WWE NXT Review - March 3, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

NXT Tag Team Champions Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch def. Tommaso Ciampa and Timothy Thatcher (Non-Title)

The NXT Tag Team Championship was originally supposed to be defended on this show with MSK going for the gold, but Wes Lee is apparently legitimately injured, so that match will take place another time. Ciampa and Thatcher got a non-title crack at the champs instead and it was an entertaining opener as you would expect given the level of talent involved. Imperium distracting Thatcher from the stage was interesting given his history with the group. I continue to hope we'll see WALTER resurface soon.

NXT Champion Finn Balor and Roderick Strong Brawled

Strong isn't the strongest talker in the world, but it's been cool to see him stand out on his own for the last two weeks. He and Balor had a solid exchange here that set the stage nicely for the night's main event as well as next week's NXT Championship clash between Balor and Adam Cole. Strong blaming Undisputed Era's breakup on Balor was interesting and Balor showed good fire as always. It's refreshing to see babyfaces having issues with each other and not automatically being on the same page because they both hate Cole.

Ember Moon def. Aliyah

It looks like Moon and Shotzi Blackheart will be sticking together for the foreseeable future. It might be the best use of both ladies right now to prevent them floundering in the singles ranks. That said, this lasted longer than it needed to, even though it was only five minutes. Aliyah is NXT's resident jobber for the women and shouldn't have gotten in so much offense over a former NXT Women's Champion. The attention to detail with Robert Stone and Shotzi Blackheart acknowledging their bad blood from last year was a nice touch.

WWE Women's Tag Team Champions Shayna Baszler and Nia Jax def. Dakota Kai and Raquel Gonzalez

This was the match I was most looking forward to on this show, so while I wish it was saved for the main event, I assume it wasn't because of the finish. It also wasn't the most exciting encounter for the first half, but they picked up the pace down the stretch. Baszler and Gonzalez going at it was fun and the nearfalls down the stretch were well done. I'm glad Kai and Gonzalez were protected in defeat with the screwy finish with the Raw referee calling for the bell when Kai tapped to Baszler despite Kai not being legal. My guess is that Kai and Gonzalez will go for the gold again at WrestleMania 37 in some sort of multi-team matchup. For those speculating what William Regal's announcement next week will be, I hope it isn't another set of women's tag titles for NXT because the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship should be property of the black-and-gold brand instead.

LA Knight Addressed the NXT Audience

As a longtime fan of Knight, I was a fan of his promo here. He basically touched on most of his catchphrases (with the except of "Dummy, yeah!"), introduced the audience to who he is for those unfamiliar, and established his motives for being in NXT. He has "star" written all over him in my opinion and is a stud on the mic, so this was a terrific way to debut him. Bringing him in as a heel is the right call as that's the role he's always thrived in.

Cameron Grimes def. Bronson Reed

Reed has quietly been stacking up victories in recent months and I expected this to be no different, but what they did instead with Knight interfering and costing him the win made sense after Reed interrupted Knight's promo. The match itself was enjoyable and I liked the dynamic they had. Grimes' new character is, well, money, and is growing on me by the week. Grimes barely picking up the victory was a pleasant surprise and it's cool that Knight already has his first feud in NXT.

Legado del Fantasma Attack Breezango and Ever-Rise

Breezango and Ever-Rise were scheduled to have a match before Legado del Fantasma wiped them all out. This was designed to give them some of their heat back after Karrion Kross destroyed them last week. I'm a Legado del Fantasma fan and I love the act, so I was glad they did this. Now the question turns to who's next to challenge Escobar for the NXT Cruiserweight Championship. Hey, Jordan Devlin, where you at?

NXT Champion Finn Balor def. Roderick Strong (Non-Title)

Strong has been positioned as a singles star at times throughout his run with Undisputed Era, but I still think people still on how good he is. He had a hell of a showing here against the NXT Champion in what was a very entertaining outcome. The outcome was pretty predictable, but that was my only issue with this because it hurt the nearfalls down the stretch. It essentially a warm-up for Balor before next week when he takes on Cole, who stood on the stage and stared down Balor to close the show.

Overall Show

NXT has been producing a string of fun shows since TakeOver: Vengeance Day and this continued that trend in my opinion. The Undisputed Era saga has been carrying NXT, but the women's division has been top-notch as always and I'm intrigued by a few other things going on such as Knight's arrival, Imperium scouting Thatcher, Grimes' gimmick change and Isiah "Swerve" Scott's heel turn. The Gargano therapy segments that aired throughout the night were quality comedy, too (at least in my opinion). This wasn't the most amazing episode, but the filler was kept to a minimum and there were enough entertaining elements to make it a worthwhile show by NXT standards. Plus, two titles matches being announced for next week should make that episode must-see.