Sudu Shah and Nigel McGuinness were on the call for this past week’s edition of WWE NXT Level Up, taped two weeks ago prior to NXT.
Javier Bernal defeated Ru Feng
**
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"Big Body Javi" recovered from an
embarrassing loss on NXT with a win here.
Feng is still early in his career which you can tell by watching him wrestle. He’s not bad, but his movement and the way he interacted with the crowd is a tell that he isn’t comfortable in front of a crowd yet. Luckily for him, that is why Level Up exists.
The last time we saw Bernal, he lost to security guard turned wrestler Hank Walker. He upped the intensity of his attacks on Feng, showing a lot of fire with his strikes. After surviving a short flurry of offense from Feng, Bernal scored the win with Paydirt.
- Kelly Kincaid was backstage with Guru Raaj and Ikemen Jiro. She asked if the language barrier between them would affect their ability to team. With the help of subtitles, they said they will win with the universal language of wrestling.
Thea Hail defeated Valentina Feroz
**
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Chase U scored another Level Up win with the energetic Hail getting the victory.
Hail has a great fiery babyface energy about her. Her work isn’t crisp yet, but she gave everything she did in this match her all, and I can see people really getting behind her as she improves.
Hail hit a standing moonsault early on, but Feroz hooked the ropes to avoid a dropkick. After Feroz slowed the pace down, Hail picked it up again with some corner splashes and a neckbreaker. Feroz cut her down with a spear and locked in a sleeper hold, but Hail rolled back into a pinning predicament to score the win.
Edris Enofe & Malik Blade defeated Ikemen Jiro & Guru Raaj
***
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Blade and his sweater vest started against Jiro and his jacket. I wondered why Blade wore a sweater vest while wrestling a match, but Shah promptly informed us that he wears it in honor of his father.
Raaj tagged in and laid in some good looking strikes before Blade sent him to the floor. Enofe distracted Raaj long enough for Blade to hit an impressive plancha to the floor before following it up with a soaring springboard armdrag. Blade and Enofe then tried to outdo each other with Stinger splashes in the corner, but Enofe got too greedy and hit the buckles as Raaj tagged in Jiro.
Jiro knocked Enofe loopy with some jacket punches and a dropkick in the ropes. A swanton from Jiro got a near fall, but Enofe avoided a big move and hit the Climax with Blade to score the win.
Dante Chen defeated Bryson Montana
**
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This was both a solid showing from the young Montana and a solid win for Chen.
Montana is a well-built man who, according to commentary, has a club where shady dealings go down. If that’s the case, then maybe Tony D’Angelo has frequented Montana’s club a time or two.
Montana displayed his power early, throwing Chen around with relative ease. Chen showed off his relative experience advantage by outmaneuvering Montana, but Montana cut him off with a big clothesline. Montana put the squeeze on Chen with a bearhug before dropping him with a Michinoku driver.
Chen finally put some offense together, flipping Montana out of a power bomb before firing up with some big strikes. Chen finished off Montana with a Ricky Steamboat-like double chop to the chest for the win.
Kelly Kincaid interviewed Myles Borne. He gave a generic babyface promo, saying that since tonight is his seventh match on Level Up, this will be lucky number seven.
Indi Hartwell defeated Valentina Feroz
**
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This was another win for Hartwell on Level Up as Feroz continues to get used to working in singles competition.
The announcers talked about Feroz having to work on her cardio since her tag team partner (Yulisa Leon) will be out of action for an extended period of time with a knee injury.
Neither wrestler could get a clear advantage early as they went back and forth for control. The announcers brought up Hartwell being inspired by Bayley and openly wondered if Hartwell would start using the same tactics as Bayley did to get ahead.
I wrote a few weeks ago about Hartwell possibly being a good heel if she could use her size and aggression effectively. She did use her size very well in this match, cutting off Feroz’s comeback with a spinebuster for the win.
Andre Chase defeated Myles Borne
**1/4
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The Chase U student section was red hot for this one as Chase scored the win.
The announcers put Borne over strong, talking up the massive amount of potential the coaches in the Performance Center see in him. He showed good athleticism here, hitting a pinpoint dropkick to Chase at one point. But this was an Chase showcase as he used his technical ability to take advantage of the rookie. Chase hit the Chase U Garvin stomp and a high crossbody for the win in the main event.
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