By John Moore, ProWrestling.net Staffer (@liljohnm)
NXT 2.0
Live from Orlando, Florida at the WWE Performance Center
Aired July 26, 2022 on USA Network
[Hour One] Vic Joseph and Wade Barrett were on commentary. Women’s number one contender, Zoey Stark, made her entrance in street clothes. Zoey soaked in “Welcome Back” chants. Zoey yelled that it feels so good to be back in the ring. She said she wasn’t even sure if she would get to feel this moment ever again. She noted that she tore hoer ACL off the bone at Halloween Havoc with a return timeline of over a year. She said that was a tough pill to swollow, but she knew she could beat that time table. She noted how she immediately started physical therapy after surgery. Zoey talked about how it was a tough mental hit, and she was even anxious if the crowd would care about her.
The crowd showered Zoey with chants. Zoey talked about how she’s been living in the trainers room over the past year which led to her beating the time table 4 months ahead of schedule. Zoey said the crowd cheers last week when she returned made all the physical training worth it. She thanked the fans from the bottom of her heart. She said she’s the women’s championship number one contender and Toxic Attraction are in her way. She noted that Toxic Attraction were the reason behind her injury, almost taking her career away. Zoey’s promo was cut off by heel Cora Jade’s entrance. Jade cut a promo from the crow’s nest. Jade was being condescending towards Zoey’s promo. Zoey talked about how Jade must feel after she got her ass tossed over the top rope.
Jade blamed everyone teaming up on her as the reason she lost. She said that Zoey stole her moment, just like Roxanne Perez did. Zoey said it makes her sick to see what Cora Jade to the Tag Team Championship, which Zoey wore proudly while Jade treated it like trash. Before Jade could respond, she was cut off by the Toxic Attraction trio making their entrance. Rose said everyone is talking a big game, but when it comes to the title, Mandy Rose only wins. Rose said that after tomorrow, Rose will become the forth longest reigning NXT Women’s Champion in NXT history. Rose listed off former NXT women’s champions saying she’s better than. She particularly pointed out that she’s passing Paige, who’s leaving the company.
Stark said that Rose should put the title on the line tonight. Gigi Dolin said that Stark can’t call the shots, they do. Dolin challenged Stark to a match later and said she wants to put Stark back on the
Grayson Waller cut a promo backstage, cutting a promo against the fan. He noted that the fans shouldn’t be looking at their phones waiting for their “ho” to get back to them because their ho cares more about Waller. Waller hyped up his match against Wes Lee after the break…[c]
John’s Thoughts: Good collection of promos to set up the women’s title picture in NXT. I’m happy they gave Stark a chance to chronicle her return to the ring after getting the torn ACL. Great babyface promo from her and looking forward to see what she does once the promos relate more to storylines as opposed to real life. Cora Jade is already looking pretty good as a promo. She was cheesy as a babyface, but as a heel her condescending tone works well. Speaking of reality, is Rose drawing heat from mentioning Paige leaving the company a part of the post-Vince era? That and Waller calling unknown ladies on the phone as a “ho”? I feel like I’m just going to be picking at nits, pointing out what may or may not be the new direction of NXT post-Vince.
Tony D’Angelo was coaching Lorenzo, Lopez, Del Toro, and Wilde. He praised Lorenzo and Lopez while also saying that Del Toro and Wilde have been improving in recent weeks. D’Angelo hyped up facing Diamond Mine later on in the show…
Entrances for the next match took place…
1. Grayson Waller vs. Wes Lee. Waller tossed around Lee during the opening collar and elbow lockup. Lee came right back with a snap armdrag. Barrett claimed that Lee was lying about the rubbing alcohol in his eyes. Joseph noted he could smell the rubbing alcohol during the match. Lee and Waller had a stalemate during the methodical opening. Lee got a few two counts off a few victory roll attempts. Lee hit a flurry of armdrags on Waller. Lee did a chamber to feint out Waller. Waller came back with a front thrust kick.
Lee came back with a huracanrana and dropkick. Waller avoided a plancha at ringside and hit Lee with a right hand. Lee staggered his way into a superkick. The show cut to picture-in-picture.[c]
During the break, side note, Naomi was featured in a game show where she, the Bellas, and Jimmy Uso were also guest stars. Waller hit Lee with cravate clinch knees. Waller hit Lee with a Low Down for a two count. While Waller was taunting lee, Lee came back with stiff right hand punches and chops. Lee hit Waller with a bulldog and aggressive ground and pound. Lee no sold a jawbreaker and came back with a suicide dive. Waller shoved Lee off the top rope to prevent Lee from diving. As Lee was standing, and Waller distracted the ref, Trick Williams appeared in a hoodie in the crowd, where he gave Lee a right hand punch . Lee beat the ten count. Waller ran to ringside to hit Lee with the rolling stunner for the win.
Grayson Waller defeated Wes Lee via pinfall in 10:59.
Trick Williams posed over Lee after the match…
McKenzie Mitchell interviewed The Schism, Joe Gacy and The Dyad, Gacy demanded that Mitchell address them by their new names, Rip Fowler and Jagger Reed. They all talked in their usual rhetoric. Fowler talked about how they are looking to be recognized, as a reference to his old catchphrase “soon to be recognized”. Gacy talked about how he wants to help Cameron Grimes by filling in the father role for him after Cameron’s father passed away….
Apollo Crews made his entrance for the next match…[c]
John’s Thoughts: Good back and forth with both wrestlers looking good. I really liked that section of the match in particular where Lee just snapped and went aggressive on Waller. Lee has upper card potential as a singles guy (which we forget sometimes since he was so good when teaming with Wentz and Miguel). Lee losing nothing in loss here and I think he’s doing well feuding with both Waller and Trick at the same time. Trick’s doing good character stuff, he’s still probably not ready in the ring, but fingers crossed that he gets to where he needs to be.
Ariana Grace, daughter of Santino Marella, was showing off footage from the Battle Royal last week where she was doing well, only to get eliminated by Indi Hartwell. She was bragging to other developmental women. Indi Hartwell showed up to tell Grace that Grace would have eliminated her if she were in the same spot. Grace bragged about winning beauty pageants. Hartwell said that this isn’t ballet, or a beauty pageant…
Xyon Quinn made his entrance…
2. Apollo Crews vs. Xyon Quinn. Crews grounded Quinn and hit Quinn with a slingshot swanton. Quinn came back with a Northern Forearm. Quinn hit Crews with a suplex and did a kip up. Quinn worked on Crews with methodical offense. Wade Barrett sidetracked by saying that he’s wrestled with Drew McIntyre and Sheamus for years and that he thinks that Sheamus is the tougher of the two, to hype up their Smackdown match. Quinn dominated for a few minutes. Crews came back with a gamengiri and a series of lariats. Crews hit Quinn with a dropkick and did a kip up. Crews hit Quinn with a diving crossbody.
Quinn managed to reverse Crews into Murphy’s Law for a two count. Crews blocked an elbow with a enzuigiri. Crews hit Quinn with a Lungblower and followed up with a Uranage for the win.
Apollo Crews defeated Xyon Quinn via pinfall in 5:40.
John’s Thoughts: Decent showing from Quinn. Quinn doesn’t seem quite ready for the longer matches yet as he only got around 6 minutes of time where he was mostly going through the motions during the heat segment, but he did a pretty decent job there. I like some of the tweaks he’s made as a heel. He’s reminding me a bit of Roman Reigns’s “Gold watch” character in NXT from back in the day. I’m just glad he’s giving up on being love sick and singing Shawn Michael’s Sexy Boy theme song like a goof. Crews was definitely going over here if it was a clean finish. He’s probably still considered a tier above most wrestlers in NXT due to his main roster run.
McKenzie Mitchell interviewed Toxic Attraction. Rose was hyping up Gigi Dolin for later in the show. Sarray showed up dressed in her Schoolgirl attire. Sarray noted that she didn’t get a chance to become number one contender due to being in the UK last week. Rose said she wants to get revenge at Sarray for almost disfiguring her face (a reference to what led to Rose changing her hair ultimately. Rose wore a face mask to sell Sarray’s face wash dropkick. Toxic Attraction left the interview to head to Dolin’s next match…[c]
A cinematic promo aired for Solo Sikoa. Solo addressed his feud with Von Wagner. He noted that Wagner jumped him from behind at the Amway Center. He said that Wagner wants to throw the rules out of the window. Solo said he’s going to beat Wagner in a Falls Count Anywhere match next week…
Zoey Stark made her entrance. Vic Joseph hyped a theme show in three weeks called “NXT Heatwave” where Mandy Rose will defend her title against Zoey Stark…
3. Zoey Stark vs. Gigi Dolin (w/Mandy Rose, Jacy Jayne). Dolin dominated early on with shortarm strikes. Dolin got a two count off a slam. Stark reversed a bow and arrow into a crossbody pin for a two count. Stark rallied at Dolin with lariats. Stark hit Dolin with a running basement knee for a two count. Stark hit Dolin with a superkick and modified GTS for the victory.
Zoey Stark defeated Gigi Dolin via pinfall in 2:48.
Stark gave Jayne a superkick when she tried to blindside her. Toxic Attraction retreated up the ramp as Stark taunted them from the ring. Cora Jade appeared out of nowhere and beat up Stark with a kendo stick. Roxanne Perez made her entrance and chased Cora Jade away. Perez went to check on Stark…
JD McDonagh drove into the Performance Center parking lot. JD told the man at the door that he wasn’t a competitor today and he has a ticket to sit in the crowd…[c]
The show cut to Wendy Choo in a bed having nightmares about getting attacked by Tiffany Stratton in recent months. She woke up looking angrier than usual. Choo was also annoyed that her drinking cup was empty. She said Tiffany caused her to wake up at the wrong side of the bed. She talked to the camera and said it isn’t over. She said it won’t be a pretty picture next time and it’ll be lights out for Tiffany…
John’s Thoughts: Are they giving Choo a dark edge? That wouldn’t hurt.
[Hour Two] JD McDonagh cut a promo from the crowd. He singled out a fan eating popcorn and noted that many Americans die choking on popcorn. JD then singled out the timekeeper and introduced himself to him. He said the timekeeper is one of the most important people in the ring, by ringing the bell and ending whatever torture is in the ring. JD picked up the timekeeper hammer talked about how it doesn’t take a lot of pressure to knock a finger out of its socket with a hammer. JD told him to be careful.
JD talked about how Alicia Taylor has a wonderful voice. JD then walked up to Wade Barrett and talked about how Barrett’s years of bare knuckle fighting have weakened his joints. JD twisted around Barrett’s wrist a bit. JD then told Vic Joseph that he didn’t like what Joseph said about his family last week. JD talked about Joseph’s soft bones and even pressured Joseph’s collar bone. JD said he needs to introduce himself to one more person as he asked Bron Breakker to come out to the ring. Bron Breakker made his entrance. Breakker entered the ring in street clothes.
Breakker hyped up the Heat Wave themed show in three weeks. He said that McDonagh isn’t going to like being acclimated to Bron Breakker. Breakker said things will be official next week. McDonagh surprised Breakker with a headbutt, but Breakker came back with his own headbutt. McDonagh started to bleed from the mouth while on the ground. McDonagh was laughing to end the segment…
Andre Chase asked Thea Hail and Bodhi Hayward about a scouting report on Giovani Vinci. Hayward said that Vinci is a jerk. Hail yelled by saying that Vinci was mean. Nathan Frazer showed up and asked if he can be an honorary flagbarer. Chase agreed and said he’s going to beat Vinci…[c]
John’s Thoughts: JD McDonagh is still a bit dry when it comes to mic work, but the dryness kinda adds to this whole subtly psychotic character. It’s sorta Dexter Lumis, but less cartoony. What I liked here was him coming off as actually menacing by physically threatening all the non wrestlers. What adds to his act is he’s also going through the whole “Dexter” thing where he understands how joints and muscles work which makes him efficiently able to dissect people. Where that was expressed well was in his match against Cameron Grimes last week where his focus on the leg muscles led to his win.
Vic Joseph and Wade Barrett checked in from ringside. Joseph jokingly sold McDonagh’s attack on his shoulder when Barrett pat him on the shoulder. They sent the show to a Marvel Comic Styled recap video that recapped Axiom’s debut last week…
McKenzie Mitchell interviewed Roxanne Perez, who’s still holding the NXT Women’s Tag Team Championship. Perez said that Jade can throw away their friendship, but she can’t stand Jade throwing the title in the trash. Alundra Blayze (Medusa) showed up with the trash can that Jade threw the title in. Perez noted that Blayze is a WWE Hall of Famer. Perez handed Blayze the title belts and noted when she threw away the WWE Women’s Championship, it took them a long time to crown a new champ, but not this time. Blaze hyped up a four way elimination match for next week with the winners winning the now vacant tag titles…
John’s Thoughts: Oh shoot! Are Hunter and Shawn truly back in the driver’s seat? Very cool seeing the legend in Blaze getting the cameo on this week’s show.
Giovani Vinci made his cheesy entrance. Andre Chase was already in the ring. Hail and Hayward were at ringside while Frazer was in the crowd…
4. Giovani Vinci vs. Andre Chase (w/Bodhi Hayward, Thea Hail). Vinci tossed around Chase early on. Chase came back with an armdrag into an armbar. Vinci escaped with a Lucha Kip Up. Chase dominated Vinci with a side headlock. Vinci got to his feet and hit Chase with a double gut punch. Chase came back with La Magistral and a Crucifix Rollup for a few two count. Chase hit Vinci with a hip toss and put Vinci back in an armbar. Vinci got to his feet and hit Chase with a dropkick. Chase came back with a dropkick of his own. Vinci grabbed Hayward’s flag and snapped the pole with his knee. Chase fired up and tossed Vinci into the ringpost. The show cut to regular commercial.[c]
Vinci dominated Chase with methodical offense. Chase came back with a knee and sunset bomb for a two count. Vinci backdropped Chase to ringside in front of Hayward and Hail. Vinci hit Chase with a baseball slide. Vinci shoved Hayward at ringside. This allowed Chase to land a few chops. Chase hit Vinci with a back suplex. Chase rallied with strikes and hit Vinci with an Atomic Drop followed by a Russian Legsweep. Chase hit Vinci with the Chase U boots. Chase hit Vinci with a side slam for a two count. A “This is Awesome” chant ensued.
Vinci centered his feet to the ground to block a suplex. Vinci reversed a Blockbuster into his signature Deadlift Brainbuster for the two count. Chase reversed a power bomb with a jackknife pin. Chase hit Vinci with a boot and Tiger Bomb for a two count. Vinci and Chase traded strong style strikes. Chase staggered Vinci with a Yakuza Kick. Chase reversed a flatliner into a stiff suplex. Vinci hit Chase with a Spirit Bomb for the victory.
Giovani Vinci defeated Andre Chase via pinfall in 9:10 of on-air time.
Nathan Frazer checked on Chase after the match to see if he was ok…
John’s Thoughts: Woah, that match was way better than it had any right being. That was both guys’ best match in NXT 2.0 so far (Vinci has had better matches as a part of Imperium, but I’m talking about the rebooted version). You should expect such a well worked match between two veterans, but I’m surprised they didn’t just have Chase squashed by Vinci. Vinci didn’t look bad in the competitive match and Chase really gained in loss. There’s a bit of a Heath Slater quality to him where he can keep losing, but keep their heat like teflon. This was a good match that invoked the “This is Awesome” from the crowd.
The Creeds, Strong, Kemp, and Nile were training in the Diamond Mine gym. Nile was happy they were united. Strong said they were all on the same page and ready to dominate. Julius hyped everyone up and said that he was going to drop Tony D and all their bitch asses. Julius said that pressure makes diamonds, but tonight it breaks bones.
Vic Joseph hyped up Dolph Ziggler appearing on Love Island on Peacock…
Indi Hartwell made her entrance for the next match…[c]
Valintina Feroz and Luisa Leon were chatting to each other on face time with Feroz being away from the performance center. They were excited to be in the women’s tag team fatal four way. Sanga showed up and gave them words of encouragement…
McKenzie Mitchell interviewed Katana Chance and Kayden Carter, who looked grumpy and were going after the tag titles. They talked about how they were going to win the titles. Tatum Paxley and Ivy Nile showed up to confront Chance and Carter. Nile said they were taking care of business just like Diamond Mine is going to against D’Angelo’s crew. Elektra Lopez shoed up to trash talk, but was attacked by Tatum Paxley. A pull apart brawl ensued…
Ariana Grace made her entrance…
5. Indi Hartwell vs. Ariana Grace. Grace showboated a bit during the opening chain wrestling. Hartwell took down Grace with a shoulder tackle and side slam. Grace dodged Hartwell and hit her with a backbreaker. Grace put Hartwell in a grounded cravate. Hartwell got to her feet and escaped. Grace put Hartwell back to the mat with hip and knee strikes. Grace put Hartwell into the cravate. Grace tossed Hartwell into the corner. Hartwell came back with a clothesline. Hartwell hit Grace with a few strikes and a spinebuster for a two count.
Grace tried to roll up Hartwell for the leverage pin, but the ref caught her. Hartwell hit Grace with a Big Boot for the victory.
Indi Hartwell defeated Ariana Grace via pinfall in 3:59.
Von Wagner and Mr. Stone were shown backstage. Stone hyped up Wagner, Stone noted that Wagner beat up his football coach in High School once. Stone said he was declining Solo’s challenge. Wagner said they aren’t declining anything. Stone said they have to scramble a bit after Wagner ran of Sofia Cromwell (now Maxxine Dupri). Wagner said if she wants to be a model, good for her because Wagner doesn’t give a shit (censored). Wagner said that he’s the street champ now and if Solo wants the crown back he can come and get it next week…
Tony D’Angelo and “The D’Angelo Family” made their entrance…[c]
John’s Thoughts: Hartwell vs. Grace was a comedown match. Nothing much more than that. Von Wagner is oddly getting more mic time recently. He’s getting better, but he’s still pretty bad. He’s just better than awful (and I kinda like hearing his awful promos as a guilty pleasure). What I do praise is he has cleaned up the look since his rough initial days on WWE TV. I think they could maybe consider using him and Stone with Stone doing all the talking while Wagner is hidden in the back in promo class until he can sound more natural.
A vignette aired for Kiana James. She was shown running through a powerpoint presentation. She talked about Nikkita Lyons being wrong for the women’s diviison. She said her dad was a rock star and mom was a groupie. She said that lead to Lyons’s bad vocabulary. A clip was shown of Lyons cutting one of her promos. James pointed out show Lyons wears minimal clothing. She said she will continue to unpack the layers of Lyons and report back with her findings…
John’s Thoughts: So a little bit of Powerpoint Drew Gulak and a little bit of Right to Censor? I guess Kiana had to give up a bit on the math now that Axiom is using math powers. I kid.
A promo aired to hype up Alba Fyre vs. Lash Legend, having both women state their claim to a future win…
Vic Joseph and Wade Barrett announced the following segments for next week: Toxic Attraction vs. Nile and Paxley vs. Leon and Feroz vs. Chance and Carter for the NXT Women’s Tag Team Championship, JD McDonagh and Bron Breakker facing off, Solo Sikoa vs. and Von Wagner in a Falls Count Anywhere match. Joseph noted that the Women’s Tag Team Title match will be uninterrupted…
6. “Diamond Mine” Roderick Strong, Julius Creed, Brutus Creed, and Damon Kemp vs. “The D’Angelo Family” Tony D’Angelo, Channing
Stacks” Lorenzo, Cruz Del Toro, and Joaquin Wilde. Strong isolated Stacks in the Diamond Mine corner. Barrett wished Roderick Strong a happy birthday. Stacks managed to send Julius into his corner and tag in Tony D’Angelo who worked on Julius with strong strikes. Julius came back with a whip and lariat. Tony ran around the ring to avoid Julius. Both teams cleared the corners and faced off in the ring. An all-out brawl ensued.
Tony and Julius were left in the ring. Julius tried to put Tony in an ankle lock but was pulled to ringside by the rest of The Family. Brutus hit the D’Angelo Family with his signature cannonball drop heading into picture-in-picture.[c]
Brutus flapjacked Wilde. Kemp tagged in and hit his quick flurry of offense on Wilde. Kemp dumped Wilde to ringside. Kemp tried to body slam Del Toro, but Wilde gave Kemp a chop block.
[Overrun] Tony tagged in and cut the ring in half on Kemp. Tony put Kemp in the Tree of Woe and put the boots to him. The D’Angelo Family traded quick tags to keep the numbers advantage over Kemp. For some reason, Barrett and Joseph have been joking about the discontinuation of the Choco Taco all night. Kemp managed to get a window of opportunity after hitting Stacks with a slingshot Spear. Del Toro tagged in and continued to cut the ring in half on Kemp. Kemp backdropped Del Toro to ringside. Julius manage to get in for the hot tag. Julius hit Stacks with a cartwheel slam. He suplexed Del Toro. Julius hit Wilde with a superplex. Julius hit Tony with a bridged German for a two count.
Julius reversed Tony’s gutwench into an ankle lock. Stacks broke it up. Brutus hit Stack with a Pounce. Legado hit Brutus with their finisher. Everyone took turns hitting signature moves. Strong accidentally hit Julius with a leaping knee during all the commotion. Tony D’Angelo hit Julius with a Fisherman Buster for the victory.
The D’Angelo Family defeated The Diamond Mine via pinfall in 11:39.
The show cut to Alundra Blaze in the parking lot with the Women’s Tag Team Championships. Blazed hyped up next week’s tag team title match. Jacy Jayne and Gigi Dolin taunted Blaze and demanded that Alnndra just hand them the titles. Blayze said that Jayne and Dolin will have to earn the titles in the match next week. The show closed with Toxic Attraction yelling at Blayze to give them the titles…
John’s Thoughts: The 8 person tag started off paint by numbers, but fired up pretty well by the end. I wouldn’t have minded if they added about two or more minutes because the closing segment was a bit unnecessary and they still had about 4 minutes left in their allocated overrun. It was weird to sidetrack to this oddball Diamond Mine vs. D’Angelo side-feud, but they were put in a bit of an awkward situation when Troy Donovan was released from WWE, which has D’Angelo stuck in tag matches. My guess is they’ll get back to the Escobar vs. D’Angelo feud soon (Unless Escobar gets called up, which never happens, but I’d be happy if they finally call him up). Diamond Mine continues to implode, but I don’t think they’re spinning their wheels quite yet. Part of what is keeping it entertaining is Roderick Strong’s antics.
I’m not going to assume anything yet as to NXT having a different direction (given what transpired over the last few days), I’ll give it a few weeks to see if there are any real changes. As for this week’s show, it was a bit cleaner than last week’s. The main event was entertaining in-ring and Andre Chase vs. Giovani Vinci ended up being a delightful surprise. It’s also interesting seeing that they’re going to keep the Women’s Tag Titles alive. What about the main roster ones?
James with quite the face turn showing that slide deck of Lyons.
Alundra Blayze is still a really bad actress but it was great to see her again.