Reviews

The John Report: WWE NXT 05/09/23 Review

By John Canton • Published 10th May 2023
wwe nxt may 9

This week’s WWE NXT featured a Tag Team Title match, Bron Breakker in action in the main event and the Women’s Title tournament kicked off.

This will be a quick review. I don’t have much time to write today. I did watch the show, but I’m only going to react to the matches.

PLEASE NOTE: As of this Saturday, May 13th, I’m going to be on vacation for the next seven days. That means that next week starting with the May 15th Raw through that week, I’m not going to have reviews of the shows I typically write about. When that vacation ends, I’m probably going to do some sort of condensed reviews of the shows I missed. It’s my first full week off since July 2022, so I look forward to disconnecting from social media and not writing for nearly all that week. As for TJRWrestling.net, our team of great writers led by my good friend Lyle will keep on producing content because that’s what we do. I’m so proud of our team. All this means is that my reviews won’t be coming next week, so don’t freak out. I’m fine. I am just taking a week off.

This episode is taking place at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida. Follow me on Twitter @johnreport. My WWE NXT Review archive is here. Let’s get to it.

NXT Women’s Title Tournament Quarterfinals: Tiffany Stratton vs. Gigi Dolin

Stratton got the win to advance in the tournament. She won clean with a triple jump moonsault in about five minutes. Dolin really doesn’t have much momentum as a babyface at this point. Stratton might win the tournament, but I think it might be Cora Jade who wins it. They only got about five minutes. (Rating: ** out of five)

NXT Tag Team Championships: Gallus vs. The Dyad

Gallus got the win to keep their titles. These are both UK teams that likely worked together a lot in their careers. We know The Dyad guys (Rip Fowler & Jagger Reid) asked for their release, WWE did not grant them their releases and they will move on from WWE when the deals expire in the fall most likely. The Tag Team division isn’t that strong right now, but having the champions retain in quality matches like this will help the champions look credible. It went 11 minutes. (Rating: ***1/4)

Duke Hudson vs. Javier Bernal

Easy win for Duke since Javy rarely wins any matches in WWE these days. It went about four minutes. (Rating: *1/2)

Eddy Thorpe vs. Damon Kemp

Since Thorpe is a newcomer, they are trying to build him up by working his way up the roster. Kemp hasn’t been used much in a while, so Thorpe beating him makes sense. Thorpe has a lot of in-ring talent. They will need to work on his character quite a bit, but he’ll get there hopefully. They got about five minutes. (Rating: **1/4)

Ilja Dragunov vs. Dijak

I was looking forward to this, but they only got about five minutes. Dijak got DQ’d after using a chair, so Dragunov won the match. Dijak attacked post match including the steel steps. They are obviously building to a bigger match. I hope it’s at NXT Battleground because then they’ll get more time there and they can have one of the best matches at that PLE event for sure. (Rating: **1/4)

Charlie Dempsey vs. Tyler Bate

It was a big win for Dempsey since he hasn’t picked up many significant wins in NXT, so beating a guy like Bate is good for Dempsey. It wasn’t clean because Drew Gulak distracted the referee, Joe Gacy punched Bate and Dempsey got the win with a Full Nelson Suplex. Gacy was telling Wes Lee that he shouldn’t trust Bate, so it’s a story involving a bunch of different people. This went about four minutes. (Rating: **)

Josh Briggs & Brooks Jensen vs. Hank Walker & Tank Ledger

This was just a short tag team match to show that Briggs & Jensen are on the same page again after having issues in the past. Hank & Tank have a lot of energy as a team, but they are still new. Thank lost a tooth during the match. He kept going as if it was nothing. Tough guy. It was about three minutes. (Rating: *1/4)

NXT Women’s Title Tournament Quarterfinals: Lyra Valkyria vs. Kiana James

They got a decent amount of time since it went about nine minutes, but I wouldn’t call it a great match. I think there were some chemistry issues early. It got better towards the end. Valkyria won with a kick. Just an average match. (Rating **1/2)

The Women’s Title tournament brackets look like this. The two other quarterfinal matches are next week.

Perez and Jade will probably win next week. I think the finals will be Cora Jade beating Roxanne Perez to win the NXT Women’s Title for the first time. If they go with Tiffany Stratton winning then that’s fine too.

Bron Breakker vs. Trick Williams

A dominant win for Bron after about seven minutes. He won with the Steiner Recliner, which is a more devastating submission move for him to use as a heel. I’m happy with Trick getting a main event spot because that’s a guy NXT needs to use more. Obviously, in this spot Trick was just there to take a loss to build Bron for the NXT Title match against Carmelo Hayes, who is Trick’s buddy in NXT. It went about seven minutes. (Rating: **1/2)

After the match, Bron put the Steiner Recliner on Trick again, but NXT Champion Carmelo Hayes tried to make the save. Melo jumped off the ropes with a move, but Bron hit him with a Spear in midair! That was an amazing spot. The fans were hot against Bron again here.

At NXT Battleground, Carmelo Hayes defends the NXT Title against Bron Breakker. I feel like it might become a stipulation match, but for now, it’s a regular match. I think Carmelo will keep the title in that match. Maybe we will see Bron Breakker moved to Raw or Smackdown after that.

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Three Stars of the Show

  1. Bron Breakker
  2. Gallus
  3. Tiffany Stratton/Lyra Valkyria

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The Scoreboard

This week: 6.5 out of 10

Last week: 7

2023 Average: 6.92

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Final Thoughts

The show was okay this week. I wrote a quicker review due to a lack of time today, but I think I covered it well with my thoughts on the matches. There weren’t any truly standout matches. As usual with NXT, a lot of different people were on the show and that’s usually a good thing.

The NXT Women’s Title tournament matches were pretty solid with Tiffany Stratton & Lyra Valkyria picking up wins. I feel like Cora Jade and Roxanne Perez will meet in the finals with Cora getting the win, but there could be some twists along the way.

Bron Breakker stood tall against Carmelo Hayes to end the show. There was an awesome Spear from Bron on Melo to end the story on a high note. Hayes will probably beat Bron in the match at Battleground, but I think the build is better than their last match since Bron is in a heel role now.

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Thanks for reading. Go Toronto Blue Jays and Toronto Maple Leafs. My contact info is below.

John Canton

Email mrjohncanton@gmail.com

Twitter @johnreport