The November 4 episode of NXT saw a number of stars from that show beat their WWE main roster counterparts, with a method to that decision.
Going up against AEW Dynamite Blood and Guts, WWE NXT was moved to Wednesday night due to midterm election coverage the night before.
While John Cena and Cody Rhodes would appear, matches featured CM Punk, Paige, Chad Gable, Dragon Lee and Rey Fenix, with NXT stars having a strong showing in each:
The results were in NXT’s favor
Aside from Chad Gable, Dragon Lee & Rey Fenix defeating The Vanity Project, Kelani Jordan would retain the NXT Women’s Championship against Paige, while CM Punk lost to NXT Champion Grayson Waller, thanks to interference from Kevin Owens.
The 946 also made an appearance, with their interference leading to victory for Cruz Montana, a recent addition to the faction, in his Unsanctioned match against Dion Lennox. For Montana, the match was made official before he was called up to the main roster on November 2, with Robert Stone confirming it would still go ahead.
Why the wins matter more for NXT stars
Arguably, a win in a one-off match on NXT does little for main roster WWE stars, all of whom can return to Raw or SmackDown to continue whatever feud is happening over there.
The win, however, feels like it matters for stars in NXT as it gives them an opportunity to dine out on the victory. Regardless of the circumstances, Grayson Waller is a prime example of this, as can be seen in a recent post on X that included the image of him doing Punk’s ‘Go To Sleep’ pose as the show went off air, sharing:
“Best In The World”
It’s difficult to see a circumstance where Waller and Jordan don’t milk their victories over Punk and Paige for the future, even if it’s only a short-term situation. For Waller, he’s beaten a WWE Triple Crown Champion, while Jordan overcame an NXT original who paved the way for the women’s revolution.
Crossover potential
Outside of being up against AEW Dynamite and wanting to stack the episode, WWE has featured main roster stars heading to NXT over the years, whether it be for one-off matches or short runs.
There are arguments to be made that it causes a spike in ratings when the right main roster star heads to NXT, but more than that it offers the opportunity to showcase the brand’s talent in a different way that may not be seen outside of a move to Raw and SmackDown.
Audience numbers are something that is often a topic of debate, but there’s little denying that John Cena meeting Zilla Fatu has been quite the draw online, with the YouTube video currently sitting at 640k views.
How WWE chooses to interpret such figures is a source of discussion in itself, but it likely such reception likely does have eyes on it when it comes to which stars to push.
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