WWE NXT Review - August 9, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Nikkita Lyons def. Kiana James

​It was revealed on Monday's Raw that Lyons and Zoey Stark will be one of the teams competing in the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship Tournament and I liked how they addressed that with a brief video prior to this bout. I'm not a big fan of either of these women, but to their credit, they had a fine match. NXT officials are clearly high on Lyons and I'd bet anything that she's being built up to eventually take the NXT Women's Championship off of Mandy Rose.

Wes Lee def. Trick Williams in a Rounds Match

This feud has had some Rocky themes to it, and while I applaud their attempt to go out of the box, mixing wrestling with MMA/boxing rarely ever works and it didn't here. Maybe others felt differently, but I personally couldn't get into it. It doesn't help that Williams has mostly been a lackey for Carmelo Hayes up to this point and hasn't racked up any wins. Hopefully we get Lee challenging Carmelo Hayes for the NXT North American Championship out of this.

Giovanni Vinci Confronted NXT North American Champion Carmelo Hayes

Hayes stuck around following Williams' loss and was quickly interrupted by Vinci, who nearly challenged Hayes for the North American title last week before Nathan Frazer hit the ring first for the open challenge. NXT has done a lot of these heel vs. heel matches this year, but both of these guys are great, so I'm willing to excuse it. Vinci has star potential and may very well be the one to beat Hayes for the belt, freeing up Hayes to finally enter NXT Championship contention.

Arianna Grace def. Thea Hail

Apparently Hail hit Grace in the eye with a baseball when her and Bodhi Hayward were having a catch on the quad. Yes, it's as ridiculous as it sounds. The Chase U crap still isn't for me, but this crowd sure does love it. Hail mentioned in the backstage segment that this was her first match, and while it did mark her in-ring debut on NXT TV, she has wrestled quite a few matches over on Level Up. Does that mean nothing that happens on that show counts? I think these two have more potential than Lyons and James, but that's just me. They had a passable match and I liked the swerve finish with Grace winning. Hopefully that means we'll be seeing more of her on NXT TV going forward.

Apollo Crews def. Roderick Strong

Crews left NXT for the main roster in April 2016 before Strong arrived later that year, so they never had a chance to go one-on-one in WWE before. This actually reminded me of the black-and-gold version of NXT because both guys are established and they were able to have the match they were capable of. I appreciated they got as much time as they did and Crews' victory gets him one step closer to contending for the NXT Championship. As for Strong, I'm looking forward to seeing how he finally snaps and if it will lead to him splitting away from Diamond Mine or potentially being moved to the main roster now that Triple H is in charge.

Pretty Deadly def. Edris Enofe and Malik Blade

As I've said before, Enofe and Blade are two promising prospects to keep an eye on, specifically Enofe. They're a fun team to watch and always make the most of their time in the ring. I'm glad they're not simping over Toxic Attraction anymore as well. They had a nice match and Josh Briggs and Brooks Jensen accidentally costing the babyfaces the win protected them in defeat and furthered Briggs and Jensen's feud with Pretty Deadly.

Zoey Stark def. Cora Jade

Jade just turned heel and Stark will challenge Mandy Rose for the NXT Women's Championship next week at Heatwave, so this could have gone either way. Jade is finding her groove as a heel and Stark has been riding a wave of momentum since returning, so I enjoyed this outing. Jade had an out for losing with Roxanne Perez distracting her at ringside and Stark was made to look like a threat to the title by laying out Rose afterward, so this was a success all around.

Overall Show

In addition to everything listed above, there was also a "final accord" between Santos Escobar and Tony D'Angelo that set up a Street Fight for next week where Escobar will be gone from NXT if he loses (main roster call-up imminent?). The build for Heatwave has been well done and they've put together another loaded lineup on paper. That made for another thumbs-up edition of NXT, which felt more streamlined with less filler. If they can follow this formula more often, it will make the show more worthwhile each week.

SEE MORE: NXT Reviews