WWE NXT Review - May 21, 2024

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Fallon Henley def. Thea Hail to Qualify for the NXT Women's North American Championship Ladder Match at Battleground

I'm surprised this was given away as a qualifier and that both women didn't qualify separately so they can further their feud in the Ladder match (unless Hail wins one of those Last Chance qualifiers NXT tends to do). Nonetheless, they had a nice match. Hail plays her role well and continues to improve while Henley has quickly found her footing as a heel. I'd actually like to see her become the inaugural NXT Women's North American Champion.

NXT Tag Team Champions Nathan Frazer and Axiom def. The D'Angelo Family (Channing "Stacks" Lorenzo and Luca Crusifino)

It wasn't established until right beforehand that The D'Angelo Family would be getting a title shot, but it wasn't completely random because at least they've been winning lately and a case can be made that the opportunity was earned. They had a solid match, but it seemed to only exist so No Quarter Catch Crew could cost The D'Angelo Family the win after Tony D'Angelo beat Charlie Dempsey for the NXT Heritage Cup Championship last week.

Wes Lee and Joe Coffey def. Josh Briggs in an NXT North American Championship No. 1 Contender's Triple Threat Match

Coffey took Ivar's spot after "injuring" him in the backstage attack that closed last week's show. In reality, Ivar is legitimately injured, so best wishes to him during the recovery process. This was a good match, but the finish was so lazy. If Lee and Coffey covered Briggs at the same time, why wouldn't the referee just restart the match? One Triple Threat to set up another Triple Threat? Didn't we just get a Triple Threat for the North American title at Stand & Deliver? Ugh.

Jaida Parker def. Brinley Reece to Qualify for the NXT Women's North American Championship Ladder Match at Battleground

In an update from a week or two week, Scrypts is officially gone from WWE per an interview he did with Fightful in the last week, so OTM is down to Parker, Lucien Price and Bronco Nima. Reece still comes off as super annoying to me (doesn't Hail already play a very similar character?), whereas Parker has much more of a presence about her and was the right choice to advance. They had a decent match. It wasn't bad, but it felt like something you'd see on Level Up.

Dante Chen def. Lexis King

King faced off with Mr. Stone backstage, so Chen was King's surprise opponent and Stone cheered him on. Stone is without someone to manage at this point with Von Wagner gone, but I don't know if Chen is the right fit if that's the idea. Chen is a fan favorite in the NXT arena, but the viewing audience has no reason to care about him. We'll see if this is the start of something for him. The match was well worked, but the inconsistency with King's wins hurts any momentum he manages to build up.

NXT Champion Trick Williams Was Interrupted The Meta-Four and Attacked by Gallus

Williams' feud with The Meta-Four hasn't been interesting whatsoever, and despite what they're teasing between him and Lash Legend, I still haven't been able to get into it. I'm glad that was kept brief before Joe Coffey showed up and led a Gallus attack on Williams. I'd actually rather see Coffey vs. Williams for the NXT Championship at Battleground instead of Williams vs. Noam Dar. Why couldn't they have done that instead with Oba Femi defending the North American title against Lee?

Karmen Petrovic and Natalya def. Lola Vice and Shayna Baszler

I realize this feud has been going on for a while, but this match didn't feel worthy of the main event spot. The same can be said about last week's NXT Heritage Cup Championship main event. That's the state of NXT these days, I suppose. They had a quality contest and I appreciated that it was Petrovic who pinned Vice, but I assume this closed the show because Vice betrayed Baszler and they wanted to announce yet another NXT Underground match for Battleground. Why not bring back the Fight Pit for the former MMA fighters?

Overall Show

Four matches have been confirmed for Battleground as of now and an NXT Championship match is not among them. How bizarre is that? I've had plenty to say about the current state of NXT and how there really isn't anything about the brand that is overly exciting at the moment, but at least this was a serviceable show. Storylines progressed and most of the matches served a purpose, so it was an adequate episode on the whole.

SEE MORE: NXT Reviews