Tyler Bate vs. Wes Lee

[8.0] "Not on the same level as their triple threat match with Joe Gacy at NXT Battleground (2023), but it's still a really good match between them both and Ali as special guest referee served it's purpose to build up their eventual clash along with Dirty Dom over the belt at NXT The Great American Bash (2023)."

[6.0] "The guest referee stipulation definitely put a ceiling on how good this could be, but for what they were intending to achieve I think this was about as good as it could have been - it just isn't a very appealing gimmick the majority of the time. I'd be interested to see a rematch without the stipulation."

[6.0] "Pretty solid action but something felt off to me, Ali just having fun as the ref seemed weird and I know it was for the story but seemed like it had too much focus on him. Then wasn't a fan of the finish."

[8.0] "Quite a fun match, I liked how Mustafa did as the special guest ref, was a fun X-Factor in the match, compared to when Jeff Jarrett was just there at Summerslam last year."

[7.0] "Well, it was a special match, it was special, you can tell that Ali wanted to cause enmity or something like that, the match was very entertaining and with a lot of psychology, very strange, but it was nice, it was an experiment that turned out well for my taste."

"Very solid match in terms of storytelling. Alis developments and the way Bate/Lee interacted with him were very entertaining. I would, however, love to see a pure 1v1 match with Bate and Lee where the chains are off."

[2.0] "This match is one of those bizarre examples where relatively long length of the match that was filled with decent in-ring action was used as an attempt to cover up for an atrocious booking, because it really was all about Mustafa Ali's involvement as the referee - he took the spotlight in the beginning which created anticipation of non-sense to come every step of the way, it obviously made all of the action completely irrelevant because of THAT finish, and then there was no conclusive payoff, Bate and Lee were staring at each other like they were looking for someone's permission to do something about what happened. Bate worked down to Lee's level which set the ceiling of expectations for what they would do, but that's whatever."

[7.0] "A good fight overall, and although I expected more from these two, I think they deliver quite well and with Mustafa Ali as referee it's not bad at all."

[7.0] "While this was an entertaining match, I'm not a huge fan of special guest referees. Unfortunately, Ali in this role holds this back a little bit for me. Hopefully these two are able to run it back and the future, and I would love to see all three of these guys face off in a Triple Threat as well."

[7.0] "Very good match. Going in, I was scared of an Ali heel turn. And as soon as he started doing the fast and slow counts, I was getting ready for the worst. Turns out, it was more of a fake out than anything. They had a very good competitive match. The action was good and looked believable. Everything made sense. My only big issue was how short it was. I was expecting it to go at least 5 more minutes. The finish with Ali stepping in is probably gonna lead to a one-on-one between him and Tyler. 7/10. ***1/2"

[6.0] "What should have been a very good North American Title match between Wes Lee and Tyler Bate was instead more about what the referee would do. Mustafa Ali's antics were distracting, acting biased in favor of Bate with fast counts for him and slow counts for Wes, leaving them both baffled. The match picked up when Ali was not drawing attention to himself, leading to some good, quick action. Unfortunately, Ali did get involved in the finish, preventing Wes from being counted out and getting in Bate's way as he was hit with a Kardiak Kick. As a match, this was pretty disappointing. This probably leads to a triple threat at some point. 6.5/10"

[6.0] "Ali going full bad ref Nick Patrick style for the first half was a strange story telling choice and took me out of this. Should have been a straight forward banger but was more of an angle as match to further the Ali/Wes/Tate triangle."

[7.0] "I left this match a bit disappointed. I found the stuff with Ali as referee took away from the match more than it added to it. By no means a bad match but one I could say I had a bit of higher expectation for considering the two talents involved. Wes at this point is still having the best NA title reign to date. 6.5"

[7.0] "Good match between Wes and Tyler they worked Ali as the special guest referee kind of discounted this match but Ali was hilarious with how serious he was. He is most likely either turning heel or he's just going to have match against Wes. He should win but Wes should put on a banger against Ali, but I'm on board with Ali becoming the new north American champion man is great."

[9.0] "This match was very good and fast and the performance of both wrestlers was excellent and we saw a varied and interesting match."

[6.0] "Fine match that would have been better if it wasn't tied down by having Mustafa Ali as the referee, leading most people to think he'd turn. Thankfully he didn't, and Wes Lee retained, continuing the current best reign by a male champion in NXT."

[8.0] "Very fresh opener between Bate and Lee right here which was extremely entertaining between two excellent workers who instantly clicked together as we'd already seen in Battleground's opening match with Gacy, here it was really very solid and on top of that with Mustafa Ali in the mix as the special referee, he did a good job to keep the rivalry going. Bate and Lee are capable of even better, it was relatively short but we were still blessed with some really cool content, both have styles that blend so well and we saw it."