Allo, allo, allo! Davie Portman here requesting all of your feedback for tonight’s NXT featuring Io Shirai vs Toni Storm for the NXT Women’s Championship, the debut of the NXT Women’s Tag Team Championships and Finn Balor vs Adam Cole for the NXT Championship!
Join Braden and I live on Twitch at 10:15EST for a brand new episode of upNXT! Or search for upNXT wherever you find your podcasts.
I hate everything about this Xai Li story. I didn’t like it at the start and I like it less now. The base idea of ‘Xai loses a lot, goes away, trains, and comes back a killer and wins’ is solid. But the execution has sucked. She survived the torture dungeon to win a few jobber matches. But she really isn’t all that different in ring. Add in Boa who just stands there and Chair Lady who just sits in a chair. It is way beyond time that this story advances to the next phase, but I am not looking forward to it. I fear it will be a little to much ‘spooky’ nonsense for my liking.
Hiya!
Io Shirai rules. She finally beat Toni Storm, and clean in the middle of the ring via submission.
Thoughts and prayers towards Dakota and Raquel’s tag title reign. It lasted approximately 57 minutes. Also not a fan of The Way likely getting the next tag title shot, especially with as green as Indi is (which is outstandingly green).
Io just waltzing up to Raquel and throwing down the challenge is why I love Io as champion.
MSK and Breezango hoodwinking MSK and Legado ruled.
Speaking of Legado, I hope Escobar wins the eventual match between him and Devlin. WWE just needs to get rid of Devlin.
Sorta surprised Balor retained, but I also hope to god he retains against Kross. And here I thought they were gonna keep Kross out of the title picture for awhile considering how…not over he was as a heel.
Question of the Week: Did you guys see the Instagram stories that Robert Stone shared this weekend? It showed Io, Xia, and Sareee working out at his new gym he opened, along with playing with his kids. It was heartwarming.
The Chosen one
Finally as come back to the up nxt universe
So mad that raquel and Dakota loss … maybe Dakota next time should wear … wait for it … pants ! The winning strategy
I have to say I hope l.a knight can back it all up in the ring because I see so much in him ! My fave as always been edge Christian and Jericho and there’s something there with la knight I’m sure
Wwe management needs to press on the pedal for xia li … why isn’t she destroying carter, it would be like if brock would sell to zack Ryder with a kendo stick it doesn’t make sense at all …
I’m Finishing with this
Finn is lit
Cole is lit
Kyle is lit
Devlin is shit
Miss you both so much … thx for everything … you helped me so much to keep it all together for 1 year during this shit era plz never stop doing what you do
Really frenetic pace tonight which I liked. Starting right off with the big announcements. With so little time left till takeover I can understand why they had Raquel and Dakota immediately lose those new titles as it sets up the Raquel/Io match we’ve been hoping for. And happy for Shotzi. Shoutout. Good match too better than the Venegance Day match perhaps.
Io finally gets that win back in a decent match. Liked the finisher.
Atlas and Dunne had a really good little match there as well. The MSK/GYV/Legado/Breezango stuff was a nice blending of feuds in 1 quick but effective segment. Hopefully MSK will be ready to get that title shot at Takeover.
Main event was good. Would have preferred Cole to win but not surprised they’re going to Balor v Kross now. Hopefully Kross will finally "stand and deliver " in this title match. Shoutout Emo Kyle and the ruthless beatdown. 8 Gillberg sparklers out of 10.
Alex K from TO
This episode of NXT seemed to fly by and keep me very entertained.
A little confused why they gave the women’s tag team titles to Gonzalez and Kai only to take it off of them on their first title defense. Guess the Gargano curse knows no gender.
I was worried that two nights of Takeover would result in filler matches and backstage segments but they seem to put a lot of feuds in motion.
Glad we are finally going to see Devlin versus Escabor as both have run out of credible challengers and it’s about time there was one champion. Hope this means that we will eventually get Kay Lee Ray versus Io.
Can’t wait for next week, love the Batman and Robin review, and I can’t be the only one who is gonna start insulting people by calling them out for their mediocre abdominal section.
There were a lot of moving pieces tonight.
Takeover getting split into two nights has me daydreaming of possible matchups to fill up both nights.
I didn’t see DK and Gonzalez losing the newly created NXT Women’s Tag Team Titles the same night they’ve awarded them (Not a slight on Ember and Shotzi one iota, who I also adore) I think there’s still a lot left in the tank for them as a tag team (the split needs to be worth saving). It was a very good performance from all involved.
Io Shirai and Toni Storm had a good match. I liked Io challenging Raquel and I’m sure she’s gonna have a ball elevating her.
Nice to see MSK return with some bait and switch.
Santos Escobar is the real cruiserweight champion (Devlin can kick rocks)
Pseudo-Canadian Tux Kyle O’Reilly was a mood. Cole/Balor ruled once again and Karrion Kross staring down the Prince had me on edge.
What a show. WM week feels complete again 
Matthew from Down Under
Long time listener, first time feedback giver. My biggest thought out of tonight is that it seems like they’re significantly trying to seperate NXT and WWE with these NXT Women’s Tag titles. I feel like they see more value in having it trade between NXT talent and NXT UK talent, as well as other localised NXT talents. I feel like NXT Evolve will be their Heat/Velocity. With this, too, I feel like your champions can feel more special, not appearing every week on the main show, too. Not saying more titles in the answer, definitely not; but I feel that if anybody can do it, right, NXT can.
Good review. When’s upnxt mania?
Great to hear you trying to end the career of yet another wrestler who has been found guilty of nothing. Innocent until proven guilty apparently doesn’t apply
Innocent until proven guilty only applies in a court of law.
Not that I’m in any position to dole out podcasting advice, and I’m cognizant of it being hard to know what to do in light of allegations about a performer, whether or not you believe them…but I think in terms of talking about it out loud, the best thing to do is one time lay out specifically what it was that happened, then decide if you’re going to review their matches or not going forward and leave it at that. I don’t think people are going to forget about the allegations if you just move on to a match without bringing it up each week or, if you choose to just move past those segments, will blame you for not being comfortable reviewing the wrestler’s matches. It’s just a bit of wasted time if it’s going to be repeatably spent being coy about the allegations and having to do a muddled 5 minutes that doesn’t serve anything each time.
That said, however they feel about Devlin or Velvateen Dream, etc, is their feelings and opinions and we’re listening to them to hear their feelings and opinions. My only expectations are for them to be informative and fair with the facts, but they aren’t judges and juries and don’t have to be impartial if they think a wrestler has done wrong outside the ring.
I think that’s one of the best NXT episode I’ve watched in a long time. What a pace ! Lots of things happening until the very end.
Great episode but I don’t know what the point of another set of women’s tag titles is. They were struggling to make the one they had interesting. On top of that they’re struggling to make the men’s tag divisions interesting.
I mean if they aren’t going to put the main roster titles on an NXT team then it makes some sense as the women’s division in NXT is much deeper than on the main roster (at least right now.
But that’s the point, why would they want the original tag belts to just be main roster exclusive when there isn’t a whole lot they can do with them there?
I agree but apparently they do.