WWE NXT 1st of October 2024

Our WWE NXT results for tonight’s debut on the CW Network include Trick Williams challenging “All Ego” Ethan Page for the NXT Championship (CM Punk as special guest referee), Roxanne Perez defending the NXT Women’s Championship against Giulia, Zachary Wentz seeking vengeance when he faces Wes Lee in a Street Fight, Lol Vice and Jaida Parker form an uneasy alliance to battle NXT’s resident mean girls Fatal Influence, The Miz host Miz TV with Tony D’Angelo and NXT North American Champion Oba Femi, and more! Here’s our review and grades for tonight’s show, live from Rosemont, Illinois, at Allstate Arena.

NXT kicks of it’s premier on the CW Network with a brand new theme. The Allstate Arena erupts as the big boss of NXT Shawn Michaels makes his way to the ring.

Shawn Michaels welcomes the crowd to the new NXT. HBK announces they can’t have a new NXT without new NXT Championships. HBK reveals the new NXT Men and Women’s Championships. The new titles designs are beautiful. HBK says he just has one question. Before here can finish, Triple H’s voice cuts in and he aks the crowd if they are ready. Triple H joins HBK in the ring and they asks the crowd if they are ready!
Grade: B
This segment was short and to the point. Seeing HBK and Triple H together is always a good way to kick off the show. The new championships look great and will add to the new look and feel of the scaled up version of NXT.

NXT Women’s Championship Match: Roxanne Perez (c) vs. Giulia
Giulia and Perez trade submission holds and takedowns. Giulia counters Perez into a roll up. Perez kicks out. Perez and Giulia trade pin attempts. Neither woman can get an advantage. Giulia avoids Pop Rocks and locks in an STF. Perez couners into a crossface, but Giulia turns it into a pin. Perez kicks out. Both women stare daggers at each other, and this ends in a stalemate. After the break, Perez works over Giulia. After a strike exchange, Giulia unloads on Perez with repeated headbutts. 187-style hammerlock suplex by Giulia. Perez kicks out.
Giulia and Perez exchange elbow strikes. Perez sends Giulia out of the ring. Suicide dive by Perez. Perez goes up top. Giulia cuts her off and hits a top rope butterfly suplex hold. Perez kicks out. Giulia and Perez trade submission attempts. Giulia reverses the crossface into an STF. Perez breaks the hold by reaching the bottom rope. Giulia counters Pop Rock with a knee strike. Perez kicks out. Perez surprises Giulia with Pop Rocks. Giulia instinctively rolls out of the ring to avoid getting pinned. 
Giulia pulls Perez under the bottom rope and hits a Northern Lights bomb on the floor. Perez and Giulia are both almost counted out. As the referee is distracted, Someone in a hood runs down to the ring and DDTs Giulia on the floor. The hooded person tosses Giulia back into the ring. Perez hits Pop Rocks for the win. The invader takes off their hood. It’s Cora Jade? Perez smiles as Jade looks on.
Winner and STILL NXT Women’s Champion Roxanne Perez!
Grade: B+
Giulia and Perez killed it out there tonight. Perez has been Teflon since winning the championship, but the buildup to this match and the hype surrounding Giulia made it seem as though Perez’s loss here was inevitable. The action here was carefully constructed to build to huge nearfalls we saw in this match. This writer was on the edge of his seat at every moment, waiting for Giulia to end Perez’s stranglehold on the championship. Instead of going with the obvious, WWE went left and made the right call: turning this “dream match” into an actual angle that they could use to sell tickets. The addition of Cora Jade adds another stack of layers to what this angle can build into. Good stuff.

Street Fight: Zachary Wentz vs. Wes Lee
Lee comes to the ring with a shopping cart full of weapons. Lee tries a dive during Wentz’s entrance. Wentz avoids Lee and hits a dive of his own. Wentz hits Lee with a shopping cart. Wentz pulls a piece of panel board from under the ring. Lee dives into it, which sandwiches Wentz between the board and the barricade. Lee tosses a few chairs in the ring before beating down Wentz with a kendo stick. Wentz hits Lee with a chair repeatedly. Wentz and Lee fall off the apron through the panel board that magically got propped up on four chairs.
After the break, Wentz lands a Van Terminator with a trashcan. Lee kicks out. Lee tries a rana and gets dropped on a chair, gut first. That was NASTY. Lee kicks out. Wentz traps Lee in a trashcan and hits it with a kendo stick. Double stomp to the trashcan by Wentz. Wentz lands a swanton on Lee while he’s still trapped in the trashcan. Lee somehow kicks out.
Wentz sets up the UFO Cutter. Lee pushes Wentz off the top. Wentz goes flying and bounces off a table in the wayy. Lee lands a double stomp off the top while Wentz is lying on a chair. Wentz kicks out. Wentz holds a chair up, and Lee begs off before he can swing it. Wentz screams that he didn’t want to do this. Before Wentz can swing, Lee low blows Wentz. Lee wraps a chain around his knee and hits a meteora off the rope for the win.
Winner- Wes Lee
Grade: B+
Your mileage may vary regarding garbage matches, but if there was ever an angle that deserved a Street Fight, it’s this one. Wentz has every reason to hate Lee. These two tried to kill each other tonight… and it was fun to watch.

Miz TV
Miz gets booed out of the building. The NXT crowd is letting Miz know how they feel about him turning on R-Truth last night on Raw. Miz introduces the North American Champion Oba Femi and Tony D’Angelo. Miz asks D’Angelo why this match against Femi will be different. D’Angelo says he’s going to use his fear to do the unthinkable; he’s going to dethrone Femi and become the new North American Champion.
Femi says D’Angelo doesn’t believe a single word that he’s saying. Femi exclaims that D’Angelo can say and do whatever he wants, but he will never be North American Champion. This is Femi’s title. D’Angelo says his family and everyone in his hometown of Chicago give him the power to push on. Femi tells D’Angelo that these people can’t fight for D’Angelo. D’Angelo can’t beat him. D’Angelo and Femi go face-to-face. Femi tells D’Angelo he’s still broken. The look on D’Angelo’s face gives the impression that Femi may be right.
Grade: B-
Oba Femi’s intensity in the ring is only matched by his intensity on the mic. Femi broke D’Angelo down in the ring the last they met. Tonight, he did it with words. Is there anything Femi can’t do? D’Angelo also deserves praise here for staying the course and not letting the fact that his hometown crowd What’d him into oblivion as soon as he started speaking. It would be a travesty for Femi’s title reign to end here, but it seems we are headed in that direction. NXT is doing a weird Rocky 2 reenactment, so it’s hard not to see this ending with a D’Angelo victory. The question is, does anyone actually want that to happen? Let us know in the comments!

Jaida Parker and Lola Vice vs. Fatal Influence (Jacy Jayne and Fallon Henley w/Jazmyn Nyx)
NXT Women’s North American Champion Kelani Jordan is at ringside. Parker and Vice control the match early. Parker stacks up Henley and Jayne and lands a double teardrop hip attack. Vice follows that with a running hip attack. Vice saves Parker by superkicking Jayne, but Parker thinks Vice was aiming for her. In the confusion, Henley attacks Parker from behind.
After the break, Parker thinks Vice knocked her off the apron. Parker says that’s twice, and she leaves. Jayne and Henley hit their finish on Vice for the win. After the match, Fatal Influence sets their sights on Jordan at ringside. Jordan says she saw this coming and isn’t here alone. WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Jade Cargill and Bianca Belair hit the ring and make the save!
Winners- Fatal Influence
Grade: B
This was fun match. All four woman have a shocking amount of chemistry. What seemed to be a throughaway angle with Vice and Parker seems to be heading to something more substantial for the both of them. Parker and Vice are both over with the NXT crowd, so pairing them up for a a potential singles feud is a fun idea. The post match angle was effective, as it gets Fatal Influience and Kelani Jordan a rub from Belair and Cargill. Also, will this lead to Fatal Influence challenging for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships at some point?

NXT Championship Match: “All Ego” Ethan Page (c) vs. Trick Williams (Special Guest Referee CM Punk)
Punk calls it down the middle to start as he separates both men, who repeatedly get tied up in the ropes. After a pin exchange, Page takes exception to what he thinks is a slow count. Williams tries to throw a punch, but Punk blocks it and tells him that’s illigle. Page rolls up Williams with his feet on the ropes. Punk doesn’t count the fall. Williams lands a diving clothesline. Dropkick by Williams. The fight spills out of the ring. Page sends Williams through the barricade with a whip.
After the break, Page is working over Williams. Williams fires up and sends the Page out of the ring. Page trips Williams into the ring steps. Page sends Williams flying through the commentary desk with an Ego’s Edge. Williams lands a big Trick Shot, but collapses to the mat. Page bounces off the ropes and collapses on Williams like he won the championship. Williams kicks out. Both men are down.
Punk helps both men up and tells them to fight. Page and Williams trade strikes. Slingshot Book End by Williams. Page kicks out. Page gets in Punk’s face. Page stares Punk down and hits Williams with a GTS. Williams kicks out. Page lands a boot that sends Williams into the corner, but Punk catches him since he is standing there. Williams avoids a charging Page, lands the Trick Shot, and gets the pin.
Winner and NEW NXT Champion, Trick Williams!
After the match, Punk drops Page with a GTS.
Grade: B+
The right person won here, but how we got here… ehh. The minute Trick Williams lost the NXT Championship, it was apparent that he would win it back on NXT’s debut episode on the spiritual successor of The WB, the CW Network. Loading up the main event with a name like CM Punk makes perfect sense, but Punk was a bit too involved with the finish of this match. Williams is the right guy to lead this brand into its next age. The former champion, Ethan Page, did a tremendous job being just the worst person on the planet leading up to this match. Page was the right opponet, and this was the right night for Willaim’s crowning achievement.

Review:
As far as debut shows go, this one was well done. Tonight, NXT showcased their biggest names (hopefully a new set of fans) in the best positions possible. The face of NXT, Trick Williams, rubbed elbows with one of the biggest stars in professional wrestling, CM Punk, and one the big belt. Roxanne Perez and Giulia showed they are two of the best wrestlers in the game today with a barnburner that set up a potential mega angle between a reunited Perez and Cora Jade battling Giulia.
Wes Lee and Zachary Wentz took turns attempting murder on live TV, and as dirty as we all should feel watching it, it was well worth it. The excitement leading to next week is at a fever pitch as Tony D’Angelo’s Rocky marches towards hopefully losing to Oba Femi again comes to a head next week. Plus, Axiom and Nathan Frazer defend the NXT Tag Team Championship. Je’Von Evans challenges the legendary Randy Orton in a match that is sure to end in the most incredible RKO of all time. Will NXT continue their momentum heading into week two on The CW? Let us know in the comments below!
Grade: B

What did you think about this week's WWE NXT debut on CW? #WWE #WWENXT

— JJA Sport Studio (@jjasportstudio) October 2, 2024