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Good evening, and welcome to PWInsider’s NXT coverage! NXT was live on the CW in the United States and Netflix elsewhere.
We open with a tribute to Benjamin “PAC/Neville” Satterly. (Personal note: Rest in peace. An absolute tragedy, and my best wishes to his family, friends, and fans.)
We’re outside “earlier” with NXT General Manager Robert Stone telling NXT Champion Grayson Waller that his challenger tonight, Mason Rook, won’t be medically cleared to compete “for the foreseeable future.” Rook’s match with Waller is off, and there will now be an open challenge to determine a new challenger.
Ringside, Vic Joseph and Booker T are on the call.
Match #1: NXT Women’s North American Championship Match: Thea Hail vs Zaria
Hail runs right to Zaria, but she’s ready, and after a struggle, Zaria tosses Hail across the ring. Hail is selling her leg early.
Lots of back-and-forth action with each struggling to maintain the advantage. There’s a nice fight feel to it, and it’s not all pretty or smooth. These two don’t like each other, and they’re fighting. Hail with a nice dropkick and more high-flying offense. Zaria “turns the match around,” as Joseph said, with a stiff elbow to Hail when she dove out of the ring. Zaria slows the match down and is meticulously hurting Hail.
Hail with a surprise rollup and backslide for 2 two-counts. Zaria regains momentum with a knee to Hail’s face. She ragdolls her with a headlock from the second rope before dropping her to the mat.
Hail finally regains momentum. She flies out of the ring into Zaria. Hail hits a tornado DDT on the floor. In the ring, a high cross-body from Hail to Zaria. Exploder suplex. Hail with a rollup. Zaria is fighting back, but Hail with a meteora.
They’re back and forth again until Hail locks on a Kimura. Zaria might tap. Zaria manages to stand up, hoisting Hail. F5 attempt, but Hail rolls her up. Again, not pretty, but it feels like they’re fighting.
Zaria with a spear. F5 to Hail. Zaria retains.
Your winner, and still NXT Women’s North American Champion, Zaria!
Zaria sits on the top turnbuckle, lifting her title and looking down at Hail, who is dejected on the floor.
Backstage, Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic tournament contenders Romeo Moreno and Noam Dar are chatting with El Hijo Del Dr. Wagner Jr. and Galeno. Fraxiom walks in. Nathan Frazier tells Dar and Moreno that once they get past DarkState tonight, they’ll get past them. NXT Tag Team Champions The Vanity Project shows up.
We then see Myles Bourne admiring himself in the mirror as Joseph tells us that Bourne is up next to explain his heinous actions against Tavion Heights last week.
After a break, Bourne walks to the ring. He says he meant every kind thing he initially said to Tavion. But he wanted to be solo. When he apologized to Tavion, he realized he was back to being what he didn’t want to be: half a team. He said he wouldn’t be a sucker for Tavion, it wasn’t going to happen.
The crowd is booing Bourne relentlessly.
Bourne says he thought he could have everything, but then he lost both of his titles. And he could only think of one man: Ethan Page. “He tried to warn me. He told me I had to have this killer instinct.” There can only be one man, one boss. Bourne says he deserves to be that man. He didn’t want to be “one half” anymore. He could be the star he always knew that he was.
Bourne says, “It felt right,” hurting Tavion. He says fans have felt sorry for him for being deaf, but he’s not interested in that. Bourne says Tavion only succeeded because of him, and he only lost
“I’m the deaf one. And yet, I’m the one in the ring, and you’re all watching me.” Bourne says he’s not beating the odds, and he’s not the underdog. He’s the favourite.
Bourne says he’s done “being the bigger person” surrounded by hypocrites. Bourne tells everyone to “Go to hell,” and he drops the mic as his music hits.
Backstage, Lizzy Rain is pleading with Robert Stone for an opportunity. He tells her that he has an announcement coming tonight that he thinks she’ll like. Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic contenders Mini Vikingo and Chazz “Starboy” Hall show up, and Stone tells them that when he and AAA General Manager Rey Mysterio set the tournament up, they wanted a team to represent Evolve and AAA. He notes that Mysterio sees himself in each of them and wishes them luck.
Emily Agard is interviewing Grayson Waller about the change to his match tonight.
“Last week, I told the world that I saw quit in his eyes,” Waller says about Mason. “Well, lucky for him, he doesn’t have to quit tonight because the doctors did it for him.”
Waller says he thinks he’s lit a fire in the male roster, and he challenges the entire roster to step up.
Match #2: Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic First Round match - Mini Vikingo and Chazz “Starboy” Hall vs BirthRight’s Stacks and Uriah Connors
Mini Vikingo and Uriah start the match. Quick action to start. Stacks tags in. Mini shows off his high-flying skills against the duo. He’s pushed into the corner, and Starboy tags in.
Lots of fast-paced tag action. I can’t do it justice. BirthRight takes control as we go to commercial.
BirthRight maintains control. Starboy finally manages to hit a few spots, including a double pelée, and he tags in Mini, who wows the crowd with an insane DDT and a Spanish fly on his opponents. Stacks is struggling to keep up.
Lots of action, lots of tags. The crowd is chanting “NXT!”
They’re all in the ring, each team hitting the other. They’re tiring, but the teams manage superkicks, enzuiguys, and more.
Eventually, Starboy hits a DDT on Stacks. Starboy tags Mini, who hits a 630 splash for the pin.
Your winners, Starboy and Mini Vikingo!
All of BirthRight is beating down Starboy and Mini when Zilla Fatu runs to the ring and clears the ring of everyone but poor Stacks, who takes a beating and a Triple Z.
Fatu challenges BirthRight. Says he’ll take out each of them, one by one.
Fatu says he is taking the open challenge tonight. And it appears that we know our main event!
In a pre-recorded segment, Cruz Montana tells us that “before he enters this open challenge tonight,” he has a message for Dion Lennox. (So perhaps we don’t know who will actually challenge Waller yet!)
Cruz says Dion talked about his Montana’s mother being a drug dealer. He says she wasn’t proud of it, but she did what she had to do to provide for her family. He is proud of his mother for surviving her challenges. Cruz mentions his father, and he tears up. His father fought through his struggles, and how Cruz has fought his own battles.
Speaking to Dion, Cruz says, “You want to start this? I’m the finisher.”
We then see NXT Women’s Champion Kelani Jordan walking backstage, on her way to the ring.
Zaria is walking into the women’s locker room and runs into Izzi Dame. All the women are looking at her, laughing. Zaria sees her locker space adorned with ribbons and a pink dress. “Yeah, I’m not that girl anymore,” she says angrily.
Ringside, Kelani Jordan is walking to the ring.
She says every woman wants to be in her shoes. She’s looking ahead to Halloween Havoc, wondering who her challenger will be. She runs through a list of women, dismissing them for one reason or another. Jordan says she’s cleared out just about every contender. And she won’t just hand out challenges. She’s the “standout, not the handout.”
“When a true challenger presents herself, then and only then, will I put this title on the line.”
The crowd is chanting for Wren Sinclair, but Jordan says she’s suspended.
Robert Stone walks out and tells Jordan that the women’s division will choose her next opponent because next week there will be a 20-woman battle royal to determine her Halloween Havoc challenger. It will include women from NXT, Raw, Smackdown, Evolve, AAA, and TNA. Suddenly, Reina Volcán is in the ring and attacks Jordan from behind. She looks into the camera and says she’s in the battle royal.
Naraku is backstage talking to Robert Stone, saying he accepts tonight’s open challenge. Saquon Shugars interrupts and says he will be the one challenging for the title. Stone then informs Shugars that he will get the match he wants against Tristan Angels in two weeks. Shugars is upset that it’s not sooner.
Match #3: Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic First Round match - Fraxiom vs DarkState’s Cutler James and Osiris Griffin
Axiom and Osiris start, speed vs power. Frazier is in quickly, and we have a lot of back-and-forth action. We’re shown a backstage clip of Waller gearing up for his unknown challenger.
James is in, and the beating of Frazier continues.
Finally, Axiom is in, and there’s a tag-team flurry where Fraxiom sends their opponents out of the ring, but they’re back in quickly to dominate the match as we go to commercial.
Frazier comes in like a house of fire on Griffin with some of his insane offense. He flies out of the ring onto James. Nathan with a frog splash on Griffin.
Fraxiom with a double missile dropkick on Griffin.
Lots of fast-paced action, a battle of huge strength spots from DarkState and speed/precision from Fraxiom.
Finally, Axiom with a Spanish fly on James, followed by Phoenix splash from Frazier.
Your winners, Fraxiom!
We see the updated brackets for the Dusty Classic, and then we go to the next round of Kendal Grey’s therapy session.
Her psychologist asks Kendal what she’s doing during her free time now. She tells her therapist that she’s tried everything from guitar to learning new languages, but all she thinks about or cares to study is wrestling.
The psychologist commends her for her dedication and work ethic, but questions if she needs more balance in her life to be healthy. Kendal says she doesn’t know how to stop. She always wants to do more and prove more.
“What happens when you put in all this work, but working harder isn’t enough?” asks the psychologist.
“That’s a good question,” Grey answers.
We cut to Grayson Waller, walking to the ring to ring out who his challenger is.
We’re shown a recap of Zaria’s win earlier and the backstage scene.
Izzi Dame is in Robert Stone’s office, where he questions whether she staged the scene in the women’s locker room with Zaria’s gear. He asks what’s going on with them. Izzi says Zaria’s locker just needed “a little colour.”
Stone mentions that Dame and Zaria are both in the women’s battle royal to determine the #1 contender next week. Dame isn’t impressed, and Stone wishes her luck.
We see a graphic for the 20 women who will compete in the battle royal next week.
Grayson Waller comes to the ring, confident as ever. He looks in the camera, says his challenger “ain’t ready.”
Waller waits for an opponent. We see a crowd of talent in the men’s locker room backstage, and they run to the door in a flurry, all hoping to get to the ring to challenge Waller. Dozens of them make their way to the ring, and they start fighting as they get closer. There’s a mess of people fighting at the top of the ramp. Zilla Fatu marches through them, paying them no attention.
Then Cruz shows up.
“Who is gonna answer the bell?!” asks Joseph.
While everyone else fights outside the ring, EK Prosper shows up to face Waller. The bell rings.
Match #4: NXT Men’s Championship Match - Champion Grayson Waller vs EK Prosper
The match starts with a flurry from Prosper. Waller finally gains control.
On commentary, Joseph is questioning why Waller talks down to everyone. He’s forgotten his own early career struggles. Meanwhile, in the ring, Waller is kicking EK over as EK simply tries to stand up. Booker defends Waller and speaks to his success.
Prosper fights back with forearms. Prosper trying to rally. Heads to the top rope, but Waller meets him with a knee to the jaw.
They’re on the apron when Waller hits EK with a cutter-type move over the turnbuckle. EK hits his throat along the exposed metal.
After the break, Waller is controlling the match in the ring. EK tries to fight back, but it’s a struggle. Waller with superplex attempt, but EK fights back. He leaps to the mat, then superkick to Waller.
EK hits Michinoku driver on Waller, who is stunned. Crowd getting behind EK as he gains momentum. Waller fights back again. He gets a huge clothesline outside the ring on EK and then starts taking apart the announce desk. EK is laid across the table. Waller goes to top rope, but EK gets to ring and attacks. He places Waller on the table and then hits massive moonsault off middle rope onto Waller on the table. Crowd chants “NXT!”
In the ring, EK with roughrider off top rope. Waller kicks out. EK is favouring knee. Waller hits stunner. EK gets back up. Waller is surprised, but wastes little time hitting a second, bigger stunner on EK for the pin.
Your winner and still NXT Men’s Champion, Grayson Waller!
Waller looks at the camera and says there’s simply no one on the NXT roster who can beat him. “Good try, EK. I’m impressed, but it’s just not enough.”
Backstage, Zilla is backstage. He is angry at BirthRight and says they are the reason he’s not NXT champion. He tells Lexis King that next week, “I’m gonna f*** you up!”
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