WWE NXT Level Up Review - February 25, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

James Drake def. Xyon Quinn

Quinn has fallen far in the span of five months. He was quietly building momentum upon the relaunch of NXT and found television time in his feud with Santos Escobar, but he lost to him twice and hasn't been on NXT TV since then. Worse yet, he's been demoted to NXT's secondary show and he lost to a tag team guy who didn't need the win. Listen, I love Grizzled Young Veterans, but Drake isn't a singles star. Quinn is. The match itself was serviceable but nothing you'll remember tomorrow.

Elektra Lopez def. Sarray

Lopez is still very much a work in progress in the ring, but I don't think she's going to improve much unless she's put in the ring with wrestlers with more experience like Sarray. This never had a chance to be anything other than average because it was so short, but at least it wasn't bad, so there was that. Joaquin Wilde interfering from ringside cost Sarray the win, which genuinely shocked me. Weren't they just pushing her a few weeks ago? Why is Lopez being prioritized over her?

Joe Gacy and Harland def. Jacket Time

Are Gacy and Harland ever going to get some direction? I feel like I've seen more on 205 Live/Level Up the last month or two than I have on NXT TV. Yes, I wasn't fond of the gimmick initially and I'm not completely sold on it quite yet, but it's odd he went from being featured so prominently to barely being featured at all. At any rate, this was a fun tag team match while it lasted with a nice dynamic. I know Kushida wasn't pinned this week, but he's been an absolute loser lately and this did nothing to change that. I honestly wouldn't be shocked if he left the company when his contract comes due at some point.

Overall Show

What a weird show. I appreciated that they had more "star power" than usual with names NXT viewers will be familiar with, but the booking decisions were certainly strange. I wasn't expecting Drake to beat Quinn, Sarray losing to Lopez was a head-scratcher, and Kushida took another loss. On the bright side, the wrestling was a bit better than usual this week due to more established talents being in action, so that was a plus. Level Up is essentially NXT's version of Main Event and I'm fine with that provided that the wrestling continues to be decent.

SEE MORE: NXT Level Up Reviews