NXT Great American Bash 2023 Review

It’s always good to see NXT on the road, performing in front of different crowds and in bigger venues. There will be approximately 4,100 fans in attendance at the H-E-B Center in Cedar Park, Texas, so it will be fun to see the NXT superstars get a well-deserved opportunity to show off a bit. Yes, Cedar Park, and not Austin, like WWE is presenting. Yeah, yeah, yeah… Cedar Park is a suburb of Austin, but the fact of the matter is that it’s still Cedar Park that the show is taking place in. Let’s not waste any more time, though, because we have some fun stuff to get to.

Gallus (Mark Coffey & Wolfgang) vs The Family (Tony D’Angelo & Channing “Stacks” Lorenzo) – NXT Tag Team Title Match

The build to this one has been… a thing. I think people are letting their love for Tony D’Angelo blind them to the fact that this entire storyline, and how it has played out, has been mind-numbingly stupid. You need a lot of suspension of disbelief when it comes to watching pro wrestling, but this has been excessive.

This was a fun, crowd-pleasing main show opener. It wasn’t anything that is going to be on year-end lists, but still fun. All four men had their opportunities to shine, but I want to give special kudos to Stacks. He has come a long way in a relatively short amount of time. When WWE had to release “Two Dimes” Donovan damn near as soon as he and Stacks were introduced to NXT, it looked like Stacks could’ve been dead in the water, but he has worked hard to improve and remain a key piece to one of NXT’s biggest storylines.

Again, this was fun, but nothing necessarily spectacular. 3.25 Stars, which is still pretty good.

Roxanne Perez vs Blair Davenport – “Weapons Wild” Match

The build to this has truly defined an “on sight” feud, with both women being attacked and the fights happening any and everywhere imaginable. Therefore, it makes complete sense that this match got underway immediately, without having to wait for any introductions and pageantry. I like it. It’s something different.

Roxanne’s mom and younger sister were in the front row, and I love what their presence added. It was already a personal feud, and that only amplified that. Davenport talking trash to Roxanne’s sister and making her cry was good heel work, reminiscent of when Sasha Banks made Bayley’s superfan, Izzy, cry at Takeover: Respect in 2015.

This was a good, WWE-style brawl. Obviously, you’re not going to see both women busted open and bleeding all over the place, but both Roxanne and Blair kept the proper level of physicality here. Lots of weapons were used, and both women looked strong here. It’s hard to ask for much more than that. 3.5 Stars

Gable Steveson vs Baron Corbin

This is easily one of the more highly anticipated debut matches in WWE history, and that means in wrestling history, in general.

A pretty noticeable “let’s go, Corbin” chant to start things off. Iiiiinteresting. Those chants were met with the dueling “Corbin sucks” chants, but the pro-Corbin ones were louder. That was immediately followed by boos when Steveson went on offense. I’m not sure what I was expecting from the crowd here, but Corbin being the clear