WWE NXT Review - November 21, 2023

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

NXT Heritage Cup Champion Noam Dar vs. Chad Gable Ended in a Draw

The Heritage Cup rules still do very little for me. Some matches are better than others, but I feel like the constant interruptions limit what they can do. That was the case with this contest as well. It was as well-wrestled as you'd expect given who was involved, but I simply don't find Dar's shtick (or The Meta-Four on the whole, for that matter) to be entertaining. The draw was the way to go because it would have been silly for Gable to take another unnecessary loss, but what's the endgame? What purpose does the Heritage Cup even serve?

Angel Garza and Humberto Carrillo def. Edris Enofe and Malik Blade

Garza and Carrillo haven't had a lot of luck since returning to NXT and I honestly can't remember many matches they've won so far, so needless to say, this was a necessary win for them. This was a nice tag team match while it lasted. Enofe and Blade are talented, but they've largely been booked as NXT's resident enhancement team this past year and I don't see that changing anytime soon. Meanwhile, keep an eye on Garza and Carrillo, who could very well be recruited by Santos Escobar to form a new Legado del Fantasma.

Josh Briggs def. Carmelo Hayes to Qualify for the Men's Iron Survivor Challenge Match at Deadline

Briggs has way more potential than his tag team with Brooks Jensen and that's been apparent for a while. I haven't said much about the possibility of him as a singles star because we rarely see him on his own, but he proved in this match that he can hang with a competitor the caliber of Hayes. They received an ample amount of time and had a really good match. I would've preferred to see Hayes in the Iron Survivor Challenge again, but I understand having Lexis King cost him the win here so they can face each other at Deadline.

Wes Lee Accepted NXT North American Champion "Dirty" Dominik Mysterio's Challenge

Lee regaining the gold always felt like the endgame to Mysterio's title reign dating back to when he won it over the summer, so I'm glad it looks like they're going in that direction. It was established that Lee won't be able to challenge for the championship again if he loses, which adds some stakes and makes the outcome more unpredictable. This was a solid exchange between the two to set up the rematch for Deadline, but Lee will first have to go through three former NXT North American Champions next week (Cameron Grimes, Bronson Reed and Johnny Gargano) to earn the opportunity.

Blair Davenport def. Thea Hail to Qualify for the Women's Iron Survivor Challenge Match at Deadline

Hail has improved a lot character-wise since the summer, but Davenport was always going to be the better fit for the Iron Survivor Challenge. I doubt she wins, but at least this keeps her busy through Deadline. As for the match itself, there wasn't much to it because it was so short. It was more of a means to an end with Davenport advancing while Hail grows frustrated ahead of next week's "investigation" into Andre Chase's recent shady dealings.

Eddy Thorpe def. Charlie Dempsey

I totally forgot that Thorpe won his feud with Dijak a month or two ago. Unless he's been hurt, I have no idea why he hasn't been featured since because he's lost a lot of whatever momentum he had. He and Dempsey had a serviceable match, but it didn't last long enough to get out of first gear. The heels left Thorpe laying afterward, so I assume Thorpe will find backup. By the way, why wasn't Damon Kemp with Drew Gulak's group?

NXT Women's Champion Lyra Valkyria def. Xia Li

This was originally scheduled to take place earlier in the evening, but Li attacked Valkyria during her entrance and it was teased that Valkyria wouldn't be able to defend later on (from a storyline standpoint, what would have been the main event instead?). It was basically the same angle AEW ran at Full Gear with MJF over the weekend, except no one offered to fill in for Valkyria. It was designed to make Li look more like a threat to take the title, but WWE already ruined that when she lost clean to Becky Lynch on Monday's Raw. They had a decent match, but Li's outing against Lynch was much better and more memorable in my opinion.

Overall Show

On a side note, I loved the profile package they produced promoting Ilja Dragunov vs. Baron Corbin for the NXT Championship. That was really well done. At any rate, this was a middle-of-the-road show. They took more steps toward building and hyping the card for Deadline and setting stuff up for next week. No matches stood out in a major way (aside from maybe Hayes vs. Briggs), and the main event was fairly underwhelming, but it was far from a bad show. Rather, it just wasn't one of the brand's stronger efforts as of late.

SEE MORE: NXT Reviews​