WWE NXT Level Up Review - October 21, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Myles Borne def. Ikemen Jiro

I'm all for fresh matchups, but this had an odd dynamic. Jiro is beloved by this crowd and Borne has gradually been getting over as of late, so why force the crowd to choose between them? That said, Jiro is a good person for any newcomer to work with because he's so skilled and has a connection with the audience. They had a fairly basic bout, but Borne extending his winning streak was encouraging.

Duke Hudson def. Bryson Montana

These two unsuccessfully teamed up last week on Level Up. In fact, Hudson walked out on Montana at the end, so I appreciated that they followed up on that here. Hudson is actually coming off an appearance on this week's edition of WWE Main Event, where he lost to Cedric Alexander. I've always been impressed by what he can do, but as many have argued, he definitely comes off as generic. This was basically a glorified squash for Hudson and I have no complaints about it not being more competitive.

Andre Chase def. Javier Bernal

As I've said before, Bernal has been far better off as a heel in recent weeks than he ever was as a babyface. Of course, he needs a lot more development, but this is an improvement. He was a nice foil for Chase, who is a massive fan favorite with this audience. It's well-documented that I'm no fan of the Chase U crap, but even I can admit that this was a solid main event that could have gone either way.

Overall Show

Interesting to note that there were no women in action on the show this week (though Thea Hail was in Chase's corner for the main event). That has to be a first for Level Up, right? This will never be a "must-see" program by any means, but by Level Up standards, this was a serviceable show. The main event had its moments, the middle match was what it needed to be, and the opener was fine. Nothing egregiously bad here at all.

SEE MORE: NXT Level Up Reviews