4 Ups And 4 Downs From WWE NXT DEADL1NE

UPS…

4. Kiana James Gets Some Shine

WWE NXT Deadline Roxanne Perez Kianna James
WWE.com

One thing you can do in a multi-person match is get multiple people over with the fans.

Roxanne Perez won the first Women’s Iron Survivor Challenge at DEADL1NE, but Kiana James got a chance to stand out a bit Saturday night too. James was the only one to not score a single pinfall in the match, but she had some of the more impressive moments.

James and Zoey Stark were brawling outside the ring when Stark tried to whip Kiana into the barricade. Kiana jumped to the top of the barricade and hit a moonsault press off it onto Zoey, which was the first time she really went for a highspot like that. She later nailed a Spanish Fly on Stark, with Cora Jade trying to steal the pinfall.

While you can’t really call it a breakthrough performance, you can tell that James is certainly athletic. She’s still very early in her career – her Cagematch profile has fewer than 50 matches – and she’s still learning, but it was good to see flashes of something that could blossom.

Advertisement
Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.