WWE NXT Review - February 1, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Imperium (Gunther and NXT Tag Team Champions Marcel Barthel and Fabian Aichner) def. Diamond Mine (Roderick Strong and The Creed Brothers)

This was an all-out brawl to kick off the show. Imperium work wonderfully as a unit and Diamond Mine have terrific chemistry as well. I don't know who fans were supposed to cheer for in this one, but it didn't matter to me. This had a strong pace and the crowd was hot for it. I don't mind The Creed Brothers losing here if they end up winning the men's Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic. Plus, Gunther (writing that name instead of WALTER is going to take some getting used to) should be winning, anyway.

NXT Women's Tag Team Champions Gigi Dolin and Jacy Jane Addressed Indi Hartwell and Persia Pirotta; Kay Lee Ray Attacked NXT Women's Champion Mandy Rose

Toxic Attraction hasn't been everyone's cup of tea, but at the very least I think all three women have played their roles well. The mic work here was solid and set up Toxic Attraction against Hartwell and Pirotta for the tag titles at Vengeance Day. Meanwhile, the baseball bat thing with KLR has felt forced, but at least she's getting television time at all. She apparently kidnapped Dolin and Jane later on and chased Rose with her bat throughout the night, so there was that.

Raquel Gonzalez def. Cora Jade

Jade has been bugging Gonzalez for weeks about wanting to team with her in the women's Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic, so this was Jade's way of proving to Gonzalez that she's worth her time even though she came up short. They didn't get a ton of time and I'm sure they're capable of better, but what we got was decent. It didn't help that the screen went black a few times, likely due to a wardrobe malfunction from Gonzalez. That might explain why this ended prematurely. Gonzalez accepted Jade's offer to be her partner immediately afterward.

Sarray def. Kayla Inlay

I was skeptical of this character change for Sarray, if only because that first vignette came off as stereotypical of Japanese culture to me. However, they did it in a way where once she made her entrance, she looked completely different than she did backstage. She looked more like she did before her hiatus, except with brighter gear and slightly different colored hair. Honestly, she looked awesome, so I hope that's the look she sticks with. This was a standard squash that successfully reintroduced her to the NXT audience.

Cameron Grimes Confronted NXT North American Champion Carmelo Hayes and Trick Williams

Hayes is a total star in every way and I'm glad he gets consistent television time on this show. I'm really looking forward to what he and Grimes can do at Vengeance Day. Grimes was mostly straightforward in this match and got the last word in at the end. There wasn't anything too special about this segment, but it was a quality verbal exchange designed to build toward their upcoming championship clash.

Joe Gacy def. LA Knight

For as much creative love as Gacy gets in NXT 2.0, he's been doing a whole lot of nothing since WarGames in December. Hell, he really hasn't had a stable sense of direction since debuting on the brand late last year. He's grown on me slightly, but he needs wins. I didn't have an issue with him beating Knight here because it was with help from Grayson Waller and his new bodyguard Sanga, so Knight was at least protected in defeat.

Wendy Choo def. Amari Miller

Whatever this character Choo is doing is way too gimmicky for me, much like the Mei Ying character she was doing previously. Poor Karen Q. She's clearly talented in the ring and is making this work to the best of her ability, but I see it having a very short shelf life. It feels like NXT 2.0's version of AEW's Orange Cassidy, and while he's still very popular, I also don't see Cassidy as anything more than a midcard act. Choo won't (or at least shouldn't) be competing for championships with this character. This was passable, though. Tiffany Stratton's character is also questionable and I can't say I'm overly excited about them feuding.

Andre Chase def. Draco Anthony

Vignettes for Anthony have aired before on NXT TV, but he didn't debut until just now, which is weird. Even weirder is that his entrance wasn't televised, but part of Chase's was. Anthony has been impressive on 205 Live, but this was more about Chase than it was Anthony, which was made evident with the outcome. As I've said time and time again, Chase is a competent wrestler, but I find his gimmick to be incredibly dumb. I also have no idea whether he's supposed to be a babyface or not because all he does is pander to the crowd.

NXT Champion Bron Breakker and Tommaso Ciampa def. Legado del Fantasma (Raul Mendoza and Joaquin Wilde)

I was positive that Ciampa was main roster bound considering we hadn't seen him on NXT since New Year's Evil prior to last week. He still could be, but I get the feeling it's now less likely. Maybe Vince McMahon didn't like what he saw from Ciampa in the dark matches or on Main Event? At any rate, this was an entertaining main event with Breakker and Ciampa making for a fun team. Breakker vs. Santos Escobar for the NXT Championship is coming and I hope it happens at Vengeance Day. I thought we might see Ciampa turn on Breakker afterward, but no such luck. Instead, we got KLR chasing down Rose with her signature baseball bat and forcing her to agree to defend the NXT Women's Championship against her next week.

Overall Show

I applaud NXT 2.0 for announcing several matches in advance for this episode and actually delivering all of them. I know that sounds silly, but it's so rare with Raw and SmackDown that I appreciate it whenever matches do happen as advertised in this company. That said, this was a fairly basic edition of NXT 2.0. The opening and closing matches were the best parts with a lot of fluff in between. Vengeance Day is shaping up to be a strong show and I guess the intent of this episode was to build toward that, so in that respect, it served its purpose.

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