WWE NXT Review - January 18, 2022

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Grayson Waller Interrupted LA Knight; Waller def. Dexter Lumis

I'm sure it was partially piped in, but Knight received a great babyface reaction upon making his entrance. He had the crowd eating out of the palm out of his hand and Waller was a fun foil for him. That led to the return of Dexter Lumis, who we haven't seen in about a month on NXT TV. In fact, he and Waller were supposed to go one-on-one three weeks ago. They had a decent match and Waller winning was the right call. Saurav, who previously wrestled with Veer as part of Indus Sher, was the person who helped Waller win.

The Creed Brothers def. Josh Briggs and Brooks Jensen in a Men's Dusty Rhodes Classic Quarterfinal Match

Creed Brothers are money. They haven't been booked the best lately, but hopefully this win gets them back on track. Hell, I'm in full favor of them winning the whole thing. As for Briggs and Jensen, this was easily the best match I've seen them have. This was a fun hoss fight where it was all action from start to finish. I wasn't expecting to get a contest of this caliber in the opening round, but I'm glad we did.

Dante Chen vs. Guru Raaj Ended in a No Contest

We got a nice video package for Chen earlier in the evening, explaining that he's been gone with an injury since he was last featured on NXT many months ago. He wrestled on 205 Live in late September and again in late December, so he was probably hurt for those three months in between. Him against Raaj barely lasted a minute before it was interrupted by the returning Duke Hudson, who we hadn't seen since he shaved his head last month. Chen vs. Hudson is a fine feud on paper, only if Hudson ditches the dumb poker gimmick.

NXT North American Champion Carmelo Hayes, Trick Williams and Cameron Grimes Interrupted Tony D'Angelo's Memorial Service for Pete Dunne

The "memorial service" stuff was silly, but D'Angelo made it work to the best of his ability. Considering Dunne didn't come out, does that mean he's on his way out of NXT? Let's not forget that Dunne recently competed on Main Event (along with Tommaso Ciampa), so it's very possible he makes his main roster debut at the Royal Rumble. Nonetheless, this served to incorporate Grimes and D'Angelo into the NXT North American Championship picture, so it worked in that respect. Grimes and D'Angelo will face off next week to determine the next number one contender to the title.

Ivy Nile def. Kay Lee Ray

Nile has been heavily protected up to this point and has dominated most of her opponents, so I was surprised to see her put in a competitive match with zero setup whatsoever. Well, we found out it was because she was going to win thanks to a distraction from Mandy Rose. The match itself was fine, but it was clear how much more experienced KLR is than Nile. Indi Hartwell and Persia Pirotta saved KLR from Toxic Attraction afterward and those six will collide in tag team action next week.

Malik Blade and Edris Enofe def. Legado del Fantasma (Raul Mendoza and Joaquin Wilde) in a Men's Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic Quarterfinal Match

Blade and Enofe only started teaming a week ago and they're already undefeated as a team. We don't know much about them as characters, but from what I've seen from them, they're talented. Booking them as an underdog team in this tournament makes sense and Bron Breakking removing Santos Escobar from ringside (essentially aiding them to victory by doing so) furthered that feud as well. There wasn't much to the match, but it was fun while it lasted.

Dakota Kai def. Yulisa Leon

If you're completely baffled by who the hell Leon and Valentina Feroz are, they've been teaming up on 205 Live as of late. NXT women's tag team division is depleted, so it doesn't hurt to pair those two together. I'm more worried about Kai's future in NXT because I have no idea where she goes from here. The fact she won here was somewhat encouraging, but beyond a win over Feroz, I'm not sure what else there is for her to do on this show. She's one of those people that'd be perfect for a main roster call-up, but I get the feeling that isn't in the cards.

WALTER def. Roderick Strong

This was set up after Strong stepped up to WALTER in the locker room. Like Vic Joseph said on commentary, it's a match I never thought we'd see (especially in NXT 2.0). Strong has done a lot of losing lately, and while I'm not saying he should have won here, I hope he can win something significant soon. WALTER, on the other hand, is an absolute treasure and will be a blast to watch in NXT if he wrestles more regularly than he did in NXT UK and is able to have matches along the lines of what this was. This was a terrific, hard-hitting main event and both guys killed it. Unfortunately, they had to end the night on a sour note with WALTER proclaiming his name his Gunther (confirming reports that WWE trademarked the name Gunther Stark recently). That is absolutely awful.

Overall Show

I wasn't digging a majority of this show because there's still so many people who aren't ready for primetime television and they're trying to get over so many new people at once, but the main event alone made this episode worthwhile. The WALTER name change is terrible, but WALTER becoming a regular on NXT is nothing but a positive otherwise. The opening segment was enjoyable and the men's Dusty Classic is off to a solid start, so those were the highlights. I also appreciated that we got several matches advertised for next week. NXT 2.0 has certainly improved from what it was when it first started, but I don't see it ever reclaiming the same magic it had prior to the revamp.

SEE MORE: NXT Reviews