Sunday, June 9th, 2024, saw the first-ever match between a WWE wrestler and a TNA wrestler for a WWE championship inside a WWE ring. With a point to prove, Roxanne Perez entered the UFC Apex arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. She expertly defended her title in what was the highlight match of the evening against TNA Knockouts Champion Jordynne Grace.
The rest of the card was filled with fantastic matches from top to bottom, so let’s review what happened at WWE NXT Battleground.
Sexyy Red is hosting NXT Battleground
Six Women Ladder Match:
The show opened with the perfect choice: a six-woman ladder match to decide the first-ever NXT Women’s North American Champion. The participants in this bout were fairly well matched, with the standout being former acrobat Sol Ruca, who was PWInsider’s Rookie of the Year in 2023.
The rest of the match included Lash Legend, who was positioned as the biggest threat in this match, becoming targeted by five women to neutralise her threat on the title, Jaida Parker, who had a breakout performance and will soon likely be dropping her stablemates in ‘OTM’ to become a singles star, Fallon Henley the favourite going in who has embraced a new villain persona likely next in line for a call up to the main WWE programming, Michin who provided the experience in this match being a veteran and the winner and new NA Champion Kelani Jordan.
Jordan was the surprise pick, but reactions were overwhelmingly positive to this underdog winning the big one. The company is hot on her, positioning her to go far like each champion of the men’s edition of this title.
The action was standard ladder match chaos, with the ladder being used as a weapon and a bridge being set up between the ring and the announce desk that Lash Legend would be thrown onto, but the ladder did not break, causing a sickening landing. A sunset flip dive made from the top of the ladder by Sol Ruca made every fan wince, landing from 15ft onto that freshly repaired ACL.
Also, Sol Ruca has the spot of the match with her fantastic ‘Sol Snatcher’ finish, which was hit back to back, once in the corner to Parker and once off the ladder to Henley. Overall, it was a very entertaining opener, and it would have had a loud response had they not been in the UFC Apex arena, which is a complete killer of all sound.
Nathan Frazer & Axiom vs The Good Brothers – NXT Tag Team Championships
The action did not lull with the follow-up bout. Jersey-born Nathan Frazer and Spaniard Axion defended their NXT Tag Team Championships against ‘The Good Brothers’ Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows. Vic Joseph, on commentary, made sure to make the challengers seem like a massive threat to the current champs, citing their record in Japan and TNA. The TNA link was interesting and hinted at a further stronger relationship.
Gallows and Anderson rolled back the years here to make the champions look great. This was both men’s best match in years, showing the potential they see in this up-and-coming team. Axiom and Frazer held up their end of the bargain, hitting some tremendous offence against the former Bullet Club members. The champ’s high-flying move-set is simply excellent, and I hope they are treated well once their move to the main roster materialises.
The match’s ending sequence saw Axiom on the top rope, Anderson hitting an unbelievable Avalanche Spanish Fly onto the veteran, and Frazer sealing the win and retaining their titles with a Phoenix Splash into the cover, a homage to his trainer Seth Rollins.
Lola Vice vs Shayna Baszler
Next, we enter the third bout of the night in ‘NXT Underground,’ which is essentially just MMA rules in a worked fashion that fits the UFC Apex venue, which hosts fight night cards. A total failure and a joke on Raw, it has been repackaged and works on NXT. The combatant was Lola Vice, who, under her real name, Valerie Loureda, fought five fights in Bellator from 2019 to 2021, winning four, two by knockout, and losing once on a decision.
She battled Shayna Baszler, a kickboxer with an official record of 26 fights, 15 wins, and 11 losses. This added some legitimacy to the match, given their legitimate combat backgrounds. Given the stipulation removed pinfalls, it can be hard to tease an ending, but they tried their best using the lack of ring ropes to their advantage, with both Vice and Baszler falling to the floor after a significant strike to keep the match alive.
Baszler attempted to put Vice through the commentary desk, which would become a theme here, with Vice being thrown into the desk toward the bout’s finish, smacking her head against the monitors. The finish arrived after Vice threw Baszler into the ring steps and got her back into the ring for a spinning back fist, which she would follow by diving on Baszler, delivering hammer punches, forcing a referee stoppage. This built Vice, who is now 2-0 in this sort of match, and at 25, the sky’s the limit as she continues to learn her craft.
UFC fighter Forest Griffin sits ringside during NXT Battleground
Wes Lee vs Joe Coffey vs Oba Femi – NXT North American Championship
Wes Lee, Joe Coffey, and Oba Femi were up next, with the latter defending his NXT North American Championship under triple threat rules. This match showed Wes Lee and Oba Femi’s abilities in the ring with a solid worker like Coffey. This is a vehicle for Wes to shake off any ring rust following his serious back injury as he prepares for either an NXT title programme or an appearance on the main shows, as he is incredible at his job.
Oba Femi will main-event WrestleMania. He is fantastic and getting better every time I see him adding at least three new moves to his repertoire from the last time he wrestled and improving his ring IQ and how to put together a great match, which is exactly the purpose of NXT. This match showcased Lee’s speed and high flying, when Coffey’s stable ‘Gallus’ attempted to run interference Wes Lee performed a sensational dive from the ring onto the two men.
The ending sequence saw Oba Femi retain, following two powerbombs back to back to his challengers, elucidating his strength and dominance.
Roxanne Perez vs Jordynne Grace – NXT Women’s Championship
Our historic co-main event next TNA Knockouts Champion Jordynne Grace entered the UFC Apex to take on NXT Champion ‘The Prodigy’ Roxanne Perez. It would be interesting to see how Perez would attack this match, given the difference in size and strength, with Perez instantly being shrugged off and pushed around by the challenger.
However, despite being similar heights Perez played almost like how Rey Mysterio would wrestle a larger opponent with pure speed, Perez began to show her athleticism, outrunning Grace and getting strikes in. Somewhere in the opening of the match, Grace’s ear piercing was ripped from her ear, causing significant bleeding, and it appeared her ear piercing planted into Roxanne’s leg, which could not have been comfortable.
Perez continued her quick onslaught with various luchador-inspired moves, whereas Grace hit back with great power moves. Grace attempted a muscle buster but was stopped by Perez, who slipped out and hit a DDT when Grace lifted her following the reversal.
Here is where the outside interference begins: Tatum Paxley, who has been obsessed with championship belts since late 2023, appeared, and since two champions were in the match, she headed to the timekeeper’s area to steal one of them, but she did not take the NXT title which she fought for weeks ago she grabbed the TNA Knockouts title, this sets up her challenging Grace on Friday June 14th at TNA’s ‘Against All Odds’ event where Jordynne Grace issued an open challenge.
Pax tried to escape with the belt, but she was met by TNA Knockout Ash By Elegance FKA Dana Brooke, who fought on the ramp briefly before Grace laid both women out, returning to her match. Grace would attempt her ‘Juggernaut Driver’ finish but was met with a fantastic reversal by Perez into a cutter, and she would get up and hit ‘Pop Rox’ for the win.
This was an absolute clinic the best Roxanne Perez match I have ever seen, she will also main event WrestleMania in the future, this match also set up a title match for Tatum Paxley so good value getting two story advancements in one match.
Trick Williams vs Ethan Page – NXT Championship
The main event was the debuting Ethan Page, fresh off a stint with Ring of Honor, where, by all accounts, he was the best thing going on that show alongside Women’s champion Athena. He faced off against Trick Williams, who got the ovation of the night, which is standard practice for him now as he defends his NXT Title. Page showed his experience against the relatively inexperienced Williams, getting a great match to close the show with strong strikes from both competitors.
The commentary desk was not safe in this bout, with Page slamming Trick through it with purpose, causing such destruction; this was followed in the closing move of the bout with Trick in the corner and Page throwing strikes. The referee dragged Page away near the opposing corner, not wishing to disqualify him; once he finished arguing, Page was met with a brutal-looking ‘Trick Shot’ from Williams, representing the sort of hard-hitting match they had, and he picked up the win.
Page entered NXT, attacking members of the ‘Meta Four’ faction and signalling his next move.
Sexyy Red and NXT Champion Trick Willaims close the show
Overall, this is a very good show from NXT, cemented itself as my favourite block of wrestling programming week to week.
The talents on show here are just remarkable, and Shawn Michaels, with the pen, spells good things in the future. If you haven’t seen the highlights of this show, I would highly recommend it.