wrestling / TV Reports
Pantoja’s WWE NXT 2.0 Review 12.21.21
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December 21st, 2021 | Capitol Wrestling Center in Orlando, Florida
After missing last week’s review, I’m back to a mixed reaction and scattered “welcome back” chants.
The show began with Tommaso Ciampa in the ring for some promo time. He immediately called out Bron Breakker and put him over for making a statement at TakeOver. He feels Breakker earned a shot on a big stage like New Year’s Evil but reminded Bron of the last time they wrestled. Bron has all the tools but he’s inexperienced and Ciampa exposed that last time. He got too aggressive with his words and mocking how the Steiner family with react before slapping Bron. The challenger responded by hoisting him up for a press slam that Ciampa was scared of. Bron let him down and handed him the title, adding a cheesy line about the shark smelling blood. That worked to open the show.
INSTAGRAM ~ Grayson Waller dissed AJ Styles randomly and the Phenomenal One is here tonight.
Street Fight: Dakota Kai vs. Raquel Gonzalez
This began even before commercial as Kai attempted to run Raquel over with a cart backstage. I appreciated, as always, that both women wore street clothes for this. Raquel quickly overpowered her and threw her around, including swinging her into a steel structure. The ride she took into a grate looked particularly vicious. The fight moved outside for a bit and then finally towards the ring after a commercial. Props to Dakota, who sold everything like death. She took a shot from the top of the announce table gimmick and sold that flimsy thing like a gunshot. Dakota got in some bits of offense but it was mostly one-sided as she just took big bumps. The powerbomb on the steps was also violent. A Chingona Bomb on a trash can inside ended this in 5:44. A hard match to rate as most of the action came beforehand. Still, it was a little too one-sided for my taste (and another Dakota loss). It gets a boost for Kai’s efforts. [***]
Post-match, Raquel called out Mandy Rose and demanded her rematch. Instead, she got Cora Jade. Careful Raquel, Cora destroyed Darby Allin on Twitter by going for the jugular. Cora basically said she was getting a title shot first. Mandy Rose interrupted via the tron while sporting a bikini. She said there will be a triple threat at New Year’s Evil and then had the rest of Toxic Attraction jump the girls.
Joe Gacy and Harland issued an apology after we got a clip of Harland yeeting Brian Kendrick down the stairs last week. They didn’t actually apologize though, saying Kendrick called Harland a freak.
The Grizzled Young Veterans complained about the Creed Brothers while looking at their Instagram videos.
After finding out that their match was canceled (what is this, the Total Divas premiere?), Persia and Indi got into it with Grayson Waller, who bragged about running Johnny Gargano out of NXT.
Creed Brothers vs. Grizzled Young Veterans
There was potential here but this was just a really bland match. The Creed Brothers did a few interesting tandem moves before the focus was taken away by Jacket Time. They showed up with a table and did color commentary in Japanese. After a break, Brooks and Jensen also came out for some distraction efforts. What is this? Everyone ended up arguing outside and brawling for a DQ finish in 10:41. I wanted to like that but it was a mess. That’s not how you build intrigue for the division. [*½]
Trick Williams and Carmelo Hayes were interviewed in the back. I’m pretty sure Trick threatened to put Dexter Lumis’s thumb up his own ass. Weird threat, but okay.
Backstage, Legado del Fantasma argued with Zoey Stark or something and Io Shirai defended her, setting up Io vs. Elektra Lopez.
Dexter Lumis vs. Trick Williams
As is the case with most Lumis matches, this one didn’t do much for me. He’s a fun little character but once the bell rings, I lose interest. In that way, he’s a lot like Bray Wyatt or mid-‘90s Undertaker. The most interesting thing to happen was Roderick Strong showing up to fight with Carmelo Hayes. After a mostly dull match, Lumis won with the Silence in 5:44. It happened. [*¾]
Grayson Waller attacked Lumis after the match. This man is really in 90% of the segments. Perfectly timed, AJ Styles arrived at the arena to confront him. After a break, we returned to Waller dissing the fans with generic cheap heat. It felt like the kind of promo you cut during the break to piss off fans but it actually aired. Anyway, AJ and him traded barbs, with AJ feeling like Waller copied him in some ways and saying he’s not as impressive as other young NXT stars. He wanted to fight now but Waller backed off and said he’d let Omos handle him first.
Diamond Mine issued a challenge of Strong vs. Hayes, Title vs. Title for New Year’s Evil.
We got another vignette of Riddle mentoring MSK, complete with him comparing being in a tag team to riding a scooter. It’s the typical fun from these three.
Edris Enofe vs. Von Wagner
I still don’t get why Von Wagner get pushed. Never mind apparently as he’s already the victim of the jobber upset as Enofe rolled him up to win in 0:57. Wagner beat him up after the bell to get heat. This is bad WWE booking in a nutshell. [NR]
Imperium got some promo time and they seemed to suggest that MSK are getting a title shot. I guess it’s their rematch but I thought those were a thing of the past. They also oddly teased a Riddle/WALTER match. Their PROGRESS stuff ruled.
Elektra Lopez vs. Io Shirai
Xyon Quin is apparently following Legado del Fantasma. You could tell who was on which part of the totem pole in this match. Though Lopez isn’t a jobber, Shirai was clearly the one in control who was getting the bulk of the offense and meant to look like a star. What is she still doing in NXT? Quin jumped the male LDF members and then presented Lopez with a mistletoe. With all of that going on, Io had the door opened to win with a moonsault in 4:04. For someone who is clearly more important than her opponent, Io needed a lot for that lame finish. [*½]
Brian Kendrick in a next brace cut a promo to say that he resigned as a coach and will face Harland next week. Considering his injury, shouldn’t he wait more than just a week?
Pete Dunne vs. Tony D’Angelo
There’s potential here as Dunne is fantastic and D’Angelo has shown himself to be very good so far. I’m low on time so I’ll do a really quick review here. This was a quality back and forth match that only added to how clear D’Angelo’s skills are. However, I do feel like Dunne is really not someone WWE has used to his full potential since his UK Title run. Tony found himself in trouble and went for his crowbar but got cut off. Dunne snapped at the fingers and won with the Bitter End after a solid 11:53. That was good wrestling and not much more unfortunately. [**¾]
After the match, Tony laid him out and crushed his hand with the crowbar.
