STAND & DELIVER V - 4/19/2025

[Dolfan in NYC]

Oh right.  NXT is having *their* biggest show of the year too.  See who loses and shows up on Raw or Smackdown next week! 

Live from Las Vegas/Paradise, NV, it's an Edward James Olmos movie!  

THE CARD~

TRIPLE THREAT MATCH FOR THE NXT CHAMPIONSHIP - Oba Femi (c) vs. Trick Williams vs. Je'Von Evans

FATAL 4 WAY MATCH FOR THE NXT WOMEN'S CHAMPIONSHIP - Stephanie Vaquer (c) vs. Giulia vs. Jordynne Grace vs. Jaida Parker

FOR THE MEN'S NORTH AMERICAN CHAMPIONSHIP - Ricky Saints (c) vs.  Ethan Page

FOR THE TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP - Nathan Frazier & Axiom (c) vs. Hank & Tank (Walker / Ledger)

LADDER MATCH FOR THE VACANT WOMEN'S NORTH AMERICAN CHAMPIONSHIP - Zaria vs. Kelani Jordan vs. Sol Ruca vs. Izzi Dame vs. Lola Vice vs. Thea Hale

†FATAL 4 WAY MATCH FOR THE #1 CONTENDERSHIP TO THE WWE WOMEN'S TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP - Meta-Four (Jackson / Legend) vs. Fatal Influence (Henley, Jayne, or Nyx) vs. Gigi Dolin & Tatum Paxley vs. Cora Jade & Roxanne Perez

 

--

† - Pre-show match

 

[Cliff Hanger]

I did not expect to be more excited for the New Texas PW Vegas show than I am SAD, but here we are. Fraxiom will have a banger with any of the teams in tomorrow's gauntlet, but there's no one there they haven't beaten. Page is the most obvious opponent for Saints, and that should be great. I am having a real hard time getting invested in the 3 all-against-all matches, which sucks. I hope one of the 2 unannounced women wins the NA title.

[Eivion]

I'm sure I will enjoy the show, but I hate how they muddied the water with the multi-person matches. Je'Von was not needed. Vaquer should have just been defending against Jordynne or Giulia. 

[Bustronaut]

Evans and Parker are both to give the dominant champ an opportunity to lose the title without actually getting pinned.

[Dolfan in NYC]

8 hours ago, Bustronaut said:

Evans and Parker are both to give the dominant champ an opportunity to lose the title without actually getting pinned.

That's actually funny you say that, because I think Evans is probably a better choice to win the Men's match since both Trick and Oba are essentially ready to move up.

 

Anyway, the card is set and looks pretty solid.

[Cliff Hanger]

I was really rooting for Lola to win the belt Sat, but it seems pretty obvious that Thea will be going over, and I'm okay with that. 

[Hail Sabin]

I thought Cora Jade would get the last spot & win, but Thea was a nice surprise.  I think Thea & Lola are the most likely to win followed by Sol/Zaria then Izzi with Kelani being the least likely. 

[Cliff Hanger]

11 hours ago, Hail Sabin said:

I thought Cora Jade would get the last spot & win, but Thea was a nice surprise.  I think Thea & Lola are the most likely to win followed by Sol/Zaria then Izzi with Kelani being the least likely. 

Sol just beat Candace for the Speed belt, so I think her chances are way below Lola, Thea or Zaria

[Eivion]

I think Thea has the strongest chance. She has been ready to hold a belt for a good year or two now. Feels like Lola needs more time. I think they want to go further with ZaRuca before giving either a proper singles run.

[Cliff Hanger]

1 hour ago, Eivion said:

I think Thea has the strongest chance. She has been ready to hold a belt for a good year or two now. Feels like Lola needs more time. I think they want to go further with ZaRuca before giving either a proper singles run.

See, I feel like Vice has been ready since before the women's NA belt existed, but so has Hail. Either one would make me happy. Izzi absolutely should not win right now; i think it'd be funny for Kelani to win the belt in a 6-woman ladder match again and lose in her furst 1 v 1 defense but that's just my own amusement and not remotely a good business plan. Vice, Hail and Zaria are all about equally valid picks, but Hail as the returning heroine who's been on the shelf for 9 months is likely the most commercial choice.

[Eivion]

5 minutes ago, Cliff Hanger said:

See, I feel like Vice has been ready since before the women's NA belt existed

I disagree. Vice was fairly middle of the road ring wise compared to other women in the division when the title was established. She has improved since then, but she is still noticeably behind the other women in this match aside from Izzi.

[Ramo2653]

I really liked the show! I thought the multi man main title matches would be kinda blah but they were super fun. I bit on like 2 of those Je'von covers too.

I have bowling tonight so I won't be able to see the first night of WM so I'll have to catch up in the morning.

[hammerva]

I am not sure if Roxanne turning on Cora is going to work.  Roxanne is doing very well as an unlikable heel  but I am not sure you can bring Cora back as a likeable person after the last 2 years.  Going to be interesting 

[Iron Moose]

9 minutes ago, hammerva said:

I am not sure if Roxanne turning on Cora is going to work.  Roxanne is doing very well as an unlikable heel  but I am not sure you can bring Cora back as a likeable person after the last 2 years.  Going to be interesting 

They ran a post-show bit of Roxanne harassing the winner of the Women's Championship match. Those two face off on Tuesday.

(I don't think it's 'Roxanne turning against Cora' as 'Roxanne is crashing out and Cora puts her out of her misery'. )

Edited April 19 by Iron Moose

[HumanChessgame]

I watched on a delay so I could skip around to what actually interested me and thought the tag title match was the best part of the show. While the multiperson matches weren't bad, I thought it was less interesting than any one on one matchups might have been.

[Eivion]

Cora/Roxanne vs. Lash/Jakara vs. Gigi/Tatum vs. Fallon/Jacy was fun. Was nice to see the teams getting to show off a bit and they generally worked well  together. Only thing I didn't care for was the Roxanne/Cora elimination. Roxanne ditching Cora there didn't feel right and came off as random opposed to a proper heel move.

Ricky/Page was mostly good though it did feel like Saints could have sold his back a bit more.

Hank & Tank vs. Fraxiom built into a pretty damn good match. Thought the finishing stretch was particularly well done and created some fantastic drama with the crowd.

Sol vs. Zaria vs. Kelani vs. Lola vs. Izzi vs. Thea was nice. Thought the action delivered here with everyone getting in impressive moments and another good finishing stretch playing off the ZaRuca partnership. So damn happy to see Sol as champ. I was not expecting it with the ZaRuca team, but it is well deserved. 

DarkState vs. The D'Angelo Family was pretty good. Osiris is so much dam better than James and Lennox as a hot headed wildcard works so much damn better than the bookworm bs he was doing before. The Stacks/Tony drama finally coming to a head was well done as well. Only complaint is that this felt like too big a show to be having DarkState's second match on. The larger audience still sees them as unknowns and aren't full sure how to react to them.

Vaquer vs. Giulia vs. Jordynne vs. Jaida was the stand good multi-person match.

Oba vs. Trick vs. Je'Von built into something pretty damn good with Evans having believable close moments and Trick showing a while new side of himself ring wise.

Good wrestling made for a good show as expected. Happy to see Hank/Tank and Sol as champs finally. Will be fun to see what comes next with NXT.

[stuntmanc]

What a show, completely outclassed and outshined WM Night 1

[The Natural]

3 minutes ago, stuntmanc said:

What a show, completely outclassed and outshined WM Night 1

Worth watching from top to bottom then? I was going to ask for match recommendations. Usually the NXT TakeOver before WrestleMania tends to be better than the latter.

[Iron Moose]

21 minutes ago, The Natural said:

Worth watching from top to bottom then? I was going to ask for match recommendations. Usually the NXT TakeOver before WrestleMania tends to be better than the latter.

Unless you really like anyone in them I feel like you can safely skip the opener and the Dark State tag, everything else was unambiguously worth it.

[The Natural]

3 minutes ago, Iron Moose said:

Unless you really like anyone in them I feel like you can safely skip the opener and the Dark State tag, everything else was unambiguously worth it.

Thank you.

[stuntmanc]

2 hours ago, Iron Moose said:

Unless you really like anyone in them I feel like you can safely skip the opener and the Dark State tag, everything else was unambiguously worth it.

I agree with this, though there are some cool spots in the Saints/Page match.  I loosely paid attention during the Dark State match, so i can't comment fully on it.

I loved the womens 6 way ladder match.  I was shocked Sol took it, i honestly expected Thea to pull it out.

I think the commentary said it was the first time that the women outnumbered the men on an NXT show?  i might be wrong though.

[Eivion]

4 hours ago, The Natural said:

Worth watching from top to bottom then? I was going to ask for match recommendations. Usually the NXT TakeOver before WrestleMania tends to be better than the latter.

Everything on the main show is worth a catch. That said, the main event and tag titles match were the standouts to me.