This year’s Stand and Deliver was all about succession or establishing the title reign. I got that vibe in almost every single match. Before I explain further, here’s the match results:
- Chase U and Tyler Bate def. Schism (Pre-Show Match)
- Indi Hartwell wins 6-Woman Ladder Match to become the new NXT Women’s Champion
- Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn def. Fallon Henley and Kiana James to become the new NXT Women’s Tag Team Champions
- NXT Tag Team Championship Triple Threat Match: Gallus def. The Creed Brothers and The Family
- Unsanctioned Match: Johnny Gargano def. Grayson Waller
- North American Championship Fatal 5-Way Match: Wes Lee retains
- Carmelo Hayes def. Bron Breakker to become the new NXT Champion
Every NXT title was contested and most of them changed hands, the exceptions being the North American Championship and the NXT Tag Team Championships. Joe Coffey, who hadn’t been seen since NXT UK merged with NXT made his return to the fold and provided a little help.
Ava–as a reminder, she’s The Rock’s actual daughter Simone Johnson–took to social media to celebrate her debut match at Stand & Deliver. I mentioned this before but her NXT debut was delayed by almost two years due to a nagging knee injury she ended up needing surgery for. It goes without saying wrestling fans who eagerly anticipated her debut were more than a little disappointed to put it nicely when it was revealed last year she was the heavily teased 4th member of Schism.
Many fans had it in their heads her debut would be similar to Charlotte Flair, Randy Orton, Natalya or Bron Breakker (all of them are second or third generation superstars). Ava addressed the fan backlash head-on the week after her debut without mentioning her lineage, saying she is not following anyone’s carefully laid out path for her life. Her father had a similar struggle when he debuted in WWE almost 30 years ago though in his case, he joined a stable after debuting solo.
Before I forget. Tyler Bate helped Chase U win their match but like I mentioned earlier, his former stable regained a missing member in Joe Coffey (Mark Coffey’s brother). We’ll have to wait and see if Gallus tries to recruit him again though it looks like The Big Strong Boy will be doing his own thing for now. If he doesn’t hang out with Chase U, I could see him moving on to RAW/Smackdown.
The 6-Woman Ladder Match damn-near stole the show. As I hoped, Indi Hartwell finally won gold for the first time. Even better is she got an assist from the love of her life Dexter Lumis, who’d been hanging out with the Garganos on RAW for almost a year. The last time Lumis was on NXT, it was to say goodbye to Hartwell before he was arrested. He was involved in a storyline on RAW involving The Miz and Johnny Gargano, who became his interpreter of sorts. It seemed his story with Hartwell was done…until tonight. We’ll have to wait and see if Lumis will be back on NXT or if Hartwell will pull double duty on RAW and NXT while she holds the NXT Women’s Championship.
All that said. Hartwell is the longest-tenured woman in NXT left. Roxanne Perez was good but clearly the decision was made she was not ready. I do see Perez regaining the title possibly later this year though. That’s assuming she isn’t paired with someone to go after the Women’s Tag Titles again. We’ll see.
Wes Lee had to contend with the likes of JD McDonaugh, Ilia Dragonov, Axiom and the debuting Dragon Lee in a Fatal 5-Way Match. McDOnaugh, Dragonov and to a lesser extent Axion did most of the heavy lifting during the match. Honestly I wanna see Wes Lee and Dragonov in a singles match soon just to see who could outlast who. Dragonov will always be remembered for his iconic matches with Gunther (FKA Walter) for the NXT UK Championship but he has clearly settled in quite nicely in NXT.
The eagerly anticipated main event did not disappoint to say the least. Neither did the finish for that matter. Breakker and Hayes left it all in the ring. Nothing more needs to be said other than this is a superb passing of the torch. ‘Melo is gonna print money for NXT and elevate everyone he gets in the ring with, that’s how GOOD he is. Bron is likely on his way to the main roster at this point. There is literally nothing left for him to prove in NXT.
There is one development that came up overnight that hopefully doesn’t impact Bron directly. Bron’s father Rick Steiner, who was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame last year along with his brother Scott has been the subject of controversy over some Transphobic comments he made at a convention. I won’t repeat what he allegedly said here but the comments were mostly directed at a trans wrestler who was also at the convention and heard about it after the fact.
AEW Superstar Chris Jericho reacted to Rick Steiner’s comments by basically accusing him of always being a bully for as long as he’s ever known him. No doubt things could get real nasty and more so given even before this incident, some former wrestlers outside of WWE expressed concern over Rick Steiner being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame last year as soon as it was announced.
Once again, I can only hope this does not impact Bron directly. During their Table for 3 episode last year, Rick asked Bron why he doesn’t use their last name as a part of his character. Bron explained he didn’t want people to dwell on his last name but in retrospect, it may have been an insurance policy. If Bron is off TV for a while, it may be because of his father. I can only hope that doesn’t happen to him though.
Overall, this event was well executed. A job well done to Shawn Michaels and everyone else involved.
This is something I don’t think I mentioned before but as of this past December, I no longer have cable at home. Once my financial situation improves, I plan to get Xfinity on demand so I can at least get USA Network. I bought a 12 month subscription for Peacock at the end of this past August. Literally the week after Summer Slam 2022. What that that means is I can still watch all PPV events as they happen until this coming August.
NXT episodes are available on Peacock two days after they air on USA Network so I can still get caught up within the same week. New RAW and Smackdown episodes are not available on Peacock until a month later. I’m aware they’re available on Hulu much sooner but I hate Hulu so that’s not an option for me.
I don’t know if I’m going to renew this coming August yet–it really depends on my financial situation changing by then–but my current subscription helped get me through this past winter. As of this writing, Night 1 of Wrestlemania just ended a short time ago. I will provide the results for that Sunday afternoon as I’ve done since Wrestlemania 36. Look forward to it!
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