped segment would air, seemingly signifying the end of Tony D’s “Don” persona.
D’Angelo would not be seen for several months before returning at Deadline in December. For weeks, Tony would linger in the shadows and interject himself in matches and segments, with very little explanation, rhyme, or reason. When we finally heard from him, Tony D explained that he had returned to NXT for two reasons: to get revenge on DarkState….. and then something else that he would tell us when the time was right.
After several physical confrontations, some of them happening in the dreaded NXT parking lot, D’Angelo attacked Saquon Shugars during a NXT Tag Team Title defense on NXT two weeks ago, eventually costing DarkState the gold. Last week, Dion Lennox would step up to defend his boys and a match with Tony D at Vengeance Day was signed. Will Dion avenge D’Angelo costing Shugars and Griffin tag team gold two weeks ago? Or will Tony find a way to keep the numbers game at bay so he can take out another DarkState member and finally tell us what his second reason is?
So there you have it Cagesiders! Which Vengeance Day match are you most looking forward to? Let us know in the comments below and be sure to join us tonight for our coverage of one of the final stops before NXT Stand & Deliver next month!
