NXT 4/13 Review: Tuesday Night is for the Titans

NXT 4/13 opens with new NXT Champion, Karrion Kross, being led to the ring by Scarlett.  He gives all due credit to Finn Balor for being an exceptional competitor (“one of the best ever” even) but cleanly points out that he was wrong that Kross’ emotions would fool him rather than fuel him.  He says that, supposedly, there’s nowhere to when you reach the top.  Kross doesn’t believe it, though, and puts the entire NXT locker room on notice: He will go through every last one of them until total dominance is achieved.  The ringside spectators chant their approval while Scarlett’s approval is obvious.  The time of Kross has arrived.

Not to be left out of any party, MSK comes out to the ring after the commercial break with their new NXT Tag Team Championship belts and ready to put them on the line.

MSK (c) vs Killian Dain & Drake Maverick for the NXT Tag Team Championship

MSK is in unfamiliar territory, having a distinct but rare size and power advantage over Darke Maverick and a more than distinct deficit versus the big man from Belfast.  Drake manages to give them fits at first but, before long, is demonstrating his famous resilience as the champs gain momentum. Dain is ready to bulldoze MSK but they switch it up with great rapid-fire tandem strike combos.  Great sit-down driver by Dain plows Carter and Lee into each other but they avoid having Drake powerbombed onto them.  Spinebuster/Blockbuster combo onto Maverick gets them the win.

Winners and still NXT Tag Team Champions: MSK

After the match, Alexander Wolfe comes out to speak with Killian Dain.  It seems like Imperium has been looking to recruit Wolfe’s former SAnitY stablemate.  But no!  Fabian Aichner and Marcel Barthel sneak attack the big man and leave him in a heap.  They’re not looking for alliances, they’re looking for weaknesses to exploit.

Robert Stone (rocking the double Michael Jackson gloves for some reason) and Aliyah were about to petition William regal for another tag team title shot earlier today.  Instead, they ended up having to fend off and placate an angry (and unpaid!) Mercedes Martinez.  Their stablemate, Jessi Kamea, steps up and steps in, telling Mercedes that she’ll get stepped on tonight if she has her way.

Roderick Strong and wife, Marina Shafir, arrived at Capitol Wrestling Centre earlier today.  In the aftermath of his former stablemates clashing at Takeover and his own walkout the week before, where do we see them going from here?

Speaking of that unsanctioned match between Adam Cole and Kyle O’Reilly, we are privy to the footage after Takeover went off air.  Not only was O’Reilly beside himself in his victory as Cole was strapped to a backboard for medical transport but Cole never stopped cursing him and threatening reprisal as they were wheeled into the hospital together.

Mercedes Martinez vs Jessi Kamea

Jessi blindsides Mercedes to start the match and keeps up the pressure, proving she’s not the pushover we’ve associated with Robert Stone Brand thus far.  Martinez is far too crafty, though.  She ducks a flying cross body to hit a running knee and the Emerald Flowsion.

Winner: Mercedes Martinez

After the match, Mercedes chases down Stone to get her money and turns to the announce table saying that new NXT Women’s Champion, Raquel Gonzalez, is on notice.

McKenzie Mitchell is with The Way as Johnny Gargano extolls just how “cuckoo bananas” it is that they’re forced into a match tonight but they are “the most dominant four-person intergender group in NXT history.”  They get McKenzie to join hands in a “Whoa Bundy” and they’re off.

Isaiah “Swerve” Scott is in “the lab” and proud of his performance in the gauntlet eliminator at Takeover.  He isn’t satisfied, though.  He won’t be satisfied until later tonight.  Swerve and Leon Ruff bury their business one last time.

The now undisputed NXT Cruiserweight Champion, Santos Escobar, leads Legado del Fantasma to the ring.  One year ago, the cruiserweight division was forgotten.  But, now, because of him, it is a primetime attraction.  It’s his warrior code that has him laying down an open challenge for the title.  No sooner do the words leave his lips than he has an answer.

Santos Escobar (c) vs Kushida for the NXT Cruiserweight Championship

Both men go at it right away, with Kushida paying tribute to Jushin Liger with a quick pose after forcing Escobar from the ring. Escobar gains an advantage during the commercial break and slams Kushida’s shoulder into the ring steps, looking to take away the Hoverboard Lock option.  Kushida in turn, attacks the right arm of the champion to set it up.  Enziguri met with a Pele Kick. Handspring met with a backstabber.  Pin attempt for pin attempt until… Kushida sits in with a jackknife clutch and wins!  He can barely believe it himself!

Winner and new NXT Cruiserweight Champion: Kushida

Tommaso Ciampa & Timothy Thatcher are reunited, ready to face any new champions in any division.  First order of business?  MSK is on notice.

Kushida is getting taped up in the trainer’s office as William Regal congratulates him.  Also there to congratulate him is Jordan Devlin.  The Irish Ace kind of blows up Vic Joseph’s previous proclamation of “for the first time in his career, Kushida is champion” by mentioning the six (six!) IWGP Junior Heavyweight titles when he congratulates him too.  He says that Kushida beat Escobar but, since he only went up a ladder fast and never pinned or submitted Devlin, who did he really beat?  Jordan has to head home for a bit but, when he returns, it’ll be for that belt.  Kushida says he’ll be ready.

Dakota Kai is in the ring to introduce new women’s champion, Raquel Gonzalez.  She says that she was supposed to have a big debut a year-and-a-half ago but she wasn’t ready.  It took Dakota Kai to get her… both of them… to this point.  The Raquel Gonzalez era has begun!

That turns out the lights and brings out stars… including (the former Taya Valkyrie) Franky Monet!  The new “bougie bad” persona still calls herself “La Wera Loca” but Raquel tells her that another interruption will get her Pomeranian shoved straight up her “culo.”

Franky bids adieu but a more familiar theme hits… the brutality of new RAW Women’s Champion, Rhea Ripley!  The last time these two met at New Year’s Evil, Dakota and Raquel ended a bitter feud by sending Rhea through the entrance stage!  A championship belt of her own makes Rhea a bit forgiving I guess and she offers Raquel a hug.  Smackdown Women’s Champion, Bianca Belair, comes out to the ring, too, as we get a nice little moment with two former and one current NXT champs celebrating each other’s successes.

Kushida is the new cruiserweight champ but, at Takeover, he fell to Pete Dunne.  The Bruiserweight is quick to point that out and quicker to declare his intentions to start picking up titles going forward.

William Regal is very proud to announce next week’s debut of joshi star, Sarray, in NXT.  McKenzie tries to get a word about it but he’s got urgent business.  Marina Shafir and Roderick Strong are in his office.  Roddy hands him a manila envelope and says that he’s done.  Regal asks if he’s sure and he says that he is.  Regal says that it was trying at times when he was involved with Undisputed Era but Roddy was always a top professional and he is welcome back at any time.

Leon Ruff vs Isaiah “Swerve” Scott

Swerve tries to little brother Leon in the opening and does a good job of it until his injured right shoulder starts to slow him.  Isaiah is one of the few NXT competitors that can match Leon Ruff’s quickness but the fact that Leon makes him work for it seems to be a big part of his animosity.  Once the advantage is gained, Swerve is in Ruff’s face, taunting the lightweight until the Detroit comes out!  Ruff goes on fire and hits his second rope cutter but Swerve rolls out of the ring.  Ruff follows him out and brings him back in for a missile dropkick.  Top rope supersteiner but Swerve kicks out!  Another near fall seems to wake up Swerve’s mean streak and he nails a sitout half-nelson driver to end it.

Winner: Isaiah “Swerve” Scott

Zoey Stark talks about being elated to go from scraping by in Las Vegas to getting a win over a huge star like Toni Storm at Takeover.  Mercedes Martinez wants to know why McKenzie is interviewing “a nobody” when Martinez is (supposedly) next in line for the title.

A promo package for Imperium declares WALTER as the most dominant champion in WWE over the past two years and Imperium as the driving force behind that.  The will restore the honor of this sport by all mean necessary.  Let none forget that “The mat is sacred.”

McKenzie Mitchell asks Swerve if the beef is finally squashed between him and Leon Ruff.  A laughing Swerve aks if she saw the statement he just made.  Leon Ruff isn’t laughing.  He slams Swerve against the lockers and rams him with a production crate!  As he stands over Swerve, screaming that nothing is over until he says it is, I believe him.

Due to popular demand, we have a GIF for you. 😉 #WWENXT #InDex @indi_hartwell @DexterLumis pic.twitter.com/GfcmcUTMqQ

— WWE NXT (@WWENXT) April 14, 2021

Main Event of NXT 4/13: Dexter Lumis, Bronson Reed, Ember Moon, and Shotzi Blackheart vs The Way

Indi Hartwell is still thirsty for Dexter Lumis, prompting Candice to pull her aside during their ring entrance.  The Way tags quickly, trying to find an answer for their opponents.  The most it does is get Johnny Gargano stereo forearms from Shotzi & Ember as Wade Barrett decries the blatant violation of the gender separation rules for the match.  Austin Theory muscles some advantage but it brings in the Thicc Boi, Bronson Reed, to double stack Gargano and Theory every which way (no pun intended.)  

From there it breaks down across legal tags and gender lines.  Candice hits a tope DDT on Lumis.  Bronson uses Shotzi as weapon on The Way gathered at ringside.  In the confusion, Dexter locks in Silence on Gargano but they’re not legal.  Indi can’t bring herself to stomp Lumis.  She plays possum to get his attention and, when Theory tries to assist Gargano, she tosses him to the outside!  She flops again on the ring apron and Lumis straight up An-Officer-and-a-Gentleman-s her off to the back!

Back in the ring, the entire remaining Gargano collective is trying to solve the Bronson Reed problem.  Candice tries to superplex him but ends up dangling in the air for Shotzi to pick up and drop onto Austin Theory.  This keeps him down long enough for the Tsunami from Awesome Aussie.

Winners: Shotzi Blackheart, Ember Moon, Bronson Reed, and (I guess) Dexter Lumis

Five Takeaways from NXT 4/13

1. Everything is wide open.  We came into the night with three new champs and had another title change hands before the night was through.  We’re seeing Thatcher & Ciampa, Mercedes Martinez, Franky Monet, Zoey Stark, Jordan Devlin, and others putting their names in the hat with more to come.
2. Cole still wants a piece of O’Reilly.  We are past the projected return date for Bobby Fish’s triceps injury.  Roderick Strong’s “resignation” being played out on camera with an open door makes it clear this isn’t going to be finished until the Summer Slam Takeover.
3. I’d give a similar timeline for Dexter Lumis &Co vs The Way and Ruff vs Swerve.  Look for the latter to be in a much more spectacular and violent fashion.  Would not be surprised to see those two give us a MotY candidate coming up.
4. The WWE PC is said to be stacked with its largest class/roster to date and just had their largest female recruitment ever.  With so much being developed, is NXT just a pit stop for the likes of Imperium and *sigh* “Franky Monet” or are they going to be taking the place of others moving on in the next year?
5. I’m greatly looking forward to Imperium’s involvement in USA’s NXT.  Not only will we likely get to see them in action on the regular but also get to see the Avenger’s Endgame-like alliance that it will take to remove them from their inevitable place of dominance.

NXT 4/13 is now streaming on Peacock and the USA app.