Posted in: Sports, TV, USA Network, WWE | Tagged: Bron Breakker, Diamond Mine, imperium, NXT, NXT 2.0, NXT Champion, NXT Recaps, NXT Vengeance Day, recaps, tommaso ciampa, USA Network, wrestling, wwe

NXT 2.0 Recap 2/1: Can Bron Breakker & Tommaso Ciampa Co-Exist?

Last week's NXT 2.0 furthered the tension between NXT Champion Bron Breakker and Legado del Fantasma, whose leader, Santos Escobar made it very clear that he doesn't respect Breakker as a Champion.  Escobar said he thinks Breakker was handed everything, while he is the truly deserving Champion.  But when Breakker offered to put the title on the line against him, Escobar declined and said he'll only challenge for the title when he's ready.  At the end of the night when Breakker was leaving, the three men of Legado attempted to jump him in the parking lot, that is until an unexpected ally showed up to have Breakker's back: former NXT Champion Tommaso Ciampa.  Now tonight, that last two NXT champs will take on Joaquin Wilde and Raul Mendoza in tag team action as Escobar will surely be watching closely.  Could this all be a trap for Breakker and Ciampa?  Let's find out.

Diamond Mine vs Imperium

So as Imperium makes their entrance, the audience is loudly chanting "WALTER" over and over.  Vic Joseph on commentary then corrects everyone that it's GUNTHER!  Sure pal.

This one's a brawl right from the jump.  Let's just lay it out there, this match was excellent from start to finish.  Every one of these six men looks like legit stars and Gunther should be WWE's monster heel for the foreseeable future.  He has that intangible and that presence that you just can't manufacture.

Everything here looks like a legit fight and real competition, which is what modern wrestling is desperately missing.  There are no silly dance sequences, no over-synchronized gymnastics high spots, and there aren't 1000 superkicks.  These guys are wrestling and it looks great.  Eventually, Gunther hits the big Powerbomb on Brutus Creed and folds him up for the pinfall.

Winners: Imperium

We now go to an LA Knight backstage promo from earlier in the day, where he lays into Grayson Waller and lets him know he's not afraid of him or his bodyguard.  He's then approached by Joe Gacy and Harland, who lecture him about his anger and offer to help him grow.  Knight threatens them and challenges Gacy to a match.  LA Knight is on a different level than anyone else on the brand.  He's got catchphrases, can speak better than anyone, and is a really good wrestler.  Bring this guy to the main roster and make him one of your main stars in WWE.

Next, we get an in-ring promo from Toxic Attraction.  Gigi Dolin and Jacy Jayne talk some trash to their NXT Vengeance Day opponents, Indi Hartwell and Persia Pirotta.  But as Mandy Rose begins to speak, she's interrupted by Kay Lee Ray, who demands an NXT Women's title match against her.  They go back and forth on the mic a bit, with Rose bragging about her modeling and Ray mocking her for her failures on the main WWE roster.

Ray promises by the end of the night, she'll have her title match and smacks Rose to the mat.

We now go to a backstage interview with Cora Jade, who explains that she's tough enough to be Raquel Gonzalez's partner and will beat her tonight to prove it.

We now go to the parking lot, where Dolin and Jayne get in an SUV to leave, but when Rose tries to get in the driver's seat, we see Kay Lee Ray in the seat and she speeds off with the NXT Women's Tag Team Champions inside.

Cora Jade vs Raquel Gonzalez

So uh, let's just address the elephant in the room right off the bat here.  If you noticed that during the broadcast, the screen kept cutting to black numerous times, yeah, that's because Gonzalez was wearing a very unfortunately cut and ill-fitting top that created quite a few "wardrobe malfunctions" throughout the match.  Luckily for her, the network censors were ready and able to cut away when her top did the same.

The match itself is whatever.  Neither are that good and honestly, the story leading into this one doesn't make much sense.  Eventually, Gonzalez hits the Chingona Bomb for the pinfall.

Winner: Raquel Gonzalez

After the match, Gonzalez helps Jade up and agrees to be her partner for the tournament.  So what was the point of any of this then?

Next, they replay the kinda racist Sarray video package from last week because she has a match next.  Yikes.

We then go to a video package where Pete Dunne talks trash to Tony D'Angelo and mocks him after he hit him with a cricket bat last week and he challenges him to a Steel Cage Match.

Sarray vs Kayla Inlay

So her entrance is we follow her as a timid nerdy schoolgirl (why, when we saw her as a normal adult woman for months now?) backstage and she has her magical necklace thing and walks into a cloud of smoke and then enters on the stage through the cloud of smoke and looks totally different, like a superhero or an anime character.  Wow.  This is both dumb as hell and probably offensive all at once.  Well done creative!

The ensuing match is lame and awkward.  They even distract away from it in the middle to get an update on the whole Kay Lee Ray/Toxic Attraction situation.  If Sarray is being reintroduced here, especially as a superhero type with mystical enhancements, why is this match not a total one-sided squash?  She's facing a no-name jobber, so who cares?  Not a good look.  Sarray finishes strong, as she hits the Sunray Dropkick followed by an Exploder Suplex for the pinfall.

Winner: Sarray

We next get a video package of Duke Hudson, where he speaks about his new mindset and his obsession with making people suffer, all while shaving his head.

Next, we go to the locker room, where Bron Breakker is getting ready.  He's approaches by Tommaso Ciampa, who tells him he's helping him because he knows how lonely it is to be Champion.

The NXT North American Champion Carmelo Hayes and Trick Williams hit the ring now, where they mock the number one contender, Cameron Grimes.  Grimes heads out and they have a back and forth making fun of each other.  Hayes promises to defeat Grimes in two weeks at NXT Vengeance Day and walks off.

Next, we find Malik Blade and Edris Enofé in the locker room discussing potential names for their tag team.  Edris ends up rambling about how hot he thinks Mandy Rose is right before she wanders into the room and falling into Malik's lap while running from Kay Lee Ray, who catches up to her and chases her out.  They then make a boner joke with Malik Blade and that's that for a really unnecessary segment with two guys who can't talk.

We go to a backstage interview with Diamond Mine, where the Creed Brothers say they'll win the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic and will defeat Imperium for the NXT Tag Team titles.  They're interrupted by Grizzled Young Veterans, who will face them next week in the tournament semifinals.

LA Knight vs Joe Gacy

A pretty good match here with nice action throughout from both men.  Eventually, Knight gets tossed outside and is distracted by Sanga, which allows Grayson Waller to hit the Rolling Stunner to Knight on the outside.  The ref begins to count and as he's about to yell ten, Knight leaps into the ring only for Gacy to hit the Springboard Clothesline on him for the pinfall.

Winner: Joe Gacy

After the match, Waller and Sanga enter the ring and Waller mocks Knight on the mic, until Knight leaps up and punches Waller. Sanga then hits a big Chokeslam on Knight to take him out.  Waller then says Knight can face Sanga next week and if he wins, Waller will get rid of the restraining order.

We now get a video promo from Robert Stone and Von Wagner, where Stone explains why he took on Wagner as his new client.

Wendy Choo vs Amari Miller

All I can say is Choo is way too good to be saddled with this horrendous stupid gimmick.  Even in this terrible goofball act, she's still doing her best to get it to work.  The match itself actually isn't bad, with lots of back and forth action.  Tiffany Stratton arrives at ringside to try and bribe Miller into beating Choo.  This doesn't work though, as Choo blasts Miller with a Two-Handed Chop for the pinfall.

Winner: Wendy Choo

After the match, Choo steals Stratton's credit card.

We now go backstage to Persia Pirotta, Indi Hartwell, and Dexter Lumis (hey they're still married!) where they argue about Duke Hudson.  They're then approaches by Brooks Jensen, who asks them for relationship advice.  This is all awful and I find myself in the best, most competitive bout of the night, as I fight the urge to turn the show off.

Next, we get a video package of Draco Anthony working out at the Performance Center overnight.

We then go to another video package, this time for a truly confounding new character named Nikkita Lyons, who explains that she's the offspring of a hair band bassist and a groupie and as such, she grew up in a van and is now a rapper, which of course somehow also makes her a wrestler.

I mean, wow.  What an incredible bouillabaisse of nonsense that is!  We haven't even seen her in action yet and her character already challenges the perplexment that is Hulk Hogan's real American, surfer dude, musclehead, boyscout, biker, rock star, raging maniac, superhero character.

Back to the equally befuddling crap that is NXT 2.0, we go to a backstage interview with Sarray, now in her mild-mannered Clark Kent persona.  She dedicates her victory to her grandmother and explains that when she wears the super-duper glowing necklace (surely not to be confused with the Eye of Agamotto because Vince saw five minutes of Dr. Strange that he understood on a flight and came up with this brilliant schtick), she can do anything.  She is interrupted by  Dakota Kai, who takes umbrage with all of this and warns Sarray that every relationship is doomed.  Wait, is she referring to Sarray's relationship with her dead grandma?  Or her relationship with the spooky necklace?  Or her relationship with her superpowered alter ego?  Why am I wasting time thinking about this?  Where am I?  What time is it?  Oh we're clearly in the second hour of NXT 2.0 aren't we?

Andre Chase vs Draco Anthony

It's Anthony's NXT debut and they're clearly drawing from his past as a Marine, as he's wearing fatigues and combat boots to wrestle in here.  The match is pretty slow and simple, with Chase clearly running the match here and guiding him through it.  After Anthony stomps on the "Chase U" flag, Chase explodes on him and eventually hits Anthony with a Reverse STO for the pinfall.

Winner: Andre Chase

After the match, Chase screams into the camera that next week, Von Wagner is getting "an Andre Chase University sized ass-whooping!"

Mandy Rose is still running around backstage and finds herself in a kitchen area, where Kay Lee Ray appears behind her and dumps and huge bowl of spaghetti on her head and then smashes a sheet cake in her face.  Here we are folks.  Food fights.

Tommaso Ciampa & Bron Breakker vs Legado del Fantasma

A fun main event match here.  Both teams get some good stuff in, but eventually, Ciampa sends Wilde flying from the top turnbuckle through the announce table and Breakker hits Mendoza with the Gorilla Press Slam for the pinfall.

Winners: Bron Breakker & Tommaso Ciampa

Following that, we see Kay Lee Ray chase Mandy Rose out to the ring, where she threatens her with a bat and demands a title match next week, which Rose agrees to.  Ray then Superkicks Rose and hits her with a KLR Bomb as NXT 2.0 ends.

And that's it for this week's NXT 2.0, where the nonsense and stupidity came roaring back this week after a couple weeks of solid, wrestling-focused shows.  I guess we can tell who was in the building this week versus the past couple.

Till next time friends.

2/1 NXT 2.0

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Review by Ryan Fassett

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2/10

A very good opening Six-Man Tag Match was the highlight of the show, though the main event match was fun too. Ultimately though, this show was done in by backstage nonsense and silly stuff dominating the screen time. Food fights, relationship arguments, and a guy getting a boner was all present here on this episode and none of that ever should be on any episode.

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