Last week, the NXT Championship scene, involving champion Tony D’Angelo, “NXT’s” newest signee Cruz Montana, and the incensed, recently returned Grayson Waller, felt interesting. From Waller’s “pipe bomb” inspired opening promo to Montana getting on the microphone himself to address the fans in the Performance Center, things felt fresh. This week, however, the trio’s promo segment fell flat, and it didn’t even sound like the usually rowdy crowd in the Performance Center was into it.
I don’t know if it’s because no one involved really had any issues with each other prior to last week, but it just doesn’t feel hot enough yet. Waller and Cruz should be the only ones feuding right now, for the opportunity to take on D’Angelo for the gold, and there’s something about the former “Don of ‘NXT'” being involved already that just doesn’t feel right, despite him not exactly having much else to do right now. He mentioned himself and Waller previously being partners in the 2021 WarGames match, but even that fact, a connection between them, felt out of place.
It feels as though this could have easily been avoided with some booking tweaks. Waller could have still cut his promo last week, bringing out Montana with his remarks about TNA being the minor leagues, and then “NXT” would be off to the races to determine a new number one contender. Knowing “NXT,” however, we’re headed toward a triple threat match at Heatwave, despite D’Angelo telling the pair to go to General Manager Robert Stone to get a number one contender’s match made official. It was later announced that the bout will take place next week, and shenanigans to get to that presumed triple threat are likely. Despite it feeling flat and weird, and triple threat title matches being all too common in “NXT,” I’m not sure there’s a way to keep Montana or Waller out of the match at this point, without hurting either of them.
Tonight’s promo segment felt slow and kind of clunky. Maybe bringing Waller back in with a fire lit underneath him, in storyline, on top of trying to establish a rebranded Mike Santana, all while bringing the champion into the mix early on, was too much, but I’m hoping things even out in the title scene soon. There’s an interesting story there with Waller, and I’m a big fan of Montana, but things are just not meshing well for me right now.
Written by Daisy Ruth
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