Mason Rook put pen to paper last week and signed his NXT contract, but it was what happened before he signed on the dotted line that has people talking. After cutting a solid promo announcing that he was the best “any-weight” in NXT, the NXT Champion Tony D’Angelo arrived on the scene to have a little chat with the British big man who landed brutal moonsaults on him the previous two weeks. After Kam Hendrix, who was recently promoted from Evolve attacked Tony from behind, Rook took flight again, this time taking out not only Tony and Kam who were brawling on the floor, but also a host of inept security guards that were supposed to be keeping order in the Performance Center.

Later in the evening, it was announced that Rook and Hendrix would be making their NXT in-ring debuts against the brand’s top two champions, NXT Champ Tony D’Angelo and North American Champ, Myles Borne. A week after a brawl broke out among the Women’s North American Champion, Tatum Paxley and three women who have gold in their sights, NXT kicked off with an intense tag team match last week. Tatum teamed up with newcomer Lizzy Rain to take on Nikkita Lyons and her partner Zaria, who was none too thrilled to find herself in a tag team match so soon after her previous team with Sol Ruca came to an end. At a crucial point in the match, as Nikkita reached out to make a tag, Zaria dropped off the ring apron and left her partner to a 2-on-1 disadvantage. It was only a matter of time after that Lizzy Rain hit Lyons with Thunderstruck and picked up the win for her team. Later in the evening, as Tatum and Lizzy celebrated, Paxley decided she wanted to start giving out title shots again to women she feels are deserving.

One of the main story threads of NXT the past few months has been the ever-growing tension in the faction known as DarkState. After losing the tag team titles a few months ago and coming up short in multiple North American Title matches since, it seemed as though the young group was headed towards a breakup. Dion Lennox emerged as a potential standout in the singles ranks, and his insistence on attaining gold for himself didn’t set well with Saquon Shugars. After weeks of proof that Lennox and Shugars had different visions for how their group should move forward, things seemed to be a bit more optimistic when the other two members of the group, Cutler James and Osiris Griffin defeated Hank & Tank a few weeks ago. Defeating former tag team champions like the Belly Boys seemed to position James and Griffin for a tag team title match against the Vanity Project, and Lennox and Shugars both seemed to come together to support their DarkState brothers. Cutler then flipped the script though when he informed Dion and Saquon that they would be the ones fighting for the tag team championships this week on NXT.