WWE NXT
THE GREAT AMERICAN BASH 2023
SUNDAY, JULY 30, 2023
H-E-B CENTER
CEDAR PARK, TX

Watch: Peacock

The Great American Bash 2023 Preview

MEET YOUR REVIEWER:

Suit Williams: If I continue my bit of WWE Correspondent into next year, I’m dumping NXT. I had a morbid interest in seeing a bunch of trainees thrown into the pool’s deep end, but I have no interest in the late-era WWECW version of NXT that’s been rolled out lately. I wish I had pithier thoughts to open this review, but alas. @SuitWilliams on Twitter, Threads, BlueSky, and whatever other time-eater app I can find.

PRE-SHOW MATCH
NATHAN FRAZER, DRAGON LEE, YULISA LEON & VALENTINA FEROZ DEF. META-FOUR (NOAM DAR, ORO MENSAH, LASH LEGEND, & JAKARA JACKSON)

The issues here stemmed from Frazer beating Dar for the Heritage Cup, a carryover from NXT UK. Dar came out with a fake trophy which Vic Joseph kindly – and repeatedly – called the Counterfeit Cup. This was an energetic opener. The men are four of NXT’s more polished names, and the women hit their spots for the most part. Lee pinned Mensah with a Destino. Cut the women and put this on the main show, and you’ve got a quality PPV match. ***1/2

WWE NXT TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH
THE D’ANGELO FAMILY (CHANNING STACKS LORENZO & TONY D’ANGELO) DEF. GALLUS (MARK COFFEY & WOLFGANG) (W/JOE COFFEY) (C)

I wasn’t excited to watch this show, and when I heard Gallus was in the opener, I was ready to give this a big ol’ skip. But when they came out to their old bad music instead of their new bad music, it gave me a little juice. This was fine, your standard Gallus affair. D’Angelo and Stacks hit a tandem suplex and won the titles. ***

WEAPONS WILD MATCH
ROXANNE PEREZ DEF. BLAIR DAVENPORT

In the pre-match video, Roxanne Perez said she had an anger boiling up inside of her that she was ready to unleash on Blair Davenport. It reminded me of the old Powerpuff Girls cartoon, when Bubbles tried to prove that she could be tough. This was a lot of people hitting each other with stuff, mostly at ringside in front of Roxanne’s family. The crowd was into it, as they were in Perez’ home state of Texas. Perez put Davenport through a table with a splash, then hit Pop Rocks on a bunch of chairs for the win. **1/2

BARON CORBIN VS. GABLE STEVESON ENDED IN A DOUBLE COUNTOUT

Should’ve went to the Olympics, my guy. Gable Steveson does not have it. From the blank expression on his face from start to finish to the ringwork that leaves much to be desired, to call this guy a work in progress would be a compliment. There was a Baron Corbin chant that I thought had to be piped in, because I refuse to believe there are enough people on this planet that like Corbin enough to chant his name. But no, the NXT crowd—who, I remind you, willingly watch NXT—turned on Steveson and decided that they liked Corbin now. That did give this match a CM Punk on Collision feel, which is the nicest thing I can say here.

In an act of complete cowardice, they didn’t even give the guy a win in his debut. They brawled on the floor to a double countout because god forbid, BARON CORBIN take a loss. Steveson put Corbin through the barricade with an overhead suplex, which seems to be the only move he can do confidently. I cannot stress how much of a disaster this was. *

WWE NXT NORTH AMERICAN TITLE TRIPLE THREAT MATCH
DOMINIK MYSTERIO (W/RHEA RIPLEY) (C) DEF. MUSTAFA ALI, WES LEE

My hope for this match was for Ali and Lee to have a match while Dominik fucked off until the finish. But no, “Dirty Dom” was heavily involved in this match because certain people thought it would be funny to sarcastically put him over. Then, he actually became a draw in the star-blind environment that is current-day WWE. For that, I will never forgive the people who memed Dominik into existence.

Lee got killed off at the end of this match. Ripley put him through a table with Riptide, then Mysterio hit him with Rhea’s belt. Ali hit a 450 on Lee, then Ripley pulled Ali out of the ring so Mysterio hit a frog splash on Lee to win. **1/2

WWE NXT WOMEN’S TITLE SUBMISSION MATCH
TIFFANY STRATTON (C) DEF. THEA HAIL (W/ANDRE CHASE & DUKE HUDSON)

Stratton worked on the back, while Hail worked on the shoulder. They ran through whatever submission holds they knew before they got to the finish. Hail locked on the Kimura, but Stratton got to the ropes to break it, even though the announcers said rope breaks wouldn’t do anything. Stratton hit the Prettiest Moonsault Ever before locking Hail in a Boston Crab. Stratton struggled to keep the submission on, straight up falling down at one point. But she eventually got it on enough for Chase to throw the towel in on Hail’s behalf. This was fine, I guess. It was during this match where I really hit the wall, and just wanted this show to end. **

WWE NXT TITLE MATCH
CARMELO HAYES (W/TRICK WILLIAMS) (C) DEF. ILJA DRAGUNOV

Ilja Dragunov is wasted in NXT.

Ringwork-wise, this man is in the top 5% of wrestlers in this promotion. And it’s not like his character is some small room act, either. He’s a hardworking, never-say-die babyface who gets over in every promotion. Yet since 2019, this man has been tucked away in either the witness protection program that was NXT UK, or in NXT proper when NXT UK shut down. Ilja Dragunov is so much better than NXT but will most likely never get the chance to prove it due to him not having the ideal look to get pushed on the WWE main roster. While a guy like GUNTHER found a way to fit the mold as best he could, Dragunov can’t help that he’s a pasty white guy who speaks English as a second language. There’s a ceiling on him in this company, which sucks because his work deserves to be seen at the highest levels.

These two came out and had a slow-building main event, which would have been okay if the previous two hours didn’t bore me to tears. But eventually, these two cranked it up to a higher level by knocking the hell out of each other and taking wild bumps for each other. The highlight spots were Dragunov taking a Codebreaker on a Coast-To-Coast attempt, flipping ass-over-teakettle in the center of the ring. Hayes tried to follow with the top rope leg drop, but Dragunov powerbombed him on his neck to counter that.

After that, it became a war of attrition, with both men wearily throwing big shots to try and take the other man out. The finish kind of sucked, as is usual in NXT. Dragunov and Hayes were on the floor, and Williams held the title in front of Hayes to motivate him. Dragunov went for the Torpedo Moscow, but Hayes moved and Dragunov went headfirst into the belt. It wasn’t treated as some slimy escape from Hayes, it was played off as an accident. Hayes hit the Nothing But Net leg drop to score the win. These two worked hard here, and if this was on a different show, I may have gone higher. ***1/2