By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
NXT Hits
Jordan Devlin and Santos Escobar: A good angle with Devlin coming off as the babyface in his quest to become the only NXT Cruiserweight Champion.
Dakota Kai vs. Zoey Stark: A nice match. Kai is one of the most consistent wrestlers in her division, and Stark is off to a good start early in her run. The post match angle with Io Shirai walking around Kai and telling Raquel Gonzalez to sign the contract for their NXT Title match was solid. The backstage angle that led to Kai calling for a tag team match likely sets up a match for next week.
LA Knight vs. August Grey: Mostly a spotlight match. Bronson Reed’s distraction gave Grey a hope sequence, but Knight went over strong, just he should have in his debut match.
Dexter Lumis vs. Austin Theory: The body of the match was forgettable, but the closing moments with Lumis teasing that he liked Theory only to swerve him was fun.
NXT Misses
Overall show: NXT was clearly shorthanded, so that helps explain why this was a subpar show compared to the brand’s usual standards. That said, the lineup they put out there last week before the reported COVID outbreak at the WWE Performance Center looked weak on paper. They really should have spread things out last week when they had three title matches.
Danny Burch and Oney Lorcan vs. Finn Balor and Karrion Kross for the NXT Tag Titles: The Miss is more about NXT using the WWE main roster formula of having the singles champion and his challenger team up to challenge for the NXT Tag Titles. The way they got there was clunky in that nobody even bothered to ask Balor if he was game. The actual match had the rough spot that resulted in Burch suffering an injury, but I was impressed that the remaining trio made it work. It helped that they had a finish that gave the challengers an out for losing despite being singlehanded.
Tommaso Ciampa vs. Marcel Barthel: It was great to see Walter back in the United States and I remain optimistic about the Ciampa and Timothy Thatcher vs. Imperium feud. But there’s no denying that Ciampa has been cooled off considerably over the last year. Ciampa is no longer in the main event mix and went from feeling like one of the faces of the brand to working mid-card matches. Here’s hoping that this feud heats him up again.
Tyler Breeze and Fandango vs. Joaquin Wilde and Raul Mendoza: It was a Hit in my book when Breezango made a standard entrance rather than doing one of their stripper routines. But Wilde and Mendoza still feel like henchmen for Santos Escobar more than actual threats in the tag division. Winning this match was a step in the right direction, but the match lacked star power and felt inconsequential.
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