WWE NXT Review - September 28, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Elektra Lopez def. B-Fab in a No Disqualification Match

Hit Row hyping up what was to come in the rest of the show before the bout was interesting. It's been rumored that Hit Row could be Raw bound soon, which scares me. I can't shake the feeling Vince McMahon would have no idea what to do with them before breaking them up within a matter of months. As for the match itself, it was pretty rough at certain points because both women are still green, especially B-Fab. I appreciated that they did what they could with the stipulation (it was more "extreme" than what we got at Extreme Rules on Sunday), but it just wasn't very good. The key was furthering the feud between Hit Row and Legado del Fantasma, so at least it accomplished that.

Joe Gacy Addressed the Audience; Xyon Quinn def. Oney Lorcan

Gacy scored plenty of mainstream attention last week for his gimmick change. WWE deleted all references to his re-debut on social media, yet they're still going ahead with it. I can't say it does much for me, personally, and I feel like him using words like "safe space" and "canceled" in his promos is going to backfire on the company in the long run. I also don't think it's going to lead to him getting the heat the desired heat. Meanwhile, Quinn vs. Lorcan was a rematch from last week's 205 Live. Lorcan did what he could to make Quinn's offense look devastating, but Quinn remains a work in progress. I've been impressed with what I've seen so far, so hopefully he can continue to put the pieces together.

NXT Tag Team Champions MSK, Grizzled Young Veterans, Carmelo Hayes & Trick Williams, and Josh Briggs & Brooks Jenson Brawled

This was your typical talking segment where the champions are interrupted by all of their potential challengers. It was basic stuff, but it did make me happy seeing Grizzled Young Veterans out there. I've been waiting for them to rekindle their rivalry with MSK since MSK won the tag titles at TakeOver: Stand & Deliver, so hopefully they'll be able to run it back one of these days. Not only that, I'd have them be the ones to take the titles from them. Everyone else played their roles well to set up a eight-man tag team match for next week, though some of the mic work wasn't the strongest.

NXT Women's Tag Team Champions Io Shirai and Zoey Stark def. Toxic Attraction (Gigi Dolin and Jacy Jayne)

Toxic Attraction are the hot new act, so why wouldn't they have won here? Despite NXT's attempt to develop their partnership, Shirai and Stark haven't clicked as a duo at all for me. This would have been an ideal time for them to drop the straps so Shirai could be called up to either Raw or SmackDown in the WWE Draft, but no such luck. The match itself was well wrestled as they put in the effort and made the most of the time they had. I'm just not sure how viewers can take Toxic Attraction seriously after this.

Boa def. Andre Chase

This "Chase University" shtick Chase has been doing feels lame to me. He'll go off on his students and starting swearing for some reason. If he's losing to Boa, that means he'll be slotted at the enhancement level where he belongs. As for Boa, the dude is abysmal and hasn't improved at the rate he should be considering he's been with NXT for a few years now. I really couldn't have cared less about this.

NXT Cruiserweight Champion Roderick Strong def. Grayson Waller

Strong won the Cruiserweight title from Kushida just last week, so it would have been booking malpractice for him to lose it here. Considering who's reportedly running the show now, I wouldn't have been shocked if he did, but I'm glad the resisted that urge. I've liked what I've seen from Waller over on 205 Live this year and I hope the strong showing he had here leads to him getting more television time going forward. With so many new faces coming in at one time, it's possible this was a one-and-done and he'll simply get lost in the shuffle. Of course, Strong can get a great match out of a broomstick, so this was entertaining as expected.

Kyle O'Reilly def. Ridge Holland

O'Reilly ambushed Holland while he was making his entrance right before the commercial break. Holland and Pete Dunne have been targeting O'Reilly since right after TakeOver 36, but I didn't think O'Reilly would give Holland his comeuppance this soon, even if it was by pinfall. It was a solid match that needed more time to be memorable. Von Wagner's role in the rivalry continues as he made the save for O'Reilly afterward. This is where Bobby Fish could have come in had they not released him.

NXT Women's Champion Raquel Gonzalez def. Franky Monet

The seeds were planted for this match all the way back in April when Monet debuted, so while I appreciated that it was advertised in advance, I wish it had been given more time and not rushed at the end of the episode. What we got was good, but it was definitely a television main event. Toxic Attraction emerged afterward to lay out Monet's little group (could Monet be heading to the main roster to join her husband John Morrison?) and Gonzalez, so Mandy Rose is clearly next in line for a title shot.

Overall Show

The best thing I can say about this episode is that they didn't attempt to introduce another 784304930 people in the span of two hours. We did get the debut of Lashing Out with Lash Legend, but I didn't bother writing up an entire paragraph about it because there wasn't much to say. She cracked jokes for two minutes and that was it. Maybe it'll get better, but I'm currently not sold on it. I was way more entertained by the Dexter Lumis and Indi Hartwell honeymoon vignettes, but that's just me. A handful of the fresh faces have potential, but my biggest issue with NXT 2.0 is that not many of the matches are getting an ample amount of time. The main event in particular felt shortchanged. They're going back to building storylines and advertising matches a week out, but it's going to be a while before NXT is as consistently enjoyable as it once was.

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