Posted in: Review, Sports, TV, USA Network, WWE | Tagged: Bron Breakker, gunther, imperium, NXT, NXT 2.0, NXT Championship, NXT Stand and Deliver, recaps, USA Network, Wrestlemania, wrestling, wwe

NXT 2.0 Recap 4/5: Bron Breakker Vs. Gunther For The NXT Title

It was a chaotic 72 hours for NXT 2.0's biggest young superstar Bron Breakker.  On Saturday at NXT Stand & Deliver, he lost his NXT title match against Champion Dolph Ziggler due to Ziggler cheating.  This created a rematch opportunity on Monday night on WWE Raw and when Ziggler tried the same tactics he did on Saturday, Breakker was ready for it and this time defeated Ziggler to regain the title.  So who will step up next to challenge Breakker?  Let's find out.

Breakker opens the show by heading to the ring for a promo and the crowd is a bit divided, with half chanting "We Want Ziggler!" and the other half chanting "No We Don't!".  He is eventually interrupted by Gunther and Imperium and Gunther challenges him for the NXT title, which Breakker accepts and sets the title match for the show's main event.

We come back from a commercial break to see The Creed Brothers attacked Imperium from behind and now we've got ourselves an impromptu tag match.

The Creed Brothers vs Imperium

A fun powerhouse match here with nonstop action.  Eventually, Aichner abandons a bloodied Barthel and walks to the back, leaving him to be demolished by the Creeds for the win.

Winners: The Creed Brothers

After the match, as The Creeds are celebrating in the ring, the two men in black hoodies who assaulted them weeks ago reappear and bash them with chairs.  They pull back the hoods to reveal they're Pretty Deadly from NXT UK.

The new NXT North American Champion Cameron Grimes hits the ring now and takes a victory lap as again, the crowd is divided with "You Deserve It!/No You Don't!" chants.  He acknowledges his late father and how that motivated him to become a Champion.

He's interrupted by Solo Sikoa, who congratulates him on the win, but makes it clear he's coming for him and the title.  After making a reference to The Bloodline (his older brothers and cousin, The Usos and Roman Reigns, respectively), Sikoa challenges him for the title and Grimes accepts.

We now get a weird creepy promo from Joe Gacy about the importance of family.  Draco Anthony is watching this and gets pissed and when Xyon Quinn tries to help him, Anthony rebuffs him, which leads to Quinn challenging him to a match.

Next, we go to a backstage interview with Tiffany Stratton, who whines about losing her match with Sarray last week and she threatens revenge on her.

Dexter Lumis vs Duke Hudson

We got a video recap of the brain-melting stupidity that is this whole rivalry between the two couples that lead to this.  The match here is whatever.  I don't know how fairly anyone can judge this because of how awful the storyline is going into it.  Eventually, Indi Hartwell and Persia Pirotta get involved and in an incredibly idiotic spot, find a way to slam both men into the post, which leads to a double count-out.  The crowd rightfully craps all over the finish here and loudly chants "That Was Stupid!".  Just terrible.

Double Count-Out

Raquel Gonzalez & Dakota Kai vs Toxic Attraction – NXT Women's Tag Team Championship

So this one is objectively worse than the match they had this past Saturday.  It's sloppy, inconsistent, and there were some very dangerous botches, including a really gnarly Head Scissors by Gigi Dolin on Dakota Kai.

Eventually, shenanigans ensue when Wendy Choo runs out again and is beaten up by Mandy Rose, who then distracts the ref, which allows Dolin and Jayne to double-team Gonzalez and get the pinfall.  Well,

that's a bit of seriously questionable creative.

Winners & New Champions: Toxic Attraction

Tony D'Angelo heads out now to become a "made man" by AJ Galante.  They have some mafia ceremony where Tony D is made a Don.  The crowd is again laying into this and chanting "Boring!"  I guess the usually raucous WrestleMania crowd has migrated from Dallas, Texas to Orlando, Florida in just 24 hours, with enough energy to dump on a show.  That's an impressive turnaround!

We now go to a backstage interview with the new NXT Tag Team Champions MSK, who is interrupted by Grayson Waller and Sanga, who threaten to take their titles from them soon.

Nikkita Lyons vs Lash Legend

So this is as bad as you can imagine, as Lash Legend is rivaling Omos as the single worst wrestler in all of WWE right now.  Nikkita Lyons does her best here, but there are just some people that nobody can work with and Legend appears to be one of those.  Just awful.

Winner: Nikkita Lyons

We now got to Tony D and AJ leaving the building, but they're met by Santos Escobar and Legado del Fantasma in the parking lot and Escobar warns him to stay out of his way.

We next get a video promo from Kushida, who threatens revenge on Von Wagner for his attack on Ikemen Jiro last week.

Bron Breakker vs Gunther – NXT Championship

A fun big hoss match here in the main event.  Both guys look strong here, though Breakker does a good job selling the wear and tear on his shoulder from the past weekend and Gunther takes advantage of it throughout.  Gotta love some good limb-targeting and storytelling in a match!

Eventually, Breakker is able to summon the strength and work through the pain to hit Gunther with a Gorilla Press Slam for the pinfall to retain.  Good match here and Breakker's third big one in a few days.  These past few days have really been a proving ground for Breakker and he has passed all of the tests I think.

Winner & Still Champion: Bron Breakker

As he's celebrating the win, Breakker sees his father, new WWE Hall of Famer Rick Steiner on the Tron calling to him.  He looks roughed up but tells him he's proud of him.  Then we pull back to see he's tied up inside a cage and it's Joe Gacy and Harland who have him captured as NXT 2.0 ends.

And that's that for this week's episode of NXT 2.0.  It was kind of hit or miss, to be honest.  I like how the opening segment established the main event and that ended up being a good match and I like the cliffhanger at the end to make Gacy a legit main event villain for Breakker.  But there's some really dumb stuff in the middle and another truly awful Lash Legend match.  They can't all be perfect, huh?

Till next time friends.

4/5 NXT 2.0

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Review by Ryan Fassett

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4.5/10

There was good and bad here this week on NXT 2.0. A couple of good matches with who you'd expect and some real crap with the usual suspects.

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