WWE NXT Level Up Review - May 13, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Sanga def. Dante Chen

I legitimately thought Sanga was a goner after he was abruptly broken away from Grayson Waller last month. I mean, he still could be, but the fact he was in action on this show is at least a somewhat positive sign for his future. As for Chen, he's been losing a lot lately, and although I thought this might be his night, no such luck. They had a pretty basic bout with Sanga winning in around five minutes.

Elektra Lopez def. Thea Hail

Hail impressed me in her match with Sloane Jacobs on last week's episode. At only 18-years-old (or 19, I can't remember), she's still very inexperienced, but she has a good energy about her and has been able to hold her own the last two weeks. That's no easy feat when your opponent is Elektra Lopez. No offense to Lopez, but from the many matches we've seen her have since last year, she's just not very good. This was perfectly fine for what it was. That's all I could ask for from this one.

Trick Williams def. Javier Bernal

For a "main event" match, I don't think there was any mystery regarding who would win here. Yes, Bernal has been featured quite a bit on Level Up/205 Live in recent months, but we know absolutely nothing about his character, whereas Williams has become an entertaining hype man for Carmelo Hayes and is on NXT TV almost every single week. To his credit, he's been improving in the ring and that was evident in this outing. His finisher looked especially devastating.

Overall Show

Another week, another average edition of Level Up. The bar is such that if we don't get any abysmal matches, then the show gets a thumbs-up from me. Yes, it's a far cry from what we were getting on 205 Live years ago from an in-ring standpoint, but you can't expect instant classics from people who are just beginning their wrestling careers. All three of these matches being decent makes this a decent show, at least by Level Up standards.

SEE MORE: NXT Level Up Reviews