Every NXT 2023 Premium Live Event ranked from worst to best
Last time here on Vendetta Sports Media, we looked at every Premium Live Event WWE produced in 2023. However, Raw and Smackdown aren’t the only brands in the company that took part in big events this year, as it is time to turn our attention to NXT.
NXT had quite the year in 2023. WWE’s 3rd brand/developmental brand/whatever Triple H wants to call it whenever AEW gets brought up in conversation had its best year since before the COVID-19 pandemic. They didn’t try and relive the “black and gold era” and strayed as far away from the ‘2.0 era’ as humanly possible. In 2023. NXT managed to forge a new identity for itself that has led to a lot of buzz amongst fans.
This year, NXT produced six Premium Live Events, so without further ado, my name is Sam Palmer from Vendetta Sports Media, and this is every NXT Premium Live Event in 2023 ranked from worst to best!
6. Vengeance Day
The first Premium Live Event NXT was produced in 2023 and … it wasn’t great. The brand was still finding feet towards the end of 2022 with Halloween Havoc and Deadline, but sadly Vengeance Day was a step in the wrong direction.
Vengeance Day did start off with a great match between Dijak and Wes Lee for the North American Championship. It seemed like a sign of things to come for the rest of the show, but aside from Gallus winning the Tag Team Championships, nothing lived up to the show’s opener. Carmelo Hayes versus Apollo Crews, both women’s championship matches, and the Steel Cage match between Bron Breakker and Grayson Waller were all let-downs.
Like I said in the introduction, NXT did have a very good year, but once you watch Wes Lee and Dijak’s opener, switch it off. You won’t be missing much.
5. Stand & Deliver
From a show that had one match worth watching to a show with two matches worth watching. With WrestleMania 39 being a two-night show, NXT has been shifted to an afternoon event, making it the appetizer to Mania’s main course.
Some members of the brand tried to steal the entire weekend though. Johnny Gargano had an unsanctioned match with Grayson Waller that kept up his tradition of having one of the best matches on any given NXT event. Plus, the North American Championship five-way was a showcase of how promising the future of the brand, and WWE as a whole truly is.
Outside of these two matches, the women’s championship ladder match showed promise but ended up being a bit too clunky, and this is coming from someone who loves a good old-fashioned car crash ladder match.
Both tag team title matches simply aren’t worth watching, despite the talent involved. Carmelo Hayes winning the NXT Championship was the right decision, but the match leading up to it simply didn’t live up to the hype. Stand & Deliver was an event that showed promise, but unfortunately fell short.
4. Deadline:
NXT was riding a big wave of momentum going into its final Premium Live Event of the year, and it features perhaps WWE’s best gimmick match they’ve introduced in years: The Iron Survivor Challenge.
Combining the best elements of an Iron Man Match and a Championship Scramble (while also bringing in a penalty box for some reason), Deadline 2023 showcased a very good and excellent example of how good this match can be.
The women’s match saw Blair Davenport go the distance and produce a great piece of opportunistic wrestling as Tiffany Stratton did a lot of the heavy lifting. On the other hand, the men’s match turned Trick Williams into one of the biggest babyfaces on the entire roster, and clearly the next man to be NXT Champion.
Elsewhere on the show, Dragon Lee finally took the North American Championship away from Dominik Mysterio, and Ilja Dragunov somehow brought out the best of Baron Corbin. Even though Carmelo Hayes couldn’t make Lexis King interesting and the Roxanne Perez/Kiana James Steel Cage match didn’t deliver, this is a event was proof as to how far NXT has come over the last 12 months.
3. The Great American Bash:
Gable Stevenson should be nowhere near WWE. Please get Gable Stevenson away from WWE. Anyway, The Great American Bash takes the bronze medal in this countdown off the strength of its main event and the consistency that runs through the show.
Ilja Dragunov and Carmelo Hayes began their trilogy of incredible NXT Championship matches at this event, and if you ever needed a wrestler to help you fall back in love with this insane business, Dragunov is your guy. He threw everything at Carmelo in this bout and didn’t back down for a second, but it simply wasn’t his time.
The strength of the main event doesn’t mean it was a one-match show. Dominik Mysterio, Mustafa Ali and Wes Lee had an extremely entertaining Triple Threat match that was one of Dominik’s best performances as North American Champion. Roxanne Perez and Blair Davenport had a weapon-filled brawl that was a lot of fun, and even though the match with Thea Hail wasn’t the most spectacular, Tiffany Stratton is the future of the business.
Take Gable Stevenson and Baron Corbin off the show and replace it with virtually anything and the 2023 Great American Bash would be taken to the next level, so go and check it out if you haven’t already.
2. Battleground:
Looking back at NXT’s year, the turning point for the brand truly came at this show. By the end of May, it still had some of that “2.0” stink that prevented people from tuning in, but once people figured out that the brand was vastly different from two years earlier, it never looked back.
What better way to make people realise your brand has improved than by putting Ilja Dragunov and Dijak in a Last Man Standing match that was borderline uncomfortable to watch at times? How about Wes Lee, Joe Gacy and Tyler Bate (who is still in NXT somehow) putting in the groundwork for the brand’s midcard? Or maybe Tiffany Stratton and Lyra Valkyria going hell for leather over the NXT Women’s Championship?
WWE even doubled down on Carmelo Hayes as NXT Champion by having him beat Bron Breakker for the second Premium Live Event in a row, with their match being miles better than their bout at Stand & Deliver. Throw in Gallus versus The Creed Brothers, Dragon Lee versus Noam Dar, and you have easily one of the best events WWE has put on all year.
1. No Mercy:
On a different day, Battleground could have taken this position as both shows are excellent. However, No Mercy had that extra something about it that made me think it was worthy of topping this list. What was that something? A double main event that can stand up to some of the best double main events any company in the world has put on over the past few years.
Ilja Dragunov and Carmelo Hayes somehow topped their match at the Great American Bash with a bout that ended in Dragunov finally winning the NXT Championship, a move that fans around the world have been begging for since he moved to the United States. This was followed by an Extreme Rules match between Tiffany Stratton and Becky Lynch for the NXT Women’s Championship. Somehow it was less violent to me than Ilja and Carmelo, but the sight of Tiffany hanging in there with one of WWE’s greatest female performers of all time was truly a moment worthy of a main event.
Noam Dar and Pete “Butch” Dunne had a very fun Heritage Cup match, Trick Williams won his first piece of gold in NXT, and despite usually being the weakest point on the show for some reason, everything clicked when it came to the Tag Team Title four-way match. If Battleground was proof that NXT had turned a corner, No Mercy proved that the event wasn’t a fluke, it was a fact. Here’s to NXT 2024, a brand with its future ahead of them.
AND THAT IS THAT! What was your favorite NXT Premium Live Event of 2023? Let us know in the comments section below!
