After her successful title defense at Stand & Deliver, the new NXT Women’s Championship Roxanne Perez opened the show. Claiming her victory served justice, Perez went on to boast about her ring savvy by targeting Lyra’s arm while feeling absolutely no remorse.
To drive this new pompous heel persona even further, Perez claimed the only way she’ll be dethroned is upon getting drafted and having to relinquish the belt to make her main roster debut. The former champion Lyra Valkyria interrupted and challenged Roxanne for a championship rematch. Perez taunted the former champion only for Tatum Paxley to interrupt offering to take Lyra’s place. After an eerily intimate exchange with Tatum gazing into the ex-champions eyes, Paxley pulled the switch and ignited their rivalry.
Oh but we’re just getting started!! Because my girl NXT Nattie came out with her hair half braided and a chip on her shoulder. Feeling herself with the new do, The Total Divas veteran issued a challenge to the newly crowned champion which Perez immediately turned down only for the NXT General Manager Ava to immediately make official because despite her delusion, Perez isn’t in charge of booking the show, Ava is!
Kelani Jordan & Fallon Henley were seen backstage next getting an honorary award from Chase U University. Thea jumps into the segment excitedly with former “friend” Jacy Jayne and the rest of the mean girls club Kiana & Izzy quickly on her tail.
Jacy reveals the reason those calendars were necessary was to bail Chase U out of debt. Jayne revealed Chase placed a wager on Thea’s match that ended up costing the university after her mentor forfeited the match for Hail by throwing in the towel. Thea sat at her desk in disbelief but when confirmed by Andrew Chase to be true, stormed out of the segment much to the delight of Jayne.
Immediately we cut to tag team action where Kiana & Izzy take on Fallon & Kelani. The match goes into frenzied action with both teams having back and forth exchanges until Kiana James eventually gets the better of Jordan and cuts the match in half. From this point Kiana continues to dominate with impressive offense. Once Fallon gets the hot tag, the tide would momentarily turn but would prove not to be enough to overcome the heel faction with Izzy & Kiana picking up the victory.
NXT Women’s Championship match Roxanne vs. Natalya is up next!
The challenger is out first to a big babyface pop! We love NXT for that, (until they decided to do dueling chants later on in the match, fickle fickle). The champ follows to a chorus of boos (and then cheers). Oh I am excited for this one! Roxanne and Nattie immediately get to work, exchanging technical holds with ease and precision. Roxanne introduces her five fingers to Nattie’s face and the vet answer’s back with a hard slap of her own!
After we return from the commercial, Nattie snaps in a clean surfboard submission. Perez eventually gets the upper hand after a shove into the steel steps. The heel champion lays into the veteran and impressively has an answer for all of the challenger’s offense. Great chemistry displayed by these two as to be expected and you can really see Nattie is in her element here.
After exchanging submission holds, Natalya eventually gets in the sharp shooter and drags the champion to the middle of the ring before Roxane powers her way to the bottom rope. The two performers tumble out of the ring when out of nowhere Lola Vice runs in and attacks Nattie from behind! (Boooo!) Perez capitalizes and hits the Pop Rocks for the win! Great, and enjoyable match!
Backstage segment with Lola Vice claiming she’s taking her own opportunities and is gunning for gold. But guess what Lola? NATTIE AIN’T GONNA TAKE THAT ATTACK!! A backstage altercation ensues where you can visibly make out Natalya mouthing bxtch over and over again.
Recap of Ava announcing the Women’s North American Championship
Meta-Four had a brief segment backstage furthering Dijak and Noam’s story, Jakara and Lash looked great.
Jaida Parker is out next representing OTM and is set for action against Brinlee Reece. Honestly, not super familiar with either of these performers so not sure what to expect heading into this bout! Luckily both women have personality in spades so I’m already drawn in right out the gate.
This match was a great showcase of characters with Parker playing up her no nonsense heel swagger and natural dominance against Brinley’s homage to Lisa Frank. The bubblegum pop powerhouse has some impressive offense but lights out when Jaida hits the Hip Check for the win! Fun, enjoyable match. Jaida really has an effortless charisma about her.
Final women’s segment of the night sees Arianna Grace talking to Sol Ruca backstage discussing the new North American Championship. Lola Vice would join the conversation once again with tunnel on achieving gold. Good character building segment.
Author’s Notes:
All around, I had a great time watching NXT last night if you can’t tell by the results. Entertaining TV from all the women involved and while I wanted my girl Nattie to pick up the win, I understand wanting to keep it on Perez as she finds her footing as a heel. I like Roxanne so no issues with that but she definitely needs established babyfaces to work against to help grow into this turn as being a heel doesn’t come as naturally as her babyface work. That’s not a dig either, Perez has a high ceiling and management backing her so expectations are understandable. My personal take is she’s trying to show range and complexity in this heel persona but it’s coming across, to me, as confusion. Happy to give her time though because Roxanne is definitely a talent to invest in. Sound off in the comments and see ya’ll next week!
