 AAA World Mixed Tag Team Champions Women's United States Champion Chelsea Green and NXT North American Champion Ethan Page def. Thea Hail and Joe HendryGreen and Page work so well together as a unit that it would have been ridiculous to take the AAA World Mixed Tag Team Championship off them so soon, even though Hendry and Hail were super over here. That made for a fun match with everyone involved having a solid showing. For those that missed it, Fightful reported over the weekend that Hendry is now a full-time WWE talent, so expect him to be the one to ultimately dethrone Page for the NXT North American Championship. Tavion Heights and Josh Briggs BrawledIt was announced right before this that John Cena will appear on next week's episode (almost definitely in a pre-taped video package) to pick the competitors in this year's men's and women's Iron Survivor Challenge matches at Deadline. Heights spoke here about wanting in before getting attacked by Briggs. I hope Heights is given a spot over Briggs, but it's possible both of them end up in it. I liked how this took place in the crowd instead of in the ring where it normally would. NXT Women's North American Champion Blake Monroe def. Sol Ruca by Referee StoppageI don't know what they're trying to do with this split personality for Monroe (I feel like we see too much of that in WWE these days), but her matches aren't the issues and this was proof of that. She and Ruca had an enjoyable outing with a strong story centered around Ruca "selling" her knee injury, which ultimately factored into the finish with Zaria throwing in the towel for him. Zaria has to be the one to turn heel on Ruca as it'd be stupid for the roles to be reversed. NXT Champion Ricky Saints, Oba Femi and Trick Williams Interrupted Each Other Before Myles Borne Attacked WilliamsThe mic work from Saints, Femi and Williams was all great in this segment. They're the three perfect people to build the brand around, except each of them are ready for the main roster right now. Borne attacked Williams and said he wanted the winner of Saints vs. Femi, so my guess is that we get Saints vs. Femi in a rematch at Deadline while Williams and Borne take part in the Iron Survivor Challenge. NXT Tag Team Champions DarkState (Osiris Griffin and Dion Lennox) def. TNA X-Division Champion Leon Slater and Je'Von EvansSlater and Evans' chemistry is just fantastic. I would have loved to see them take the tag titles here, but I knew that probably wasn't going to happen since DarkState just got the belts back from The Hardy Boyz. This was a blast and not just because of the babyfaces as DarkState more than held their own. Maybe the miscommunication between Evans and Slater at the end will lead to them having their highly-anticipated rematch from Bound for Glory? Jacy Jane def. Tatum Paxley to Win the NXT Women's ChampionshipFrom an in-ring standpoint, this may have been better than their match at Halloween Havoc, partially because they were slotted in the main event and that alone made it feel more important. The action was overshadowed by the shock title change, though. We knew Izzi Dame would betray Paxley eventually, but I didn't think it'd be so sudden. I hate that Paxley's reign was cut short, and I also don't know why they couldn't have given the title to someone else instead of Jane again, but at least they closed the show with something significant. Overall ShowRoadblock from earlier this year remains the best overall edition of NXT this year, but Night 1 of Gold Rush was excellent in its own right, especially compared to what we normally get on NXT TV. Every match was a title match, feuds were furthered, we finally got a Deadline development, and the NXT Women's Championship changed hands. Plus, the Madison Square Garden crowd (a different part of the arena than where Raw was on Monday night) was hot throughout. This was easily a two-thumbs-up episode.
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