Leighty’s NXT Level Up Review 10.13.23

-Announce Team: Blake Howard and Byron Saxton
-Taped: WWE Capitol Wrestling Center, Orlando, FL

Ivy Nile vs. Kiyah Saint

-If you remember Saint has a Track background and is also a nurse. Nile grounds her with a front face-lock. Saint gets to her feet and works an arm, but Nile counters. She gets a take down and gets a roll-up for two. Back to the front face-lock as she continues to grind Saint down. Suplex from Nile gets a two count. Saint with a side headlock before Nile shoves off and they collide in mid-air as each tries a crossbody. Gut-wrench slam from Saint that looked rough! Saint buries a knee in the back and pulls back on Nile’s arms as this one is going probably longer than needed. Nile can’t power out as Saint takes her back to the mat. Nile is able to get to her feet and reverses the hold. Saint rolls over to escape a Dragon Sleeper and gets a two count. Roll-up gets another two. Saint lands a series of forearms and hits a dropkick. Triple Jump knee in the corner gets a two count. I believe that is her finisher as her track background is in the Triple Jump. Nile lands a head kick and then a jumping kick. Release German Suplex is next, but Saint ducks a clothesline and gets a crucifix for two. Nile rolls into a pin and then into The Diamond Chain Lock for the tap-out at 6:48.

Winner: Ivy Nile via pin at 6:50
-I am used to Nile mowing people down, so they must have some high hopes for Saint to let her hang in there for seven minutes with Nile this early in her career. The final few minutes started to pick up, but took a little bit to get there. *

-Axiom cuts a promo backstage. Axiom and Tozawa had a low key BANGER on Main Event this week. You can find my review here.

-NXT Deadline commercial!

-WWE Live commercial!

Axiom vs. Riley Osborne

-Lockup and nothing doing! Another lockup and Axiom gets wrist control. Backslide from Axiom gets two. Axiom gets another pin for two. Osborne rolls and cartwheels out of wrist control. He then offers a handshake to Axiom, who slaps away the hand. Osborne pins the shoulders down for a series of two counts. Axiom bridges out and then they start monkey flipping each other all over the ring while maintaining hand control. The crowd is digging it! Chop from Axiom and the crowd wants it one more time. Axiom obliges and then sends Osborne to the floor. Axiom is set to fly, but lets Osborne back in the ring. Osborne shoves Axiom and gets taken down for his disrespect. Osborne gets his own take down and hooks a side headlock. Axiom fights his way out and wraps Riley up in a submission, but that doesn’t last long. Riley back with a palm strike and then he kicks at Axiom’s head. Chops follow from Osborne and Axiom returns fire. Dropkick from Axiom and a sweet release German Suplex for two. Axiom heads up top but gets caught with a dropkick on the way down. OSBORNE ROLLS INTO A RANA FOR TWO! That was sick! We get a Level Up chant from the crowd. They start trading blows from their knees and the crowd cheers for both sides. Heavy clothesline from Axiom. They both end up spilling over the top to the floor as Axiom charges. This is Awesome chant! Osborne gets a dropkick, but gets caught coming off the apron with a superkick to the face. Obsorne beats the count at 9, but as he slides in he gets caught with a splash from the top for the pin at 8:20. I think something was screwed up there as either the ref counted when he kicked out or Osborne forgot to kick out in time.

Winner: Axiom via pin at 8:20
-They need a rematch after that ending as I think something was screwed up there. This was a lot of fun up to that point as you don’t get “This is Awesome” or “Level Up” chants on this show very often. Axiom has showed out several times, so that wasn’t anything knew, but I like what I saw from Osborne. Give me more of this please. ***

-Thanks for reading!

7.0

The final score: review Good

The 411

We went back to the two match format for this show which explains why the opener was give so much time. The Main Event was one of the better matches on this show all year and makes this, an easy thumbs up. The opener was fine as I like watching Nile and seeing how the newbies can hang with her is worth watching. Definitely check out the Main Event though and hopefully we get a cleaner ending in the rematch.