NXT Review – 03.17.26

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Tonight’s NXT is Booker T Appreciation Night and it comes to the CW and Netflix airwaves from the 713 Music Hall in Houston, TX. The announcing team for the evening’s festivities are Vic Joseph and Booker T on match calls and analysis, Mike Rome on ring announcements, and Blake Howard on backstage interviews and breaking news segments. Let’s watch some wrestling, OH YEAH MAN!

Then, Now, Forever…..TOGETHER

Arrivals (in a CYBER TRUCK) started with Booker T, and then we see NXT Women’s North American Champion Tatum Paxley with a big smile and her shiny title belt. The Culling arrived with Izzi Dame in the lead and Shawn Spears and Niko Vance trailing behind.

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

Booker is predictably fired up at ringside during entrances. Ruca and Zaria have to be separated during Jayne’s entrance, and Jayne is flanked as always by WWE Women’s Speed Champion Fallon Henley and Lainey Reid. Jayne stands by as Ruca and Zaria stare daggers at each other, but when they move forward Jayne drops Zaria with a superkick. Jayne grabs an armdrag roll up and gets two, and then piles on top of Ruca for two. Ruca reverses to a backslide and gets two, and Zaria flies in to end all that. Zaria eats a pump kick and then recovers quickly to yank a charging Ruca up by her neck. Ruca drops Jayne with a kick and then goes to the apron. Jayne sends her to the floor with a kick and then Jayne hits a Codebreaker on Zaria that gets two before Ruca breaks up the cover with a splash on Jayne’s back. Ruca covers Jayne and gets two. Ruca botches a back handspring moonsault but still catches Henley and Reid at ringside as Zaria ducked out of the way. Jayne rams Ruca into the ring steps and then gets yanked up by Zaria to the apron. Reid trips up Zaria as Jayne blasts her with a kick to the chest. We go to commercials.

Ruca hits a double cross-body when the show returns, and then drops a charging Jayne with some back elbows. Ruca hits a German and then Jayne runs into a high boot from Zaria. Jayne goes to the apron as Zaria and Ruca square off. They start throwing bombs and Zaria mashes Ruca with a lariat. Ruca hits a dropkick and then gets crushed by a Jayne senton. Jayne hits a neckbreaker on Zaria and then gets yanked up by Ruca. Jayne slips off as Zaria spears her, and then Ruca mashes Zaria with a spear of her own. Ruca ascends and Zaria pushes her off onto the turnbuckle. Jayne drops Zaria and then ascends, but Zaria springs up and sends Ruca and Jayne tumbling. Zaria covers Jayne for two and then Ruca for two. Zaria starts smashing Ruca’s head into the mat before tossing her into a corner. Jayne mashes Zaria with a dropkick and a rolling cannonball. Jayne hits Ruca with the cannonball but then runs into Zaria’s F5. Zaria’s cover is broken up by Ruca at two. Ruca hits a roundhouse kick but eats a Zaria headbutt. Ruca snaps off an X-Factor and then dumps Zaria to the floor. Ruca hits the Sol Snatcher on Jayne and Zaria yanks her out at two. Zaria hits Ruca with the F5 on the floor, and then gets confronted by Reid and Henley. In the meantime, Jayne crawls over and covers Ruca for three as Zaria cannot make it in in time to break it up.

I fully expected a title change here so I’m kind of surprised at this result. There’s a Bella-AJ Lee-Nattie sized logjam on the main roster right now, and so with no real path to upward mobility, I guess Jacy is stuck in developmental. There’s been reports that Ruca is getting called up due to her fine showing in the Royal Rumble but who knows how much stock you can put into those musings these days. Zaria remains the chump of all chumps from this booking, and Ruca and Jayne continue to tread water. The match itself was not a thing of beauty but everyone worked hard and you could tell they knew they had to get their shit in in a certain amount of time because WOW everyone worked fast. 3*

Winner AND STILL NXT Women’s Champion – Jacy Jayne (Covered Ruca after interference prevented Zaria from making it in)

Kendal Grey is pumping up Wren Sinclair backstage prior to Sinclair’s challenge for the Women’s Speed title. Birthright wander in and Sinclair has words for Charles Dempsey. Dempsey effectively ends their friendship and Grey mentions going after Jacy Jayne and her title. Lola Vice sidles up to tell Grey that she’s going to win the Women’s title at Stand and Deliver. We go to commercials as Ricky Saints makes his way out to “call out somebody” according to Joseph.

Here’s Ricky Saints and he slips off the ropes during his entrance posing. Booker chuckles heartily at that. Saints says he slips but he never falls and the real main event is standing right before everyone. Saints says things are looking up and he and Ethan Page are back on the same page because they know how to pivot. Saints mentions “The Slumpbusters” as a tag team name for him and Page, but they aren’t entering the tag tournament because they’re focused on singles gold. Saints says Page is on the way to becoming a two time North American champion and Saints will be a two time NXT champion. Here’s Ethan Page to remind Saints that he was the one who pinned Joe Hendry last week while Saints points out that Page lost to Myles Borne twice. Saints wants to give Page the floor to call out Myles Borne, but Page doesn’t want to call Borne out. Page wants to call out Hendry himself, and here’s NXT Men’s Champion Joe Hendry out to a big pop and sing-along. Hendry stays in the aisle and shouts out Houston before coming to ringside. Hendry enters the ring while pointing out that Saints can’t pin Hendry but Page pinned him while using the title belt as a weapon. Hendry continues to taunt Saints about his guitar playing and singing and then reminds everyone that Page and Saints faced each other at last year’s Stand and Deliver and maybe they should run it back this year. Page and Saints start arguing but then they attack Hendry together. Hendry fires up and drops both with lariats before hitting both guys with fall-away slams. Hendry gets speared out of his boots by Tony D’Angelo who then drops Page and Saints with chokeslams. D’Angelo came in from outta nowhere, and he glares into the camera as the angle comes to a close.

THE NXT FOCUS PRESENTED BY PROGRESSIVE is on Birthright who last week thanked William Regal and Fit Finlay for helping them out. Regal urges them to win the tag tournament. NXT Interim GM Robert Stone has a word with Regal who tells him that he’s going to have a word with Shawn Michaels about making Stone’s position permanent.

Los Americanos make their entrance as we go to commercials.

The Vanity Project (NXT Tag Team Champions Ricky Smokes and Brad Baylor, and Evolve Men’s Champion Jackson Drake) vs Los Americanos (El Grande Americano Nuevo, Rayo Americano and Bravo Americano)

Drake has a big title defense in Evolve tomorrow night against Aaron Rourke, so get back here early Thursday morning to read our friend Phred’s recap of the whole thing! Smokes gets hit by a Rayo rana, and Bravo tags in. Bravo hits some acrobatics to escape an armlock. Bravo cuts off a short Smokes flurry and pounds on him in a corner. Drake flies down the apron to yank Bravo down and then a quick flurry sends the Americanos to the floor so the Project kids cna do a little salsa dancing. Bravo ascends and crushes everyone with a cross-body and then the Americanos take turns smashing the Project dudes to the floor. The Americanos dance a bit and get a big pop from the Houston audience. Rayo tags in and he and Bravo take turns walloping Smokes. Rayo and Smokes chop it out and Baylor gets a blind tag to drop Rayo with a side facebreaker. Drake flies in off a blind tag to smash Rayo with a bridging German that gets two. Rayo goes to the apron as we go to commercials.

Drake has an abdominal stretch on Rayo when the show returns. Drake transitions to some clubbering rights and then goes to the Three Amigos. Rayo prevents the third one by dropping Drake with an overhead suplex and Baylor and Grande get tags. Grande smashes Baylor and Smokes around and then drops them both with a double Blockbuster. Drake flies in and gets caught by Bravo in an airplane spin. Rayo and Bravo put on cowboy hats and then hit topes on Drake and Smokes. Grande yanks Baylor up for an Air Raid Crash that gets a long two. Smokes holds Grande’s ankle from the floor as Drake gets a tag. Drake hits a tope con hilo on Rayo and Bravo. Drake hits the Burning Hammer on Grande and gets two. Baylor tags in and he and Smokes and Drake combine for a dropkick-450 splash as Drake covers Grande for two. Drake hits some low kicks and then runs into a Grande rolling enziguri. Grande hoists Drake up but Drake slips off for a roll up. Rayo points out that Baylor is holding Drake’s feet to prevent a kick out, and while that’s going on Grande slips away to load up the mask. Grande smashes Baylor with the loaded mask but misses a charge on Drake in the Americanos corner. Drake flies in with a meteora that drops Grande and Rayo tags in. Rayo hits a superkick on Drake and Smokes tags in. The Americanos combine to allow Grande to hit a flying headbutt on Smokes before covering him and getting three.

Let’s run down the checklist, shall we? Selling – zero, psychology – zero, pace – frenetic, crowd enjoyment – off the charts. I know it’s a one-off party match for an appreciative lucha-centric crowd in Houston so it is what it is. The crowd enjoyed it thoroughly as they’ve been conditioned to do so I’ll go along with it because I have no other choice at this point. 3.25*

Winners – Los Americanos (Grande running headbutt on Smokes)

Robert Stone is chatting with WWE Men’s Speed Champion Elio LeFleur when Sean Legacy barges in on crutches alongside Eli Knight. Legacy cannot compete in the tag tournament and Stone says Knight has to drop out or find a new partner. LeFleur volunteers and Stone and Knight are cool with that because it will allow Stone some time to get a Speed tournament together. They leave as Sol Ruca charges in to demand a face-to-face with Zaria for next week. We go to commercials.

Vic Joseph is in the ring along with Sharmell and Booker’s kids, and he introduces Booker from commentary. Booker gets a really nice hand from the crowd as he makes his way into the ring. Booker hugs his family, two other guys in the ring (presumably Booker’s students from Reality of Wrestling), and Joseph. Joseph puts over Booker’s respect for the fans, and then his peers. We go to a video package on Booker’s career and there are comments from Joe Hendry, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Shawn Michaels, Jacy Jayne, and Joseph. Jasper Troy, Stephanie Vaquer, Trick Williams, and The Miz also offer praise and you can tell everyone really loves Booker’s presence on the show. The Usos and Roxanne Perez send in video tributes as well. Booker looks a bit emotional when it’s over and Joseph hands Booker a plaque commemorating the evening. Booker thanks the fans, and here’s Keanu Carver out to tell the crowd to shut up. Booker’s students fly in to try to keep Carver away and he predictably smashes them around. Carver says Booker has ten seconds to exit the ring, and then he smashes the two students who were in the ring. Here’s Jasper Troy charging in and he and Carver start bashing each other around. Troy sends Carver to the floor with a clothesline and a ton of Security pour out to break things up. Booker daps it up with Troy and the locker room comes out to the stage to clap for Booker. Booker yells at Robert Stone and we go to commercials with Booker and Troy in the ring.

So this made Jasper Troy a mega-hero tonight, and I’m glad for him getting this shine and a uber-heel opponent. That was quite a segment and the video tribute was top-notch, as expected. Booker was legit emotional when it was over and it’s one of those things I wish they’d do more of for existing legends to show how much they mean to the performers of today. Carver’s involvement was expected and Troy coming out for the save was cool as hell. You’ve now got a major grudge match for the early part of the Stand and Deliver card that will have a lot of emotion to it, and I like that. Kudos to Shawn for this whole thing.

WWE Women’s Speed Championship: Fallon Henley (C) vs Wren Sinclair

Kendal Grey is out with Sinclair, and Jacy Jayne and Lainey Reid are out with Henley. Mike Rome does ring introductions and reminds everyone of the five minute time limit. Sinclair gets a couple of quick twos before eating a Henley right. Sinclair trucks Henley and then goes to more roll ups that get two. Henley shakes Sinclair off and then hits a release side suplex. Henley yanks Sinclair down and covers for two. Sinclair eats a big knee from Henley but she shakes that off to yank Henley into a double underhook suplex that gets two. Sinclair tries to put on an abdominal stretch but Henley dumps her to the apron. Sinclair gets walloped by a Henley kick to the face and Henley goes to the apron for her crappy swing around the post move. It misses and Sinclair dumps Henley face-first on the apron. Sinclair gets caught by a Henley facebreaker. Henley gets yanked down by her bad shoulder and then there’s a standoff mid-ring. Henley eats some chops and then there’s a roll up exchange. Sinclair yanks Henley into the Final Wrench and Henley is forced to tap.

Hey, look at that, Wren Sinclair claims her first title! Wrensday will be joyful tomorrow. Henley sold her shoulder the whole way so tapping to the Final Wrench feels fine storyline-wise. This thing went a million miles an hour as most of the Speed matches do, but it was fairly coherent if wildly frenetic. I like the Speed title because it gives people a chance to hold a title within a specific format and you can have a bad day or run into the wrong opponent and lose it just that quick. I’m fine with this overall. 2.75*

Winner AND NEW WWE Women’s Speed Champion – Wren Sinclair (The Final Wrench submission)

Here’s Ricky Saints and Ethan Page yelling at Robert Stone about the Tony D’Angelo attack. Page makes sure to mention that Saints wants D’Angelo one-on-one next week, and Stone loves that idea. Saints comes around while mentioning that Page will be in his corner. So we’re doing the “awkward friends who secretly kind of hate each other” thing with Page and Saints. NEAT.

Hank Walker and Tank Leisure make their entrance as we go to commercials.

NXT Tag Team Contenders Tournament: Birthright (Stacks Lorenzo and Uriah Connors) vs Hank and Tank

Lexis King, TNA Knockouts Champion Arianna Grace and Charles Dempsey are out as Stacks and Connors attack prior to the bell. Tank trucks Stacks as Hank grabs a blind tag. Hank and Tank smash Stacks around and Connors flies in to eat a double bodyslam. Hank mounts Stacks in a corner and Grace prevents anything further from happening as Connors sprints around to yank Tank off the apron. Stacks hits a missile dropkick and tags in Connors. Connors puts the boots to Hank and Stacks tags in to hit a rolling tackle before covering Hank for two. Connors tags in and hits a springboard senton that gets two. Connors slaps a rear chinlock on Hank and Stacks tags in. Hank escapes to tag in Tank and he runs wild on Connors and Stacks. Tank hits a rolling tackle on King and Dempsey before running in to drop Stacks with a Liger Bomb. Tank mounts Stacks and Hank tags in. Hank hits a superplex and Tank flies in with a swanton before Connors breaks up the cover with a swanton of his own. There’s a standoff between all four and then Hank and Tank fire up to set up Connors for HONK HONK. King sprints in to push Connors out of the way and he eats the HONK HONK himself. Connors tags in and as Stacks gets smashed by Hank and Tank, Connors grabs Hank for a quick roll up that gets three.

I didn’t get to recap about 40% of this because of the pace of all of it, but you get the gist. Birthright, despite the wildly disparate nature of the group’s make up, is starting to coalesce as a heel unit. Hank and Tank remain mid-card tag team goof jobbers at this point, and I’m kind of sad that they’ve slipped down this far. Birthright is getting the push right now, so it is what it is. I didn’t love this one but it got to where it was going so we’ll be kind. 2.25*

Winners – Birthright (Connors roll-up of Hank)

Robert Stone is being pursued by Joe Hendry who wants D’Angelo next week. Stone explains that he’s already booked D’Angelo against Saints next week and Hendry leaves after saying that D’Angelo is his regardless. Outside the venue, OTM is brawling with Darkstate. Darkstate use their numbers advantage to leave Nima and Price laying as we go to commercials.

Tatum Paxley is backstage with Thea Hail who’s pumping her up to beat Izzi Dame. Paxley tells Hail to never change, and leaves. Here’s Kelani Jordan to put the stink mouth on Hail, and here’s Jaida Parker in to defend Hail. Hail says she’ll tap out Jordan next week.

Here’s Fatal Influence celebrating Jacy Jayne’s victory and a bitter Fallon Henley wonders where they were during her title match. Henley says it will be up to her and Reid to deal with Grey and Sinclair prior to Stand and Deliver because Jayne surely won’t be wrestling, and they leave to go chat with GM Robert Stone.

Conveniently, here’s Robert Stone chatting with NXT Men’s North American Champion Myles Borne about Stand and Deliver. Stone has set up a gauntlet eliminator for next week and the winner of that will meet Borne. Birthright comes into scene and Lexis King says while they go ahead and win the tag titles, they might as well claim the NA title as well.

Joseph mentions that Sexxy Red has accepted Shawn Michaels invitation to join the fun at Stand and Deliver. Booker seems enthused. Izzi Dame makes her entrance as we go to commercials.

Joseph runs down the card for next week’s show when the show returns.

NXT Women’s North American Title – Steel Cage: Tatum Paxley (C) vs Izzi Dame

As Paxley is making her way up the stairs, she stops to pose and Dame takes advantage to smash her from behind. Dame starts kicking the crap out of Paxley on the outside and then waffles her with a snap suplex. Dame smashes Paxley with the cage door and then they finally go inside the cage formally. Dame grabs a chair and takes it with her as the bell finally rings. Paxley fires up with some kicks and and then grabs a roll up for two. Paxley hits a dropkick ad then grabs the chair. Dame climbs the cage and kicks the chair away from Paxley. Paxley yanks Dame down and they end up standing on the top rope. They take turns running each other’s heads into the cage and Dame finally elbows Paxley down. Paxley smashes Dame in the legs a couple of times and then climbs again. There’s more head-smashing and both finally drop to the mat. We go to commercials.

Paxley and Dame rise slowly when the show returns. Paxley trucks Dame a couple times but Dame fires up with a right hand. Dame gets driven back with a German and Paxley ascends. Paxley climbs all the way to the top and Dame gives chase. Paxley slips and instead of just falling to the floor climbs back to the top of the cage to duke it out with Dame (SIGH. I know we have to follow the script and there’s still six minutes of air time but if you’re gonna run an escape rules tag match, JUST DROP TO THE GODDAMN FLOOR. Anyway, back to the action.) They slug it out on top of the cage and Paxley fires up with a flurry of rights and lefts. Dame yanks Paxley into a headlock and hits a huge superplex. Dame crawls over and covers for two. Paxley’s mom is in the crowd and looks rightfully horrified by that bump. Paxley slips off Dame’s shoulders and then hits a top rope Whisper in the Wind for two. They rise in the middle of the ring and start smashing each other with kicks. Paxley hits a superkick and then Dame drives Paxley face-first into the cage off a missed charge. Dame hits a Codebreaker and a shotgun dropkick before hitting a sit-out powerbomb that gets a LONG two. Dame grabs the chair and drives it into Paxley’s gut before walloping her a bunch in the back. Dame yanks Paxley up and drives her spine-first into the cage. Paxley grabs the cage to prevent a powerbomb and then she reverses Dame into a Code Red onto the chair. Paxley yanks Dame into the Cemetery Drive and covers for three.

That should be it for this feud, and Paxley earned every bit of the cheers she’s getting post-match. This was a fairly physical war all things considered. I was obviously annoyed with one part of it but that is what it is and Paxley didn’t mean to slip up there. Dame and Paxley worked a bit more deliberately tonight, which I appreciated, and the cage came into play a bunch as a weapon. There were no silly escape attempts after Dame’s first ill-fated climb, and I liked that as well. I’m pretty pleased with this overall even with the post-match shenanigans. 4*

Winner AND STILL NXT Women’s North American Champion – Tatum Paxley (Cemetery Drive)

Post-match sees a celebrating Paxley yanked down through a trap door on the ramp by Blake Monroe who then retrieves the NA belt and holds it up. Monroe disappears, the credits roll, and we’re out.

This was an interesting night in terms of being a big card in a non-PC environment. The women’s title match that opened the show surprised me in terms of the finish, but I’m not sure what’s happening at all anymore around upward mobility in that division. The Saints-Page-Hendry-D’Angelo thing is boiling towards a four-way at S&D, clearly, and I’m not a big fan of multi-mans for a major title, but I don’t think Shawn has a better idea at this point. The six-man tag party match was pretty fun in a vacuum and EGA Nuevo remains wildly over with a lucha-centric crowd, plus everyone (but me) hates the Vanity kids. I enjoyed the Speed match and I’m happy that Wren Sinclair won her first title – that was a fun moment. The Booker Appreciation segment ended basically how I expected and Jasper Troy came out of it looking like a million bucks. I’m glad he and Carver will get some shine with what should be a big feud heading into S&D. Hank and Tank have slipped down the card and Birthright is on the ascendency so you got what you got there, and the match itself was kind of a nothingburger overall. The main event was the showpiece tonight and while there were a couple of clunky moments, they went at it and delivered a pretty compelling cage match overall. I’m good with tonight, thumbs leaning up, but things have to start moving soon to determine the exact card for the biggest show of the year.

Thanks, as always, for reading and commenting. Go read all of our incredible writing team’s recaps, won’t you? Enjoy your day, be good to each other, stay hydrated, and keep on going. It’s all we’ve got right now.