WWE NXT Review - February 7, 2023

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

JD McDonagh Confronted Carmelo Hayes and Trick Williams

Hayes spoke about his big win over Apollo Crews at Vengeance Day when McDonagh interrupted him, claiming he had to go through him first before he could contend for the NXT Championship. It's funny how McDonagh is basically the gatekeeper for the NXT Championship picture without actually being a former NXT Champion. This was good stuff from the two of them to set up their match for later in the show.

Zoey Stark def. Sol Ruca

Both of these women have been on a roll lately. Ruca scored a huge upset over Alba Fyre a few weeks ago, and Stark is coming off wins over Indi Hartwell and Nikkita Lyons as well as a strong showing in the women's Royal Rumble. Ruca will continue to benefit from sharing the ring with women as experienced as Stark. This was a nice match while it lasted. I assume Stark is racking up so many wins lately because she'll be the one to challenge Roxanne Perez for the NXT Women's Championship at Stand & Deliver.

Dabba-Kato def. Dante Chen

Kato's last match was in May 2022 on Main Event. As far as televised matches go, you'd have to go all the way back to April 2022 when he took part in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal on SmackDown. It's cool that Kato is getting another chance after previously being saddled with bad gimmicks, so we'll see if he can impress. He was dominant in his re-debut as he should have been since a match with Crews is on the horizon.

Isla Dawn def. Tatum Paxley

Dawn insulted Paxley backstage and that was how this match came about. Dawn is now being accompanied to the ring by Alba Fyre (who looks like she's in a trance), so they'll apparently be a team going forward. There wasn't much to this match, but what we got was fine. Dawn winning made sense if the idea is to build her and Fyre up as a credible force in the tag team ranks.

Carmelo Hayes def. JD McDonagh

I think the crowd would have been more into this if both guys were heels (though I know Hayes is beloved by a majority of the NXT audience because he's so damn good). Despite that, I thoroughly enjoyed their outing and appreciated that they got as much time as they did. Ilja Dragunov making a surprise return was cool as he cost McDonagh the win and protected him in defeat, resuming their rivalry from when we saw Dragunov last.

Lyra Valkyria def. Valentina Feroz

Feroz is still acting conflicted over whether she should take Elektra Lopez's advice and cheat in her matches. She came closer here than she did the last time, but still lost. There wasn't much to the match otherwise as it was simply about telling that story and this was fairly brief. Also, I thought Valkyria was feuding with Cora Jade, but Jade was nowhere to be seen on this episode. Hopefully it continues because it's a smart use of both Valkyria and Jade right now.

Channing "Stacks" Lorenzo def. Odyssey Jones

I figured this would be an easy win for Jones, but Lorenzo is "The Underboss" now according to Tony D'Angelo and it looks like he's going to be built up a bit. That makes sense, but it is weird that they've cooled off Jones considerably since his return to the ring. This was a basic television match with nothing out of the ordinary about it. I'm curious what the endgame is with Lorenzo and D'Angelo and if the idea is to have Lorenzo turn babyface at some point.

Pretty Deadly def. Chase U (Andre Chase and Duke Hudson)

Pretty Deadly came out looking completely disheveled after failing to regain the NXT Tag Team Championship at Vengeance Day. I assumed they'd avenge their loss to The New Day before New Day's run in NXT was over, but apparently not. This was another example of the focus being less on the match and more on the story being told with Chase U. Thea Hail ran down to ringside screaming after the attempted kidnapping from Ava Raine backstage, leading to Chase U losing. The match got more time than I thought it would and was well wrestled while it lasted. Also, Gallus vs. Pretty Deadly is an odd direction to go in seeing as how both teams are heel.

Jacy Jane Attacked Gigi Dolin on Ding Dong, Hello!​ Hosted by Bayley

I know Bayley was involved, but I was wondering coming into the segment why it was closing the show. Mandy Rose returning would have been a longshot, but then Toxic Attraction teased challenging Damage CTRL for the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship and it made sense. Sadly, they lowered the boom anyway and Jane attacked Dolin to cement their split. Shawn Michaels literally booked it the same way he turned on Marty Jannetty over 30 years ago. I'm not a fan of this at all as I feel they're better together and the main roster could use more women's teams. Maybe they'll exceed expectations on their own, but I don't see either of them going very far considering how deep the NXT women's division is at the moment.

Overall Show

The post-premium-live-event editions of NXT tend to be fairly newsworthy and this one was as well with Dragunov returning, an announcement that Meiko Satomura is returning next week, and Toxic Attraction breaking up. Stand & Deliver isn't for another two months, so there's plenty of time to start building up the card (though the NXT Championship match between Bron Breakker and Hayes is pretty much set). This was a quality show with stuff being set up, storylines progressing and one standout match with Hayes and McDonagh.

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