TJR: WWE NXT Vengeance Day 2023 Preview
The WWE NXT Vengeance Day event features five championship matches including a Steel Cage Match between Bron Breakker and Grayson Waller.
I think the card for NXT Vengeance Day has been booked fairly well with the five title matches plus 2/3 Falls Match between Apollo Crews and Carmelo Hayes that is a match between top title contenders. There are some good performers on NXT that aren’t on the show that could have been here, but you can’t get everybody on a Premium Live Event. The Steel Cage main event between Breakker and Waller should be very good.
Since Vengeance Day is in Charlotte, it will be an NXT show outside of the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, so that will be refreshing to watch NXT in front of a different crowd. Perhaps every act on NXT won’t get cheered or booed as loudly, but a crowd of about 5,000 people is much better than 500 people that we are used to.
You can watch NXT Vengeance Day on Saturday, February 4th at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT streaming exclusively on Peacock in the U.S. and WWE Network everywhere else.
NXT North American Championship: Wes Lee (c) vs. Dijak
It’s a big man-little man matchup with Lee earning a lot of respect as the NXT North American Champion that has survived against bigger opponents. Dijak has been booked very well as a dominant heel since joining NXT, so if Lee beats him then it will be a big win for Lee. Since I don’t expect that many title changes on the show, this is one match where I think a title change is very possible and I’m going go with Dijak winning some gold. Lee has held the title for a few months, so if he loses he’ll be fine. I think putting the NXT NA Title on Dijak is the right move to give him some more momentum.
Winner AND NEW NXT North American Champion: Dijak
NXT Women’s Tag Team Championships: Kayden Carter & Katana Chance (c) vs. Fallon Henley & Kiana James
The build for this has been weaker compared to some of the other matches on the show. Carter & Chance are a popular babyface team while Henley is a face and James is a heel that is working with Henley, but we don’t know if James is being genuine about it. Henley/James won a match recently by James cheating, which is not what Henley is about, so maybe we see that happen again and it leads to a title change. I’m going the other way. I think Henlye/James will have issues and Carter/Chance win. While NXT does feature the women’s division a lot, I think they need to try to create some more tag teams to build up some contenders in the division.
Winners: Kayden Carter & Katana Chance
2 Out Of 3 Falls Match: Carmelo Hayes vs. Apollo Crews
Here is the likely match of the night. They had a four-star level singles match in the past that Hayes won and then Crews pinned Hayes in a great a great tag team match, so this is a match with a stipulation that will allow them to have plenty of time to put on an exciting match that the fans should like. Hayes is firmly established as the cocky heel that thinks he’s the best performer on the brand while Crews is the veteran babyface that wants to prove himself.
While it has not been announced as a number one contender’s match, it certainly feels that way. With Stand & Deliver coming on WrestleMania Saturday, I think the winner of this match will challenge for the NXT Title at Stand & Deliver. That should be Melo. They have kept Melo and Bron Breakker apart for about a year and a half, so that’s where I think we finally see that match. Anyway, this should be a great match in the 15-20 minute range or more. These guys are awesome together and it’s going to be an outstanding match. Hayes will get the first fall, Crews will get the second one and Hayes wins it in the third fall.
Winner: Carmelo Hayes
NXT Tag Team Championships: The New Day – Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods (c) vs. Pretty Deadly – Kit Wilson & Elton Prince vs. Gallus – Mark Coffey & Wolfgang vs. Chase U – Andre Chase & Duke Hudson
It’s been about two months for The New Day as the NXT Tag Team Champions. I think having them in NXT is good for the brand because The New Day are one of the best and most successful teams in WWE history. It also looks like Kofi and Xavier are having a lot of fun as usual. If The New Day then I think they’ll hold the titles until Stand & Deliver when some other team beats them for the titles.
I feel like there should be a better story to have New Day lose the titles instead of losing them in a four-way match. Maybe we see Gallus or Pretty Deadly beat New Day at Stand & Deliver. They could go with a babyface team like Chase U or The Creed Brothers as well. Indus Sher is another option. There are a lot of pretty good teams in NXT right now. I’m a little torn on my prediction here because I think Gallus could leave with the titles, but I’m going to predict New Day retaining. Hopefully the fans love the Chase U act and support it a lot. I just don’t think they should win. Pretty Deadly winning is an option just like Gallus. My feeling is New Day are going to hold on to the titles until Stand & Deliver. Just my hunch. I think the match will be good, but it would be better if it was an elimination match instead of first falls wins.
Winners: The New Day – Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods
NXT Women’s Championship: Roxanne Perez (c) vs. Jacy Jayne vs. Gigi Dolin
This one feels easier to predict. Jacy and Gigi appear to be on the same page as allies that are former Tag Team Champions, so that makes it seems like Perez is at a disadvantage. However, we have seen this story in triple threats many times where a team won’t get along, they’ll have issues in the match and it will cost them the win. Roxanne won the title about two months ago and I doubt they are going to take the title off her so quickly. I think Jacy is a very good heel that could do well as a singles act while Dolin might turn into a babyface out of this storyline because she’ll have issues with Jacy in this match.
The prediction is that Jacy and Gigi will work together well for most of it, dominate parts of the match and then have issues deciding who should try to get the win. That will lead to Jacy and Gigi fighting eachother, which will lead to Roxanne taking advantage of the situation to find a way to win. Roxanne picks up the win in a solid 12-minute match.
Winner: Roxanne Perez
NXT Championship Steel Cage Match: Bron Breakker (c) vs. Grayson Waller
The main event has a strong story behind it, which is nice to see because sometimes they just have somebody earn a title shot and are lacking in terms of a story. In this case, Waller earned the title shot two months ago at Deadline, they did the match at New Year’s Evil last month that had the rope break spot leading to an inconclusive finish and from there the story got personal between them.
I think Waller is one of the better all-around talents in NXT that has grown a lot as a performer in the last year. Waller is like a traditional cocky heel character that can back it up in the ring. The good thing about him is that he’s not afraid to say or do anything to get heat. That’s what you love to see in any heel. Physically, he’s got all the tools to be a huge success in WWE some day and I think he will do very well in his career.
Bron Breakker continues to grow as a performer. There are probably some people that are a bit sick of him because he’s been the NXT Champion for over a year now other than a few weeks of Dolph Ziggler holding the title. I think Bron has improved over the last year too. That’s what NXT is supposed to be for these guys. It gives them a chance to get better by giving them TV time and big matches like this.
A Steel Cage Match is a new challenge for them because you don’t really see those kinds of matches in this era of NXT. Waller is an exceptional athlete that may do some crazy leap off the cage at some point in the match. They will probably use the cage as a weapon during the match as well. Waller should come close to winning a few times in a match that gets around 20 minutes or a bit less.
My pick is Bron Breakker winning perhaps with a Steiner Recliner submission instead of the press powerslam (that needs a name) that he uses just to make it look more emphatic. After the match, have Carmelo Hayes come out for a face-to-face showdown with Bron to tease the Stand & Deliver main event in two months. If Waller wins I’m certainly fine with that and maybe it’s because Bron will get called up to Raw or Smackdown soon, but I think Bron should keep the title to give us the Bron-Melo match at Stand & Deliver. Just my opinion on it anyway.
Winner: Bron Breakker
And Finally…
The Match I’m Looking Forward To The Most
Apollo Crews vs. Carmelo Hayes in 2/3 Falls Match.
The Match I Care About The Least
NXT Women’s Tag Team Title Match.
Longest Match
Apollo Crews vs. Carmelo Hayes in 2/3 Falls Match.
Shortest Match
NXT Women’s Tag Team Title Match.
Excitement Level on a Scale of 1-10 (1 being low, 10 being high)
I’ll go with a 7.25 for this show. It will be refreshing to see an NXT show in front of a crowd that’s different than what we always get to see in Orlando, so hopefully the fans in Charlotte, NC are a vocal group. In terms of stories, they have built up everything well. Now it’s up to the talent to show what they can do in these matches. I think Hayes/Crews will be the best match while several others should be very good as well.
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John Canton
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