WWE NXT Review - December 28, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Grayson Waller def. Odyssey Jones

Waller started the show bragging about appearing on Monday's Raw and confronting AJ Styles. Clearly their bad blood is far from over and will culminate in a match at some point. Now it's just a question of where and when. Waller was scheduled to face Dexter Lumis, but Jones (who we haven't seen in a while) stepped up instead in his absence (throw Lumis onto the list of names likely out with COVID at the moment). They had a nice match and Jones scored enough offense for it not to be a complete squash.

Imperium Agreed to Face Raw Tag Team Champion Riddle and MSK at New Year's Evil

Riddle said last week he'd be accompanying MSK to the ring to confront Imperium, but he only appeared via satellite. Since he was on Monday's Raw, I assume he isn't sick with COVID but rather was kept off the show as a safety precaution ahead of Day 1 on Saturday. Sadly, WALTER also returned via satellite, likely for the same reason. That was underwhelming, but this was a solid segment otherwise and I'm really looking forward to WALTER, Marcel Barthel and Fabian Aichner taking on MSK and Riddle at New Year's Evil.

Harland def. Andre Chase

Harland threw The Brian Kendrick down a flight of stairs two weeks ago and was supposed to go one-on-one with him here. Kendrick's entrance music played, but he didn't show up. Again, he either has COVID or stayed home to not put himself at risk (my guess is that it's the latter considering he willingly took himself off shows at the peak of the pandemic last year). Chase took his place, and while I'm fine with Chase taking a beating, it was weird because he's also a heel, so I don't know how much heat Harland actually gained from this.

Tiffany Stratton def. Fallon Henley

As I've mentioned before, Henley is the former Tesha Price of AEW Dark fame and has already made a few appearances on NXT and 205 Live. She was impressive in AEW, so putting the new people with her is smart because she can hopefully make them look better than they are. That includes Stratton, whose in-ring debut I had low hopes for. Ultimately, she did well. She didn't blow me away with the match she had on 205 Live several weeks ago and her gimmick still sucks, but her athleticism helped her stand out in this outing and she wasn't totally terrible. That's all you can really ask for.

NXT North American Champion Carmelo Hayes and NXT Cruiserweight Champion Roderick Strong Signed the Contract for Their Title Unification Match at New Year's Evil

Props to NXT for making this title unification match next week feel important and to everyone involved for playing their roles well, including in this segment. Hayes can more than hold his own on the mic and although Strong isn't the best promo, Malcom Bivens doing a majority of the talking for him worked. Diamond Mine stood tall by putting Trick Williams (who has grown on me and has improved) through a table, but I have no doubt that Hayes is leaving New Year's Evil a double champion as he should which will then lead to the NXT Cruiserweight Championship being retired.

Solo Sikoa def. Santos Escobar

Sikoa beat Waller and LA Knight in a Triple Threat back in November I believe, but he hasn't done much of note since then other than feuding with Boa. Thus, this was arguably his biggest test to date and he came away looking like he was on Escobar's level despite being inexperienced. This lasted longer than I thought it would, which was appreciated since this show was light on in-ring action. As expected, Escobar lost after getting distracted with Xyon Quinn at ringside.

Von Wagner def. Malik Blade

We learned backstage beforehand that Blade and Edris Enofe are buddies, which is news to me. Coming off his bizarre loss to Enofe last week, Von Wagner probably should have destroyed Blade here. Instead, it was booked like an elongated squash. Are we sure Von Wagner is the same dude who beat Kyle O'Reilly and ended his NXT career earlier this month? Don't get me wrong, the dude is mediocre as hell, but if they were going to do what they did with him, then they should follow up with it and not let a win like that go to waste. Going from a victory over O'Reilly to feuding with two no-namers feels like a clear step down.

Cora Jade and Raquel Gonzalez def. Kay Lee Ray and Io Shirai

Jade and Gonzalez were supposed to face Toxic Attraction's Gigi Dolin and Jacy Jane on this show before Mandy Rose announced (via video) they'd face KLR and Shirai instead to determine who will challenge for the NXT Women's Championship at New Year's Evil. The Triple Threat with Rose, Jade and Gonzalez was set in stone for New Year's Evil last week, but they needed a meaningful main event with Dolin and Jane unable to appear. They told the obvious story of whether Gonzalez and Jade could coexist, but from an in-ring standpoint, this was enjoyable aside from Gonzalez botching breaking up a pinfall attempt toward the end.

Overall Show

Much like Monday's Raw, this show received significant changes with multiple matches not happening as planned, presumably due to the reported recent COVID outbreak in WWE. However, this show wasn't as much of a mess and they made the most of who they had available. It certainly wasn't a thrilling two hours, but the important thing is that the build for New Year's Evil was well done. It's a stacked card on paper, so fingers crossed the show happens as advertised and changes don't need to be made to that, too.

SEE MORE: NXT Reviews