By John Moore, ProWrestling.net Staffer (@liljohnm)
NXT 2.0 TV
Orlando, Florida at the WWE Performance Center
Aired live November 30, 2021 on USA Network
[Hour One] Vic Joseph, Wade Barrett, and Beth Phoenix were on commentary. The show started off with Kay Lee Ray and Dakota Kai heading to the entrance ramp from backstage. Both women were escorted by their respective War Games teammates. A pull apart brawl ensued between both teams. Eventually Kay Lee Ray and Dakota Kai brawled to the ring for their war games advantage ladder match…
1. Kay Lee Ray vs. Dakota Kai in a ladder match for advantage in the War Games Match. Ray dumped Kai to ringside and hit her with a flip dive. Ray jabbed a ladder into Kai which shoved Kai into the apron. Kai ran around the ring to bait Ray into a twisting Scorpion Death Drop which sent Ray face first into the steel stairs. Kai pulled out another ladder. This allowed Ray to recover and whip Kai into the steel steps. Ray tried to set up a ladder in the ring, but Kai pulled the ladder to ringside. Ray gave Kai a suicide dive. Ray gave Kai a front suplex into the ladder.
Ray tried to climb the ladder but she was yanked down by Kai and slammed into the mat. Ray prevented Kai from escalating the ladder too. Kai gave Ray an Irish Whip into the ladder. Kai whipped Ray into the corner and gave her a Face Wash Kick against the bottom buckle. Kai had the advantage for a stretch. Ray slowed down Kai with a front suplex. Kay came back with a Yakuza Kick which draped Ray on the top rope. Kai hit Ray with a double stomp heading into the picture-in-picture.[c]
Kai wraped Ray’s leg around the bottom rope and locked in a heel hook, which was leagal since it was no DQ. Ray recovered and hit Kai with a Gory Bomb at ringside. Ray escalated the ladder, but sold a right leg injury. Kai met Ray at the top of the ladder. Kai ended up slamming Ray’s face on the top of the ladder which shook Ray off the ladder. Ray recovered and Kai kicked her to the mat. Instead of going for the briefcase, Kai hit Ray with a double stomp. Ray pulled Kai down the ladder to trap her in Tree of Woe position. Ray hit Kai with a superkick. Ray escalated the ladder and got the briefcase.
Kay Lee Ray defeated Dakota Kai in a ladder match in 14:06 to gain the advantage for her team at War Games.
Kay Lee Ray’s teammates were shown backstage excited at Ray’s win.
John’s Thoughts: A fun and vicious Ladder Match under WWE’s PG ladder match style. Lots of hard work from both women and plenty of thrilling ladder spots to invoke gasps. If they didn’t have to do a commercial break, this definitely could have been a takeover match. The ending was ugly, but ugly in a gritty way.
Replays aired of Cameron Grimes challenging Duke Hudson to a hair vs hair match from last week. They then cut to a Andre Chase twitter video where he challenged Grimes to a match on this week’s show…[c]
The Grizzled Young veterans were shown acting like lame con men, trying to unlock someone’s locker. Apparently they were trying to rob Briggs and Jensen. Kushida and Ikeman Jiro showed up to catch their attention. Briggs and Jensen showed up and scared off The Grizzled Young Veterans…
2. Cameron Grimes vs. Andre Chase. Grimes dominated Chase with kicks early on. Chase used Grimes’s hair to drag him to the mat. Chase hit Grimes with a neckbreaker. Chase hit Grimes with his signature cheerleading stomps. Grimes recovered and hit Chase with a Frankendriver. Grimes rallied with strikes and a Yakuza Kick. Chase avoided a dive by Grimes, but he walked right into the Cave In for the loss.
Cameron Grimes defeated Andre Chase via pinfall in 2:30.
Duke Hudson showed up on the crows nest to taunt Grimes. Hudson had the production truck show Grimes with different photoshopped hairstyles. Hudson said when he wins on sunday then Hudson will be as bald as the day he was born and given a reason to cry. Grimes dragged Andrew Chase into the ring and threatened to give Chase a buzzcut. One of Chase’s students yanked Chase to ringside and retreated. Grimes said at War Games he’s shaving Hudson bald.
Vic Joseph, Wade Barrett, and Beth Phoenix checked in from ringside. Joseph noted that Johnny Gargano won the poll to be the 1.0 wrestler that wrestles in the advantage ladder match…[c]
John’s Thoughts: Cameron Grimes actually looks much better with the new haircut. It doesn’t hurt having a bit of a cleaner look and he didn’t have to go clean shaven or anything. The cleaner look also helps if he’s going to take more of a turn for the serious moving forward. Grimes vs. Hudson could be a sleeper hit on Sunday. That said, it’s almost a given that Grimes wins on Sunday and Hudson goes bald. At least that’s what I think.
An introductory vignette aired for Idris Enofe. He talked about growing up in Inglewood, CA (near Los Angeles). He then talked about going to the military. He said he’s similar to his opponent, Solo Sikoa, in having to fight to get where he is…
Alicia Taylor was in the ring interviewing Team 2.0 in the ring. Taylor revealed to Team 2.0 that Johnny Gargano was chosen to wrestle in the Ladder Match. Hayes took the mic first to respond. Hayes hyped up his team. Hayes said that Johnny Gargano has had all his big moments in NXT already. Hayes then said that on Sunday when he shoots he won’t miss. Grayson Waller took control of the promo and talked about he’s a good “Sports Entertainer” by posting his accolades on social media.
Waller also bragged that he’s a better version of LA Knight. Bron Breakker brought up Tommaso Ciampa talking about being experienced and looking down at Team 2.0. He said that doesn’t matter because team 2.0 is winning and after he’s going to take the title from Ciampa. Tony D’Angelo took control of the promo and said he’s coming for Pete Dunne. Alicia Taylor revealed that Bron Breakker won the vote to face Johnny Gargano. Before Breakker could cut a promo, Johnny Gargano came out with a mic. Gargano said if it wasn’t for guys like him, there wouldn’t be a ring for Team 2.0 to stand in. Gargano called Breakker the “Big Bad Booty Nephew”.
A “Booty Nephew” chant ensued. Gargano said Breakker should show the people that he isn’t just a booty nephew, but a man, by wrestling Gargano without Team 2.0 at ringside. Breakker agreed and said he’s going to kick Gargano’s ass in the ladder match…
Kyle O’Reilly and Von Wager were shown getting ready backstage…
McKenzie Mitchell interviewed Legado Del Fantasma. Wilde and Mendoza gloated about potentially beating Wagner and O’Reilly en route to War Games. Elektra Lopez said that after War Games Legado will be draped in gold…[c]
John’s Thoughts: Not the most hype of segments, but not the worst. It did it’s job in allowing some of the 2.0 guys mic time. They didn’t really steal the show, but at least they didn’t flub. NXT continues to throw out the Steiner references without calling Bron Breakker a Steiner. Just call him Rex Steiner. Maybe they’re doing the Michael McGuillicutty thing where they wait until his big push to give him the family name.
The show cut to Wes Lee and Nash Carter continuing to look for “The Shaman”. Their GPS kept trash talking them. Lee told the GPS to watch his ass. The GPS told Lee to watch his. Lee and Carter got out of the car and were super excited to finally meet the Shaman. They knocked on a door and a person opened who was standing in front of a bright light so we couldn’t see who it was. The show cut back to the PC ring…
Wilde and Mendoza got a televised entrance for the next match…
3. “Legado Del Fantasma” Raul Mendoza and Joaquin Wilde (w/Santos Escobar, Elektra Lopez) vs. Kyle O’Reilly and Von Wagner to become number one contender to the NXT Tag Team Championships. Wagner took down Wilde with a shoulder tackle. O’Reilly tagged in and put Wilde in a headlock. Mendoza tagged in and slammed O’Reilly. Wilde tagged in and got a one count. Mendoza tagged in and hit O’Reilly with boots. O’Reilly reversed a sunset flip. Mendoza reversed a rollup into his rollup. Wagner tagged in and hit a leaping hip attack on Mendoza. Wagner put Mendoza in a waisthold. Xyon Quinn showed up to stare at Elektra Lopez heading into the commercial break.[c]
[Hour Two] Quinn had a staredown with Lopez at ringside. Quinn then attacked Santos Escobar. Wilde and Mendoza traded quick tags to work on O’Reilly. After a few minutes of dominating, Wagner ended up catching Wilde with a boot from the apron. Wagner then tagged in and hit Mendoza with power slams. Wagner hit Wilde with a power slam. Wagner hit Mendoza with an Angle Slam for a two count. Mendoza reversed Wagner with a nice tightrope springboard dropkick.
Wilde and O’Reilly tagged in to trade punches for a bout a minute. O’Reilly hit Wilde with a kick combo. Wilde came back with a forearm and DDT. Legado went for their high low finisher, but Wagner pulled down the top rope to dump Mendoza to ringside. O’Reilly hit Wilde with a modified Chasing The Dragon and Total Elimination to give Wagner the victory.
Von Wagner and Kyle O’Reilly defeated Legado Del Fantasma via pinfall in 9:07 of on-air time to become number one contenders to the NXT Tag Team Championships.
The commentary team checked in from ringside where Barrett hyped up Imperium defending the titles against Wagner and O’Reilly. Joseph sent the show to McKenzie Mitchell…
McKenzie interviewed Marcel Barthel and Fabien Aichner. They were talking in their foreign languages. Before they were about to speak in English, Wagner and O’Reilly showed up. O’Reilly talked about how they are taking the titles from Imperium. Wagner called Barthel and Aichner “dumbasses”…[c]
John’s Thoughts: A good tag team match, but O’Reilly and Wagner have zero chemistry combined with the interest level dropping to a halt when Wagner is in the ring. The match was extremely fun when we got to see O’Reilly and Wilde. Those two were fire. Wagner is just thrown out there very raw and vanilla without direction.
A Tiffany Stranton vignette aired where she continued to act like a rich daddy’s girl from the valley…
Joe Gacy and Harland were in the ring for Joe Gacy’s all inclusive invitational. There were two random male and a female wrestler also in the ring. Gacy talked about how Roderick Strong and the Cruiserweight division creates a toxic environment for wrestlers. Gacy pointed out that it won’t allow height, weight, and gender bias (the three people were a shorter man, heavyset man, and a woman). Gacy said Sunday’s PPV will be called NXT “Conflict Resolution”…
4. Joe Gacy (w/Harland) vs. the shorter enhancement wrestler. The enhancement wrestler hit Gacy with a dropkick. Gacy came back with a big boot and chokeslam. Beth Phoenix noted that it seems like Gacy is a hypocrite. Gacy power bombed the enhancement wrestler for the win.
Joe Gacy defeated the shorter enhancement wrestler via pinfall in 1:00.
Gacy gave the enhancement wrestler a hug after the match. Gacy then offered to fight the female wrestler
5. Joe Gacy (w/Harland) vs. the female enhancement wrestler in an intergender match. Malcolm Bivens showed up to taught Gacy and tell him to fight Roderick Strong. Gacy told Bivens to hold back his aggression and to allow him to speak with Roderick Strong person to person. Strong and Bivens entered the ring. Strong attacked Bivens to cause the referee to call the bell
Joe Gacy vs. the enhancement female wrestler ended in an apparent no-contest.
Gacy retreated to ringside with Harland to end the segment…
McKenzie Mitchell interviewed Solo Sikoa. Before Solo can finish his promo, Boa walked in acting like he was having a stomach ache or something. Solo said he couldn’t understand Boa’s language and he was leaving (I grew up learnin Mandarin, and I couldn’t understand Boa’s mumbling)…[c]
John’s Thoughts: There’s a part of me that wanted to see Ivy Nile kick Joe Gacy’s ass, simply because Ivy Nile looks like she can kick the ass out of most of the roster, male or female. A solid segment to continue to build Joe Gacy’s character. What seemed initially like a publicity stunt, turned out to become one of NXT’s most intriguing and deep characters. There’s still a chance that this doesn’t work, but I like the effort being put in to build layers to the intricate Joe Gacy character. Props to Gacy for going from hardcore garbage wrestler to this unique cult-like character.
Entrances for the next match took place…
6. Solo Sikoa vs. Edris Enofe. Solo took down Edris with a shoulder tackle. Solo dominated Edris for a stretch. Robert Stone showed up at ringside to scout talent. Solo hit Edris with a nice Jeff Cobb looking twisting chokeslam. Edris recovered and hit solo with a boot and standing moonsault for a two count. Solo shoved Edris away and hit him with a Muay Thai roundhouse. Solo hit Edris with a buzzsaw kick and senton for a two count. Edris rallied back with punches. Edris hit Solo with a high knee. Edris hit Solo with a crossbody. Edris hit Solo with a Flatliner. Solo avoided a 450. Solo hit Edris with a Samoan Drop. Solo hit Edris with the Uso splash for the victory.
Solo Sikoa defeated Edris Enofe via pinfall in 4:20.
The face painted Boa showed up to choke Solo. Edris tried to help Solo, but he got choked by Boa. Solo kicked Boa to send Boa into retreat. Solo helped Edris to his feet to end the segment…
Persia Pirotta and Indi Hartwell were doing resistance band training. There was a random lady in pajamas sleeping on the couch. Hartwell got a phone call where a doctor said that Dexter Lumis is missing from the hospital. Pirotta wondered if she was going to have to wrestle by herself again. Hartwell said it was fine and she’s just worried about Dexter…[c]
John’s Thoughts: Robert Stone goes from looking like Jimmy Jacobs a few weeks ago to looking like MLW’s Cesar Duran this week. I kid I kid. Anyway, a solid match with two of WWE’s developmental projects. The crowd wasn’t into it too much, but that’s mostly because it’s a babyface vs. babyface match where noone has invested in any of the babyfaces yet. Enofe does have a good look and athleticism. On top of that he didn’t botch anything. Joe Uso contiues to stand out in a good way with his Uso moveset combined with Muay Thai. The Muai Thai aspect is what’s going to make him differentiate himself from most of the NXT roster. Speaking of martial arts, where the hell is Timothy Thatcher? Maybe we can somehow get Thatcher vs. Uso in a Fight Pit.
The unseen interviewer asked Xyon Quinn how his fight with Santos Escobar end. Quinn said the battle has just begun. Quinn walked into Elektra Lopez in the parking lot. Elektra wished Xyon good luck in his match against Santos Escobar next week because he’s going to need it…
A sponsored video package aired to spotlight the Dexter Lumis and Indi Hartwell relationship. The video also played the injury angle that put Dexter Lumis in the hospital for a month…
All four wrestlers were already in the ring. Indi Hartwell kept looking crestfallen and distracted…
7. Indi Hartwell and Persia Pirotta vs. Yulisa Leon and Valentina Feroz. Feroz took down Hartwell with a heel hook. Leon tagged in and hit Hartwell with a missile dropkick. Leon hit Hartwell with a standing moonsault. Leon put Hartwell in a half crab. Pirotta hyped up Hartwell enough for her to reach the hot tag. Pirotta lawn darted Leon and hit her with a sitout F5 for the victory.
Persia Pirotta and Indi Hartwell defeated Yulisa Leon and Valentina Feroz via pinfall in 1:57.
Pirotta held up Hartwell’s hand, but Hartwell continued to look crestfallen…
The commentary team checked in to run through the NXT War Games PPV card…
Johnny Gargano made his entrance heading into the break…[c]
John’s Thoughts: Indi continues to come off as a bit hammy in overselling her concern for Dexter Lumis, but it isn’t too harmful as the story they are trying to tell is coming off well enough. The real star of the story has been Persia Pirotta who has been impressive in recent showings. She’s done a solid job playing Indi’s tag partner while also getting over as a powerhouse in the ring handling these two-on-one situations.
A vignette aired to introduce Draco Anthony. He was sitting in a coffee shop drinking coffee and looking serious. He ended his promo by saying his actions will be louder than his words…
Bron Breakker made his entrance…
8. Johnny Gargano vs. Bron Breakker in a ladder match for advantage in the War Games match. Breakker shoved Gargano to the mat and did the Scott Steiner bicep flex. Breakker hit Gargano with an alligator roll into a delayed vertical suplex. Breakker held the suplex for about 10 seconds. Gargano hit Breakker with a huracanrana and dropkick. Gargano hit Breakker with a plancha at ringside. Breakker recovered and hit Gargano with Snake Eyes on the apron. Breakker hit Gargano with the base of a ladder.
When Breakker tried to set up the ladder, Gargano tried to climb it. Breakker had a nice power slam reversal to reverse Gargano’s crossbody. Gargano caught Breakker with a slingshot spear. Gargano hit Breakker with a wrecking ball kick and then shoved the ladder into Breakker. Johnny Gargano hit Breakker with a suicide dive heading into PiP commercial.[c]
Breakker punched Gargano off the ladder. Gargano shoved the ladder to send Breakker to ringside. Gargano tried to set up the ladder, but Breakker gave the ladder a lariat to send it into Gargano. Breakker gave Gargano a Belly to Belly into the ladder. Breakker tried to elbow drop Gargano through the ladder, but Gargano avoided the elbow and Breakker crashed into the ladder. Gargano set up a ladder on the top rope and gave Breakker a drop toehold, jaw first, into the ladder. Breakker recovered and draped Gargano on the ladder.
Gargano escaped the Military Press and superkicked the ladder twice into Breakker’s face. Gargano went for another superkick, but Breakker was defiant, giving Gargano a middle finger and asking Gargano to “kiss my ass”. Gargano gave Breakker the imperative superkick. Breakker set up Gargano in the corner and hit Gargano with the Steiner signature Frankensteiner. Breakker went for his finisher, but Gargano reversed the Military Press into a DDT. Gargano slammed the briefcase into Breakker to knock him off the ladder. Breakker pulled Gargano down into his power slam finisher. Gargano rolled to ringside. Breakker got the briefcase to give his team the advantage.
Bron Breakker defeated Johnny Gargano in a ladder match in 14:10 to earn his team the advantage in the War Games match.
Highlights from the match aired. Team 1.0 and 2.0 ran out to brawl with each other to close the show…
John’s Thoughts: The match started so slow and plodding, that I didn’t think it would be your usual Gargano classic main event. Thankfully the action picked up and the match really came into it’s own by the end of it. There’s a part of me that hopes we get to see Bron Breakker vs. Johnny Gargano without a ladder because I felt like the ladder actually got in the way of a good match (Johnny Gargano’s contract is supposedly over after Sunday right? So we might not ever get that match). The women’s ladder match was still the better one of the night as the ladder really enhanced that match and it was gritty, but the Breakker vs. Gargano match got good by the end of it.
Not the hottest of NXT shows in terms of fresh material, but I thought they served the show well as a go-home show for War Games. Last week’s show was better quality wise, but this week’s wasn’t bad though. NXT 2.0 is better when they are telling stories and allowing the wrestlers to shine. Not when they throw random ass gimmicks at the wall and hope some of them stick.
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