Main roster stars continued to make an impact during the second night of NXT Spring Breakin’.
Prior to their NXT Tag Team title match tonight, Axiom and Nathan Frazer met The Street Profits, who told the team their match against AOP was going to hurt tonight, but they had an opportunity to show the world that they belonged.
The end of the title match saw Karrion Kross and Scarlett of the Final Testament get involved, grabbing Axiom as he was on the top rope. They were booted out of the ringside area by the referee. The distraction allowed New Catch Republic (Pete Dunne & Tyler Bate) to attack Rezar. Frazer then superkicked Akam and Axiom rolled him up for the victory.
Michin also appeared during the second night of Spring Breakin’, making her claim for the new NXT Women’s North American Championship. A combine will take place next week to determine 12 participants for the upcoming qualifying matches. The six that win those matches will advance to the ladder match at NXT Battleground which will crown the first champion.
More main roster stars competed at NXT Spring Breakin’. Oba Femi defeated Ivar to retain the NXT North American title, while The OC (Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson) defeated Tyson Dupont & Tyriek Igwe. In the main event, Lola Vice defeated Natalya in an NXT Underground match thanks to interference from Shayna Baszler, who seconded Vice.
The Street Profits made a surprise appearance on Tuesday’s NXT.
Backstage, Carmelo Hayes was seen talking to Stacks and Tony D’Angleo when the Profits walked up, pointing out that they were all champions. Montez Ford said that he liked what Hayes was doing, with Angelo Dawkins wondering what Hayes would be doing next, saying there were plenty of people lining up to challenge. Hayes said he appreciated them, but said he wanted to erase that asterisk from his record. He then left as the Profits turned their attention to Stacks & D’Angelo, teasing a possible match between the two teams.
When the show ended, Hayes walked into Shawn Micheals’ office, saying they needed to talk.
Recent weeks have been Street Profits form an association with Bobby Lashley, choosing to wear suits. After interrupting a match between The Brawling Brutes and Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows, they have defeated both teams in the last two weeks, most recently defeating The Brawling Brutes in a match dedicated to Terry Funk on this past Friday’s SmackDown.
WWE has revealed the teams entered into the men’s Showcase Fatal Four-way tag team match at WrestleMania 39.
Braun Strowman & Ricochet, The Viking Raiders, The Street Profits, and Alpha Academy will be the four teams showcased in the match.
Men’s and women’s fatal four-way tag matches were announced for WrestleMania on Friday’s SmackDown. Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez qualified for the women’s match by defeating Emma & Tegan Nox on the show.
WWE posted a video of Byron Saxton revealing the teams on Monday:
Last February, Ford released his first musical effort, a mixtape titled “LMTYO.”
It’s shaping up to be a big year when it comes to out of the ring efforts for the Street Profits team member. A newly-announced Hulu series focusing on he and wife Bianca Belair is expected to debut this year.
Ford and Angelo Dawkins have been feuding with The Judgement Day on Raw as of late while they have been wrestling against Alpha Academy on house shows.
After holding tag team gold in 2019 (NXT), Raw (2020) and SmackDown (2020-2021), the duo went without any title reigns in 2022.
The 32-year-old started with WWE in 2015 as Kenneth Crawford and was immediately paired up with Dawkins, eventually getting his new name in December 2016.
WWE has added another match to the lineup for Raw.
The Street Profits will wrestle Judgment Day’s Finn Balor & Damian Priest in tag-team action on Monday’s show. The match was announced Sunday on social media.
“Just heard the news! Tomorrow night, the Profits get cooked by #TheJudgmentDay,” Priest wrote on Twitter.
“TOMORROW NIGHT ON #WWERaw, AN EARLY GIFT FOR THE WWE UNIVERSE. STREET PROFITS vs. JUDGEMENT DAY. PUT YO MF SEATBELTS ON, CUZ WE MAY SLAP A BIH. GANG. GANG,” wrote Ford.
Balor, Priest, and Dominik Mysterio defeated The Street Profits and Akira Tozawa in a six-man tag match on the December 12 Raw.
WWE Raw on Monday, December 19, 2022, will take place from the Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines, Iowa. The announced lineup for the show is as follows:
Bayley vs Becky Lynch
Dexter Lumis vs. The Miz in a winner-takes-all ladder match.
The Street Profits (Montez Ford & Anthony Dawkins) vs. Judgment Day (Finn Balor & Damian Priest)
Days ahead of WWE WrestleMania 38, I talked with Montez Ford, one half of the Street Profits, as he and Angelo Dawkins will be participating in the triple threat Raw Tag Team Championship match against Alpha Academy and champions RK-Bro.
The team was drafted to the main roster in the 2019 WWE Draft with their first WrestleMania match ever taking place in 2020. However, that was the Mania that was impacted by COVID-19 and instead of being held at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Florida, it happened in the WWE Performance Center with no audience.
The following year, WrestleMania 37 returned with an audience but the team was left off both nights of the show and instead competed on the SmackDown prior in a four-way for that brand’s Tag Team titles.
Therefore, WrestleMania 38 will mark their first Mania match in front of a crowd.
“I am excited, I am ecstatic, I am everything that’s up, everything that up because we already know that when it’s up, it up. But I am very excited,” he said.
I asked Ford what it means to him getting to share this moment with Dawkins since they made their way up together from their early NXT days back in 2016.
“What you see on camera is the same thing you see in real life. Off-camera, he was my best man at my wedding, so it’s a real life relationship. So just to go through this journey with him, have our moms there witnessing everything, they be so proud of their boys and everything, it’s just a great, great, great journey to share with someone,” he said, latter adding their friendship is a “blessing” and that they are supportive of each other when they need it.
Ford also teased that their entrance is going to be a little “extra.”
WrestleMania memories
Ford shared a story about how his first WrestleMania that he got to watch was in 2000 and that he plans on paying homage to that match this year.
“So what’s so crazy is my favorite WrestleMania moment was the actual first one my mom got us on pay-per-view, which was WrestleMania 2000. I remember the classic TLC match from there with all the tag teams, so it’s crazy that now it’s full circle that my first WrestleMania (with fans) is in a tag match with multiple tag teams.
So just to see it come full circle like that, I think that’s wild. I would say that is my first actual imprinted WrestleMania moment and for me to now be part of a moment that I cherished as a kid is mind-blowing.”
Supporting Bianca Belair
Not only is this going to be a big night for Ford, but also for his wife, Bianca Belair, who is yet again having another big match. Last year, Belair made history along with Sasha Banks as both women main evented night one. Fast forward to this year and Belair is again in a highly-anticipated match with Raw Women’s Champion Becky Lynch.
Ford spoke about what is has been like to see her rise to superstardom.
“It’s amazing. The person you love is actually going out there and fulfilling her dreams. And you’re there to not only be a support system, but just to be there and witness it with her is like a blessing, man. I feel like it makes all of us even more motivated to be intrigued to do these things and do more things and be successful. You always want to be there as a support group. You never know what may be going through her head, or that person’s head that you share this life with, and so you always want to be there and remind them like ‘Hey, go out there and show the world what I already know which is you are that girl. You are that woman.’
So it’s always good to not only be part of her support group but to see her be successful in these moments and just be happy. I be more nervous for her events and matches than mine, because I just want to see her do so well, and she does every time. I am so happy and proud of her like all the time. I can’t express it enough. Nothing I can do can show the gratitude I have for her. I just love being there as a support group and as her husband, as her tag team partner to make sure that not only she does well but she knows she can do well,” he said.
WrestleMania 38 takes place this Saturday and Sunday at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, on Peacock and WWE Network.
This week’s WWE Main Event was taped at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio, before Monday’s Raw.
Veer Mahaan defeated Savion Truitt (4:53)
Another week and another squash for Mahaan that again went much longer than it needed to.
Truitt was this week’s victim, making his WWE debut. Hailing from Cincinnati, Ohio, he has worked for APW and LSC in the past.
They mentioned that Mahaan is still not yet on the main roster despite the continual adverts promoting him coming “soon.” Saxton reckons Mahaan is keeping the roster on its toes. Yeah, that’s it.
Although Truitt got some offense in toward the end, Mahaan finished him with what is becoming a familiar combination: a running splash, the Million Dollar Arm, and a ddt.
Veer is now 11-0 since October last year when they added the ‘Mahaan’ to his name.
Street Profits defeated Cedric Alexander & Shelton Benjamin (7:56)
This was a lot of fun: a good, solid tag match that the pre-Raw crowd could get behind that built to a neat finish.
This was the Street Profits’ Main Event debut. While Angelo Dawkins has worked this show before in a singles capacity, this was Montez Ford’s first outing on the show. Dawkins worked with Buddy Murphy when they were filming shows without crowds at the Performance Center during the pandemic.
They went back and forth in this one and worked through a commercial break. Lots of pace and creativity meant that there was a lot to like here.
The finish was a typical WWE tag finish where one member from the heel team ends up incapacitated on the outside, allowing the other to take the finisher in the middle of the ring without any shenanigans.
With Benjamin and Alexander on the floor, Dawkins nailed them with a diving senton and rolled Benjamin back in so that Ford could end it with the top rope frog splash.
Final Thoughts:
The show featured a fun tag team match and an unnecessarily slow squash, but it was a better show than last week. I’d like to know what the over/under is on Mahaan debuting before WrestleMania, but I’m guessing he’s coming in afterward. Street Profits being on Main Event isn’t a great sign, but they’re good enough to overcome it.
Going into the WWE Draft, a split of the Street Profits with each member going their own way to their own brand was considered.
The idea was first reported by PWInsider Monday and discussed by Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio.
The original concept was Montez Ford moving to Raw while Angelo Dawkins would remain on SmackDown. However, WWE decided to split up the team of T-Bar (Raw) and Mace (SmackDown) instead.
Ford and Dawkins were drafted to Raw with the first pick of the fourth round Monday. Ford’s wife, Bianca Belair, was taken with Raw’s second pick of the first round on last Friday’s draft kickoff on SmackDown.
Originally drafted to Raw in October 2019, Ford and Dawkins have held both the Raw and SmackDown Tag Team titles along with the NXT Tag Team titles.
The two-night draft event concluded Monday with the new rosters taking effect on Friday, October 22nd, the day after Crown Jewel.
From the Community Center in front of an estimated attendance of 300
– Danny Burch submitted Cal Bloom with a crossface
– Xia Li defeated Reina Gonzalez after a spin kick
– Cezar Bononi defeated Saurav Gurjar with a rollup
– Arturo Raus submitted Jeet Rama with a kneebar
– The Outliers (w/ Robert Stone) defeated Raul Mendoza and Angel Garza after a big boot by Mak.
– Matt Riddle submitted Kassius Ohno with the Bromission.
These two longtime rivals showed respect in a fair sporting contest.
– Damian Priest defeated Keith Lee
These two have been having great matches all over the place lately. An incredible action movie-style series of counters led to the Roll of the Dice finish. The crowd loved the closing stretch.
Rhea Ripley’s music hit which distracted Shafir, allowing Jessi to score the quick pin. Post match, Ripley told Marina and Jessamyn that she had nothing to prove to “sidekicks” and to tell Shayna Baszler she’s coming for her.
– NXT Tag Team Champions The Undisputed Era (Roderick Strong, Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish) defeated Street Profits and Dio Maddin
This was a lot of fun early with the Undisputed boys taking Dawkins’ headbands and putting them on. Maddin kept using hip attacks to annoy the Era. After things broke down, Kyle and Bobby hit a total elimination on Maddin for the win.
