WWE NXT Review - December 13, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

NXT Champion Bron Breakker Chased Off Grayson Waller and NXT Women's Champion Mandy Rose Attacked Roxanne Perez

Perez's in-person promos tend to be hit or miss, but I appreciated that she had the chance to speak (briefly) about winning the women's Iron Survivor Challenge match at Deadline before before interrupted by Waller, who was entertaining in attempting to belittle Perez before Breakker shut him down and chased him off. Rose attacking Perez from behind led to their championship clash being bumped from New Year's Evil to this show at Perez's request.

NXT North American Champion Wes Lee def. Channing "Stacks" Lorenzo (Non-Title)

Tony D'Angelo continues to blame Lee for intentionally putting him on the shelf and he attempted to have Stacks do his bidding for him by taking Lee out here. Of course, he was unsuccessful, but since the end result was never in doubt, I was surprised it lasted as long as it did with Lorenzo scoring as much offense as he did. Given Lee's an underdog, the story they told made sense. It sure looks like we're headed for a Triple Threat for the title with Lee, D'Angelo and Dijak, presumably at New Year's Evil.

Toxic Attraction (Gigi Dolin and Jacy Jane) def. Ivy Nile and Tatum Paxley by Disqualification

There aren't a ton of interesting teams in NXT's women's tag team division (and not many teams to begin with), but at least they're trying to get something going with these teams and the current champs Katana Chance and Kayden Carter. There wasn't much to this match because it was so short, but it was designed to set up next week's Triple Threat tag team title match. The non-finish was logical in this case, so I didn't mind it.

Odyssey Jones def. Von Wagner

We haven't seen much of Jones in the ring since he returned, so I was curious to see how he'd do and how well he and Wagner would work together. Keeping this short and sweet was probably for the best and they had a nice match in the time they were allotted. Jones winning was also the right call as he should be the one they look to push, not Wagner. Then again, I'm worried a main roster call-up might be in Wagner's future and that's why he's been losing more lately.

Ikemen Jiro def. Javier Bernal

This felt like a match you'd typically see on NXT Level Up (and I'm sure it's a match that has happened on that show before but I can't remember exactly). That's not necessarily a bad thing, though, as I appreciate the attempt to get Bernal over as an annoying midcard heel. Jiro is one of NXT's go-to babyface enhancement talents, so Bernal losing to him makes him look like a loser as well. Then again, Jiro only won to set up a match with Scrypts based on what happened afterward. Ugh.

NXT Tag Team Champions The New Day Were Interrupted by Pretty Deadly and Granted Josh Briggs and Brooks Jensen a Title Shot

As I've said before, I'm all for New Day having a run as NXT Tag Team Champions. I love Pretty Deadly, but New Day breathe new life into the tag team ranks and it will be a nice boost for whoever eventually beats them (possibly even Pretty Deadly). I liked the promos from Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods and their back-and-forth with Pretty Deadly was decent, but Briggs and Jensen doing the Pledge of Allegiance with New Day and that being what earned them a title shot next week was dumb. 

JD McDonagh def. Brutus Creed

I believe Julius Creed is legitimately injured, but I could be wrong. Either way, Brutus doing some singles stuff in the meantime is perfectly fine by me, and McDonagh is a perfect person for him to be working with given how experienced and how smooth he is in the ring. They weren't given a ton of time, but this was a good match while it lasted and McDonagh winning by pinfall was the correct outcome, especially since a ringside distraction by Indus Sher was what cost Creed the victory.

Lyra Valkyria def. Amari Miller

Miller has always been the babyface jobber of NXT's women's division, so I don't know if that makes Valkyria a heel or not. I wouldn't think so since nothing Valkyria did made me think she was a heel and she was a babyface during her time in NXT UK. She's been out of the ring for quite some time, so I hope she can build momentum in the NXT women's division. She had a chance to showcase her skills here and was impressive.

Duke Hudson def. Damon Kemp

Admittedly, the Chase U storyline with Hudson trying to prove himself as a member of the group with Andre Chase and Thea Hail has my interest. Not only are the three of them playing their roles well, I'm glad Hudson is actually on the show in a regular role again. However, the same can't be said for Kemp, who has largely disappeared from NXT TV since his feud with The Creed Brothers ended. He made great strides, so hopefully he can get involved with this the teased stable led by Drew Gulak. Hudson vs. Kemp was well wrestled albeit brief.

Roxanne Perez def. Mandy Rose to Win the NXT Women's Championship

This wasn't the match I thought we'd get from these two as I would've liked it to be a little longer, but what we got was very good with Perez having to fight from underneath and Rose playing her role perfectly as always. Perez even got to kick out of Rose's finisher, so that was a pleasant surprise, along with Perez winning in clean fashion. I've long feared Nikkita Lyons would be the one to dethrone Rose, though I've wanted it to be Perez and I'm stoked they went in that direction. Rose deserves her flowers for really reinvigorating her career with this NXT run, and the awesome rookie year Perez has had shouldn't go unnoticed, either.

Overall Show

The post-premium live event editions of NXT tend to be the most newsworthy, but the only eventful part of this show was Perez winning the NXT Women's Championship. To be fair, Rose had been champ for so long that it was definitely a big deal, so nothing else really needed to happen (not to mention we also got Valkyria's NXT debut). All in all, this was a solid show by NXT standards that set up several matches for next week and was capped off with a notable title change.

SEE MORE: NXT Reviews