Tag: cameron grimes

The Great American Bash tradition lives on as the classic WCW/Jim Crockett Promotions event returns to NXT for the third straight year.

Four title matches are set for tonight’s special Great American Bash edition of NXT. That includes the NXT Championship, with Bron Breakker defending his title against Cameron Grimes in tonight’s main event.

The NXT North American Championship, NXT Women’s Tag Team titles, and NXT Tag Team titles will also be on the line. Carmelo Hayes defends his North American title against Grayson Waller, Roxanne Perez & Cora Jade challenge Toxic Attraction for the Women’s Tag Team titles, and The Creed Brothers will face off with their Diamond Mine stablemates Roderick Strong & Damon Kemp with the NXT Tag Team titles at stake.

Plus, Wendy Choo vs. Tiffany Stratton and Wes Lee vs. Trick Williams round out the card for tonight.

Our live coverage begins at 8 p.m. Eastern time.

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The show opens with a vignette where some of the NXT roster have a poolside barbeque to celebrate The Great American Bash, and maybe also American Independence Day. There is a cannonball into a pool, and the BBQ grill also explodes.

Vibes from the start of the show try to convey this is a supercard, but the setting for the card is the same soundstage seen every week. The graphics are different than usual, with a patriotic twist. Great production aside, the setting is same old hat. The opening bout at least felt like a special moment, especially with a title change. 

Roxanne Perez & Cora Jade defeat Toxic Attraction (Gigi Dolan & Jacy Jayne with Mandy Rose) to win the NXT Women’s Tag Team Championship

Perez pins Jade after a code red, and the challengers win the tag titles. 

Babyfaces shine early on. Given plenty of time, the match goes through a commercial break. Just before the show cuts to commercials, the defending champions use an old heel trick on an inept referee, and they to cut off Perez.

Heat on Perez. Double high kick, leading to a double down. Hot tag to Jade, and she runs wild. Near fall for Jade. Perez & Jade, who wore matching gear, use double team moves for more near falls.

NWO spot where NXT Women’s Champion Mandy Rose pulls the ref out of the ring on a near fall. Somehow there is no disqualification despite blatant outside interference. The match continues, but the ref does at least eject Rose from ringside.

Yet another near fall for the challengers. They go on to trade near falls with Dolan & Jayne. The heels attempt a double team on Perez, but Jade awkwardly jumps in to make a save. 

Perez executes Pop Rocks (code red) on Dolan, and Perez pins Dolan for a three count. And new…

Tony D’Angelo is addressing the former Legado del Fantasma members. Of course, they are now in D’Angelo’s “family.” D’Angelo show a picture of Santos Escobar on his phone, where Escobar is in a hospital. The implication is D’Angelo put him there for the prank from last week.

D’Angelo is upset the others contributions to the family, except for Elektra Lopez. She has apparently increased business in the ports. D’Angelo gives Joaquin Wilde and Cruz Del Toro an ultimatum. They have until next week to prove their loyalty to the family. All the makings of a potential RICO investigation. 

Pretty Deadly cut a promo on Briggs & Jensen. The former champs want their titles back, alluding to Briggs & Jensen having won the NXT UK Tag Team Championship.

Trick Williams (with Carmelo Hayes) defeats Wes Lee

Williams cheats to pin Lee, after Williams blinds Lee with an unknown liquid. Good match while it lasted, but it was rather short. Williams wore gear and a robe as a tribute to Muhammad Ali. 

Fast paced at first with Lee in charge. Eventually, Williams slows the pace as he briefly works over Lee. Pace soon quickens again as Lee fires up.

Williams retrieves a water bottle from Hayes, who causes a distraction. With the referee distracted, Williams pours liquid from the bottle all over his hands. Williams then darts back into the ring with his wet hands.

Rubbing his wet hands in Lee’s face, Williams blinds Lee with an unknown substance. A blinded Lee falls prey to a spinning high kick. Williams then covers Lee for a pinfall.

Tiffany Stratton is backstage in the makeup chair when she is jumped by Wendy Choo. A brawl erupts between the two as the show cuts to a split-screen commercial break.

A wacky brawl ensues that would have fit well on the WCW Backstage Assault video game. They fight their way onto the soundstage, heading towards the ring. They are in the ring and their match is joined in progress as the show returns from the commercial break. 

Tiffany Stratton defeats Wendy Choo

Stratton pins Choo to win clean. Stratton targets Choo’s injured hand as part of the story in the match. 

Stratton begins to work over Choo, and Stratton targets the hand. Stratton rips the fake nails off the fingers of Choo. Still selling her hand, Choo makes a comeback.

Wicked uranage by Choo for a near fall. Stratton targets the injured hand to escape a sleeper hold, but Choo then gives her an even more wicked-looking brainbuster for another near fall.

Stratton stomps on the injured hand, and Stratton follows up with a shotgun dropkick in a corner. Stratton for the finish springboards into a corkscrew splash. Stratton then scores a three count.

McKenzie Mitchell interviews the new NXT Tag Team Champions — Roxanne Perez & Cora Jade. Perez announces that next week she is cashing in her Breakout contract for a title match against NXT Women’s Champion Mandy Rose. I thought she used that contract for the title match tonight, but apparently not. Rose defends against Perez next Tuesday on NXT.

Another challenge for next week

Apollo Crews is headed to the ring for a monologue promo. 

Crew basically says his children watched him on the main roster, and they thought his character was not his true persona. They are now excited to watch him on NXT.

Crews contemplates out loud who he should face in a match as runs down a list of names. He is soon interrupted by Giovanni Vinci. 

Vinci calls out Crews for leaving him off the list of names. Vinci says he is the one guy in NXT that can outperform Crews. Immediately challenging Vinci, Crews dares Vinci to get in the ring. Vinci scoffs, saying he is not dressed to wrestle. Instead, the match is made for next Tuesday on NXT.

Ivy Nile in a backstage skit comes to Tatum Paxley’s aid when she gets into a shoving match with Kayden Carter & Katana Chance. Nile is upset with Paxley, and she orders her to be at the dojo in the morning.

Bron Breakker is in the trainer’s room, and he declines tape for his injured shoulder.

Grayson Waller and Carmelo Hayes separately cut promos on each other before their match.

NXT North American Champion Carmelo Hayes (with Trick Williams) defeats Grayson Waller to retain the title

Hayes pins Waller to retain his title in what is the best on the show so far.

Hayes gets pyro and a special introduction by Williams for his entrance.

Hayes shines early on, until he is cut off. Waller with a baseball slide into a lariat, and he seemingly decapitates Hayes before the show cuts to a commercial break. Waller works over Hayes during the break, and Waller continues doing so as the show returns from commercials.

Hayes fights back after the break, and he plants Waller with a La Mistica tilt-a-whirl. Trading submission holds, Waller goes for a triangle. 

Double down, and the crowd starts to chant. Fighting spirit exchange as a slugfest develops. Back-and-forth action, and another near fall. Slight botch on the execution of a pop-up cutter, but they quickly recover. The cutter plays into the story of the match.

Hayes is down selling when Williams gets in Waller’s face. Out of nowhere, Wes Lee jumps the barricade and attacks Williams. Waller goes for his roll through into a pop-up cutter, but Hayes counters with a codebreaker.

Off the top rope, Hayes leaps into a guillotine legdrop from the heavens. Hayes then covers Waller to retain the title via pinfall. 

A cocky Xyon Quinn proclaims himself “the future of NXT.”

NXT Women’s Champion Mandy Rose cuts a promo on Roxanne Perez ahead of their title match next week.

Andre Chase is teaching class at Chase University. Bodhi Hayward cannot stay awake, and he blames his roommate. Thea Hail. Chase then cuts an unhinged promo on a student for asking a question. Hail suggest the class go to London, so Chase announces the class is going to England. Field trip upcoming. 

NXT Tag Team Champions The Creed Brothers (Julius & Brutus Creed) defeat Roderick Strong & Damon Kemp to retain the titles 

Julius Creed pins Kemp to win clean, as the Creed retain their titles.

Hard hitting action during the match. At one point, Kemp is sent outside the ring. Strong is upset with him, and he rolls Kemp right back into the ring. Kemp is immediately thrown out on the other side of the ring.

A flying Brutus leaps off the top and makes himself into a human wrecking ball that takes out Kemp. The show then cuts to a commercial break. Kemp recovers by the time the show returns from the break.

The challengers attempt to single out Julius, and they try working him over. Brutus is finally able to tag in, but Strong able to counter with a dosey doe. Strong rocks Brutus with a pair of jumping knee strikes.

Brutus is worked over by the challengers. Hot tag to Julius, and he cleans house on Strong. Julius is a house of fire, and he pummels Strong. Kemp tags in, and he fares no better against Julius.

Julius plants Kemp with a slam, and then Julius follows with a sliding lariat. Julius then covers Kemp for a pinfall.

The Creeds help Kemp to his feet in a show of sportsmanship after the match. Nonetheless, tension still remains in Diamond Mine as Strong glares at them. He is not happy.

A vignette teases a new character named Axiom. His gimmick is he is really good at mathematics.

Mr. Stone, speaking on behalf of Von Wagner, is mad that Wagner is not booked on the card. Solo Sikoa interrupts, and he cuts a promo on Wagner. Responding to Sikoa, Wagner speaks for himself in saying they should fight right now. Referee separate them.

Matches made official for next Tuesday on NXT: 

• Mandy Rose defends her NXT Women’s Championship against Roxanne Perez
• Apollo Crews vs. Giovanni Vinci

NXT Champion Bron Breakker defeats Cameron Grimes to retain the title

Breakker pins Grimes after fighting through a storyline injury. Maybe not the best match on the show, but this was still really good. Some viewers might even argue it is the best bout on the show. 

Shades of grey aspect to the story, as plays subtle heel against the babyface champion. Breakker favors the injured shoulder throughout the match, which plays off the cliffhanger ending to last week’s episode.  Grimes targets the shoulder at times during the bout.

The match goes through a split-screen commercial break, and the show heads into the break with Breakker standing tall. Grimes continues to target the injury, and he works the arm during the break.

As the show returns from the break, Breakker reverses a vertical suplex. The champ is back in control, but not for long. Grimes kicks Breakker in his injured shoulder, and Grimes sails off the apron into a somersault senton.

Grimes is in control until Breakker answers back with an Arn Anderson spinebuster. Flurry of shoulder tackles while Grimes bumps and feeds into Breakker. 

Great false finish when Grimes executes his running one-man Spanish Fly, and Grimes gets a close near fall. Breakker kicks out at two and a half. They go on to trade near falls after Breakker uses a Super Frankensteiner. 

Grimes does a tilt-a-whirl and transitions into applying an octopus hold. Breakker powers out, only for Grimes to deliver a Cave In. Breakker kicks out for a one last near fall.

For the finish, Grimes jumps off the middle rope, and Breakker spears him in mid-air. Breakker then scores a pinfall on Grimes to retain the title.

JD McDonagh, who was featured in a vignette before the title match, runs in for post-match attack. McDonagh jumps Breakker, and he puts Breakker through a table set up on the stage. McDonagh stands over a prone Breakker for a show-closing cliffhanger.