Oh yeah, life goes on, long after the thrill of watchin’ Speed is gone. That much was clear Tuesday on NXT, as two matches showed the division for what it now is — WWE Short.
It began when Jasper Troy defended the Men’s Speed Championship in the division’s first triple threat match against Eli Knight and Elio LeFleur.
Last week, Knight and LeFleur wrestled to a three-minute time-limit draw in a tournament final to determine Troy’s next challenger. Rather than order sudden death or declare no contender,
Interim NXT General Manager Robert Stone booked both into the title match and extended the championship time limit from five minutes to seven.
The format changes highlighted what’s been clear since Speed moved from X to NXT: Speed was no longer Speed — just another thing on WWE TV.
Because a champion can lose a triple threat without being pinned, logic suggested Knight or LeFleur would score the fall on the other to protect the monster Troy. Instead, LeFleur pinned Troy after Knight’s moonsault to the champion leveled both men.
The match was solid, though Troy taking the pin — after the familiar triple-threat trope of someone scoring a fall following another’s big move — was puzzling. But the bigger issue was believability.
When Speed launched in 2024, fans doubted matches could end credibly in five minutes or less. Online, the division answered by sprinting from the bell, with wins coming off a single mistake in a rush for victory — plausible with two wrestlers. With three, the chaos that comes with a third body should have made a seven-minute finish impossible.
After the triple threat broke the division’s format, the night’s second bout broke its spirit.
Thea Hail defeated Blake Monroe in just over a minute after outside interference from Jaida Parker. The finish mirrored two decades of Raw formulas: action, distraction, result.
On X, matches were clean. Outcomes hinged on timing and luck, not interference. Since moving to NXT, outside involvement has become standard, starting with the second Speed match ever on NXT, when Natalya’s presence doomed AAA’s Faby Apache.
Beyond its fancy new lighting as time ticks down, Speed hasn’t stood out the way it did on X. Instead, since moving to NXT, it’s blended in. Having lost what made it distinct — quick, one-on-one sprints to decisive finishes — Speed is now like everything else in WWE, only faster, and easier to tune out.
