Tag: Stand & Deliver

NXT gets in on the WrestleMania weekend action as Stand & Deliver 2024 takes place from the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia today.

In the main event, Trick Williams and Carmelo Hayes will clash in a grudge match. The former friends have been at war since Hayes betrayed Williams at NXT Vengeance Day. Williams is out for revenge this afternoon.

Four title matches are also part of the Stand & Deliver card:

• Ilja Dragunov vs. Tony D’Angelo for the NXT Championship
• Lyra Valkyria vs. Roxanne Perez for the NXT Women’s Championship
• Oba Femi vs. Dijak vs. Josh Briggs for the NXT North American Championship
• Bron Breakker & Baron Corbin vs. Axiom & Nathan Frazer for the NXT Tag Team titles

Plus, the main card will see Thea Hail, Kelani Jordan & Fallon Henley take on Jacy Jayne, Kiana James & Izzi Dame. A match between Shawn Spears and Joe Gacy has been announced for the pre-show.

The pre-show streams live starting at 11 a.m. Eastern time. The main card then begins on Peacock/WWE Network at noon.

COUNTDOWN SHOW

After the WWE signature open, we were welcomed to the Kickoff by hosts Megan Morant, Sam Roberts, and Ariana Grace. The hosts began by talking about NXT Stand & Deliver’s main event, Carmelo Hayes versus Trick Williams. We got Earlier Today footage of Hayes & Williams arriving before they ran down the card for today’s show. We then got a video package previewing NXT Women’s Champion Lyra Valkyria versus Roxanne Perez.

Earlier Today footage of Valkyria and Perez arriving at the Wells Fargo Center was shown before we returned to the hosts talking about the NXT Women’s Championship Match. Ariana Grace thanked the fans for giving her the title of “Miss Stand & Deliver”. The hosts switched gears to discuss the NXT Tag Team Championship match between champions Bron Breakker & Baron Corbin versus Axiom & Nathan Frazer.

The hosts moved on to discuss the North American Championship triple threat match featuring Oba Femi defending against Josh Briggs and Dijak, followed by a Tale of the Tape graphic sizing up the three competitors. 

We saw Shawn Spears getting ready backstage for his match with Joe Gacy at the Kickoff before they showed a video package of Bron Breakker and Baron Corbin taking in a Philly cheese steak at Geno’s Steaks.

After a promo hyping Becky Lynch versus Rhea Ripley at WrestleMania XL, we went backstage to NXT General Manager Ava instructing the referee for Carmelo Hayes versus Trick Williams that there must be a winner for that main event match. The hosts then threw to a video package for NXT Champion Ilja Dragunov versus Tony D’Angelo.

They showed video last night of Tony D’Angelo reflecting on his NXT Championship match with his Family. D’Angelo said he was ready to go through hell to get the NXT Championship. The camera revealed that D’Angelo was talking to the iconic Rocky Balboa statue. We returned to the hosts, with Ridge Holland taking over for Ariana Grace. 

The hosts then discussed the big six-woman tag match between Thea Hail, Fallon Henley, and Kelani Jordan versus Jacy Jayne, Kiana James, and Izzi Dame. We got a recap of the fallout between Hail and Jayne last month that led to this match. We saw a shot of Joe Gacy backstage preparing for his match with Shawn Spears.

After a video of Pretty Deadly sizing up the Tag Team Championship Ladder Match at WrestleMania XL, the hosts introduced the commentary team of Vic Joseph, Booker T, and Wade Barrett.

Joe Gacy defeated Shawn Spears

As Gacy was making his entrance, Ridge Holland hit him with a steel chair before walking off.

Once Gacy entered the ring, the match was under way, quickly taking the advantage. Spears hit a top rope belly to belly suplex to regain control of the match. Spears worked on the back of Gacy for a bit before we got a chop exchange between the two men.

Spears held Gacy in a Boston Crab in the middle of the ring, but Gacy fought out of it by reaching the ropes. The two fought on the top turnbuckle, with Gacy winning out. Flying crossbody by Gacy got a two count.

Pump kick and German suplex by Gacy helped create another advantage for him. Spears intercepted an attempted suicde attempt by Gacy and then hung him by the leg on the top rope, hitting him with a boot to the face. Spears followed this with a back drop onto the apron. Elevated rope DDT by Spears got a near fall.

Spears tried for the C4, but Gacy fought out of it. An exchange of counters followed, ending with Gacy’s uranage for a close two-count. With Spears trapped on the apron, Gacy got him with a senton. Pedigree from Spears only got a two-count. 

Gacy once again fought out of the C4, then finished it off with the Upside-Down, Inside-Out clothesline, getting the pinfall win over Spears.

A nice enough opener and a good showing for both men. Ridge Holland’s pre-match attack on Gacy should provide an interesting follow up on Tuesday’s NXT.

We returned to Megan Morant and Sam Roberts, who ran down the Stand & Deliver card one more time before they wrapped things up with a video package for Carmelo Hayes versus Trick Williams.

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MAIN SHOW

The show opened with hosts Meta-Four welcoming us to the show with a opening hype video running down the Stand & Deliver card. The video featured Meta-Four acting out scenarios that corresponded with the big matches on the show.

We returned live to the Wells Fargo Center with Vic Joseph introducing himself and the commentary team, as well as the Spanish announcers calling the action.

NXT Tag Team Championship Match: Wolf Dogs (Baron Corbin & Bron Breakker) defeated Axiom & Nathan Frazer

Axiom and Frazer took out Breakker and Corbin with dives before the champs could enter the ring. Once Breakker was tossed into the ring, the match was officially started.

Corbin got tagged in, with Frazer and Axiom continuing their attack. Corbin stopped the momentum of Frazer with a hard clothesline. Frazer escaped and tagged in Axiom as the two took down Corbin with fast attacks.

Suplex by Corbin absolutely flattened Axiom as he tagged Breakker in. Breakker avoided an Axiom clothesline and hit a fierce clothesline of his own.

Both Frazer and Corbin tagged in now, with Frazer avoiding End of Days and hitting Corbin with a neckbreaker and a nice standing shooting star press for the near-fall. Corbin dropped Frazer with Deep Six before tagging Breakker in. Axiom took out Breakker with a dropkick for a two-count.

Top rope Frankensteiner by Breakker on Axiom, followed by a leg drop by Corbin. Frazer broke the pinfall up as the fans chanted “this is awesome!” 

All four men were in the ring as things started to open up. Breakker went up the top rope, but got kicked by Axiom. Avalanche Spanish Fly by Axiom, followed by a 450 splash by Frazer got a very close near-fall. 

Breakker dropped Frazer with a modified top rope back suplex as he tagged in Corbin, who ascended to the top rope and got a nice elbow drop on Frazer. 

Breakker tried to go for a spear at ringside, but Axiom pulled Frazer out of harm’s way, causing Breakker to hit the steel steps. Axiom and Frazer leapt from the commentary table to take Corbin down before tossing him in the ring.

Phoenix Splash by Frazer on Corbin, but Breakker got back in the ring to break up the pin. Chaos with all four men in the ring as Corbin got End of Days on Axiom, followed by Breakker ending the match with a vicious spear on Frazer for the victory.

One heck of an opener. The fast, frenetic style of Axiom and Frazer really meshed well with the Wolf Dogs’ hard-hitting style. It made for a really strong showcase of NXT’s tag division. The Wolf Dogs continue to be a highlight and it’s the right call to keep them as NXT Tag Champs, even with Breakker’s continued presence on SmackDown. As for Axiom and Frazer, even though they came up short, the future is most certainly bright for the duo.

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After shots of Carmelo Hayes & Trick Williams arriving, we went backstage to Stand & Deliver hosts Meta-Four wearing Dallas Cowboys jerseys. They were standing outside Oba Femi’s locker room to try and get a word with the North American Champion. Femi barged past the door, knocking down Oro Mensah in the process.

As we went back to the commentators, they showed a guy in a Knuckles the Echidna costume fistbumping with Vic Joseph, as this next match is sponsored by the new Knuckles show on Paramount+.

NXT North American Championship: Oba Femi defeated Josh Briggs and Dijak

Femi countered simultaneous kicks by Dijak and Briggs to start us off. The two recovered and flattened Femi with stereo big boots as they began to team up against him. Once they got on the apron, Dijak superkicked Femi and tried to go for a splash, but Femi caught him. Femi slammed Dijak onto Briggs at ringside.

Femi grabbed a commentary chair and threw it at Briggs. Superkick by Dijak sends Femi seated onto the chair. Briggs grabbed Dijak from the top rope and chokeslammed him onto the seated Femi.

Inside the ring, Briggs and Femi continued to fight it out. Femi powered out of Briggs’ chokeslam attempt, but Dijak returned to help Briggs finally get the chokeslam on Femi. Near-fall. Femi once again regained control, taking both Briggs and Dijak down in the middle of the ring.

Briggs and Femi fought on the apron, as Briggs took down his foe with a back suplex on the apron. In the ring, Briggs intercepted Dijak’s attempted high-risk manuever with a big boot. Briggs and Femi’s fight on the turnbuckle got disrupted by Dijak’s superkick.

From the top rope, Briggs got Dijak with a standing clothesline, but Dijak had a foot on the ropes to breakup the count. Now all three competitors are in the ring and an exchange of blows helped keep things at a chaotic pace.

Femi is clotheslined to the outside as Dijak took down Briggs. With Femi out of the equation for now, Dijak and Briggs fought until Dijak hit a standing chokeslam. Briggs kicked out at one. Dijak escaped a chokeslam and turned it into a Canadian Destroyer.

Dijak hoisted Briggs on his shoulder and went to the top rope, but Femi intercepted him and placed Dijak on his own shoulders for a very impressive Tower of Doom.

Repeated big boots by Dijak has Femi stunned. He lifts him up for Feast Your Eyes. Dijak avoided a Briggs moonsault and threw him outside. One more Feast Your Eyes by Dijak, but Briggs pulled out the referee at the last second, to the dismay of the crowd.

Dijak leapt over the referee and crashed into Briggs with a dive. With the action at ringside, Briggs sent Femi barrelling through the barricade as Dijak hit Feast Your Eyes on Briggs. Back in the ring, Dijak hit one more Feast Your Eyes, but Femi grabbed Dijak during the pinfall attempt before lifting him up for the powerbomb onto Briggs. Femi pinned Briggs to retain the North American Championship.

A very entertaining big meaty men triple threat match that showcased all three competitors’ strengths both literally and figuratively. Dijak was the standout of the match, even in defeat, as he remains a highlight of NXT. Femi’s North American reign is a great showcase for him as his presentation as dominant giant just works for him.

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Tony D’Angelo was shown backstage with his Family before we went to Meta-Four about to interview Thea Hail and Chase U. When Noam Dar asked Hail about whether or not Jacy Jayne was ever her friend, Hail grabbed Dar and began to shout in anger.

Thea Hail, Fallon Henley, & Kelani Jordan defeated Jacy Jayne, Kiana James, & Izzi Dame (w/ Jazmyn Nyx)

Jayne, James, and Dame attacked the faces before the match started. Dame and Henley started off the match as James was then tagged in. With Hail now the legal woman, she and Jayne started to fight. Hail with the malfunction at the junction as she accidentally hit a Chase U student with a dive after Jayne got out of the way.

Dame was now back in the match as she tried to work over Hail before Hail tagged Jordan back in. Modified flatliner by Jordan on Jayne as the heel team used a distraction to regain the advantage on Jordan.

Jordan was on the back foot with Dame, James, and Jayne having control of the action right now. They frequently tagged and kept Jordan isolated in their corner. James was the legal woman at the moment as she had Jayne in the abdominal stretch. Dame tagged herself again and maintained the advantage her team had.

Jordan tried to leap from the top rope, but Dame caught her and hit a rib breaker. Jordan found an opening and tagged in Fallon Henley, who was a house of fire. Henley with a nice suplex from the middle rope, but Jayne broke up the pin. Henley and James fought on the top rope, but James won out and hit an avalanche Spanish fly for the two count.

The heel trio found the momentum as Thea Hail introduced herself into the match. Dame threw Hail to the outside, but Duke Hudson caught her. As things broke down, Jazmyn Nyx took down Jordan while the referee’s back was turned.

Back in the ring, Hail tagged herself in and had Jayne in her sights. Both women started to trade blows, with Jayne taking down Hail with a big boot. Hail recovered and pounced on Jayne with a hail of fists. Dame tagged in and tried to lift up Hail for a slam, but Hail turned it around into a Kimura Lock submission, forcing Dame to tap out.

A bit of a more slower paced match, but I found myself liking it. Hail getting the win, albeit not against Jacy Jayne helps prolong that feud to a later date. Some great potential among the six women here.

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Backstage, NXT General Manager Ava made an announcement that a new NXT Women’s North American Championship will be crowned soon.

Prior to the NXT Women’s Championship Match, they showed Giulia in the crowd, sitting next to Rossy Ogawa and William Regal.

NXT Women’s Championship: Roxanne Perez defeated Lyra Valkyria (new NXT Women’s Champion)

Valkyria and Perez locked up to kick things off for this match before the NXT Women’s Champion took control with a series of slams. Perez fought out of an early Knight-Wing attempt as things returned to a stalemate.

Perez targeted Valkyria’s injured arm with an attempted submission. Valkyria countered Perez’s hurricanrana with a cartwheel before Perez once again tried to go after the arm. 

With Perez sent out to ringside, Valkyria hit her with a dropkick before tossing her back inside the ring. Perez regained momentum by continuing the assault on Valkyria’s bad arm.

Perez stretched Valykyria’s arm, as she then followed that with a Northern Lights suplex and an armbar. Valkyria fought back with a flying crossbody, but Perez countered it into an attempted armbreaker. Valkyria escaped and threw Perez over her shoulder.

Both women take each other down with a double crossbody as the referee began his count. Valkyria began her comeback by catching Perez with a series of strikes. She tried to lift Perez up for a suplex, but couldn’t due to her injured arm. After a second attempt, she hit the fisherman suplex on Perez for a near-fall.

Valkyria tried to head to the top rope, but Perez met her at the pass as the two traded strikes. Valkyria got the better of Perez and hit a rolling sitdown powerbomb on her for the close two. Perez rolled out and stopped an attempted Valkyria dive before hitting a spiking DDT onto the Fallout Vault Boy decal on the mat.

Inside the ring, Valkyria is caught with Pop Rox by Perez, but a very close kick out by Valkyria saved this match. Incensed, Perez attacked Valkyria, causing the referee to be distracted. Tatum Paxley emerged from the crowd, but got kicked by Perez. 

Perez attempted to break Valkyria’s arm, but the NXT Women’s Champion avoided calamity. Outside the ring, Perez threw Valkyria into Paxley.

Back into the ring, Valkyria reversed Perez’s crossface into a pin attempt that only got a very close two. Valkyria headed to the top rope, but Perez avoided it and tried again for the crossface. Series of pinfall exchanges kept things interesting.

Perez countered the Knight-Wing into the Poison Rana, followed by Pop Rox. She then trapped Valkyria in the crossface. With the pain in her injured arm too much to bear, Valkyria submitted. We have a new NXT Women’s Champion.

Fantastic women’s title match with lots of tension throughout. The thread of Perez’s ruthless targeting of Valkyria’s arm and the champion trying her best to fight through it made for a good story for this match. I’m interested to see where this heel version of Roxanne Perez will go as women’s champion, though I suspect the newly-signed Giulia may be the one she’ll feud with at some point.

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NXT Championship: Ilja Dragunov defeated Tony D’Angelo (w/ The Family)

Prior to D’Angelo’s entrance, a short video in the style of the intro of The Sopranos was shown, showing the challenger’s arrival to the Wells Fargo Center.

Strikes from both men started off, but Dragunov’s strikes hurt his taped-up hand. D’Angelo grabbed Dragunov and sent him barreling through to ringside. With the action back in the ring, both men took each other down with a double clothesline. Lots of hard hits early on in this match.

Hard forearm strike by D’Angelo rattled Dragunov. The champion’s hurt hand made him unable to perform his move across the middle rope. The two traded headbutts on the top rope, causing both men to plummet to the ringside area.

Dragunov tried to chop D’Angelo, who avoided it, which caused him to hit the steel post instead. Dragunov fought through the pain and hit a rolling slam on D’Angelo. Inside the ring, Dragunov held D’Angelo in place for two German suplexes and nothing more. 

D’Angelo got crushed by a strong rolling clothesline by Dragunov, but that was only a near-fall. Dragunov removed the tape from his hurt arm. Dragunov threw D’Angelo from the top rope with a powerbomb. He tried for the H-Bomb, but D’Angelo kicked Dragunov aside.

With the ref focused on Dragunov, Stacks tried to hand D’Angelo brass knuckles, but was refused. Dragunov battered D’Angelo with repeated clubbing blows right on front of The Family at ringside. Dragunov shouted at Stacks to “do something about it”, but Stacks backed down.

D’Angelo answered with a headbutt before he floored Dragunov with some strikes of his own. The pace now quickened, both men looked to gain some sort of advantage. D’Angelo crushed Dragunov with a clothesline, followed by a German suplex for the two.

On the top rope, D’Angelo threw Dragunov with a super overhead belly-to-belly suplex. On the outside, the two stared each other down and tore apart the Spanish commentary table before they started punching each other. Dragunov got D’Angelo with the H-Bomb before setting his foe onto the commentary table. Dragunov got on the barricade and hit a diving H-Bomb on D’Angelo through the commentary table.

Dragunov threw D’Angelo back in the ring and flew through the air for a senton that only got a two-count. He tried to go to the top rope again, but his dive was intercepted into a powerbomb by D’Angelo for the near-fall.

D’Angelo caught Dragunov with a uranage, but Dragunov refused to stay down. In the end, it was the Torpedo Moscow by Dragunov, followed by the diving H-Bomb that got the three for the NXT Champion.

Post-match, D’Angelo and Dragunov showed respect to one another and shook hands.

A very solid title defense for Dragunov as he did all he can to overcome the hand injury and D’Angelo’s challenge. It was interesting to see D’Angelo repeteadly refuse to win dirty, and I wonder if that’ll lead to something down the line, especially since trying to win clean didn’t pay off for him.

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Backstage, we saw Lyra Valkyria recovering from her injuries as Tatum Paxley tried to comfort her. Valkyria stormed off, angrily telling Paxley that this wasn’t the time.

A hype video for Je’von Evans was shown, ahead of his match on this Tuesday’s NXT.

In the ring, Meta-Four talked about how the attendance of 16,545 at Wells Fargo Center broke the all-time NXT event attendance record.

Trick Williams defeated Carmelo Hayes

Williams got an amazing reaction from the crowd, who chanted “whoop that Trick” as loud as they could.

Williams and Hayes locked horns to start off, as Hayes taunted Williams for a bit. He got a punch to the face for his troubles, with the ation having spilled out to ringside. Williams clothesline Hayes over the barricade as he continued to batter him in the crowd area.

Hayes got the advantage by tossing him into the covered up hockey boards as he then talked smack to Williams’ family at ringside. Williams threw Hayes back into the ringside area.

In the ring, Hayes flattened Williams with a springboard clothesline. With Williams down, Hayes tried to remove the turnbuckle padding, but he was stopped by a splash from Williams.

Hayes sent Williams ribs first into the steel turnbuckle he exposed, now having a target he could go after. Stalemate between Hayes and Williams as the two got each other with simultaneous dropkicks. Now both men began to exchange strikes with one another as they then squared up. Williams fired himself up with repeated side kicks, but Hayes snatched momentum back briefly.

Nothin’ But Net intercepted as Williams took him down with a nice spinning kick for the near-fall.

Back at ringside, Williams is left stunned by a kick, as Hayes followed that with a splash from the apron onto his opponent. Hayes threw Williams into the ring and got the frog splash for the two.

Williams rocked by a codebreaker from Hayes for another near-fall. Now Hayes with wrist tape, but Williams avoided getting choked out and the referee is taken out by an errant Williams splash in the corner.

Hayes clipped Williams in the knee before he went outside to get a steel chair from under the ring. Williams intercepted it and began to batter Hayes with repeated chair shots. The referee grabbed the chair from Williams, which gave Hayes the opening for a low blow. 1, 2…. Hayes kicked out. The referee is once again knocked out by an accidental knee strike from Hayes.

Nothin’ But Net by Hayes as a second referee ran in, but Williams kicked out in the nick of time. Hayes tried to strike Williams with the chair, but the second referee grabbed it from him, which allowed Williams to recover and hit Hayes with the Trick Knee to pick up the victory against his former friend.

Very strong main event to cap off what has been an excellent Stand & Deliver show to kick off WrestleMania weekend. Trick Williams getting his moment in his hometown crowd was a nice way to end the show and while the match wasn’t exactly a knockdown, drag out as some were expecting, the drama between Williams and Carmelo Hayes was strong enough to keep the crowd engaged from start to finish. 

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Overall, Stand & Delivered, well, delivered on expectations, starting off strong with an excellent NXT Tag Title Match, then a potential match of the year candidate with Femi/Dijak/Briggs, followed by a good showing for six of NXT’s rising stars in the women’s division, a new NXT Women’s Champion, another top-shelf Ilja Dragunov title match, and of course, the battle between former friends. 

There never was a dull moment throughout the afternoon and once again, NXT’s stars showed why the future is looking to be bright on WWE’s developmental brand.