WWE NXT Review - September 7, 2021

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Kay Lee Ray def. Ember Moon

It's a shame that Moon has been transitioned into that "gatekeeper" role on NXT less than a year after returning to the brand, but I'm not sure what else you do with her now that Shotzi Blackheart has been called up to SmackDown and she's without a tag team partner. Nonetheless, she and KLR had an excellent opener. KLR looked dominant in her debut match a few weeks ago, but hopefully this got to show fans just how good she is. With Raquel Gonzalez defending the NXT Women's Championship against Franky Monet next week on the show, I assume KLR vs. Gonzlez is being saved for the next TakeOver special.

Santos Escobar def. Carmeo Hayes

While I probably would have kept Hayes' winning ways going coming out of the NXT Breakout Tournament, he didn't lose anything in defeat here with the strong showing he had in defeat. Escobar has been next in line for a shot at the NXT North American Championship for months, so he needed to win this more than Hayes. They had a really fun match and worked well together as expected. Hayes has "star" written all over him while Escobar continues to kill it.

The Creed Brothers def. Chuckie Viola and Paxton Averill

Brutus and Julius Creed were formerly known as Jacob and Drew Kasper. Both are established and accomplished collegiate amateur wrestlers, so while they're still inexperienced in NXT, they have a ton of potential and that was evident in this outing. They're a dominant duo and looked great here in this short-and-sweet squash. They're also great fits for Diamond Mine, which was down a member with Tyler Rust getting released last month.

NXT Women's Tag Team Champions Io Shirai and Zoey Stark def. Kacy Catanzaro and Kayden Carter

I believe this was the first time we've seen Shirai and Stark in action since they became NXT Women's Tag Team Champions two months ago at The Great American Bash. I appreciate the effort NXT has put into developing the duo of Shirai and Stark, but Stark still does nothing for me as a character. She's super skilled as a wrestler, but she comes off as generic to me otherwise. This was well wrestled albeit a bit basic. Catanzaro and Carter have found their footing as a team this year and I enjoy their innovative offense, but the TikTok nonsense is awful.

Mei Ying def. Virginia Ferry

I think we're all aware by this point that Ying is actually Karen Q, who previously wrestled for Ring of Honor as well as NXT before getting hurt two years ago. I haven't minded the Tian Sha stuff, but it definitely has a shelf life because I don't know how far they can go with the gimmick. Ying is legitimately talented in the ring (though she's obviously limited with this character), but will she be having competitive matches? It reminds me of Alexa Bliss and what she's doing right now on Raw. I'm glad Ying finally got in the ring, but Xia Li should be the centerpiece of Tian Sha and we haven't seen her in weeks.

NXT Tag Team Champions MSK def. Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch

Lorcan and Burch were tag team champions for a handful of months but had to vacate the titles once Burch got injured earlier this year. This was their long-awaited rematch. The biggest problem with this was that I never bought them as legitimate threats to the titles. Despite that, it was a quality main event. MSK continue to be put over strong as champs and I'm left wondering what team will ultimately beat them for the belts. I'd like to say Grizzled Young Veterans, but they haven't been featured consistently in months. Additionally, Pete Dunne and Ridge Holland turned on Lorcan and Burch afterward, so that faction appears to be no more. Lorcan and Burch going back to being babyfaces is nice, but I honestly got the feeling that this would be the last time we'd see them on the show as I don't see them fitting into the new vision for NXT.

Overall Show

Did this episode mark the end of an era for NXT? Well, we'll find out next week when the "new" version of the show debuts. I have no idea what it's going to consist of or what it will look like (though we've gotten a small taste), but I'll give it the old wait-and-see approach before jumping to conclusions about how much better or worse it will be compared to what it's been for all these years. As for this edition of NXT, I thought it was solid. KLR vs. Moon was the best bout on the show and everything else served a purpose. I can see the comedy stuff with Dexter Lumis and Indi Hartwell not being for everyone, but I enjoyed it. Their wedding will go down next week along with Gonzalez vs. Monet for the NXT Women's Championship and Pete Dunne vs. Tommaso Ciampa vs. LA Knight vs. Kyle O'Reilly in a Fatal 4-Way match to determine the number one contender to the NXT Championship.

SEE MORE: NXT Reviews