NXT Coverage: A New Era, A New Champ in Ciampa

Away from the crowing of a new NXT Champion, this week’s show featured way too many green young performers. NXT was once the darling of the WWE promotion, with excellent in-ring work and just enough promo. That, is gone and now, with its new look, the days of the Black and Gold are obviously over. While the InDex Wedding was fun, it was clearly a last bit of old NXT we’ll never see again.

With Carmelo Hayes’ fumbling of his promo as a microcosm of the direction the promotion is headed in, NXT is absolutely a development brand again. Are you happy now, Mr. McMahon?

Matches:

Bron Breakker vs. LA Knight: This was an impromptu match-up that saw Knight thumbed by a Gorilla Press/Powerslam variation

Imperium: Fabian Eichner and Marcel Barthel vs. Brooks Jensen and Josh Briggs: Jensen and Briggs hung in there longer than expected (Briggs is a far more polished indie guy that Jensen and it showed) and Eichner got the win with the Modified Butterfly Suplex.

B-Fab vs. Katrina Cortez: B-Fab squashed Cortez with a NEckbreaker variation.After the match, Electra Lopez and B-Fab went at after the bell, but Santos Escobar made sure everyone knew it wasn’t happening.

Kacy Catanzaro, Kayden Carter and Sarray vs. Gigo Dolin, Jacy Jayne and Mandy Rose: Definitely a statement win for the new-look Rose who win with her Knee Strike on Carter.

Ridge Holland vs. Drake Maverick w/Grayson Waller: Holland got the squash win with Northern Grit. 

Brutus and Julius Creed vs. Local Competitors: The Creeds decimated these poor souls with the Fireman’s Carry Uppercut combo. After the match, Malcom Bivens introduced Ivy Nile and made sure the world new Roderick Strong was getting his NXT Cruiserweight Title shot next week.

NXT Championship: Tommaso Ciampa vs. Pete Dunne vs. LA Knight vs. Von Wagner: The best match on the card and aside from the Women’s Tag Team match, the only contest that had a decent flow. Every athlete here had some time to shine, but it was Ciampa who won with the Fairy Tale Ending on Knight.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14316 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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