Lowell, MA, a city with an underrated wrestling history, hosted NXT’s latest PLE, Battleground, at the Paul Tsongas Center. Six matches filled out the card, including the main event where Carmelo Hayes returns home to defend the NXT Championship against Bron Breakker.
Wes Lee defeated Joe Gacy and Tyler Bate in a Triple Threat Match to retain the NXT North American Championship. It was an excellent opener to get the crowd going—lots of high-flying moves and near falls where all three men got time to shine. The biggest moment of the match came when Tyler Bate did the giant swing to Lee while simultaneously giving Gacy an airplane spin. Bate is not the biggest guy, and it takes a lot of strength and coordination to pull that off. The finish came when Lee and Gacy went for their big back handspring moves, but Lee landed first with his cardiac kick for the win.
Noam Dar defeated Dragon Lee to retain the Heritage Cup. I was concerned about this match for Dragon’s sake since the five 3-minute rounds with a 20-second rest period goes against his fast-paced in-ring style. There were some good moments and one scary spot in the fifth round where Dragon took a powerbomb meant to hit the apron but crashed to the floor instead.
While there was nothing terrible about the match, between the outside interference and different rules, it failed to stand out as anything special. Why put Dragon in a match that goes against his talents? Well, sometimes, it’s easy to forget that NXT is a developmental system. There are high hopes for Dragon’s future on the main roster, and he has to get used to working different gimmick matches instead of straight-up singles matches where he excels.
Ilja Dragunov beat Dijak in a Last Man Standing Match. Dragunov works well with wrestlers much larger than him, and Dijak can adapt to any style. Add a Last Man Standing stipulation to the equation, and you have a tasty recipe for brutality. This was the perfect mix of combative drama with plenty of big moments, including the Van Terminator pictured above, which the kids these days have christened ‘Coast to Coast.’ Both men were desperate to win and never let up.
No moment exemplified their will to win more than Dijak punishing Dragunov with a kendo stick while he was trapped in the corner. Dijak paused after each shot expecting Dragunov to stay down, but “The Mad Dragon” emphatically refused to yield.
Eventually, Dragunov made a comeback and landed a flying forearm off the steps onto a downed Dijak that sent his head crashing into a steel chair. Dijak could not answer the 10-count, and Dragunov was the last man standing. Without question, one of the best WWE matches of the year and worth going out of your way to see.
Backstage interview with Noam Dar celebrating his win over Dragon Lee. Lash Legend, Jakara Jackson, and Mensah were with him. A new faction?
Gallus w/ Joe Coffey defeated The Creed Brothers w/ Ivy Nile to retain the NXT Tag Team Championship. The weakest match on the card in terms of interest and hype and the finished in ring product suffered as a result. It was not a bad match. Unfortunately, the lack of build plus having to follow Dragunov/Dijak put the match behind the 8-ball. Ava Raine ran in to push Ivy Nile into the post. Julius Creed is distracted by the sneak attack, allowing Gallus to hit their finisher and score the win.
Ava Raine, for those who don’t know, is the oldest daughter of The Rock. It was cool seeing her perform in the city where her father won his first singles title in 1997 when he beat HHH for the Intercontinental Championship.
NXT Women’s Title Tournament Finals: Tiffany Stratton defeated Lyra Valkyria to become the NXT Women’s Champion. This match was Tiffany Stratton’s coming-out party as a featured player in NXT. The certainty of her victory was in the air all night. While Stratton will be the talk of the town, Valkyria deserves credit for her impressive performance, particularly with the little things, especially her selling.
Part of the story saw Valkyria enter the match with an injured knee. The way she sold several moves in her repertoire that buckled her knee expressed frustration and a hint of concern. A lot of wrestlers these days don’t hold their injured body parts that long while selling. Valkyria repeatedly held her injured knee, and after trying not to hold it, the damage was too painful to ignore, and she held the knee again.
Stratton hit Valkyria with two PMEs (Prettiest Moonsault Ever), with the second one getting the win. Stratton’s first PME looked like any other time a wrestler hits their finisher and gets the win, but Valkyria kicked out. Stratton took no chances with the second one and executed the move even faster than the first one, as Valkyria was down for what could have felt like too long and moved.
It’s a little thing that will go largely unnoticed, but it’s a great example of how far Stratton and Valkyria have come.
Carmelo Hayes defeated Bron Breakker to retain the NXT Championship. BIG. FIGHT. FEEL. The best way to describe what was a strong main event to close out the show. Breakker turned heel after losing the title to Hayes in April at Stand & Deliver. It’s not surprising he’s a good heel because he’s a Steiner, but damn, he’s a great heel.
The flow of the match saw Breakker in control with some big moves before Hayes broke out an eye-popping counter. One such moment occurred when Hayes reversed a vertical suplex with a DDT that looked like it knocked out Breakker.
The most breathtaking spot of the night occurred when Breakker speared Hayes in the air for a near fall that jolted the live crowd to their feet. Breakker went for his military press slam several times, but Hayes countered each attempt and hit the Nothing but Net leg drop after a counter to get the clean pin.
A clean win for Hayes was important here since he got an assist from Trick William at Stand & Deliver to capture the title. Plus, their roles were reversed this time around in the heel/baby category. Breakker has been a main eventer in NXT almost since he started and Hayes is now experiencing life at the top. Both men have future superstar written all over them, and it’s nice to see them thrive in NXT’s headlining roles before they do their thing on the main roster.
Hayes/Breakker II was a fantastic way to finish a strong Battleground show. Hayes impressed on his hometown stage, Stratton excelled in her breakout moment, and the Dragunov/Dijak match was a special kind of crazy. Battleground provided a nice alternative to AEW’s pay-per-view offering and was the first NXT Premium Live Event in a couple of years to live up to the name.
Thanks to Graham “GSM” Matthews for allowing me to use his pictures for this review. Graham is doing big things, and you can give him a follow on Twitter @wrestlerant and Instagram @instagrahammirmina
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