NXT Vengeance Day (February 2023)

Original Airdate: February 4, 2023

From Charlotte, North Carolina; Your Hosts are Vic Joseph and Booker T

Opening NXT North American Title Match: Wes Lee v Dijak: Dijak uses his size to push the champion around early on, so Lee tries diving on the outside, but gets caught with a death valley driver on the floor. Dijak rolls him in to hook the leg for two, and some mounted punches are worth two. Dijak unloads in the corner, and a suplex-slam gets him two. Lee throws punches, and tries a bodypress, but gets caught, and viciously dumped over the top. Dijak follows to ping pong him between the barricade and apron, and inside, Dijak gets another two count. Dijak puts the boots to him, and a cross corner whip sets up a corner elbow. Another one, but Lee ducks him this time, and Dijak goes over the top. That buys Lee some recovery time, and he manages to pound the big man on the way back in. Drop-toehold into the turnbuckles leads to an enzuigiri, and he muscles through a bridging German suplex for two. Lee dumps him out of the ring for a space flying tiger drop, but a handspring on the way back in gets blocks. Dijak tries a slam, but Lee counters with an invented rana, and a scoop sitout brainbuster gets the champion two. Lee goes up with a flying 450 splash, but Dijak dodges, so Lee superkicks him instead. A springboard gets countered with a sitout chokeslam, however, getting Dijak two. Dijak with a crossface hammerlock, but Lee fights towards the ropes, so Dijak lets off, but Lee counters his next move. Lee manages to plant a superkick, but Dijak laughs in his face, so Lee plants a big knee strike. Again, but Dijak is ready with a big boot this time, clobbering Lee for two. Dijak with a superkick of his own to set up a lariat for two, and he drags Lee into the corner for a powerbomb off the middle rope, but Lee counters with a nasty rana on the way down. Dude landed right on his neck there. Lee quickly capitalizes with a flying corkscrew splash for two, so Dijak bails to avoid a follow up. Lee dives after him with a tope, but Dijak sidesteps, and Lee hits the barricade. Dijak sits Lee in a chair and aims to dive at him with a flying moonsault press on the floor, but Tony D'Angelo and Channing Lorenzo take the bullet for him. Dijak stays focused with another dive on the way in, but Lee has recovered enough to block, and a handspring pele kick retains at 17:00. Good storytelling match, though it drove me nuts when Lee would hit Dijak with power moves on occasion. Sometimes he would struggle (good), but others he would just haul him up and deliver (bad). ** ¾ 

NXT Women's Tag Team Title Match: Katana Chance and Kayden Carter v Kiana James and Fallon Henley: Carter and James start, and Carter schools her on the mat a bit, before passing to Chance for a slingshot somersault senton splash for two. Tag to Henley, but a double team nearly backfires, and Carter is able to catch a tag. The babyfaces attempt cleaning house, but that backfires, and Henley covers Carter for two. Chance manages to tag back in to hit Henley with a combo for two, but she gets nailed with a cheap shot from James, and the tide has turned. The challengers cut the ring in half on Chance, but they kind of suck at it, and Carter is able to get a bling tag in. Carter blasts Henley with a shining wizard to put her on the outside, and Chance follows with a pop-up dive. Inside, Chance hits Henley with a somersault legdrop for two, but James gets a tag back in. Chance fights her off with a headscissors before passing to Carter, but Carter walks into a spinebuster for two, and things break down - Roseanne Barr the door. Chance hits Henley with a rana off the top for two, so she goes up for a dive, but James shoves her off the top. That allows Henley a cradle, and James lends leverage from the outside to steal the title at 9:19. Pretty good pop for that, too. This had great pacing, but the quality of the work was really poor, and the match had no story. It was just a bunch of stuff with no flow to it. ¾*

Two-out-of-Three Falls Match: Carmelo Hayes v Apollo Crews: Feeling out process to start, with Hayes a step ahead of Crews. Hayes tries a springboard flying bodypress, but Apollo is able to block with a dropkick, and Crews sends him hard into the corner. Apollo with a rolling German suplex, but Hayes blocks the second alarm, and they spill to the outside. Trick Williams gets into Apollo’s face out there, allowing Hayes to try a dive, but Crews is wise to their plan, and Hayes ends up getting clobbered. Apollo with a moonsault off of the apron, and a slingshot somersault senton splash gets him two on the way back in. Crews with a hanging vertical suplex for two, but Hayes manages to dump him over the top, and that’s enough to turn the tide. Hayes dominates on the way back inside, but Crews comes back with another rolling German suplex. He gets two alarms this time before Hayes blocks, so Apollo backdrops him to buy time. Apollo turns that time into a comeback, as Williams hits his knees and prays on the outside, in a nice touch. Crews with a deadlift vertical superplex for two, and a cradle is worth two, but Hayes manages a DDT for two. Cutter gets two, so he goes to a crippler crossface, and Apollo taps quickly to avoid further injury at 15:53. They get vertical for a slugfest, and Crews goes back to the rolling Germans - this time getting all three. That sets up a standing shooting star press for two, so Apollo tries going up, but Hayes knocks him off with an enzuigiri. Guillotine legdrop gets Hayes two, but Crews comes back with a modified DDT for two. That was one of those weird spots where it was legitimately hard to tell who was delivering the move, and who was taking it. It shouldn’t be a murder mystery. Both guys fight to the top rope, and end up spilling to the outside, both left taking the count. Hayes rolls in to try and take the countout for the second fall, but Crews beats the count. Crews manages rattling him with a knee strike, and a reversal sequence allows Apollo a suplex. Death valley driver looks to finish, but Apollo is so battered that he can’t make a cover. Meanwhile, Williams exposes a top turnbuckle as both combatants look up at the lights, but Crews is up first, and Hayes takes a trip into it. Williams grabs a chair to try a more direct approach, but Dabba-Kato puts a stop to it. Unfortunately for Crews, the distraction allows Hayes to attack, and a flying rocker dropper wins him a second straight fall at 23:29. A little meandering at points, and longer than it needed to be, but generally solid. ** ¼ 

NXT Tag Team Title Fatal Four-Way Match: The New Day v Pretty Deadly v Gallus v Chase University: First fall takes this. Kofi Kingston and Elton Prince start, and a bling tag to Xavier Woods allows the champions to dominate Elton. Kit Wilson comes in, and I’m getting some serious Draco Malfoy vibes from these two. In a good way. They manage to use teamwork to take control of things on Woods, but get get cocky, and Woods knocks Prince silly ahead of a tag to Kofi. Kingston runs wild on Pretty Deadly, so Mark Coffey comes in, but Kofi takes him down as well, and hits all three with a triple Boom Drop. Cradle on Prince looks to put it away, but Kit saves, and everyone comes in trading shots. That ends in Deadly hitting a combo on Kofi for two, and everyone goes to the outside for a dog pile sequence. No imagination in these things, shit. The match turns into the usual collection of spots with all tags being abandoned, until Gallus catches Woods with a combo to take the title at 16:39. Cookie cutter stuff here. *

NXT Women's Title Triple Threat Match: Roxanne Perez v Gigi Dolan v Jacy Jayne: First fall wins it here. Toxic Attraction double up at the bell, leaving the champ fighting a two front war. Perez wisely rolls out of the ring before she can be pinned, so Dolan drags her back in. Perez grits her teeth and fights it out, managing to dump both heels to the outside, and keeping control of them out there. Perez rolls Jayne in to hit work a handspring senton splash for two, and she goes to a crippler crossface, but Jayne manages a cradle for two. Jayne adds a neckbreaker, and she hammers Perez with mounted punches. Gigi suckers Jayne into taking a baseball slide for her, however, and it seems not all is well in Toxic Attraction. Well, they’re not called Healthy Attraction, after all. Dolan capitalizes by chucking Perez into the barricade, and she rolls the champion inside with a side suplex for two - Jayne breaking the count. Dolan and Jayne slug it out until Perez dives at both with a double flying bodypress, and Perez manages to hit Jayne with a Russian legsweep for two. DDT on Dolan gets two, but Jayne hits the champ with an avalanche. Perez comes back with a superkick, but Dolan saves Jayne from a Canadian destroyer. Dolan capitalizes with a bridging northern lights suplex on Perez for two, and we get a three-way slugfest that ends in a triple down. The heels try putting their differences aside to put Perez through a table, but Roxanne fights them off. She hits Dolan with a Canadian destroyer on the floor, and she rolls Jayne in to finish. Gigi objects, so Perez puts her through a table, and hits Jayne with a destroyer off the top at 14:42. This wasn’t bad. **

Main Event: NXT Title Cage Match: Bron Breakker v Grayson Waller: This is pinfall or submission only, which is a better fit with modern cage matches. Waller attacks before Bron can get into the cage, but he wastes time gloating, and a recovering Bron sends him into the barricade. Into the ring to officially start the match, and Bron unloads on him. Hanging vertical suplex and a standing moonsault connect, but Waller blocks a trip into the cage, and DDTs Bron for two. Dropkick to the ankle gets him two, but Bron fights back with a belly-to-belly suplex, and he makes a comeback. Bron with a flying bulldog, and Waller looks to bail, but quickly remembers that he’s in a cage. Bron tries a charge, but Waller manages to dodge, and the champ crashes into the cage. That gives Waller a two count, and a somersault bow-and-arrow facebuster gets him another two. That was an interesting move, sitting just on the right side of ‘needlessly complicated.’ Bron goes to the middle for a dive, but Waller catches him with a knee to block, and a flying elbowdrop gets the challenger two. He ties Bron in the ropes to pound on, but Breakker gets mad, and makes a comeback. He presses Waller into the cage (in a nice spot), but Waller dodges a spear with a leapfrog, and the champion goes low. That allows him a jawbreaker for two, so he goes to the top of the cage for a big dive, but Bron superplexes him off before he can jump. That allows Bron to fire off a spear, and a second one (coupled with some trash talking) finishes at 14:25 (15:46 total). I like both guys, and the match was well booked, careful not to overstay its welcome. ** ¼ 

BUExperience: This was just kind of a show. I certainly wouldn’t go out of your way to see it, but it’s not terrible if you happen to catch it.

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