WWE NXT Review - December 20, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Carmelo Hayes def. Axiom

What a hot opener. The Axiom character hasn't clicked for me personally (A-Kid was perfectly fine as is in NXT UK), but he's been killing it in the ring over the last few months (starting with the Best-of-3 Series with Nathan Frazer). Of course, he and Hayes had terrific chemistry together and had an excellent match. Hayes winning was the right call coming off his loss at Deadline, but Axiom lost nothing in defeat with the showing he had.

Zoey Stark def. Nikkita Lyons

This rivalry has been decent so far, but I don't care any more about Lyons than I did when it started. In fact, Stark has actually impressed me with her heel work and thus I was happy with the outcome to this contest. This didn't last very long and it didn't need to, especially if they're building to an eventual rematch. Lyons had a passable performance, but we'll see how she does in the longer singles matches when the time comes.

NXT Women's Tag Team Champions Katana Chance & Kayden Carter def. Ivy Nile & Tatum Paxley and Toxic Attraction in a Triple Threat Tag Team Match

Kudos to NXT for making the women's tag team scene more fun to follow as of late. All three of these teams have really come into their own as a team and have some awesome offense. This was an enjoyable, frantic affair and any of the teams could have walked away with the titles. While I'm happy they remained with Chance and Carter, I'm curious who's left for them to face. My only nitpick with this match was that Nile was pinned, despite the cool finishing sequence.

Carmelo Hayes Confronted Apollo Crews

Crews spoke about falling short against Breakker at Deadline and what was next for him when he was interrupted by Hayes. This was the most logical route to take with both guys as Hayes should be next in line for a title opportunity after Waller and beating Crews will get him one step closer to that. They had a solid verbal exchange and nicely set up their first match, which I have to assume will be saved for New Year's Evil or possibly the first NXT of 2022.

Elektra Lopez def. Indi Hartwell

This has been a fine undercard rivalry over the last month, though it's clear its only purpose is to put over Lopez. Unfortunately, Lopez is a lot less interesting without the rest of Legado del Fantasma, and she isn't very good in the ring, either. That was evident in this outing. This was okay for what it was. It was definitely smart to keep this on the shorter side. I'm shocked Hartwell hasn't been called up yet, let alone gotten a look on Main Event.

Alba Fyre vs. Sol Ruca Went to a No Contest

Fyre vs. Ruca was going to have a weird dynamic considering both are babyfaces, but it was obviously a decoy since Isla Dawn ended up attacking Fyre before the bell. I'm not sure why Dawn would still want to target Fyre seeing as how she already beat her at Deadline, not to mention I have zero interest in the feud continuing, but I'm content with it as long Fyre gets her win back at some point. This was a simple angle to put more heat on Dawn, but the supernatural crap is just awful.

NXT Tag Team Champions The New Day (Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods) def. Josh Briggs and Brooks Jensen

I wasn't excited for this match on paper since Briggs and Jensen do nothing for me and I've found the storyline with Fallon Henley and Kiana James to be stupid, but they unsurprisingly had their best match to date here with New Day. This was way better than I was expecting it to be, and I can't say New Day carried the whole thing, either. Jensen and especially Briggs shined and the action was entertaining. New Day are already doing wonders for NXT's tag team division and it's only been two weeks.

Grayson Waller Outsmarted NXT Champion Bron Breakker

Waller teased earlier in the evening challenging Breakker for the NXT Championship on this show like Roxanne Perez did with the NXT Women's Championship last week, but obviously, that wasn't going to happen. The angle they went with instead was well done, even if we've seen it before with Bret Hart and Goldberg in WCW and elsewhere. It allowed Waller to stand tall over Breakker before he likely loses at New Year's Evil.

Overall Show

By NXT standards, this was an above-average show, and that's extra impressive when you realize that this was taped in advance due to the holidays. Both tag title matches delivered and are worth checking out, along with Hayes vs. Axiom in the opener. We got the kickoff to the Hayes vs. Crews feud, though other storylines progressed that I'm not as invested in at the moment. I'm always hopeful whenever NXT hits a stride like with this show, but the issue is that the quality isn't consistent from week to week and that's something they need to work on in 2023.

SEE MORE: NXT Reviews