The good, bad, and ugly from this week’s episode of WWE NXT

Heydorn’s NXT Receipt 1/21/24

The good, bad, and ugly from this week’s episode of WWE NXT.

-Tony D’Angelo vs. Ridge Holland worked well enough. Nothing great, but totally fine at the same time. It makes you wonder what D’Angelo’s path is in WWE right now. If he gets the call to the main roster, does he keep the mob boss gimmick? Can it work? Time will tell, but right now it seems like he’s done all he can do in NXT.
OUCH

-Umm … Trick Williams slapped the hell out of Wes Lee. Probably the most memorable moment on the how. Lee is going to get him back for that one.

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-Nice to see Bayley get a quick little run back in NXT here. She was a big reason why NXT became what it is, so it’s good she gets her flowers. Cora Jade and Roxanne Perez were wonderful opposite Bayley and Guilia. They got the heat they were out there to get and set a strong foundation for their tag match next week. Guilia has done a nice job as champion so far, but faded to the background a bit when she was out there with Bayley, Jade, and Perez. She needs to find the swagger that made her famous in Stardom. Plenty of time, but right now that’s missing in her NXT game.

-Wes Lee is getting a Trick Williams match next week, so it was smart to get him a little squash victory this week. NXT would benefit from using these matches more often.

I mean, who saw it coming?

-Shocking I tell ya! After all this soul searching, Lexis King cheated for real to retain his Heritage Cup? No way! They’ve been telegraphing this for weeks and finally delivered. King is a much better heel than he is a babyface and as fine as this all was, it doesn’t change his NXT trajectory.

-Karmen Petrovic defeated Jaida Parker cleanly and Parker’s fall from the upper part of the card continues. I don’t have any reporting on that at this time, but it seems to me that something must have happened for her to fall out of favor with the powers at be in NXT. These losses don’t add up with the push she got not that long ago. As for Petrovic, well, she’s got a love storyline with Ashante the Adonis and that will keep her on television. The wrestling character lacks definition, though. A sword? Really?

-Brooks Jensen is getting pulled down by associating with Shawn Spears. There is nothing to that character and Jensen is trying to get made by it. Spears hurts the perception of Jensen and Jensen just isn’t good enough at this point to shake it.

“All Twisted” Ethan Page

-NXT aired an excellent vignette to recap all the recent happenings between Ethan Page and Je’Von Evans. They really painted Page as a twisted maniac, which will help present Evans as a sympathetic but valiant challenger when it comes time for them to have a match. Really good stuff.

-A good little main event between Oba Femi and and Eddy Thorpe. There wasn’t a question about the finish due to the fact that Femi just won the belt. That said, Thorpe played the challenger role well and did the job he needed to do and got Femi over.
The biggest match in NXT

-With Trick Williams confronting and staring down Femi at the end of the show, it looks like that’s a rematch we’ll be getting soon enough. Given what the men’s roster depth look like right now, Femi vs. Williams is still the biggest match the brand can put on.