This week's episode of NXT started off with the NXT Cruiserweight Championship match with Drew Gulak defending against Lio Rush. I'm hoping they get a new belt to reflect the name change. Anyhow, this was a fun 3.5 style bout with a nice mix and clash of styles here with Gulak doing his ground & pound bit while Lio Rush is fast and agile as all hell. The match had some nice physical action, Rush sold Gulak's offense well and looked resilient taking most of his best shots. You could sense that the title was gonna change hands when the match was announced last week and that's what happened here as Lio Rush becomes NXT Cruiserweight Champion. I've said for a long time the Cruiserweight Division should've just been part of NXT to begin with as it'll simply be appreciated more under the NXT umbrella.

They showed a few cool video packages on Finn Balor and Tegan Nox afterward. I haven't had much of a chance to see much of Nox's work, I'd heard good things about her before she was injured during the second Mae Young Classic and I'm interested in seeing what she can do. Balor coming back to NXT may seem like a step down but with WWE's creative quality being such a crapshoot, maybe it's for the best as you at least know he'll be used in quality ways in NXT.

Rhea Ripley vs. Aaliyah was a less than 90 second squash, which is all it needed to be. Ripley looks great and comes off like a star, and props to Aaliyah for selling the hell out of that Cloverleaf that Ripley put her in. Ripley got on the mic and essentially called out Baszler, which works just fine for me as I think whey'll wind up clashing at TakeOver: WarGames.

Breezango vs. the Forgotton Sons was originally supposed to be Breezango vs. Ever Rise but the Sons took them out. The match was only about 4 minutes long and I figured it was a 2.5 star effort. Neither team feels like an upper tier level team, so this was fine for me with the Sons getting the win.

They show a brief video package of Keith Lee, and one of Dominik Dijacovic later on in the show, with each man hyping their rubber match on NXT next week with each promising victory. They've had really fun matches and, after this, I think they need to cool it and not run it into the ground.

Boa vs. Cameron Grimes barely gets stated before Grimes delivers standing double stomp. This makes the 2nd or 3rd time they've done that, which the move does look pretty cool, though I'm not sure I'm sold on Grimes.

Roderick Strong vs. Isaiah "Serve" Scott was a really fun 3.75 star outing. Some nice, hard hitting physical action here as Scott looled strong against the North American Champion, so much that Strong needed a little distraction from the UE to break Scott's momentum at the end. The match went about the 10.5 minute mark. I'm wondering if they may have some plans for Scott in the future as he's really over with the fans and is fun to watch.

Velveteen Dream interrupts the Undisputed Era's celebration in the ring with his usual double entendre. He makes a challenge for the NXT North American Championship, which is later confirmed for two weeks time, and shows a picture of Strong nude lying on a sofa with the championship covering his junk, only for Dream to digitally remove the title and showing what's meant to be a blurred micro penis which, as expected, infuriates Strong.

Tommaso Ciampa then comes out dragging a crutch behind him and packing a steel chair, so the UE clears the ring with Ciampa addressing Cole by simply saying "Goldie? Daddy's home" and the crowd cheers. Afterwards, Angel Garza is backstage hitting on the female interviewer who is waiting for Ciampa, only for Garza to poke fun at Ciampa's looks in Spanish before being laid out. Garza is a talented, charismatic kid who my 13 year old niece thinks is luscious, which of course means he's a rotten son of a bitch and I want Ciampa to rip out his liver and eat it.

Dakota Kai vs. Bianca Belair was a fun 3.25 star outing for the ladies. It was more competitive than I was expecting and I was a little surprised to see Bianca pick up the win here. Dakota is over and comes off as generally more serious since her return, so maybe they're just waiting for another time for her. After all, she did just recently get back. The match was a little choppy in a couple of spots but the ladies worked hard and the fans were into it. Bianca hits her KOD finisher for the win around the 10.5 minute mark. Bianca gets on the mic and addresses Rhea Ripley's comments earlier, stating that if she wants a shot at Shayna Baszler, she has to go through her. Ripley vs. Belair could be a really fun, physical #1 contenders match. I'd rather they went down that road rather than a triple threat against Baszler.

They show some video featuring comments from Damien Priest & Pete Dunne, setting up a match between them for next week. I'm not totally sold on the Damien Priest gimmick, but he does look comfortable in it and it's got more depth to it than just him being this one dimensional destroyer such as he was in his Punishment Martinez days.

Kushida vs. Walter as a great, phsycal, hard hitting 4.25 star bout that pretty much cemented my like for Walter. When I first saw the guy in NXT UK, I wasn't all that impressed but I have to admit that I've become a genuine fan after seeing all these great matches he's had against Pete Dunne, Trent Sevel, Tyler Bate and now Kushida. The match took a few minutes to get going but once it got going, things were just super. Kushida looked tough taking Walter's big offense while Walter also looked resilient managing to get out of Kushida's submission attempts, usually by brute force. Basically, for about 17 minutes they hit each other with just about all they've got before Walter hits the big powerbomb, which still doesn't finish off Kushida. Walter then picks him up and delivers a big ripcord lariat that puts him down, which is a tactic we've seen Walter do before and it adds a nice bit of spice to his matches: when he can't finish a guy off after hitting everything, he just hits a big, nasty clothesline.

So next week's show will feature the rubber match of Keith Lee vs. Dominik Dijacovic, Tommaso Ciampa vs. Angel Garza and I think Pete Dunne vs. Damien Priest.

As with AEW, this week's NXT wasn't quite as good as last week's though it was still a good show. I still give NXT the nod this week, though it's a closer race this week with NXT getting a B-. Again, another Wednesday night of quality wrestling all in all.