WWE NXT Review - October 19, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Johnny Gargano and Dexter Lumis Attacked NXT North American Champion Carmelo Hayes and Trick Williams

Gargano hasn't been featured on NXT TV hardly at all since the wedding of Dexter Lumis and Indi Hartwell. It felt like there wasn't a spot for him in NXT 2.0, but I'm totally fine with him going back to being a babyface, the role that suits him best. Now he all he needs is his old entrance music and he's golden. This was a great segment that set the stage for Gargano and Lumis vs. Hayes and Williams and established Hayes' first challenger to the championship. I'm very much on-board with Gargano vs. Hayes as that sounds like a banger.

Odyssey Jones def. Andre Chase

Jones previously beat Chase in the NXT Breakout Tournament and cost him a match against LA Knight a few weeks ago. They also interacted during the wedding. Chase and this dumb gimmick of his do absolutely nothing for me, but he served his role just fine in this match losing to Jones, who can go far with more experience. This was booked as a straightforward squash as it should have been.

Imperium (Marcel Barthel and Fabian Aichner) def. The Creed Brothers

What a weird match this was. Diamond Mine and The Creed Brothers have been booked as heels up to this point and so have Imperium, so who were fans supposed to cheer for here? There was nothing special about the match and the finish looked like it was botched. I can believe that Imperium were supposed to win because they're in line for a shot at the NXT Tag Team Championship, but even though it was a fluky finish, I wouldn't have beaten The Creed Brothers already. I'd honestly much rather see them challenge for the gold at this point than Imperium, who lost to MSK once before a while back.

Cora Jade def. Elektra Lopez

Jade has yet to have a truly competitive match on NXT TV, but I've seen enough of her on 205 Live and elsewhere to know she has potential. Plus, I can definitely see this plucky, underdog babyface character getting over well for her. Much like when she beat Franky Monet a few weeks ago, this was similarly structured with Jade getting beaten down the whole time only to steal the win in the end. She's quickly overshadowing her boyfriend Trey Baxter, which may be the point.

NXT Women's Tag Team Champion Io Shirai def. Persia Pirotta and Jacy Jayne in a Triple Threat Match

The winner of this match got to spin the wheel and determine the stipulation for next week's Triple Threat tag team match for the NXT Women's Tag Team Championship. I'm not sure why it mattered who spun the wheel, but at least they attempted to add some stakes to this. Unfortunately, Jayne got injured early on with a badly botched dive to the outside. She had to be removed from the match after that, so hopefully she's okay. The rest of this with Shirai and Pirotta was decent, but Shirai absolutely had to win. Next week's tag title clash will be a Stairway to Hell Ladder match.

Tony D'Angelo def. Ru Feng

I know D'Angelo has quickly gotten himself over with the internet, and he definitely does portray the (stereotypical) character well, but I maintain that it's too goofy for my liking. Maybe it's over the top enough to work, but time will tell. On the bright side, he's very skilled in the ring and he had another solid showing here. I can't say I care about his ongoing issues with Lash Legend, though. That talk show has been terrible so far.

Legado del Fantasma (Raul Mendoza and Joaquin Wilde) def. Josh Briggs and Carter Jensen

After Jade beat Lopez earlier in the evening, Legado attacked Jade's boyfriend Trey Baxter backstage, which led to Briggs and Jensen making the save. Legado then attacked the two of them before they were about to go out for this match and that gave the babyfaces an out for losing. The story made sense and the match was decent, but as I've said before, I really couldn't care less about Briggs and Jensen. Thus, this didn't do much for me other than giving Legado a needed win.

LA Knight def. Grayson Waller to Become the Host of Halloween Havoc

NXT has nothing for Knight to do at the moment, so hey, let's just make him the host of Halloween Havoc! I guess it's something, and I'm sure he'll make it entertaining, but the guy should really be on SmackDown or Raw right now. He feels so out of place on NXT 2.0 and I don't see them doing much of note with him beyond Halloween Havoc, but I'd love to be wrong. The match was way too short to be anything out of the ordinary.

NXT Champion Tommaso Ciampa and Bron Breakker def. Grizzled Young Veterans

It's hilarious how WWE is actually aware of how overdone the "Can they coexist?!" crap is based on the promos that Ciampa and Breakker cut earlier in the show. The fact we're seeing that in NXT after it's been done to death on Raw and SmackDown is just awful. The match itself was well-wrestled albeit exactly what you'd expect. I just want Grizzled Young Veterans to be more of a force in the tag team division as opposed to being positioned as total afterthoughts. I'm looking forward to Ciampa vs. Breakker more than anything else at Halloween Havoc.

Overall Show

I don't know about last week, but NXT didn't have its usual overrun this week, likely due to Chucky starting right at the top of the hour. I'm not complaining, though, as there's no need for NXT 2.0 to have those eight extra minutes. This was another run-of-the-mill edition of NXT with nothing standing out as special. The hype for Halloween Havoc was fine and I'm excited for it just because last year's show was so fun. Hopefully this year's installment can capture some of that same magic, but I'm not holding my breath given how mediocre NXT 2.0 has been up to this point.

SEE MORE: NXT Reviews