SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
NXT TV REPORT
APRIL 22, 2025
LAS VEGAS, NEV. AT THE FONTAINEBLEAU THEATER
AIRED LIVE ON THE CW
REPORT BY DAVID MILLER, PWTORCH CONTRIBUTOR
Commentators: Corey Graves, Vic Joseph, Booker T
Ring Announcer: Mike Rome
Backstage Correspondent(s): Sarah Schreiber
[HOUR ONE]
-They opened with a recap of this past Saturday’s Stand & Deliver, including the backstage altercation between NXT Women’s Champion Stephanie Vaquer and Roxanne Perez.
(1) LIV MORGAN & RAQUEL RODRIGUEZ (c) vs. GIGI DOLAN & TATUM PAXLEY – WWE WOMEN’S TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH
Morgan started the match against Paxley, backing her into in the corner and waffling her. Paxley screamed at Morgan, which seemed to frighten her. Rodriguez tagged in and womanhandled Paxley. Dolan tagged in and used her speed against Rodriguez. She came off the top with a flying bodypress. Rodriguez kind of, sort of caught her, but just barely. As the action spilled to the outside, Paxley took down the champs with a springboard moonsault. [c]
Back from the break, Rodriguez had Paxley grounded. An attempted comeback led to Paxley being clotheslined into the middle of next week. Morgan did the Three Amigos. A Rodriguez suplex attempt was turned into a DDT by Paxley, who made the hot tag to Dolan. Dolan folded Morgan in two with a German suplex. A Tejano bomb by Rodriguez failed, and the challengers caught a near-fall, but Morgan broke the count. A Cemetery Driver attempt on Rodriguez failed when Morgan broke it up, then hit her Oblivion for the pin.
WINNERS: Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez at 11:31 to retain the WWE Women’s Tag Team Titles.
(Miller’s Take: This was a fine opening match. I don’t think anyone bet the farm on Dolan & Paxley winning, but it was entertaining enough, and it’s always cool to see main roster talent show up on NXT.)
-In the back, Lexis King was still looking for his Heritage Cup trophy. Penn & Teller told him they would make it reappear if he admitted that magic was real. He reluctantly admitted it, and they made it reappear. They wouldn’t give it to him, though, unless he agreed to defend it tonight, which he agreed to. Penn & Teller told him his opponent was a secret. [c]
-Myles Borne and Wren Sinclair were talking in the back when they were confronted by Dark State. Je’Von Evans appeared next to Borne and mumbled something incoherent. Looks like a tag team match in the making for later tonight. [c]
-NXT North American Champion Ricky Saints made his way to the ring. He said Ethan Page was always going to be a thorn in his side, but said he made good on his promise, and he is the man around here. Lexis King’s music hit as he interrupted. He said he spent all weekend running all over Las Vegas looking for his cup after Penn & Teller made it disappear. He said he’s defending it tonight and told Saints to get out of the ring. He called Saints a smug, arrogant prick and challenged him for the North American title vs the Heritage Cup. They got in each other’s faces as security ran in to keep control. [c]
-In the back, Hank & Tank were chatting with Sol Ruca & Zaria when an overly enthusiastic Thea Hail hopped into Hank’s arms and started flipping out. Jaida Parker walked by, commenting that she didn’t miss Hail while she was gone. Kelani Jordan had something totally unimportant to say as well before Fatal Influence stepped in, and Fallon Henley declared she would dispose of Hail. All of this happened in around 40 seconds.
(2) LEXIS KING (c) vs. NOAM DAR – NXT HERITAGE CUP TITLE MATCH
The fans chanted “welcome back” as Dar started with hot, innovative offense. With King in the corner, Dar laid in some hard kicks. He grounded King and used the tape on his wrists to try to rub off King’s painted-on beard. That was highly amusing and strangely satisfying. King cut loose with some hard chops, which Dar answered with stiff kicks. King missed a swanton and ate a back fist. Dar connected with a back elbow for the quick pin.
WINNER: Noam Dar at 3:57 to win the NXT Heritage Cup Title. [c]
(Miller’s Take: Well, that was quick and to the point. Dar was last seen on Evolve last week, and the fans seemed reasonably happy to have him back.)
-Sarah Schreiber asked Roxanne Perez about her involvement at Raw last night. Perez said Vaquer is tired and drained. She was her wonderfully heelish self, brimming with overconfidence.
(3) FALLON HENLEY (w/Jacy Jayne & Jazmyn Nyx) vs. THEA HAIL
The two ladies started out with some quick chain wrestling before Henley slowed the pace a bit with an armbar. Hail was thrown outside, and Jayne botched a double-team attempt, sending Henley into the steps. Back in the ring, Hail snatched her into a quick Kimura lock for the victory.
WINNER: Thea Hail at 2:27. [c]
(Miller’s Take: This was even quicker than the previous match. I must admit, I get a kick out of Hail’s schtick. She’s so delightfully over-the-top with her frenetic energy and facial expressions. This was fine for what it was.)
ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW…
Check out the latest episode of the Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Post-show covering the latest episode of Dynamite: CLICK HERE (or search “wade Keller” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or any other iOS or Android app to subscribe free)
[HOUR TWO]
-NXT Champion Oba Femi strutted out to his ring entrance. Corey Graves said some people claimed the Stand & Deliver main event stole the WrestleMania weekend. I wholeheartedly agree. The fans chanted “Oba”. Femi retracted his earlier assessment of Evans and said the young OG was a lot better than he thought he was. He said he had no love for Williams and couldn’t stand him. That got a chuckle from the crowd. At that, Williams came out to confront Femi. Williams came across as heelish and pouty in his comments.
Remarkably, their verbal joust was interrupted by TNA World Champion Joe Hendry, who came to the ring to the crowd’s delight. Hendry told Williams he’s changed and said he’s not hungry, he’s entitled. He called Trick Williams a whiny bitch. Williams told Hendry he doesn’t belong, got his ass kicked on Sunday, and needs to go back where he came from. Hendry said he was in the ring Sunday while Williams was in the stands. He turned his attention to Femi, who told him not to make the same mistake Moose made. Williams tried to interject, but the two champions teamed up to unceremoniously toss Williams from the ring.
-Somewhere deep in the hot Nevada desert, Luca Crusifino met up with Stacks Lorenzo, who made it a point to bring a camera crew with him to the middle of nowhere to capture everything on film. Ugh. Crusifino started to get on Lorenzo’s case about what he did. Stacks asked Luca if he knew why he brought him out there. Lorenzo said, “Oh f…” as the screen went black. Maybe he gets the Ric Flair treatment? Only the camera crew that was out there truly knows. [c]
-Sarah Schreiber interviewed the new Women’s North American Champion Sol Ruca. As she began to talk to Zaria, Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez interrupted and told Zaria that maybe her friend would give her one of her titles. Ruca warned Morgan that she might want to add a third title to her growing collection. The tag champs laughed it off and left.
-Trick Williams was in the back throwing a temper tantrum and destroying stuff. The screen went green, then black, as Ava was heard telling Williams to knock it off and get out of here.
(4) JE’VON EVANS & MYLES BORNE (w/Wren Sinclair) vs. DARKSTATE (Dion Lennox & Osiris Griffin) (w/Cutler James & Saquon Shugars)
Early in the match, Evans showed off his incredibly sharp offense. He attempted a leap through the ropes but was caught by Griffin. Borne flew out of the ring as Evans moved out of the way to take down the DarkState members. [c]
Back from the break, Griffin was demolishing Evans. Darkstate cut the ring in half. A pin attempt was broken up by Borne, who soon took the hot tag to clean house with some powerslams and suplexes. Evans flew over the top rope and was caught again. Borne was slammed to the mat hard before being pinned as the other members of No Quarter Catch Crew watched from the ramp.
WINNERS: Darkstate at 9:57.
(Miller’s Take: Evans couldn’t talk his way out of a warning ticket for spitting on the sidewalk, but man, can this guy go in the ring. Interesting pairing with him and Orton Lite. Not much rhyme or reason to this match, and we have no idea what the other Catch Crew members were talking about after it ended.)
-Shawn Spears was talking with Ava in the back. He said he was just looking out for his friends and left. Yoshiki Inamura came in and told Ava he had to go back to Japan. He got all choked up over letting down Josh Briggs and began crying. Ava felt sorry for him and told him that next week he and Briggs would challenge for the tag team titles. He hugged Ava and thanked her profusely. Briggs walked in and asked how he did that. Inamura looked up with a sly grin and said, “old Japanese secret”. [c]
-Somewhere, Tony D’Angelo knocked on a hotel room door. Adrianna Rizzo answered and cautiously let him in. Sad piano music played as they pondered the whereabouts of Luca Crusifino. Rizzo talked about how Stacks always looked out for her. She had a packed suitcase on the bed. Tony told her it wasn’t safe to go back (to where?). He said Stacks had changed and he no longer trusted him. Gee, I wonder why not? He told Rizzo he had two guys waiting downstairs to take her to a safe house. He hugged her and told her it would be alright. At that moment, the doorbell rang. It was Pete Zahut delivering a large Sicilian with no anchovies. No, that didn’t actually happen, but I couldn’t resist.
-Sarah Schreiber told Ricky Saints the match next week would now only be for his North American title. Saints said King now has everything to gain and nothing to lose. Ethan Page confronted Saints and distracted him while King attacked him. Page leaned down, patted Saints on the shoulder, and told him they’d take this up later.
-An unseen person, later revealed as Andre Chase, opened up a briefcase to reveal a Chase U sweater as he exclaimed, “We’re (bleeping) back, baby!”
(5) STEPHANIE VAQUER (c) vs. ROXANNE PEREZ – NXT WOMEN’S TITLE MATCH
The two women started the match off with crisp, quick chain wrestling to the crowd’s applause. They look like they were made to wrestle each other. Much to the crowd’s and Booker T’s chagrin, Vaquer attempted, but failed to deliver her Devil’s Kiss. Perez took over with an eye rake as they cut to the only split-screen commercial break of the night. [c]
Back to full-screen, the announcers pointed out that Vaquer had her right thumb taped after spraining it at Stand & Deliver. They took the fight to the ramp, with Vaquer getting the best of Perez with a cross bodyblock off the ropes. Back in the ring, Vaquer pointed to Booker as she set up Perez for The Devil’s Kiss. Booker T sounded like he needed a cigarette after she delivered it successfully. Perez came back with a stiff superkick, then locked in a cross-face.
They rolled each other into rapid-fire two-counts. With Perez in the corner, Vaquer hit her knee-wrenching dragon screw leg whip. She soon followed that up with an SVB for the pin. As Vaquer held the title overhead, Giulia’s music hit as she came out and glared at the champion from the ramp. Jordynne Grace was shown standing in the upper deck of the crowd, looking down at the ring as the show ended.
WINNER: Stephanie Vaquer at 11:42 to retain the NXT Women’s Title.
(Miller’s Take: This could have easily been five minutes longer, and I wouldn’t have complained. Perez is just so good, both in her character and her ring work. Vaquer is already in a league of her own, as was shown by the reaction she got from the Raw crowd last night. The appearance of Giulia and Grace at the end was a foreboding of things to come, and I’m looking forward to it.)
FINAL THOUGHTS: Other than the appearance of Joe Hendry, there were no real surprises tonight. Trick Williams continues his path to full-fledged heel, with Ava seemingly having to put him in time-out. Je’Von Evans continues to sprain his tongue while attempting to talk, but shines like a supernova in the ring. I could use a little less rapid-fire female cameo appearances during backstage promos and a hell of a lot less “we’re going to totally trash your suspension of disbelief” D’Angelo Family cinematic spectacles. Fatal Influence continues to flounder. Sol Ruca won a major singles title, making her a double champion, but said maybe five words this week. Hopefully that changes. All said and done, I’d give the show a B- this week.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.