WWE NXT Review - July 9, 2024

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

NXT Champion Ethan Page, Trick Williams, Shawn Spears and Je'Von Evans Interrupted Each Other and Brawled

It's pretty wild to see Page starting the show as NXT Champion after only being on the brand for six or seven weeks. Vic Joseph even mentioned on commentary that he won the title faster than anyone in the brand's history. Now we'll see if he can excel in the role and I believe that he can. The segment itself played out predictably with everyone interrupting each other before brawling, but it did set up a tag team match for the main event.

Karmen Petrovic def. Arianna Grace

These two teamed up against Jacy Jane and Jazmyn Nyx on the Heatwve pre-show and managed to pick up the victory despite never having teamed before. They were back to being opponents here, so their alliance was short-lived because they're both from Canada and teaming up got them on the Heatwave card in their home country. This felt like a squash for Petrovic since it didn't last more than three minutes. Fallon Henley laid out Petrovic afterward, so look for them to face off soon.

NXT Heritage Cup Champion Tony D'Angelo def. Lexis King

Both of these guys feel like they're spinning their wheels at the moment and King hasn't done much to earn a title opportunity, so despite the NXT Heritage Cup Championship being on the line, I couldn't bring myself to care about this. What we got was decent yet forgettable due to the focus being on Eddy Thorpe distracting King with a mixing board (or whatever it's called). D'Angelo vs. Nathan Frazer from a few weeks ago was much better than this.

Gallus (Joe Coffey and Wolfgang) def. Tyriek Igwe and Tyson Dupont

Igwe and Dupont have scored wins here and there but haven't been able to get anything going for themselves. As a result, this was total throwaway and only existed to give Gallus a win before they face The Rascalz next week (more on that in the next paragraph). I honestly have no clue why Gallus are still in NXT at this point other than to put other people over, but then again, it's not as if there's an obvious role for them on the main roster right now.

The Rascalz Reunited

Finally!!! I've said several times since NXT and TNA started their working relationship that I desperately wanted to see a Rascalz reunion with Wes Lee, Zachary Wentz (f.k.a. Nash Carter in NXT) and Trey Miguel and we got it here. If Lee is main roster bound soon, it makes sense for this to happen before then. This was awesome and the crowd reacted accordingly. They'll be facing Gallus on next week's show and I'm hoping we see them in action at TNA's Slammiversary pay-per-view as well.

Thea Hail def. Izzi Dame

As I alluded to last week, Dame has an opportunity coming up in a certain promotion later this week (hint hint), so I thought she would win for the second straight week here to prepare her for that. Thus, Hail winning surprised me, but I'm not bothered by the outcome because Hail has a higher ceiling. I have yet to see anything out of the ordinary from Dame. This was rather brief, so there wasn't much to it. We found out afterward that Duke Hudson will challenge Oba Femi for the NXT North American Championship next week.

OTM (Bronco Nima and Lucien Price) def. The O.C. (Karl Anderon and Luke Gallows)

This was an extension of Jaida Parker's feud with Michin. The O.C. hardly win anything of note these days, so I can't say I was shocked by them losing again here. The match was perfectly passable. I'm not really sure where either team goes from here. The O.C.'s NXT run has been mediocre at best, and OTM are still progressing. They aren't remotely ready to be featured in the NXT Tag Team Championship scene, but that might be what's next for them.

Sol Ruca def. Fallon Henley by Disqualification

Ruca is fresh off failing to beat Kelani Jordan for the NXT Women's North American Championship at Heatwave, and Henley shouldn't be losing this early into her heel run. That's why I didn't have an issue with the disqualification finish. Similar to most matches on this show, it was a short match, so they didn't get a chance to get out of first gear. Jane and Nyx interfered on Henley's behalf, so their trio appears to be official (if it wasn't already).

Joe Hendry and Trick Williams def. Shawn Spears and NXT Champion Ethan Page

Say his name and he appears! There were several teases for Hendry being Williams' replacement partner after Evans got attacked backstage by Brooks Jensen earlier in the night, but the crowd popped big for him, regardless. This was a rock-solid main event made better by the fans being so behind Hendry throughout. It was cool to see him pick up the pinfall win for his team, too. I'm glad the NXT officials see Hendry as a star and intend to utilize him as such.

Overall Show

For those who missed it, Heatwave completely exceeded expectations on Sunday night. NXT was wise to capitalize on the buzz the event received by following it up with an above-average episode here. Hendry's appearance in the main event and The Rascalz reuniting were the highlights of the night as the TNA-NXT partnership continues to be a blast. There were way too many matches that went anywhere from two to five minutes, but I guess that's what you get on what's supposed to be the developmental show.

SEE MORE: NXT Reviews