NXT Battleground 2024: A Small Room, a Big TNA Door, and Six Good Reasons to Keep Watching

The opening ladder match asks six wrestlers with varying levels of experience to create both spectacle and a championship's origin story in twelve minutes. That is an ambitious assignment, and the match occasionally looks like one. Ladders need positioning, bodies need waiting, and a few transitions advertise cooperation more clearly than intended.

The strengths are equally obvious. Lash Legend gives the field a power anchor, Jaida Parker brings physical charisma, and Sol Ruca repeatedly finds ways to turn the ladder environment into extensions of her athletic offense. Her Sol Snatchers on Parker and Henley are the cleanest highlights, while the group toss that sends Legend onto a bridged ladder gives the match the necessary major crash.

Jordan's split-legged moonsault onto Michin across a ladder creates the final opening, and she climbs to become the first champion. The ending is a little sudden, but the choice is excellent. NXT uses a new championship to create a new accomplishment for a developing wrestler instead of simply handing another belt to the most established name.

Axiom and Nathan Frazer versus The O.C. is built around a clean stylistic contrast. The champions want pace, springboards and rapid tags; Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson want to slow the match, isolate Axiom and turn experience into control. The structure is familiar enough that the match never needs explanation.

The challengers' best work comes when they use size and timing to interrupt the champions rather than trying to match their speed. Gallows' chokeslam to Frazer on the apron and Anderson's top-rope fireman's-carry cutter create legitimate near falls, while Axiom's sleeper on Gallows provides a clever reversal of the usual power dynamic. The champions gradually turn every slowdown into another acceleration.

Axiom's super Spanish Fly and Frazer's Phoenix Splash finish Anderson in a sequence that feels decisive rather than stolen. The match does not reinvent tag wrestling, but it gives the champions another credible defense against recognizable veterans. That is useful work even if nobody will build a Battleground retrospective around it.

Vice and Baszler benefit from a stipulation that fits their backgrounds instead of asking them to pretend a wrestling ring has suddenly become a real fight. The ropes are removed, wrestlers surround the platform, and victory comes by knockout or submission. Inside the UFC Apex, the presentation has a natural visual logic.

Baszler controls the most convincing grappling sequences, attacking limbs and using the Kirifuda Clutch as a genuine finishing threat. Vice works better when she stays aggressive rather than theatrical, especially during the kneebar sequence and the mounted strikes near the finish. The fight occasionally feels too arranged around its set pieces, but neither woman looks uncomfortable inside the concept.

Vice's spinning backfist leads to the mounted strikes that produce the technical knockout. The finish gives her a major victory without requiring Baszler to submit, and the ten-minute runtime keeps the Underground concept from becoming self-important. It is a good specialty match that understands its own limits.

The triple threat works because all three wrestlers have an obvious function. Wes Lee supplies speed and desperation, Joe Coffey gives Oba Femi another heavyweight body to confront, and Femi remains the gravitational center whenever he enters an exchange. The match never forgets that the champion's size is the central problem everyone else must solve.

Lee creates the most urgent near fall when he lands the Cardiac Kick on Coffey, only for Mark Coffey to pull the referee from the ring. Gallus interference threatens to overwhelm the match, but Lee immediately attacks the outside participants and restores movement. The chaos serves the triple-threat format without making the champion disappear from his own defense.

Femi returns to powerbomb Coffey twice and retain. The finish is simple after a crowded final sequence, which is exactly what it needs. Femi looks less like a developing prospect with every appearance and more like a performer NXT will eventually need to find larger opponents for.

Perez versus Grace begins with a visual argument that does most of the setup. Grace is the stronger visiting champion and carries herself like someone who expects physical control; Perez is smaller, faster and far more comfortable finding opportunistic counters. The match quickly becomes a question of whether Perez can survive long enough to turn one of Grace's power advantages against her.

Grace's Kinniku Buster and power sequences establish the danger, while Perez keeps attacking from angles that prevent the match from becoming a prolonged showcase for the challenger. The crossface sequence and roll-up counter are especially useful because they make the champions look technically competitive rather than simply representative of different promotions. The crowd treats the matchup as important before either company needs to tell it why.

The ringside involvement is the one real blemish. Tatum Paxley attempts to steal the TNA Knockouts World Championship, Ash by Elegance intervenes, and Grace wipes both women out before returning to the ring. Perez then counters the Grace Driver into Pop Rox for the retention. The distraction gives Grace protection, but the match had earned enough credibility to survive without it.

Even with the busy finish, this is the event's most important and best match. It validates the WWE-TNA experiment competitively, gives Perez a substantial defense and makes Grace look completely at home on an NXT premium event. The crossover succeeds because the wrestling is better than the novelty.

Trick Williams versus Ethan Page has the burden of main-eventing a card whose biggest novelty and best wrestling have already happened. Page debuted only days earlier, so the match cannot lean on months of emotional history. Instead, it works from Page's veteran confidence and Trick's growing comfort as the face of NXT.

Page's Border Toss provides the strongest near fall, and his control segments make sense because the story asks him to look like an experienced outsider who has skipped the usual developmental queue. Trick's comebacks are crowd-friendly and direct, but the match never reaches the intensity that would make Page's instant title opportunity feel inevitable. Twelve minutes is enough to establish the matchup and not enough to transform it.

Page argues with the referee, attacks in the corner and creates the opening for Trick Shot. Williams retains cleanly, then celebrates with Sexyy Red as the show ends. The result is correct for Battleground and incomplete by design; Page remains in the title picture and wins the championship at Heatwave a month later.