A unique Women’s Tag Team title match is set for next week’s WWE NXT.
It was announced on Tuesday that Katana Chance and Kayden Carter will defend the titles against Alba Fyre in a 2-on-1 match. After Isla Dawn cost Fyre a match against Sol Ruca, she was about to attack the referee with a baseball bat backstage when the champions came in to stop her. Instead of calming her down, however, the champions ended up getting challenged to a match by Fyre. The announcers later explained that Fyre had refused to find a tag team partner for the match.
Elsewhere, Tiffany Stratton will face Indi Hartwell after a vignette was shown of Hartwell taking over Stratton’s dressing room. Elektra Lopez will also be in action, taking on Wendy Choo.
Segments announced for next week include a Thea Hail award ceremony after she picked up a win over Valentina Feroz on Tuesday’s show. Lopez had come out prior to the finish of the match and handed Feroz a pair of brass knuckles. Feroz refused to use the weapon, but the distraction ultimately cost her the match.
A Vengeance Day summit between new Women’s Champion Roxanne Perez, Gigi Dolin, and Jacy Jayne will also take place. Perez, along with Lyra Valkaria, defeated Toxic Attraction on Tuesday’s show.
The new lineup for next week’s NXT:
NXT Women’s Tag Team titles: Katana Chance and Kayden Carter (c) vs. Alba Fyre
Cole and O’Reilly’s match at TakeOver is being called “The Undisputed Finale.” It will be a two-out-of-three falls match, with each fall having a different stipulation. The first fall will be a traditional wrestling match, the second fall will be a street fight, and the third fall will be a steel cage match.
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WWE has announced a couple of additions to the lineup for tonight’s episode of NXT.
Indi Hartwell & Dexter Lumis will team together for the first time as they face Jessi Kamea & Robert Stone in a mixed tag team match. There will also be an interview segment where NXT Women’s Champion Raquel Gonzalez and Dakota Kai will “issue their last words to one another” before their title match at TakeOver 36 this Sunday.
Lumis lost a Love Her or Lose Her match to Johnny Gargano on NXT two weeks ago, but Lumis and Hartwell still got together after the match. Last week’s NXT featured an angle where they went on their first date.
WWE uploaded a post-show video last week where Kamea, Stone, and Franky Monet watched Hartwell and Lumis’ date. Monet called the date pathetic. Kamea said she would mess up Hartwell if she ever had a shot at her, and Stone claimed that he’d probably be able to take out Lumis in under a minute.
Tonight’s NXT is the go-home show for TakeOver 36. It’s also being billed as the “Title Tuesday” edition of the show, with the NXT Cruiserweight Championship and NXT Tag Team titles both on the line tonight.
Here’s the updated lineup for tonight’s episode:
NXT Cruiserweight Champion Kushida defends against Roderick Strong
NXT Tag Team Champions MSK defend against Imperium’s Marcel Barthel & Fabian Aichner
NXT Breakout Tournament semifinal match: Duke Hudson vs. Carmelo Hayes
Face-to-face segment with NXT Champion Karrion Kross and Samoa Joe
Mixed tag team match: Indi Hartwell & Dexter Lumis vs. Jessi Kamea & Robert Stone
Interview with NXT Women’s Champion Raquel Gonzalez and Dakota Kai
A preview to WrestleMania leads off the current issue of the Wrestling Observer. We look at each match, thoughts on the match, who are the gambling oddsmaker favorites, chart ticket demand with Mania and the next two UFC PPV shows, rules in play, and non-WrestleMania ticket demand.
Also in this issue:
End of the Wednesday night war with the final standings, cover the two Takeover shows, look at television vs. streaming viewership, Canadian numbers, final stands in shows and quarters, and where AEW and NXT go from here.
Takeover with match-by-match coverage with star ratings and other notes from the shows.
Vince McMahon’s decision to put the Chris Jericho interview on Peacock right after the second day of WrestleMania, why the timing works, how Tony Khan reacted, the good, the bad, the political, a preview of something talked about and how this does show a change in WWE policy.
The death of Jack Veneno, a look at his four world title matches with Ric Flair, Dominican wrestling, the story about the world title change that wasn’t approved by the NWA board, as well as the movies on his life and career that have been produced. We look at the level of fame he had in the Dominican Republic and outside the Dominican Republic.
A feature on the direction of AEW, where the viewership declines are and aren’t, reasons, and changes in AEW television over the past year as well as a look at different stars and how much time they are getting.
Nick Khan talking the return of two of WWE’s best known women stars, A.J. Styles’ idea for this year’s Mania that didn’t happen, Roman Reigns talks a match with The Rock, looking at the popularity of all the major promotions and who is gaining and falling, WWE gets rid of longtime announcing team, The Hurt Business breakup, Paul Levesque talks Undertaker’s comments on the modern generation, how pro wrestling did compared to televised sports this past week, Seth Rollins talks fans at TV, A&E wrestling schedule, and WWE market value.
Will Ospreay’s win of the IWGP title, the history of U.K. wrestlers challenging for New Japan’s world title, business updates including bad news for New Japan going into two stadium shows, why the title changed, other angles, all the upcoming streaming shows and major shows over the next month and some good business news as well.
Sakura Genesis, with match-by-match coverage and star ratings.
WWE Hall of Fame ceremonies, go through the candidates, note speeches, the major gaffe in one of the inductions and a look back at a pioneer wrestling family that is never talked about.
U.S. Olympic wrestling trials, the major confrontations, the stars of the team, plus stars of the future to watch out for.
Stardom PPV show.
More into detail on ratings than any other source, we have how every segment on NXT and AEW did as well as how it did with different age groups, genders and more, plus a look at all other wrestling shows of the past week.
Results of the major pro wrestling events of the past week.
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TUESDAY NEWS UPDATE
WWE
A match between Mercedes Martinez and Jessi Kamea has been added to tonight’s episode of NXT.
It was announced Monday afternoon that a new podcast featuring Jeff Jarrett called “My World with Jeff Jarrett” will launch on May 4. Conrad Thompson will host the show and will be available on adfreeshows.com.
WWE.com posted an article on Matt and Jeff Hardy’s father, Gilbert, passing away on April 6.
The website also posted an article on Kelly Kelly (Barbara Blank) marrying Joe Coba this past weekend.
Belair also spoke to TMZ Sports on winning the title. “It’s so important,” she told them. “I always say representation is not a request. Representation is a requirement and WWE is a perfect example of how people should follow by propelling women and representing women and treating women in sports and in the world. It’s an amazing moment to stand in the ring with Sasha Banks — it was the first time two African-American women have had a title match at ‘WrestleMania’ and [it was the] main event.”
The Advertiser has an article on Rhea Ripley winning the Raw Women’s Championship at WrestleMania.
Rhea commented on her title win in an interview with TVInsider, bringing up one congratulatory message after winning the title: “One of the big ones was talking to Vince McMahon afterward, hearing him say “well done” and that I did great. It was so surreal. It’s a dream, and I’m living it. To have the big bossman say well done was pretty insane to me.”
SVG has an article on WWE welcoming fans back at WrestleMania. “The fans’ being there had a huge impact on everyone — from the talent to everybody in the truck,” SVP of event technical operations Duncan Leslie told SVG. “It was so gratifying to see how excited our fans were, because we do everything we can to give them the best show on earth.”
In an interview with TMZ Sports, The Miz praised Bad Bunny’s performance at WrestleMania. “Not only did he earn my respect, I think he earned the WWE Universe’s respect,” he said. “I think he earned backstage’s respect. I think he earned everybody’s respect in what some are calling ‘The Best Celebrity Match at WrestleMania in History!'”
The company has trademarked the term “Then Now Forever Together”, a new phrase seen in their new signature opening.
Other Wrestling
CM Punk didn’t dismiss the idea of returning to wrestling in an interview with Uproxx, but also said that it wasn’t his world anymore. “I think the right combination could maybe be figured out, but it’s also not for me to figure out,” he said. “It’s not my world anymore. I’m certainly not Hulk Hogan, where I’m going to show up somewhere and like, ‘no, this is how it’s going to be.’ The wrestling world doesn’t necessarily need CM Punk and that’s absolutely fine. Everyone seems to be doing great. I don’t know, it’s like flavors of ice cream. I walk into an ice cream shop one time and I’m like, ‘Oh, that seems like a good flavor. Give me two scoops of that.’ It’s just gotta be the right time, right place, right situation.”
NWA PowerrrSurge, a new show that will air on FiteTV starting tonight, will feature Mike Parrow and a spotlight match with Jerimiah Plunkett vs. Mims. This will be part of the NWA subscription package on Fite TV.
WWE has announced a change to tonight’s NXT Women’s Tag Team title match.
NXT Women’s Tag Team Champions Shotzi Blackheart & Ember Moon will now defend their titles against Aliyah & Mercedes Martinez on tonight’s show. It was originally announced that Blackheart & Moon would be facing The Robert Stone Brand’s Aliyah & Jessi Kamea.
In a video that WWE uploaded this afternoon, Robert Stone said Kamea was injured while training for tonight’s match. Stone and Aliyah approached Martinez and offered her the “life-changing opportunity” to challenge for the NXT Women’s Tag Team titles with Aliyah tonight. When Martinez saw how much money Stone was offering her, she told Stone that would only be half of her pay. Martinez said she expects to be paid the other half after tonight’s match. When Martinez left, Stone said he doesn’t have any more money.
Martinez was formerly part of The Robert Stone Brand prior to her call-up to the main roster last year. She was written out of the group by being served with a restraining order from Stone after losing a steel cage match to Rhea Ripley last September. After briefly being part of RETRIBUTION on the main roster, Martinez returned to NXT in December.
This will be Blackheart & Moon’s first NXT Women’s Tag Team title defense. The titles were introduced two weeks ago and awarded to women’s Dusty Classic winners Raquel Gonzalez & Dakota Kai, but Gonzalez & Kai lost the titles to Blackheart & Moon that same night.
The Robert Stone Brand had interrupted an interview with Blackheart & Moon on last week’s NXT and challenged them to a Women’s Tag Team title match.
Here’s the updated lineup for tonight’s NXT:
NXT Women’s Tag Team Champions Shotzi Blackheart & Ember Moon defend against Aliyah & Jessi Kamea
NXT Women’s Champion Io Shirai & Zoey Stark vs. Raquel Gonzalez & Dakota Kai
Karrion Kross vs. Oney Lorcan
NXT Cruiserweight Champion Jordan Devlin vs. Kushida in a non-title match
NXT United Kingdom Champion WALTER vs. Drake Maverick in a non-title match
Bronson Reed vs. LA Knight
NXT general manager William Regal will address Adam Cole and Kyle O’Reilly
Regal will also give an update on the situation with the vacant NXT Tag Team titles
Shayna Baszler squashed Jessi Kamea in a match that marked both of their Main Event debuts while Riddick Moss grabbed a win in a good match against Humberto Carrillo.
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Shayna Baszler defeated Jessi Kamea (5:09)
Over the last few months, Main Event has been a platform for NXT talent to try out against main roster talent, making for a superior show that has been infinitely more watchable. Kamea was the latest such debutant this week, facing off against Baszler whose very presence on this show will certainly raise a few eyebrows.
Kamea was a college volleyball player at Concordia University in Texas and joined the NXT roster back in 2017. She is tall, lean, and strong and at 31, it’s time for her to get a chance to prove herself at the top level.
However, as far as debuts go, this wasn’t much of one. Baszler worked over her left arm for the whole match and Kamea didn’t really get a chance to shine or show off what she could do.
But, this was Baszler’s Main Event debut as well and was there to make her look strong and dominant. After lots of mat work, she hit Kamea with a modified cutter and a knee strike before locking in the Kirifuda Clutch to claim an easy submission victory.
Riddick Moss defeated Humberto Carrillo (6:21)
It has been a few months since Moss appeared on Main Event. In February and through March, he had a 24/7 Championship run before he relinquished the title to R-Truth. He was last seen on this show defeating Cedric Alexander back in January.
Carrillo has been nothing short of impressive since he joined the main roster a year ago. A natural in the ring and with time on his side and if used right, he has a big future.
Moss has real tone and strength in his upper body and carries himself like a big man, but can be explosive and quick too. He and Carrillo were near perfect opponents for each other, having only really worked together a handful of times over the last couple of years.
After Carrillo came off the top rope with a moonsault where Moss got his legs up, Moss absolutely annihilated him with a charge to the corner and hit him with a cool looking, modified neckbreaker for his first win since March.
Final Thoughts:
This was an intriguing show, but not a great one. Never say never, but Baszler surely won’t be a Main Event regular. Kamea would benefit from working with the likes of Natalya as having her as fodder for Baszler doesn’t do anyone much good. Given more time, Moss and Carrillo could work a decent program together.
