4 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE NXT Stand & Deliver 2025 (Results & Review)
2. D’Angelo Drama
If you’re an NXT fan who watches for “the stories,” you probably were lapping up the D’Angelo Family drama with a ladle and now can’t wait until Tuesday for the follow-up.
But the mid-match drama between Tony D’Angelo and Channing “Stacks” Lorenzo was completely overdone. The tension was rooted in Stacks wanting to take more decisive action against DarkState, while Tony was exercising restraint and trying to play by the rules. When Stacks grabbed crowbars to wallop their adversaries, D’Angelo demurred, which nearly led to them losing.
After a near miscommunication spot, Tony D saved Stacks, hugged him, and turned his back to see if Stacks would hit him. But Lorenzo handed the crowbar to the referee… and kicked D’Angelo low. Luca Crusifino was nowhere to be seen during these closing moments, possibly clinically dead.
A mid-match heel turn is far from unprecedented, but this was dragged out for maximum drama and blew right past all acceptable levels into the so-bad-it’s-bad-for-straight-to-DVD drama. The match itself was fine – DarkState strung together a few nice group attacks to look more like a unit than three separate wrestlers - but the melodrama was just overdone.