WWE NXT New Year's Evil Review - January 4, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

NXT North American Champion Carmelo Hayes def. NXT Cruiserweight Champion Roderick Strong in a Title Unification Match

I knew this would be a terrific match going in given who was involved and they did not disappoint. Strong often doesn't get the credit he deserves for being one of the very best out there today while Hayes is a tremendous talent and is an absolute star. These two killed it in the opener as only they could and ended the lineage of the Cruiserweight title on a high note. That division has been dead for a while, so it was only appropriate that it was finally retired. I appreciate that it was merged with the North American title and not simply forgotten about like in 2007.

Grayson Waller Agreed to Face AJ Styles Next Week

The timing of this couldn't be worse following Styles' clean loss to Omos on Monday's Raw. That isn't to say Styles feels like a loser, but he really should mean more than he does at the moment. Still, he's a welcome presence on this program and the crowd was hot for him. He spoke about regretting not going to NXT first when he joined WWE six years ago and how he's never had a singles match on the brand before. That will change next week when he goes one-on-one with Waller. This was a perfectly fine exchange to set it up and I hope Waller can benefit from working with Styles. So far, more people have definitely gotten to know who he is, so that's a plus if nothing else.

Raw Tag Team Champion Riddle and MSK def. Imperium (WALTER and NXT Tag Team Champions Marcel Barthel and Fabian Aichner)

Riddle being back in an NXT ring after almost two years was wild. WALTER being back in NXT for the first time since losing the NXT United Kingdom Championship to Ilja Dragunov at TakeOver 36 was wild. Hell, Riddle and WALTER going at it was wild as I remember a match they had at a PROGRESS event I attended in August 2017 being the first time I was exposed to both men. This was a blast of a bout and it was nothing but action from start to finish. Everyone looked excellent here. The babyfaces winning made sense to get MSK another step closer toward regaining the NXT Tag Team Championship, but it was implied later on in the night that they'll have to win the men's Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic again to get another shot. As for WALTER, it's possible he stays put in NXT from this point forward, but I wouldn't rule out the possibility of him being called up to the main roster starting at the Royal Rumble.

NXT Women's Champion Mandy Rose def. Cora Jade and Raquel Gonzalez in a Triple Threat Match

NXT's women's division still has a ton of talent in it, but it's sad that it's clearly fallen off from where it was even a year ago. A lot of women have either been called up, released or both. We've gotten a few fresh faces and women like Toxic Attraction have done well, but the turnover hasn't been as strong for the most part. That said, I thought this was a quality Triple Threat. It was easily the weakest match on the show, but all three women played their roles well and it was possible for any one of them to win. The way Rose won came off as anticlimactic for whatever reason, but her retaining was the right call. Expect Gonzalez to be moved to Raw or SmackDown relatively soon because I'm not sure what's left for her to do in NXT beyond challenging for the championship again in a one-on-one match and losing.

​Von Wagner Attacked Andre Chase

Everything NXT does with these two men continues to make zero sense to me. It's a shame they couldn't devote this time to someone else because this segment sucked and was the worst part of the entire episode. Chase is a goof and should be getting his ass kicked, but Wagner's a heel as well, so I have no clue who the crowd was supposed to get behind here. Von Wagner not only attacked Chase but a few of his students as well. In short, this was a waste. Von Wagner is garbage.

Bron Breakker def. Tommaso Ciampa to Win the NXT Championship

This managed to be even better than their original encounter at Halloween Havoc. I'm sure I've said this before, but it's scary where Breakker's level of development is for someone who only started wrestling full-time a year ago. He barely has any matches under his belt yet knocks it out of the park every time. This was a wonderful main event and Ciampa kicking out of Breakker's powerslam finisher at one point legitimately made me think he'd retain. Instead, they stayed the course as they should have and Breakker tapped out Ciampa with the Steiner Recliner for the victory. The torch has officially been passed and he's the perfect choice to be carrying it into this new era of NXT.

Overall Show

Say what you will about NXT 2.0 (and there's a lot that can be said), but since the relaunch, they've done an awesome job with the live specials. WarGames was superb and New Year's Evil was on the same level as Halloween Havoc. All four matches delivered and felt big time. Even the Waller and Styles segment was what it needed to be and set up a major match for next week. My only nitpick was the stupid segment with Wagner and Chase, but this was a stellar show otherwise. NXT absolutely is not what it used to be and there are a lot of rough spots with the show most weeks, but at least we can count on these special episodes to be enjoyable whenever they decide to do them.

SEE MORE: NXT Reviews