Posted in: Review, Sports, TV, USA Network, WWE | Tagged: bret hart, Bron Breakker, Cora Jade, Natalya, NXT, NXT 2.0, NXT Champion, recaps, sharpshooter, steve austin, Stone Cold, stone cold steve austin, USA Network, wrestlemania 13, wrestling, wwe

NXT 2.0 Recap 5/10: Jade & Natalya's Stone Cold & Bret Hart Homage

WWE has promised that this week's episode of NXT 2.0 on the USA Network will be all about the ladies!  Clearly feeling safe to make such proclamations now that Ric Flair is no longer allowed in the building, the women of NXT will have the spotlight on this week's show and aside from several women's matches, we'll also see the start of the NXT Women's Breakout Tournament.  Enough out of me, let's see what went down on this week's show.

We open with footage of Joe Gacy and his goons after they kidnapped NXT Champion Bron Breakker last week, where Gacy does his best Joker impression and they dump Breakker somewhere in a park or something with a sack on his head.

Toxic Attraction vs Wendy Choo & Roxanne Perez – NXT Women's Tag Team Championship

An ok match to start the show here.  There's some fun fast-paced action throughout until the end when NXT Women's Champion Mandy Rose gets involved and the distraction allows Jacy Jayne to thwart Perez's attempt at a Code Red with a Super Kick.  Gigi Dolin then pins her to retain.

Winners & Still Champions: Toxic Attraction

After the match, Choo tries jumping Toxic Attraction, but Rose clocks her with the title belt and they mock her.

We next go to find The Creed Brothers confronting Roderick Strong about cheating to help them win last week, which they take issue with.  Strong then introduces them to the newest Diamond Mine member, Damon Kemp (the real-life brother of Gable Steveson).

We now go to the ring, where Joe Gacy and two of his hooded followers address the crowd.  Gacy rambles on about god knows what, before talking about the two hooded goons with him, who he says have proven themselves to him.  The crowd isn't interested in any of this, as they chant "We want wrestling!" and "Shut the hell up!" before starting the "WHAT?!" chants.

Next, we go to the locker room to find Andre Chase getting ready for his match against Grayson Waller when Sarray bursts in and convinces him to team with her in a mixed tag match against Waller and Tiffany Stratton instead.

We then get a video of the "Ivy Nile Challenge" where she has a bunch of men compete against her in a strength contest.

Fallon Henley vs Sloane Jacobs – NXT Women's Breakout Tournament

Not a great one here, as both look very green and afraid to make contact with each other. Henley hits the Last Shot on Jacobs to score the pinfall to move on in the tournament.

Winner: Fallon Henley

We then head backstage for an interview with Santos Escobar, who says what he did last week to AJ Galante was fair.

After that, we see Cruz Del Toro getting attacked by Tony D'Angelo and his men outside before they throw him in their trunk and drive away.  This is a developmental wrestling show, right?

Alba Fyre vs Amari Miller

The former Kay Lee Ray is back now as Alba Fyre and the only big change to her character appears to be that she no longer wrestles in actual wrestling gear and now wears some post-apocalyptic Scottish warrior-looking outfit.  Kind of a weird choice to have Fyre face the also returning Miller here, as they're both presented as babyfaces and are both trying to accomplish the same thing.  Fyre should have faced a nobody and squashed them in my opinion.  Fyre hits the KLR Bomb, now called the Fyre Bomb, before going to the top rope for a Swanton Bomb for the pinfall.

Winner: Alba Fyre

We next see Carmelo Hayes and Trick Williams arriving in the parking lot, but when they try to enter the building, Solo Sikoa is there to lock them out.

The very over with the crowd Sikoa then heads to the ring where he says if Hayes faces Cameron Grimes for the North American title, he wants the winner.  Grimes then heads out and confirms he will face Hayes one-on-one at NXT In Your House but that after, he will face Sikoa next.

Hayes and Williams then hit the ring and jump Grimes from behind.  As they set up Grimes' head in a chair and try to break his neck, Sikoa runs in for the save and takes them out.

Next, after realizing his friend has been kidnapped, Santos Escobar calls Tony D and they pretend to be gangsters instead of developmental wrestlers, complete with threats of torture and murder, and eventually set up a match between them next week on NXT 2.0.

We now go to a backstage interview with Nathan Frazer, who's interrupted by Xyon Quinn and Wes Lee.  Quinn is a dick to everyone and Lee challenges him to a match.

Andre Chase & Sarray vs Grayson Waller & Tiffany Stratton

So at the opening of this one, Chase and Bodhi Hayward follow Sarray through her pre-match portal thing, and as Sarray changes into her superhero persona on the other side, Chase is changed into a blue sweater, while Hayward is changed into looking like Sarray's schoolgirl persona.  As dumb as it is, it's actually pretty funny and both guys do a great job selling it.

We get a pretty solid and fun intergender tag match here.  There are a lot of fun character spots and it's evident that Stratton is coming along nicely as a wrestler.  Eventually, Sarray is able to roll up Stratton for the pinfall.

Winners: Sarray & Andre Chase

We now go to a backstage interview with Von Wagner and Robert Stone, which is interrupted by Ikemen Jiro, who attacks Wagner and they have to be separated by officials.

Next, we find Indi Hartwell moping backstage until she's confronted by Toxic Attraction, who at first seems sympathetic to her problems, but ends up just making fun of her.

Nikkita Lyons vs Arianna Grace – NXT Women's Breakout Tournament

Not a bad match here.  They look intense and are working pretty snug here, which helps with the presentation.  Eventually, Lyons takes it with a Spin Kick to the face of Grace, followed by the Split Leg Drop for the pinfall.

Winner: Nikkita Lyons

We now go to a backstage promo from The Viking Raiders, who accept the rematch request from the Creed Brothers.

Natalya vs Cora Jade

An ok slow-paced match here.  The two performers are telling a decent story here, it's just the problem is that they're miscast in their respective roles.

Natalya has been around in WWE for a long time but calling her the "Best Of All Time" is really a stretch by anyone's estimation.  She's only been Divas/Women's Champion twice and you never hear her name mentioned with the best women in WWE history.  The same miscasting is here with Cora Jade, who hasn't exactly proven herself as a superstar talent yet, nor has she appeared particularly tough in her time on TV.

And that brings us to the match's ending, where Natalya locks Jade in a Sharpshooter, and instead of tapping out, Jade passes out.  This is of course inspired by the ending of arguably the greatest match in WWE history, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin vs Bret Hart in a Submission Match at WrestleMania 13.

While both did essentially the same thing on paper, there are the storytelling nuances that make this merely an impression.  Hart was legitimately the greatest of all-time entering that match, while Austin had proven himself as a mad dog who'd been kicked too many times.  The visual of Austin gushing blood from his head and still being an unrelenting fighting machine against the greatness of Bret Hart, mixed with him breaking the Sharpshooter (which had never been done before at that point) created something immediately special.

Then came the end, when Hart locked the hold in again, and this time, after one more bloody screaming attempt to break it for a second time, Austin slowly but surely faded away and passed out.  Austin was a warrior who physically and mentally could not be broken or made to quit, while here, Jade just kind of passed out abruptly.  It was a nice effort here, but without all of the special elements of Austin vs Hart, it maybe wasn't wise to put this up against it.  Still a good match though.

Winner: Natalya

After the match, Natalya helps Jade to her feet and gives her a big hug, something that also very much didn't happen after Hart vs Austin.

And that's that for this week's episode of NXT 2.0 and it wasn't too bad of an episode.  There were enough decent matches to cover up the usual silly nonsense and that's something I suppose.

Till next time friends.

5/10 NXT 2.0

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Review by Ryan Fassett

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4/10

An alright episode here, despite the usual nonsense that unfortunately defines NXT 2.0. Some solid matches throughout definitely carried the weight this week and if they could just focus on that instead of trying to be the world's worst comedy variety show, they'd be doing much better.

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