Paid Members Lorne Malvo Posted January 7 Paid Members Posted January 7 Really enjoying these write-ups @I Bent My Wookie although I wish you'd make your mind up on whether you like Booker T or not. I'm a little surprised by just how little I recognise any of those names though. I mean I don't watch main-roster WWE so why would I know their developmental brand, but still I would expect there to be more than 3/4 names that ring a bell! Quote
DavidB6937 Posted January 7 Posted January 7 The women have been the stronger side for quite a while now and that's only becoming more obvious with the losses on the mens side recently. There's a lot of so-so guys in NXT that I definitely don't see going any further unless they come up with something special. I think that's half the fun though. Seeing someone finally click and find something that really works. Quote
Paid Members air_raid Posted January 7 Paid Members Posted January 7 10 hours ago, I Bent My Wookie said: Also adore the ring gear. Yeah, you do. Quote
Paid Members I Bent My Wookie Posted January 7 Paid Members Posted January 7 1 hour ago, air_raid said: Yeah, you do. Leave me and my Goth queen be you 😂 Quote
Paid Members RedTwoster Posted January 7 Paid Members Posted January 7 5 hours ago, DavidB6937 said: There's a lot of so-so guys in NXT that I definitely don't see going any further unless they come up with something special. Tony D’Angelo comes to mind…2026 marks his fifth or sixth year in NXT, which is pretty remarkable. It’s surely break or bust for him at this point. Quote
Paid Members I Bent My Wookie Posted January 7 Paid Members Posted January 7 6 minutes ago, RedTwoster said: Tony D’Angelo comes to mind…2026 marks his fifth or sixth year in NXT, which is pretty remarkable. It’s surely break or bust for him at this point. D'Angelo debuted TV wise the first night of 2.0 didn't he? If you put him alongside Breakker it is surely the final year before he hits his ceiling or smashes through. It's an irritating one as well because the character was good but became weighed down by over dramatic cut scenes, stereotype bollocks and cinematic "masterpieces" when it really should have just played as mob boss with connections, occasionally one of the lackeys decides they want the power, maybe for a while he starts trying to take down other bad guys because he has a moral compass. But they tried to hard to be a bit out there with some of his storylines, to a point he disappeared for a number of months, has reappeared, dropped a few people but nobody is any the wiser as to why to care he's back or where he went. I still think he's the next champion, if they play this, always watching, always striking character as someone who realised he lost it all and wants the power back its redeemable but he needs to show something just more. Quote
Paid Members tiger_rick Posted January 7 Paid Members Posted January 7 Enjoyed your thoughts @I Bent My Wookie Although a bit hard to follow some of it being so out of touch with the product. How does NXT air over here these days? Is it on Netflix? Quote
Paid Members I Bent My Wookie Posted January 7 Paid Members Posted January 7 3 minutes ago, tiger_rick said: Enjoyed your thoughts @I Bent My Wookie Although a bit hard to follow some of it being so out of touch with the product. How does NXT air over here these days? Is it on Netflix? Yeah mate Netflix, it was one of the few I've kept as up to date with as possible without lapsing out of touch on it and using YouTube to supplement as I hardly ever worked early Wednesdays. I'd happily do a run down of the roster and how they're intertwined for the last year or so for any lapse fans that may want to give it a go in 2026 with it more accessible than before. Quote
Paid Members I Bent My Wookie Posted January 7 Paid Members Posted January 7 (edited) Eh screw it Part 1 NXT 2025-2026 - A Wookie's Guide to the Titles NXT Championship Oba Femi won the title January 7th 2025 at last year's New Year's Evil over Trick Williams (now SmackDown bound and after his own TNA World Title run) and Eddy Thorpe (former NJPW mid Karl Fredericks who seemed like he had a big year ahead before getting released in May as he hit his ceiling). Femi ruled the brand for pretty much the whole year until...sigh... Ricky Saints. Look I don't mind Ricky Saints but everytime he appears on screen as this intolerable heel I hear the American Dad Ricky Spanish voice and a still picture of him smelling if his hand smells of shit after he wiped too hard. He's mid. So mid. He has the body of a semi competitive swimmer and as mentioned he's just Austin Theory with hair. Good wrestler, probably nice guy as Cody likes him. Not a champion. This leads us back to Oba Femi. Returned to reclaim his kingdom, beat the only guys they'd built up as challengers and a year later (and forgetting the blip in the middle) vacated his title to go off I assume to RAW for yet another rookie to throw CM Punk around, or terrify Dom for months, one of the two. NXT Women's Championship Started the year with a new champion at NYEvil with Giulia being the shiny new toy pushed to the top of the card beating Roxanne Perez who was being slowly promoted to RAW at the time. Lost it very shortly after to the real shiniest new toy of 2024-25 however in Stephanie Vaquer. La Primera. A double champion who has absolutely stormed WWE and is becoming that cross over star in Latin America that they've chased with luchadors for years. She also wisely (storyline yes but it made sense) vacated the NA belt to let her full focus be on the main belt, a feud with Giulia after they turned her heel because WWE struggles to book Japanese wrestlers as faces most the time apparently and a mini feud with Jaida Parker. However like Giulia and Perez, after all 3 were in the Royal Rumble, it was only a matter of time she joined them being promoted and that led us to Jacy Jayne. Like JBLs title reign in 2004, seemingly made champion because nobody else wanted to work Tuesdays. The 3rd best member of Toxic Influence is now at this present time a 2 time Women's champion. I'll get to that. What's even more bizarre is it kinda came out of nowhere. Fallon Henley seemed to be the main attraction and yet she's now playing second fiddle to Jayne. That being said, Henley can actually play a face so I'd be interested to see if she ends up being her next challenger. However one person did manage to dethrone Jayne (who at one stage was also the TNA Knockouts champion because) as where Lola Vice and now called up Jordynne Grace failes, one shining light came through the darkness (she no doubt created) and took the title, on Halloween... Tatum Paxley. My Queen. She started the year as she had done so many times before, being in some form of group before being abanadoned (first Lyra in 2024, then Shotzi and Gigi in 2025) which of course because we think one dimensional, sent her crazy again and into the midst of The Culling. More friends to accept her. And then suddenly she got really over with the live crowd. Enough to turn The Culling face by accident (though obviously not as Izzi even tried to stop her winning the belt) and push her to face Jacy at Halloween Havoc, the underdog overcoming the numbers, the undead rising to YEET themselves. And then they fucked it by obviously turning Izzi heel, giving the title back to Jacy and making Tatum mental again. Though her running with a chainsaw is a reason I need to talk to my therapist. And now we're back with interchangeable 1 of 3 in Fatal Influence but this one screams and is a rock star as champion. There's talk shes due a call up, but really, why? There isn't a character there and unless she brings the other 2 she'll be Chelsea Green's PA in 4 weeks. Men's North American Championship Tony D'Angelo started the year as champion having dethroned Oba Femi back when he was more of a rookie and prone to mistakes earlier in 2024 (at least that's what I tell myself for King Oba losing to anyone). Inexplicably he lost the title due to Izzi Dame. Seriously she's bloody everywhere in this and costing everyone. The new champion, Shawn Spears (HE'S HERE TOO). Dame was a member of the Family after going to them when Spears was stalking her, only for her to join The Culling and Spears take the title, starting the collapse of Tony D's Empire we're still trying to work out now what is happening with it. One transitional title run then leads to...sigh... Ricky Saints. Just a reminder that if anyone can stand him as a partner he's one title away from NXT Grand Slam Champion. Who lost it 2 months later to the real acquisition from AEW of recent years in Ethan Page. All Ego is everywhere. He makes Ava's migraines worse, he's feuded with a puppet, Matt Cardona is sure he's just friends with Chelsea Green and just their double act is purely acting and not just the best chemistry... Honestly Page is my replacement for The Miz when main roster call up time happens. He talks well, he looks, well, hot. He can wrestle, he'd do good TV. I think he's probably never gonna be a World Champion but a steady hand improving the middle part of a show, he does that in abundance. Also having a show where seemingly 6 new challenges awaits him from 2 segments is great for this year. Women's North American Championship As mentioned Stephanie Vaquer was a double champion. She took the belt from the real leader of Fatal Influence Fallon Henley before vacating it leading to a 6 person ladder match (that I need to watch back as I think I remember it being a car wreck) and new champion Sol Ruca. Who has been everywhere on NXT all year, and is in the longest drawn out Heel turn from her partner Zaria that at this point I'm sure they're gonna 180 when Sol goes to SmackDown as her final act. Because otherwise WHY HAS THIS BEEN NEARLY A YEAR? Ruca didn't even lose the belt (its less than 2 years old and completely already a bit of a running joke) after she got injured and her absolute real friend Zaria took her place and she lost it to Blake Monroe. Yes she's playing the same character as AEW. No its not as effective. Yes she's still super talented. No that fake posh British accent isn't annoying at all. Monroe did okay as champion. Defended against Ruca where Zaria threw the towel in to protect her mate (right). Was doing some good promo work that was leading to building contenders and then in a simple "lets make her opponent look tough but standard defence" showed that just anyone can botch a pinfall on live television and gave us our last champion before last night's change Thea Hail. Ugh. Right its difficult. I want to like Hail, Chase U was great, her being the reason Andre Chase lost all the University money could have gone somewhere at the time but just. Its too much, its a bit weird. They reference all the time how young she is, she's tiny compared to everyone and her character is like Scrappy Doo that she wants to be grown up and be a grown ass woman. And then there's all the ADHD running around screaming like shes never had a Red Bull before. There's chances to redeem her, I'd even have Andre be back in her corner now seemingly everyone will have forgotten Ridge Holland ended the original Chase U and act as her mentor again as she's still just not there yet. Or keep her with Joe Hendry and that'll save me 5 minutes of recapping and having to adjust the volume. And checking my current notes, the current champion is Izzi Dame. NXT Tag Team Championships This is a lot quicker. The year started with Nathan Frazer and Axiom. They're the ones who's the Spanish guy in the mask and the one I thought qas was the French guy in the mask last night. Somehow they nearly held the belts 8 months, as if there wasn't any real teams to beat them, all the while seeming they were about to turn on each other out of competitive jealousy before just getting drafted to the main show instead. New champions, Hank and Tank. Right, they are fun. They're clearly a modern day version of basically any ECW tag team that wore jean shorts but the crowd likes them, they've got that everyday man but still big look and one without the other wasn't doing much whereas together they have a future, especially if WWE do try and do things with the tag division the next few years. They were beat by Retribution. Sorry, DarkState. Basically these guys are The Shield meets Retribution, I still can't tell you all 4s names off by heart and I watch the product. They are led by Dion Lennox I can tell you that, as he formed the group after feeling like a disrespected rookie and recently gave up his half of the belt to one of the other members (they don't even Freebird rule it so I guess number 4 just waits in the car), they lost their belts in a TNA vs NXT cross promotion event against this young, fresh, upcoming tag team that were heavily influenced by Matt and Jeff Hardy called Matt and Jeff Hardy. I guess this makes up for them never winning the ECW tag belts I guess... DarkState won the belts back and then weren't even on the year premiere of the TV show. Despite a week before battering Joe Hendry (maybe I'm being too harsh on them) And that's your title picture from 2025. Because I am not talking about Speed or Heritage or anything else from the TK Book Of Trophies that seemingly are all over the shop in NXT. Though when I bring up the top end of the roster I'm sure it'll come up in passing. Edited January 7 by I Bent My Wookie Quote
Paid Members Lorne Malvo Posted January 7 Paid Members Posted January 7 Cracking write-up. Reading that Jacy Jayne got a run with the main Womens belt just put me in mind of about 5/6 years ago when I checked out ROH for the first time in ages and Matt Taven was the champion. A real feeling of 'really, you couldn't find anybody better than this on your roster?' Everything I've seen of Jacy Jane has been completely ordinary (assuming I'm thinking of the correct person - she's the one who Barbershop Windowed Gigi, right?) I only ever have a cursory glance at the NXT results and had no idea Blake Monroe was arsing about with the secondary title, I automatically assumed she was the proper champion. Going from one of the best feuds/matches of the past two years with Toni Storm to arsing about with the NA belt is mad in the first place, but even madder when you've got Jacy Jayne on top of the division! Quote
WyattSheepMask Posted January 7 Posted January 7 2 hours ago, RedTwoster said: Tony D’Angelo comes to mind…2026 marks his fifth or sixth year in NXT, which is pretty remarkable. It’s surely break or bust for him at this point. Wasn’t Konnor Ascension in developmental for 10 years before getting called up? Plenty of time for D’Angelo to finally get things together. In all seriousness though, if they haven’t called him up by now I don’t imagine they ever will, which begs the question why he’s still there Quote
DavidB6937 Posted January 7 Posted January 7 2 minutes ago, Lorne Malvo said: Cracking write-up. Reading that Jacy Jayne got a run with the main Womens belt just put me in mind of about 5/6 years ago when I checked out ROH for the first time in ages and Matt Taven was the champion. A real feeling of 'really, you couldn't find anybody better than this on your roster?' Everything I've seen of Jacy Jane has been completely ordinary (assuming I'm thinking of the correct person - she's the one who Barbershop Windowed Gigi, right?) I only ever have a cursory glance at the NXT results and had no idea Blake Monroe was arsing about with the secondary title, I automatically assumed she was the proper champion. Going from one of the best feuds/matches of the past two years with Toni Storm to arsing about with the NA belt is mad in the first place, but even madder when you've got Jacy Jayne on top of the division! Genuinely dont mind Jacy. Her overall presentation is pretty decent and she makes a good solid heel champ with bitchy mates who you're really eager to see lose. Obviously as a complete package they have better wrestlers but I think she's a really competent heel and has been a convincing enough champ. I'd like to think maybe they'll bump Blake up to main roster fairly quickly which is why she's just had fairly middling feuds so far but only time will tell. Jacy might be getting that call up herself but to be fair there's plenty of depth in the womens division so they can afford to lose a few. Quote
Paid Members Lion_of_the_Midlands Posted January 7 Paid Members Posted January 7 The biggest problem with NXT is The Rock's daughter stinking up every single thing she is involved with. Ava makes Johnny Gargano look like a beacon of charisma. Quote
Paid Members I Bent My Wookie Posted January 7 Paid Members Posted January 7 5 minutes ago, Lion_of_the_Midlands said: The biggest problem with NXT is The Rock's daughter stinking up every single thing she is involved with. Ava makes Johnny Gargano look like a beacon of charisma. Honestly, they're kinda presenting her these days like she knows she's not actually that good. A lot of last night's show almost felt like "Dad made me get a job with his mates and I really cannot be screwed" which makes her interactions with Ethan and The Vanity Project and that she didn't even watch till the end before calling a staff meeting so much better than when she tried to forecably act. Not all GMs need to shout and bark like Adam Pearce, her almost literally being a background character that would rather be anywhere else works. Quote
Paid Members Arch Stanton Posted January 7 Paid Members Posted January 7 55 minutes ago, WyattSheepMask said: Wasn’t Konnor Ascension in developmental for 10 years before getting called up? Plenty of time for D’Angelo to finally get things together. In all seriousness though, if they haven’t called him up by now I don’t imagine they ever will, which begs the question why he’s still there At this point it's probably just that he's a solid and more experienced hand for the other guys coming through to be able to work with. For a lot of guys NXT feels like their ceiling, not all of them will go to the main roster, but they've still got a pretty great gig. Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.