WWE NXT Review - April 19, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

NXT Tag Team Champions Pretty Deadly, Gibson & Drake and Legado del Fantasma Brawled; Joey Gacy Interrupted NXT Champion Bron Breakker

Pretty Deadly started out as jobbers in NXT UK but turned into an entertaining act once they won the NXT UK Tag Team Championship. Thus, I think they'll adjust perfectly fine to the NXT landscape and I thought this was a good first promo from them as champs. Legado and (the now former) Grizzled Young Veterans brawling with them was weird considering they're all heels, but it did set up their match for later on. Meanwhile, the brief Breakker and Gacy exchange didn't do anything for me, personally. All the hocus pocus with the screens flashing while Gacy taunted Breakker was just lame.

Tiffany Stratton def. Sarray

This feud has been fine but nothing special. The Stratton gimmick still sucks, but I have to give credit where it's due: she's actually improved in the ring in her last few matches, and obviously working with women more skilled than her such as Sarray has helped. This was a nice little match with a surprising finish. It made sense for Sarray to avenge her last loss to Stratton, but they must be high on Stratton if they're having her beat Sarray twice in a row. I fear what this might mean for Sarray's future on the brand.

Grayson Waller def. Sanga

Waller blamed Sanga for their failure to win the NXT Tag Team Championship last week and promptly fired him. How long did their working relationship last, three months? It was a bit too premature to break them up, but then again, I was never high on Waller having a bodyguard to begin with. Sanga isn't awful in the ring by any means, so this was passable. Waller winning was the right result.

Legado del Fantasma (Cruz Del Toro and Joaquin Wilde) def. Gibson and Drake

Zack Gibson and James Drake are the latest victims of names changes as they will now be known as simply Gibson and Drake going forward. Worse yet, it doesn't sound like they're going to be called Grizzled Young Veterans anymore, either. What a bummer. This was a solid match while it lasted, designed to give Legado a momentum-building win. Like with Sarray, I'm confident Gibson and Drake will be around for much longer.

Carmelo Hayes def. Santos Escobar

These two originally faced off last fall right before Hayes won the NXT North American Championship, so it was cool to see them run it back all these months later now that Hayes has evolved into the top talent he now is. As expected, they had a really well wrestled match with entertaining action. The mafia-looking dudes are obviously aligned with Tony D'Angelo, so it looks like we're headed for a faction war between Legado and whatever group of guys D'Angelo will be leading.

Natalya def. Tatum Paxley

I understand Natalya being in NXT will help the younger, lesser-experienced girls and it's cool that Cora Jade gets to work with one of her heroes, but I still can't bring myself to care because she's been the same character (face or heel) for over a decade. That said, this was better than expected with Paxley having a pretty decent showing. She's been making strides as of late on Level Up, so I hope she can continue to get better.

Xyon Quinn def. Wes Lee

I've talked time and time again how strange it was how Quinn disappeared from NXT TV following his feud with Escobar. I'm happy he's been getting more television time recently, but I hated how it came at the expense of Lee, who has huge potential as a singles star if NXT actually  bothered to get behind him. Unfortunately, I don't know how likely it is that he'll find success on his own. He attempted to battle back, but Quinn dominated a majority of this match and went over decisively in the end.

Roxanne Perez def. NXT Women's Tag Team Champion Jacy Jane

A well-produced video package that aired earlier in the evening hyped Perez's NXT debut as happening next week, but it was established in a backstage segment immediately after that she'd wrestle on this show instead. It was a rather basic bout that didn't get much time at all, but Perez looked impressive for as long as this lasted and the important thing is that she won. Granted, it was due to a distraction from Wendy Choo on the big screen, but at least Perez didn't lose her NXT debut.

NXT Tag Team Champions Pretty Deadly def. Duke Hudson and Dexter Lumis; NXT Champion Bron Breakker Agreed to Defend Against Joe Gacy at Spring Breakin'

It's cool that Pretty Deadly headlined the show for the second straight week and having the titles on the line upped the stakes, but this was a fairly standard match and not worthy of the main event slot. The storyline with Hudon, Lumis, Indi Hartwell and Persia Pirotta doesn't have my attention at the moment and Hudson and Lumis being reluctant tag partners won't change that. The show-closing angle with Gacy and Breakker was much worse, though. Whatever that was should not have made television.

Overall Show

It became apparent to me while watching this episode that with more and more people getting called up to Raw and SmackDown, NXT 2.0 is now even more of a developmental brand than it was a month or two ago. You'll still get gems like Escobar vs. Hayes here and there, but a majority of the show will be about building up talent. I'm all for creating stars and spotlighting fresh faces (like Perez for example), but it's not going to make these episodes all that exciting from week to week. On the bright side, only two matches have been announced for the Spring Breakin' episode in two weeks and those specials usually deliver, so I'm looking forward to that.

SEE MORE: NXT Reviews