WWE NXT 7/11/2023: 3 Things We Hated And 3 Things We Loved

Welcome to Wrestling Inc.'s extremely opinionated review of "WWE NXT!" We took last week off for the fourth of July, during which time Kelani Jordan debuted, Eddy Thorpe won an "NXT" Underground match, and Schism's Jagger Reid and Rip Fowler inexplicably failed to get themselves banished from WWE. This week, as "NXT" prepares for its Great American Bash PLE at the end of the month, we saw a number of potential GAB contests begin to take shape, while the main roster stars of The Judgment Day returned to "NXT" in high-profile fashion.

It was a very interesting episode, both for the present and for the future of "NXT," as it seems like the brand has really found its footing recently and is moving in the right direction. That said, while there was a lot of really good stuff on this episode, it was far from perfect; there are still a couple aggressively boring things happening on the undercard, and there was one big decision in this week's installment that we found extremely questionable. You can read all about it, sans commentary, by going to our live coverage, but if you want to know what we thought, here are three things we hated and three things we loved about the 7/11/2023 episode of "WWE NXT."

This has been happening for a while, but coming off an episode of "WWE SmackDown" that (ratings or no ratings) contained very little actual wrestling and an episode of "WWE Raw" in which little of the actual in-ring action stood out, we're ready to ask the question: Has "NXT" once again become the "real wrestling" brand in WWE?

For starters, what an awesome match from Ilja Dragunov and Bron Breakker. It's not like we're 100% surprised — Dragunov doesn't really have bad matches, and Breakker, like so many before him, has been completely rejuvenated by his heel turn. The guy is coming out in a plain black singlet with the word "bad-ass" printed on it like he's an AI-generated Create-A-Wrestler from the "Day of Reckoning" series, and it somehow enhances the fact that he's wrestling like he hates every single person who's ever been born. Put him in there with Dragunov, a man with seemingly no regard for his physical well being and living answer to the question "What if Randy Orton and Bryan Danielson had a baby that was then raised by the Russian equivalent of Sabu," and you're going to get an absolutely rapturous display of violence. And the best part is, that style of match is exactly what you'd expect from a storyline that's basically "We are fighting over which of us is the most intense." Both wrestlers cut excellent backstage promos before the match, and Dragunov going over clean as a sheet was 100% the right call. This match actually reminded us of FTR vs. Bullet Club Gold from Saturday's "AEW Collision," in that we understand why it wasn't the main event, but also, how could that not be the main event?

The other standout contest this week came in the women's division, as "NXT" Women's Champion Tiffany Stratton took on Ivy Nile. We'll be honest — we didn't have the highest of expectations for this one, but it really blew us away. Nile has improved tremendously in the ring, and she and Stratton actually have unexpectedly great chemistry together. In addition to being extremely well-performed, the match also directly served the stories of both competitors. Nile, who is suddenly the last remaining member of Diamond Mine, was visibly weird out by being alone and pulled out at least a couple Creed Brothers tribute moves in an attempt to both honor her friends and pretend they were still with her, which plays into the story of Schism trying to convert her. Stratton, meanwhile, was serenaded with "You tapped out" chants throughout the contest, and the crowd popped hard when it looked like Nile might submit Stratton just like Thea Hail did. While Breakker/Dragunov was a love letter to guys who love hitting each other as hard as possible, Stratton/Nile was an absolute masterpiece of match structure, production, and performance.

Both these matches were better than any other match on the last seven days of WWE programming, and it wasn't particularly close. Before Vince McMahon got his hands on it, "NXT" was the brand where wrestling fans who care about nebulous concepts like "workrate" could go to see lengthy, well-performed matches that were unlike pretty much anything happening on the main roster. And while that last part might not exactly be true anymore, it's undeniable that this week's "NXT" felt very focused on presenting a quality in-ring product ... which could, theoretically, represent the opening salvo in an effort by WWE to win back some of the fans they lost to All Elite Wrestling in 2019.

To be clear, we hate the idea of any kind of wrestling being seen as "real wrestling." The small amount of in-ring content didn't keep "SmackDown" from being an amazing show, because the in-ring content is only one part of this weird TV show/live performance we all love. With all due respect to Jon Moxley, professional wrestling is not a combat sport. Professional wrestling is Pretend Fight Theater. And in Pretend Fight Theater, you had better have some fun, dumb bulls*** so we all remember not to take ourselves, or wrestling, too seriously.

Fortunately, for all that this week's "NXT" contained some great matches, it also contained some extremely stupid nonsense that we absolutely loved. There's never been a goofy wrestling act quite like Chase U, whose borderline maniacal commitment to their characters and the way those characters translate directly to their matches makes them a joy to watch no matter what they're doing. It's also becoming increasingly clear that Duke Hudson is the group's actual MVP, not just their tongue-in-cheek kayfabe MVP, and it's probably closing in on the right time to give them the tag titles. Still, the group's current storyline contines to center around Hail, a 19-year-old with comparatively little experience who suddenly has the power to apply the Kimura Lock, which both she and the narrative are treating like it's the Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique. Her being the difference maker in the Hudson/Andre Chase vs. Drew Gulak/Charlie Dempsey match was a great way of wrapping up that chapter, and we're so glad her storyline with Stratton wasn't just a one-off; Hail's frenetic fanatic energy is almost more fun to watch in the ring than it is backstage.

However, the real winner of the "This is the dumbest thing we've ever seen and it's amazing" award this week was the match between Joe Coffey and Channing "Stacks" Lorenzo, which would determine the fate of "The Don of NXT," Tony D'Angelo. Was this match a showcase of profound in-ring ability? No. Was it the result of a brilliantly-scripted, compelling storyline? Also no. Did anyone care that much whether Stacks was loyal to D'Angelo or working with Coffey? Probably not. Did it have anything going for it whatsoever? Not really. But you know what it did have? D'Angelo collect-calling the "NXT" arena and having his voice play over the loudspeakers. It had Stacks hitting Coffey with a crowbar and then pulling an Eddie Guerrero with it to get the rest of Gallus ejected from ringside. And most importantly, it had a crowd full of people cheering their hearts out for a weasley small-time criminal revealing that he had been loyal to his boss all along and getting a Mafia don and confirmed murderer out of prison and back on the streets. What a heartwarming tale of family never turning its back on family from this babyface faction that we seem to recall used to have a third member before Stacks and D'Angelo definitely killed him.

There was some other dumb stuff this week that we liked a little less — we're still waiting for some kind of hook with Baron Corbin's identity crisis, and we're getting a little tired of Von Wagner recapping his tragic backstory every single week, sue us — but that's just personal preference. What's important is that, whatever "NXT" is trying to become going forward, we still have plenty of stupid nonsense, because you might not want to believe it, but that is as much a part of pro wrestling as the five-star classics.

As much as we enjoyed the fact that Ivy Nile's match played into her storyline, if her storyline is going to be "Schism tries to turn her," we're not sure how much we can care about it. Schism is always trying to turn people, and they basically never succeed. The last person to join them was Ava Raine back in October, and she didn't "turn" so much as "debut." Not even the mysterious masked figure who cost the Creeds their match last week wasn't followed up on — is the idea that Nile was right and it actually was Gacy in disguise? And are Reid and Fowler really just instantly cool with Gacy again because they got that one win? Is Schism growing, or shrinking, or staying the same? These are questions we can't really bring ourselves to care about, because Schism is about as interesting as toenail clippings.

Honestly, if we really are doing this again, the best thing to do would probably be to turn Nile and have her join them. As little as we care for Schism, them actually managing to sway a member of the roster to their side and doing it by craftily eliminating the last of that person's close friends, leaving them feeling isolated and alone while you artificially inflate the number of people in your group to make it seem like the place anyone would want to be who's feeling isolated and alone — that's actually a decent character piece. That would have our interest. But we're pretty sure Nile is just going to reject them en route to getting beaten in a match by Raine or something like that, and then we'll just move on to Schism's next pointless storyline.

While we're on the subject of things we can't believe are still happening, let's talk about the prolonging of Cora Jade vs. Dana Brooke. We get that they're using Brooke to introduce this Kelani Jordan character, and a match with Jade certainly helps establish Jordan, but theoretically Jade should also be getting something out of this, and we just can't see any scenario where a longer feud with Brooke leaves her in a better place. She's already beaten both Brooke and Jordan, so where is there to go? The only two places are "Jade beats Brooke again," which seems like a waste of time, or "Brooke beats Jade," which ... wouldn't be a great destination.

The "NXT" women's division has long been one of the brand's major strengths, even in the days when everyone else was going wrong. There are a lot of good things happening in the "NXT" women's division; Blair Davenport's feud with Roxanne Perez is getting increasingly personal, and even Gigi Dolin vs. Kiana James is becoming a little more interesting in an archetypical "rich mean girl vs. flamboyant rebel" kind of way. But we have to find something better to do with Jade; she's too good to be stuck in storylines like this one.

Since "NXT" Champion Carmelo Hayes got involved in the feud between Seth Rollins and Finn Balor, making his "Raw" debut as a result, there's been tension slowly building between Hayes and The Judgment Day, with Rhea Ripley going so far as to appear on "NXT" two weeks ago. That wasn't a massive event in and of itself; main roster stars have a long history of stopping over in "NXT," usually for a single match. But the Hayes/Rollins/Judgement Day crossover felt like more than that, and the entire JD stable actually coming to town Tuesday night — in an appearance that was heavily promoted on an episode of "Raw" that was built around the faction from start to finish — felt a little like a game-changer. These aren't low-level main roster flame-outs coming back down to get re-branded, and they're not one-off appearances. These are some of the most prominent wrestlers "Raw" has to offer, engaging in a full-on mini-feud with the "NXT" Champion, and not only are Finn Balor and Damian Priest main-eventing the show in a tag team match, but Dominik Mysterio will be back next week for a North American title match against Wes Lee. If this week's episode gets a good rating, we could see more and more direct crossover between "NXT" and "Raw" and "SmackDown" of the sort we've never seen before.

As for the tag team main event itself, it was largely very good. Right up until the end.

We're not normally the ones to get mad about wins and losses in wrestling, which is why we weren't mad when Hayes lost to Balor in his first match on "Raw," but man ... it was pretty damn mystifying to see Judgment Day win that match, and it makes us feel a little less confident in everything we wrote in the last slide. They really couldn't find a way to give Hayes a win over Balor, even in a tag team match? Hell, there was wonky interference in the finish anyway, as new #1 contender Ilja Dragunov ran down to stop Priest from using his Money in the Bank briefcase with the ref distracted, only for Hayes to accidentally run into Dragunov and get caught in the South of Heaven/Coup de Grace combination as a result. Instead of Hayes getting a protected pinfall victory on Balor, Balor got a second pinfall victory on Hayes, even though it was, again, a tag match, and Trick Williams was right there. We're sure WWE thinks the Dragunov finish protects Hayes somewhat, but really it just kind of made both of them look stupid. Some things never change, and one of those things is apparently "NXT's" biggest stars never being allowed look good against main roster stars.

It is possible that this is just part of a larger change that's coming more slowly than we'd like it to. It'll be very interesting to see how "NXT" resolves the Lee/Mysterio match next week in that regard. We also get that they wanted to start building the Hayes/Dragunov feud, which needs some heat behind it because they're both babyfaces. We do understand, really. We just kind of wanted the "NXT" Champion to get a much-needed win in a match that wouldn't have hurt The Judgment Day to lose, because it would have ended this week's episode on a note that felt new and special. Instead, we were left with more of the same.