NXT Review – 02.24.26

Reference points for this evening’s action include: Evolve | Impact | Smackdown | AAA | Raw

It’s a HUGE night for NXT, and the show comes to the airwaves on the CW and Netflix from the Performance Center in Orlando, FL. The announce team for tonight’s show includes Vic Joseph and Booker T on match calls and analysis, Sarah Schreiber on backstage interviews and breaking news segments, and Mike Rome on ring announcements. Let’s watch some wrestling!

Then, Now, Forever….TOGETHER (Thank you, AJ.)

NXT Interim GM Robert Stone tells us that it’s going to be a special night tonight before running down the card, and it’s going to kick off with the Tag Team Championship match!

NXT Tag Team Championship: Darkstate (Osiris Griffin and Saquon Shugars)(C) vs The Vanity Project (Brad Baylor and Ricky Smokes)

Smokes and Baylor are accompanied by Evolve Men’s Champion Jackson Drake as always. Darkstate are out en masse, including Cutler James and Dion Lennox. Griffin and Smokes will start and Smokes tries a shoulder tackle to zero effect. Griffin yanks up Smokes who slips off and tags in Baylor. Baylor and Smokes try a double shoulder tackle and that fails miserably as well. Baylor tries a running cross-body that fails, and then Smokes charges and gets dumped onto a prone Baylor. Griffin fires Smokes into their corner and Shugars tags in. Shugars drives a shoulder in and Griffin tags back in. Shugars and Griffin hit a legdrop-backbreaker combo and Shugars covers for two. Baylor tags in and he and Smokes get rammed together by Griffin. Shugars tags in and he and Griffin work double-team offense before Shugars covers for two. Baylor dumps Shugars to the apron but he sneaks back in to trip up Smokes. Shugars grabs a roll-up for two. Smokes takes control with some chops and Baylor tags in to work an armdrag. Shugars cuts off that flurry and Griffin tags in. Baylor and Smokes get dumped to the floor as we go to commercials.

Baylor is in control against Shugars when the show returns. Smokes tags in and he and Baylor hit a double-team high dropkick on Shugars before Smokes covers and gets two. Smokes works a rear chinlock that turns into a front facelock. Shugars dumps Smokes over but Baylor gets a quick tag to rush in and prevent Shugars from tagging. Griffin finally gets the tag and he runs over both Smokes and Baylor. Griffin hits two chokeslams and Smokes breaks up Griffin’s cover of Baylor at two. Baylor hits a big boot and Smokes grabs a sneaky tag. Smokes hits a kaman giri and rolls Griffin up for two. Baylor tags in and Griffin dumps Smokes to the floor before tagging in Shugars. Shugars crushes Baylor with a dropkick and Griffin hoists Baylor up for a Shugars missile dropkick. Drake puts Baylor’s foot on the ropes to save Baylor. James charges over, as does Lennox, and suddenly refs pour out from the back to prevent a donnybrook from breaking out. Griffin charges out to smash Drake with a cross-body. From the other side, Tony D’Angelo emerges to smash Shugars with a slam on the apron. D’Angelo tosses Baylor in and his cover gets three.

Typical of NXT tag matches, this went at a high pace. D’Angelo’s involvement in the finish was not unexpected given his recent comments about taking everything from Darkstate. Baylor and Smokes got most of the shine during the commercial break but the televised stuff very much leaned towards Darkstate, who also got babyface chants from the crowd. Alignment-wise, I’m not sure where that leaves everybody. The ring work was what you would expect in terms of pace and selling, but there was some psychology for a change in that the heels did have a heat sequence on Shugars who had to make a hot tag to continue the fight. I’m interested to see where things go for the Vanity Project (apparently the Swipe Right name has been retired) and we’ll see how Darkstate chooses to handle D’Angelo from here. 2.75*

Winners AND NEW NXT Tag Team Champions – The Vanity Project (D’Angelo interference leads to Baylor pinning Shugars)

Sarah Schreiber is with Myles Borne and wants to talk about how Borne got the title match. Borne says the odds are stacked against him tonight because Page has been pushing him away from Page’s title on purpose. Borne says he’ll no longer be known as “deaf kid Myles Borne”, he’ll be known as North American Champion Myles Borne. Keanu Carver makes his entrance as we go to commercials.

Keanu Carver vs Sean Legacy

Legacy flies out with a dropkick on Carver just after the bell rings. Carver goes to the apron and Legacy drops him to the floor with a dropkick. Legacy tries another charge and meets a Carver right hand. Carver sends Legacy back in and dumps him over the ropes to the floor in front of the announce table. Carver hoists Legacy and drops him face-first on the apron before rolling him back in. Carver puts the boots to Legacy and then stands on Legacy’s face. Legacy gets walloped by a big right hand and then hoisted up for a backbreaker. Carver hoists Legacy again and tosses him face-first across the ring. Legacy tries some chops but Carver cuts that off and dumps Legacy back out on the floor. Carver charges and Legacy crushes him with a superkick. Legacy sends Carver back in and Legacy hits a springboard 450 that gets two. Legacy hits an enziguri and a springboard dropkick. Legacy tries Sliced Bread and Carver dumps him to the mat. Carver hits THE POUNCE and a modified Liger Driver before covering and getting three.

Legacy has a bright future as a good looking guy who’s moves are solid but never wins anything. Carver needs work but his basics are mostly there. I like anyone who uses THE POUNCE as part of their moveset, and Carver’s power game will evolve over time. This was fairly squash-tastic no matter how you slice it, so we’ll see where it leads for Carver. 1.5*

Winner – Keanu Carver (Liger Driver)

Wren Sinclair and Evolve Women’s Champ Kendal Grey are chatting backstage. Grey says she’ll support Grey during her quest to win the Speed title. Here’s Kelani Jordan to put the badmouth on the WrenQCC and brag about beating Lola Vice. Lola Vice flies in with a short kick to Jordan and everyone starts screaming at each other. Jasper Troy makes his entrance as we go to commercials.

WWE Men’s Speed Championship: Jasper Troy (C) vs Elio LeFleur vs Eli Knight

This match will have a seven minute time limit per last week’s decree by Robert Stone. Troy starts tossing LeFleur and Knight around just after the bell. Troy press-slams LeFleur to LeFloor on top of a dazed Knight. Troy tosses both guys back in and Troy ends up back on the floor. Knight and LeFleur dump Troy into the steps and head back in. Knight hits a short dropkick and dumps LeFleur down to wallop him with a standing moonsault that gets two. LeFleur fires up with a kaman giri and a twisting neckbreaker, but Knight rolls to the floor to prevent a cover. LeFleur hits a moonsault on Knight only to run into a recovered Troy. Troy smashes Knight and LeFleur around and then drops LeFleur with a clothesline from behind. Troy catches LeFleur off of a dive and sends him into a dazed Knight. Troy smashes LeFleur with a chokeslam and covers for two. Knight fires up with an enziguri on Troy and LeFleur follows with a high boot. LeFleur hits a springboard knee and Knight follows with a springboard leg drop that sends Troy to the floor. Knight crushes LeFleur with a running leg lariat that gets two. Troy tosses Knight off a top turnbuckle and ascends. LeFleur powerbombs Troy and then drops Knight with a springboard DDT on the apron. LeFleur ascends and hits a 450 on Troy that gets two. LeFleur mounts Knight in a corner and Troy comes in to try a blackhole slam but it fails. LeFleur hits a crucifix driver and Knight follows with a moonsault on Troy. LeFleur sneaks in very quickly and covers Troy for three as Knight looks on in horror.

Booker emphasized the point that this match went about 5 minutes and 50 seconds and under normal Speed rules, Troy would have stayed champion, but because Stone made this a triple threat and changed the time limit, Troy’s title remained in jeopardy. This was well-worked given that the two smaller competitors didn’t directly team up but very much worked together to prevent the much bigger champion from becoming dominant. I enjoyed that facet of the storytelling here. With most Speed matches, there wasn’t a lot of selling and Troy spent some time on the floor on purpose to give the other two some shine in the ring. Overall, this was fine for what it was but if you missed it, you don’t have to seek it out on purpose or anything. 2.5*

Winner AND NEW WWE Men’s Speed Champion – Elio LeFleur (Sneaky pin on Troy after a Knight moonsault)

After commercials, here’s Ricky Saints chatting with NXT Men’s North American Champion Ethan Page who tells Saints that Myles Borne is the type of talent that cracks under the bright lights. The Vanity Project wander in to celebrate being champions, and Saints pipes up to talk about taking the Men’s title from Joe Hendry, and promises to make sure that Page will remain the greatest North American champion ever.

Here’s a look at NXT Men’s Champion Joe Hendry called NXT Chronicle. Hendry puts over his lifetime of hard work and talks about growing up loving WWE when he was a kid in Edinburgh. Hendry made the decision in 2013 to try to become a pro wrestler and talked about using judo and amateur wrestling to help himself along. Hendry’s music chops also helped him along the way. COVID interrupted everything and he used that time to reinvent himself again. Hendry used his savings to get a visa so he could join TNA and become the man he is today. We see the combatants for the Women’s title match making their way to the ring as we go to commercials.

NXT Origins focuses on Damian Priest and how NXT influenced him to learn his character and dive into new training and ways of doing things. It lead him to winning the world title at Wrestlemania, and nothing could have prepared him for that like NXT did.

Darkstate are smashing things up backstage and they run into Lola Vice who tells them to wait their turn. Vice approaches Robert Stone and wants an Underground match with Kelani Jordan. Stone makes the match and says it will happen at Vengeance Day.

NXT Women’s Championship: Jacy Jayne (C) vs Sol Ruca

Ruca is accompanied by Zaria, while Jayne is seconded by her stablemates WWE Women’s Speed Champion Fallon Henley and Lainey Reid. Mike Rome does the in-ring announcements and before anything can get going, Zaria flattens Ruca with a spear and her F5. Zaria yells “good luck” at Ruca and the bell rings. Jayne hits the Rolling Encore and covers Ruca for three.

Well, we finally got to the fireworks factory. With Ruca’s apparently impending call-up, I’d expect a match at Vengeance Day and then Ruca should be full time on the main. If they were going to pull this trigger with Zaria, it had to be now if the sheets are to be believed, plus it was TIME TO DO THE DAMN THING ANYWAY. There’s nothing to rate here as this was just an angle disguised as a match.

Winner AND STILL NXT Women’s Champion – Jacy Jayne (Rolling Encore)

Post-match sees Zaria yank Ruca out of the ring and F5 her onto the announce table. Zaria puts the badmouth on Ruca as we go to commercials.

Here’s Tatum Paxley with a microphone to chat about trying to find love by twisting herself around. Paxley rises and tells the crowd that she actually found acceptance through their love and now she feels it. Paxley wanders through the crowd and says when she beats Izzi Dame at Vengeance Day it will not just be hers, it will be theirs. Here’s NXT Women’s North American Champion Izzi Dame to say that Paxley’s dreams will never be enough and before they can start duking it out, the lights go out.

WWE Women’s Speed Tournament Contender’s Match: Blake Monroe vs Thea Hail

Hail hits a running tackle and tries some ground and pound. Monroe grabs a quick roll up for two. Hail gets a backslide for two. Hail hits a back thrust kick and covers for two. Hail kicks Monroe out to the floor and while Hail is being chastised by the ref, Jaida Parker flies in with Hipnotic that crushes Monroe. Parker tosses Monroe back in and Hail hits her rolling blockbuster and covers Monroe for three.

Well, we are moving right along through these matches tonight. This one took all of about 45 seconds total AND had a run-in. Everyone is working overtime on the creative side tonight. To sum up, thus far we’ve had interference in the tag title match, a Keanu Carver squash, a mostly normal men’s Speed match, an angle disguised as a match with the Women’s title, and now this interference in the Women’s Speed match. That’s a whole lot of things for an hour and fifteen minutes, team. ANYWAY, Thea moves on while Parker-Monroe apparently will continue on. I’m glad Thea is finally getting some shine after such a long time in purgatory, regardless. 1.5*

Winner – Thea Hail (Rolling neckbreaker after Parker interference)

The NXT Chronicle on Joe Hendry continues. This portion covers his time getting his theme song to number one on the Itunes charts and first appearing in NXT, winning the TNA title, and appearing at Wrestlemania. Hendry says a lot of guys think he’s just a song and a smile, but he’ll prove to Ricky Saints that he’s way more than that. We go to commercials.

Kale Dixon vs Uriah Connors

CHASE U EXPLODES! Andre Chase is seconding Dixon, and Stacks Lorenzo, TNA Knockouts Champion Arianna Grace and Lexis King are with Connors. We’re joined in progress as the show returns, and they’re slugging it out mid-ring. Dixon hits a blockbuster and and wants a chokeslam, but Connors fights his way out of it with elbows. Dixon snaps off a rana that sends Connors to the floor, but he slips a Dixon dive and charges only to get caught with a huge forearm from Dixon. Dixon ascends and meets Connors knees. Connors slaps on an inside cradle and gets two. Connors hits a superkick and covers for two. Connors puts the boots to Dixon as we see Tavion Heights watching the match alongside Charles Dempsey. Dixon hits a chop and yanks Connors into a helicopter slam that gets two. They start slugging it out again and Connors hits a backslide for two. Connors gets caught off a springboard attempt but he shakes that off to hit an inverted stunner before crushing Dixon with a springboard stunner that gets two. Connors yanks Dixon up and wanders into a superkick. Dixon hits a tope con hilo on Connors and then runs him back into the ring. Dixon ascends and hits a torneo splash that gets two. Connors tries to make piece but Dixon wants none of that. Dixon ascends but meets Connors boots on the way down, and then Connors yanks down his knee pad. Connors hits a Kinshasha and covers Dixon for three.

Okay, for a sprint, this was darn good. I wouldn’t mind seeing more of this from both of these guys. It’s a shame they were used as comedy jobbers for so long because they clearly had way more in them. Now, the result here was not shocking in the slightest as Connors is getting the shine with the Birthright group at the moment, but Andre Chase and Dixon seem to still be a team so there could be some ongoing stuff here until we find something new for Birthright to do. Some hints around Dempsey and potentially Heights being involved further makes this that much more intriguing. For a lower card thing, this one might have some legs, but we’ll see. Anyway, this was darn good for what it was. 3.5*

Winner – Uriah Connors (Kinshasha running knee strike)

After a review of the Zaria turn, here’s Jacy Jayne and her crew being confronted by Zaria who says Jayne owes her. Zaria wants a title shot next week and tells Jayne if she doesn’t get it she’ll do the same thing to Jayne that she just did to Ruca. We go to commercials.

The Vanity Project invite Ricky Saints to go out to party with them, and Saints talks about the Joe Hendry Chronicle that was shown. Saints says he’s going to have an Experience next week and invites the Project to be there. Jackson Drake says they need to help Ethan Page retain his title and here’s Hank, Tank and Shiloh Hill to let them know they’ve taken apart the Project’s car before a fight breaks out between all of them.

THE NXT FOCUS PRESENTED BY PROGRESSIVE is on the Myles Borne-Ethan Page build-up to tonight’s main event. Borne is heading to the ring as is Page. Page gets his intro as we go to commercials.

Robert Stone is with Sarah Schreiber and he talks about tonight’s results before mentioning that Jacy Jayne will defend against Zaria next week, there will be a six man tag with Shiloh Hill/Hank & Tank vs The Vanity Project, and we’ll all get the Ricky Saints Experience. Izzi Dame charges in to say that there should be a face-to-face next week but if Tatum Paxley puts her hands on Dame the match at Vengeance Day is off. Stone seems to agree.

NXT Men’s North American Championship: Ethan Page (C) vs Myles Borne

Mike Rome does the in-ring intros, and we’re off. Borne pops Page with some rights and uppercuts. Page slips a charge and favors his ankle that Borne messed up last week. Borne pushes Page down and stomps on Page’s ankle. Borne drops Page calf-first on his knee and then snaps him over before covering for one. (Booker is saying that Borne should have been arrested for smashing Page’s ankle last week and like Book, do you remember when Page kayfabe broke Je’von Evans jaw? I love Booker. He’s priceless.) Page fires up with an elbow and some clubbering but Borne pushes Page over and works a front ankle lock. Page dumps Borne and then smashes him with a rolling neckbreaker. Borne crushes Page with a Saito suplex that sends Page to the floor. Borne hits a baseball slide but Page trips Borne face-first into the announce table. Page hits the Ego’s Edge on Borne over the announce table as we go to commercials.

Borne breaks out of a headlock when the show returns. Page clubbers Borne down and they start slugging it out. Borne fires up with some rights and a lariat. Borne hits a back elbow and a fisherman’s suplex. Borne’s subsequent cover gets two. Borne yanks Page up but Page slips off and runs into a lofted Borne boot. Borne hits an elbow drop splash that gets two. Page runs Borne into a corner and then yanks him up for a powerslam that gets two. Page gets rolled over and Borne gets two. Page hits a big kick and another Ego’s Edge but it only gets two as Page cannot believe it. Page yanks Borne up for some chops and they start slugging it out again. Page drops Borne with a right and then mounts him in a corner. Page hits a headbutt and then ascends. Borne starts firing off rights and Page responds with one of his own. Page re-ascends and waffles Borne with a superplex before covering and getting two. They slug it out once more and Page hits a double thrust to Borne’s throat to end it. Borne hits a dropkick, Page fires up with a jawbreaker, and Borne shakes that off to hit Borne Again. The Vanity Project flies out and Jackson Drake smashes Borne with the Evolve title belt as the ref was trying to deal with Baylor and Smokes. Hank, Tank, and Shiloh Hill come blasting out to fight off the Project, and here’s Ricky Saints ascending in a corner. Joe Hendry comes charging in to dump Saints off the top turnbuckle and blast him with some rights. Borne smashes Page into the turnbuckle that apparently came off during the Saints-Hendry confrontation and then smashes him with another Borne Again. Borne covers and gets three.

Boy, creative was ON ONE tonight. That was a wildly overbooked finish but the 273 day long reign of Ethan Page FINALLY comes to an end. I guess Shawn has said that it’s time to make a run at it with Borne and see what he has given his physical gifts and back story, but I’m skeptical, I have to be honest. Borne has slid a BUNCH since last summer, so in some ways this feels like this is his chance but it may be his only chance. We will see as time progresses. Legit I have no idea what you do with Page at this point if he’s not coming up. Saints has Hendry’s antagonist spot claimed and unless they’re making an end run with that match at Vengeance Day I’m assuming that will be the match up at Stand and Deliver as well. Again, we’ll see what Shawn has in mind. Perhaps they’ll run back Page and Borne a couple more times. This was kind of dull in terms of most of the ringwork because Page’s moveset is basically a bunch of punches and his high spots, so Borne’s offense had to reflect that. It wasn’t horrible or anything but it’s hard for me to tell you that if you were pre-empted for SOTU that you have to seek this out. The finish was what it was, and we have a new champ. We’ll see what happens from here. 3*

Winner AND NEW NXT Men’s North American Champion – Myles Borne (Borne Again)

Post-match sees Borne go over into the crowd to celebrate with his mother. The credits roll and we’re out fairly abruptly.

That card was a whole-ass thing tonight. This was a show that had a lot of promise going in and delivered three title changes, but I feel kind of let down by the whole thing. The title changes were meaningful but the only one that was clean was the Men’s Speed title and I’m not sure anything about that division moves any type of needle. There was a lot of interference and run-ins tonight and that takes the shine away from the in-ring competitors/action. I understand that sometimes those things need to happen to further stories and keep things cooking but there was a LOT tonight and it felt heavy. We’re starting to have a fully realized Vengeance Day card and then it’s on to Stand and Deliver, so I expect a lot of moving parts as we go forward. I’m going thumbs in the middle for tonight. I felt like there was good in-ring stuff but creative let me down. Let me know your thoughts in comments.

Thanks for reading and commenting, as always. Have a good rest of your week and stay safe out there.