Oba Femi forced NXT to reshuffle things as he was called up to the main roster. The Ruler left the NXT Title in the middle of the ring at New Year’s Evil, and a multi-man ladder match was later booked to determine the new champion.
All of this went down during the February 3 episode of NXT. When everything was said and done, the NXT Title had a new owner.
WWE booked several qualifying matches over the last couple of weeks to determine who would be in this ladder match. Then Joe Hendry made it a seven-man match when he was jumped before his qualifying contest.
In the end, Ricky Saints, Shiloh Hill, Sean Legacy, Jackson Drake, Dion Lennox, Keanu Carver, and Joe Hendry competed in the multi-man ladder match. As expected, this match was the main event of the night as Ricky Saints came out first before they cut to commercial break.
This match was chaos from the beginning. Everyone was all over the ring as violence erupted on every corner of the screen. Keanu Carver had a chance to show off early, as did Shiloh Hill. Pretty soon, ladders were introduced into the mix. Then Ricky Saints got to do his own version of Old School before Joe Hendry got into the situation with some ladder shots all around.
This was insane, as Keanu Carver ripped a ladder apart, and then Shiloh Hill used the pieces of the ladder as stilts to walk his way to the title. That didn’t work, but fans were still left chanting, “this is awesome.”
Eventually, everyone in the match pulled every ladder under the ring, and they buried Keanu Carver to keep him down. Then Shiloh Hill put a ladder on his head in the middle of the ring, and he pulled off a Terry Funk helicopter spot. The match kept going from there, as everyone was battling to grab the title hanging above the ring.
Eventually, there were four hands on the title at one time. Then Dion Lennox was the last man on the ladder. Suddenly, Joe Hendry jumped up and grabbed him to smash the DarkState leader’s face off the ladder. Then Keanu Carver woke up and he started destroying everyone. Ricky Saints started climbing the ladder, but Carver jumped up to battle him while standing on another ladder.
In the end, Keanu Carver was pushed off the ladder and he went smashing through another ladder that was bridged at ringside. Before Ricky could get to the title, Joe Hendry climbed up and grabbed the title, which was unhooked. Ricky and Joe hung off the title until Hendry knocked Saints off, sending him crashing through another ladder. Then Joe Hendry held up the NXT Title as the new champion.
We will have to see what is next for the NXT Title. It is in new hands tonight, so only time will tell if the new champion will leave the legacy that Oba Femi left.
What’s your take on how the NXT Title ladder match turned out? Do you think that they went with the right move? Let us know what you think in the comments section!