Categories MUST-READ LIST NEWS TICKER NXT TV Reviews TV REVIEWS
By John Moore, ProWrestling.net Staffer (@liljohnm)
NXT 2.0 TV Live from Orlando, Florida at the WWE Performance Center Aired June 28, 2022 on USA Network
[Hour One] Vic Joseph and Wade Barrett were on commentary. Alicia Taylor was the ring announcer…
Entrances for the opening match took place. Toxic Attraction were shown watching the match from their Toxic Lounge balcony section…
1. Cora Jade and Roxanne Perez vs. Katana Chance and Kayden Carter for a shot at the NXT Women’s Tag Team Championships next week. Jade was slammed to the mat by Carter. Carter mocked Jade with a little booty shaking. Carter hit Jade with a Rey Fenix Tightrope Armdrag (didn’t look as beatutiful as Fenix’s). Chance tagged in and got a two count off Jade. Jade came back with a jackknife rollup for a two count. Jade hit Carter with a shotgun dropkick for a two count. Perez tagged in and gave Chance a few uppercuts.
Perez converted a huracanrana into a rollup for a one count. Jade and Perez cut the ring in half on Chance. Perez kept Chance on the mat with armdrags. Chance managed to escape and tag in Carter. Carter hit Perez with drum beat lariats for a two count. Chance tagged in and hit Perez with a slingshot swanton for a two count. Perez escaped an huracanrana with snake eyes. Jade hit Chance with a double stomp for a two count. All four women entered the ring. Jade and Perez hit their opponents with shotgun dropkicks. Chance and Carter came back with elbows heading into the picture-in-picture.[c]
Carter locked Perez in a Walls of Jericho. Carter tagged in Chance, who also put Perez in a Walls of Jericho. Perez rolled out of it. Perez flipped out of a Walls attempt and tagged in Jade who cleaned house. Jade hit Carter with an enzuigiri and Dragon Knee. Jade got a two count. Jade and Carter took each other out with forearms. Perez tagged in and was taken down by a forearm. Chance wasn’t on the apron initially, but eventually she got there (this happened before). Chance and Carter went for their finisher on Perez but Jade dragged away Carter. Perez hit Chance with Pop Rocks (Code Red) for the pinfall victory.
Roxanne Perez and Cora Jade defeated Katana Chance and Kayden Carter via pinfall in 13:46 to become number one contenders to the NXT Women’s Tag Team Championship.
John’s Thoughts: A hard worked match, but I feel like the crowd investment wasn’t in it. The crowd had no one to cheer for in the battle between two lukewarm babyface teams. Chance and Carter acted a bit heelish, but they also have the fan friendly raver entrance. I think I see what they’re doing. Perez is probably going after the singles title with her not-Money In The Bank contract. This is what they did when Trick and Melo became number one contenders to the tag titles while Melo ended up cashing in his title shot on Shane Strickland’s NA title. I do see this being a bit different and maybe they’re going to test the water with a heel Cora Jade by having her betray the plucky Perez. For some reason I feel like Katana Chance wasn’t on the apron in time for a tag before? I might be mistaken? Is that a story on their end?
Joe Gacy and his bath robe druids walked up to the Creed Brothers and Ivy Nile to try to recruit the Creeds to the Dyad. Julius said that he’s not sipping the Gacy Kool aid and that Diamond Mine was forever. Roderick Strong showed up and called Gacy an idiot. Gacy ended up challenging the Diamond Mine to a match later on.
Giovanni Vinci made his weird photo-camera-effect entrance…[c]
John’s Thoughts: Joe Gacy’s crappy bath robe druids and Fabian Aichner’s entrance that makes it look like he’s in the opening theme of a 90s sitcom. Yep, there’s some of those stanky NXT 2.0 moments. By the way? Why did they change Kacy Catanzaro’s name. For me, it’s fine, because it’s easier to type. But she did have name value. Throw her on Raw and she does have that ninja warrior NBC U recognition. This is also the same company that renamed Rinku Singh to Veer Mahan when Veer had a Disney movie starring Jon Hamm made about him.
McKenzie Mitchell interviewed Toxic Attraction about Jade and Perez becoming number one contenders to the women’s tag team titles. Jayne and Dolin trash talked Jade and Perez. Rose said that Perez better not be saving her title shot for the Women’s title. Nikkita Lyons showed up saying that Perez might not even have the title shot if she wasn’t injured. Rose trashed talk Lyons a bit, setting up a match later…
2. Giovanni Vinci vs. Ikeman Jiro. Jiro went for chain wrestling. Vinci slammed Jiro to the mat and walked over him. Jiro kiped up and tried to come back with jacket punches, but Vinci took him down with a German Suplex. Jiro was rattled after taking chops from Vinci. Jiro came back with a back kick and Jacket Punches. Jiro hit Vinci with a gamengiri. Vinci avoided a slingshot boot drop. Vinci hit Jiro with a slingshot Tornado DDT. Vinci hit Jiro with a sitout Jackknife Power Bomb for the victory.
Giovani Vinci defeated Ikeman Jiro via pinfall in 2:59.
They did the weird camera effect for Vinci after the match after Vinci said there is no Great American Bash without him
John’s Thoughts: Eh. The match was wrestled fine, but Giovani Vinci is still a work in progress. Not a fan of the goofy photograph entrance. He’s also really really missing something. It shows now that Ludwig Keiser was really carrying him in terms of mic ability and charisma. Someone get this man a valet or manager because he’s immensely talented in the ring.
A replay was shown of Briggs and Jensen somehow winning the vacant NXT UK Tag Team Championships…
Josh Briggs, Brooks Jensen, and Fallon Henley were shown backstage, heading to the ring…[c]
McKenzie Mitchell interviewed Carmelo Hayes and Trick Williams about their win last week. Melo gloated about being the A Champion. Grayson Waller showed up with a random basketball. He was sucking up to Melo and Trick. Waller asked Melo to sign his basketball. Melo said he’ll do it because Waller took care of Solo. Waller made Melo sign random photos and a t shirt too. Melo and Trick said that Waller is a good guy…
Alicia Taylor was in the ring (wow! an actual WWE Ring announcer on TV). She introduced Josh Briggs and Brooks Jensen as the new NXT UK Tag Team Champions. Fallon Henley was with them when their made their entrance. Brooks Jensen did the whole “And new” treatment for him and Briggs. Briggs said he went across the ocean to fight the best of NXT UK. He taught about how they brought the fight to them. This invoked a USA chant from the WWEPC crowd. Briggs promised the old NXT UK Champions a title shot because they lost the titles due to injury.
Brooks talked about how he busted his ass for the crowd and for Briggs. Brooks thanked Briggs for picking him as a tag partner. Brooks and Briggs hugged. Brooks said he’s proud of Brooks. Fallon Henley said it was time to drink some beers after winning the titles. They wer interrupted by Kit Wilson and Elton Prince, Pretty Deadly. Prince said that he and Wilson are delicious snacks and made the UK Tag Titles relevant. They said the titles are now around the waist of trash. Briggs said they are going to give Pretty Deadly an Alabama ass kicking. Wilson did a Alabama Crimson Tide chant comedically. Pretty Deadly gloated in the ring about their tag team accolades with their Yes Boy catchphrase.
Briggs said that Pretty Deadly looked like Zoolander. Briggs then said they could have a match against Pretty Deadly. This led to a brawl. Briggs gave kit an atomic drop while Henley slapped him. Jensen put Prince on the apron so he and Briggs could punch him off. The country boys celebrated in the ring…
A Bron Breakker hype vignette aired showing his highlights in NXT up to this point. Vic Joseph hyped Breakker facing off against his challenger for the title, Cameron Grimes, later in the show…
Indi Hartwell made her entrance…[c]
John’s Thoughts: An ok promo by the country boys, but why yeet the titles from the UK, let alone put the titles on NXT 2.0’s lowest tag team on the totem pole? I would have put the straps on Trick and Melo if they had to put them on anyone. Are they going to have to steamroll over Pretty Deadly soon too? I hope not. It’s going to be tough to take them seriously when for months they have been losing and been the butt of masturbation jokes.
An ad aired for next week’s Great American Bash themed show…
Katana Chance and Kayden Carter showed up looking salty in the women’s locker room. Carter got in Tatum Paxley’s face thinking that she was looking at them the wrong way. Paxley said Carter didn’t have to snap at her just because they lost a match…
3. Indi Hartwell vs. Kiana James. The match started with chain wrestling. James dragged Hartwell into a wristlock. Hartwell came back with a armdrag. Hartwell got a one count and then locked in an armbar after the kickout. Hartwell gave James snake eyes. James did an armwrench over the second rope to Hartwell. James tackled Hartwell in the corner for a two count. Hartwell got to her feet and gave James a Big Boot.
Hartwell gave James strikes while also selling a gut injury. Hartwell hit James with a face wash boot for a two count. Hartwell crashed and burned off her slingshot elbow drop finisher attempt. James rolled up Hartwell with her feet on the ropes for the leverage win.
Kiana James defeated Indi Hartwell via pinfall in 3:51.
John’s Thoughts: A surprisingly smooth match for the time given. Hartwell’s always solid, but I’ve been impressed every time I see Kiana James in the ring. She comes off as either a natural or someone who has wrestled before. She definitely has a future. Hopefully her future comes when they get rid of her generic vocational gimmick.
Vic Joseph hyped up Undertaker’s One Man Show for Summerslam weekend…
The show cut to cinematic mode where Tony D’Angelo and Channing “Stacks” Lorenzo were standing over a bridge. D’Angelo said that Two Dimes went after his heart and now he’s sleeping with the fishes. D’Angelo threw Two Dimes’s gold watch into the river. Santos Escobar called Tony D’Angelo on the phone and was just laughing at him. D’Angelo hung up the phone and chucked it into the river out of anger…
The entire Diamond Mine stable made their entrance…[c]
John’s Thoughts: Welp, I guess that’s how you kill off a character, you literally kill them off [a bridge]. Are we also to believe that Fabian Aichner is kayfabe dead too and that Giovani Vinci is his little brother? I kid. There’s also a part of me that gets a kick out of Santos Escobar randomly calling Tony D’Angelo all the time just to troll him.
Wes Lee cut a promo about how Trick Williams ruined a moment where he was bearing his soul. Lee said that Trick sees wearing your heart on your sleeve as a weakness, but Lee sees it as a strength. Lee hyped up beating Trick Williams next week…
[Hour Two] Joe Gacy and his bath robe druids made their entrance…
4. “Diamond Mine” Roderick Strong, Brutus Creed, and Julius Creed (w/Ivy Nile, Damon Kemp) vs. Joe Gacy, Druid 1, and Druid 2. Strong put Gacy in a headlock. Gacy made it to his corner to tag in a druid. Strong took down the druid with an armdrag. Brutus tagged in and dominated “Dyad 1” as Vic Joseph put it. Brutus dominated Druid 1 with suplexes. Julius tagged in and gave Brutus a Gutwrench Suplex over Dyad 1. The Creeds ping pong’d Dyad 1 with knees. Dyad 1 rolled to ringside to get coaching from Joe Gacy, who told Dyad 1 to show Julius “the new you”.
Dyad 1 hid Julius with a few shortarm lariats. Dyad 1 put Julius in a chinlock. Dyad 1 tagged in Dyad 2. Dyad 2 slammed Julius for a two count. Dyad 2 gave Julius clubbing blows and cut the ring in half on Julius Gacy tagged in and continued the isolation of Julius. Dyad 1 tagged in and gave Julius more blows. Julius rolled up Dyad 1 for a two count.
Dyad 1 came back with a lariat. Julius, from his back , deadlifted Dyad 1 impressively into suplex. The Diamond Mine gave their opponents stereo suplexes. Julius hit Gacy with a dropkick. The show cut to picture-in-picture with Diamond Mine standing tall in the ring.[c]
Brutus tossed Gacy around with suplexes. Gacy hit Brutus a chop block when Dyad 1 distracted him. Gacy got a two count off Brutus. Gacy tagged in Dyad 2 who hit Brutus with methodical strikes. Dyad 1 and Gacy tagged in. Gacy did his weird corner Bray Wyatt taunt. The Dyad forced Brutus to watch it like it means something? Gacy hit Brutus with a Uranage for a two count. Dyad 2 tagged in and hit Brutus with a neckbreaker for a two count.
Julius managed to tag in and hit the Dyad with suplexes. Julius hit Dyad 1 with a Tornado Gutwrench Suplex. Strong tagged himself in to the dismay of Julius, to nail Dyad 1 with a knee. While Strong and Julius were bickering, Gacy tried to hit Strong with his handstand lariat finisher. Brutus saw it coming and gave Gacy a pounce. The fatigued Dyad member performed twin magic with the fresh Dyad member. The Dyad dumped the Creeds to ringside. The Dyad gave gave Strong a draping double team DDT for the victory.
Joe Gacy, Dyad 1, and Dyad 2 defeated The Diamond Mine via pinfall in 13:56.
John’s Thoughts: Ok, Joe Gacy and his Dyad suck bath robe a*s, but at least it’s giving me a wrestle-crap chuckle. Am I still reviewing a TNA nostalgia show? Where dup ref bumps at? I mean this show is booked well, this just reminds me of some of the generic gimmicks of early TNA. “Dyad 1” and “Dyad 2”. And the return of Twin Magic. Wow. In-ring , I can tell them apart. One seems to be smooth with his strikes, while the other Dyad is always struggling to keep his rope out of his yes. A lot of people seem to agree with me that these guys might be the Grizzled Young Veterans based off Gacy’s promo from last week.
McKenzie Mitchell informed Carmelo Hayes and Trick Williams that Melo now has to defend his title against Grayson Waller next week because Melo signed the match contract. Melo said he never did such a thing. McKenzie noted that Melo signed it when he was signing Waller’s merch. Trick and Melo talked about how they were tricked…
John’s Thoughts: Ok, that was clever. Like the Melo character, it got me too. I thought Waller was acting a bit sus, but I totally didn’t see the contract signing coming.
Alba Fyre’s loss via DQ was shown, because Lash Legend jabbed her in the throat with a bat. A doctor tried to give the injury report, but Lash Legend booted him away. Lash Legend claimed that Alba Fyre is on the shelf “permanently”. Lash said the NXT Women’s Division better stay out of her way…
Sanga made his entrance. Xyon Quinn attacked Sanga during the entrance. Referees ran out to pull both men apart…[c]
Brutus and Julius were tossing around the locker room. Roderick Strong berated the Creeds for not listening to them while they were winning. Julius pointed out that they did listen, yet Strong continues to berate them. Strong said he’s going to teach The Creeds a lesson next week when he and Kemp beat the Creeds for the Tag Team titles next week…
Vic Joseph announced Carmelo Hayes vs. Grayson Waller for the North American Championship was made official for the Great American Bash…
5. Sanga vs. Xyon Quinn. Quinn had the early advantage with strikes. Sanga came back with a pounce. Sanga caught Quinn with a Yakuza Kick. Sanga dumped Quinn to ringside. Sanga no sold the rope being yanked into him. Sanga took down Quinn with a clubbing blow to the back. Sanga gave Quinn Snake Eyes against multiple corners. Sanga gave Quinn a delayed body slam. Quinn avoided an elbow drop. Quinn hit Sanga with a basement shoulder tackle for a one count.
Quinn hit Sanga with clubbing blows in a cravate. Sanga slammed Quinn into the buckle to escape. Quinn put Sanga in a Half Nelson. Sanga hit Quinn with a lariat. Sanga body slammed Quinn. Sanga did a throat slash gesture and gave Quinn a choke slam for the win.
Sanga defeated Xyon Quinn via pinfall in 5:08.
John’s Thoughts: Good stuff as usual from Sanga who continues to impress me. He’s decent in the ring, but I’m really sold on his kind and cool guy persona. He’s not just another “savage foreign menace”. The guy is also pretty well spoken. I wonder if Sanga will end up getting a call up soon. I think he might be ready as long as they take this current version up. Jeff Jarrett is back in WWE and he was very high on Sanga back in the Ring Ka King days (Sanga was his “enforcer” in his heel stable in Ring Ka King).
A highlight vignette aired to spotlight Cameron Grimes going after the NXT Championship. Vic Joseph continued to hype Grimes and Breakker facing off…
Toxic Attraction and Nikkita Lyons were shown at different areas backstage, heading to the ring…[c]
The show cut to a vignette where Wendy Choo was having nightmares of Tiffany Stratton talking trash about her. The show then cut to different footage where Choo was having a “good dream” about her getting the best over Tiffany while some kiddy music was playing. Choo got up and went to brush her teeth. We can hear her thoughts for some reason. Choo said Tiffany must be stupid. Choo said it’s simple, she gets in Tiffany’s head and picks up the win. Choo said she’d see Tiffany at the Bash…
The commentary team noted that The Creeds vs. Strong and Kemp for the tag titles was made official…
Vic Joseph plugged G4’s Arena E-sports show hosted by WWE wrestler Xavier Woods and G4 host Gina Darling.
Entrances for the next match took place. Horny Wade Barrett asked Vic Joseph where he hid his Sex Panther cologne…
6. NXT Women’s Champion Mandy Rose (w/Gigi Dolin, Jacy Jayne) vs. Nikkita Lyons in a non-title match. Lyons took down Rose with armdrags. Rose retreated to her corner. Rose hit Lyons with a low kick to gain the advantage. Lyons came back with a low Taekwondo Kick. Lyons hip tossed Rose and hit Rose with a corner splash. Lyons hit Rose with a rough looking hip toss. Lyons hit Rose with more hip tosses and corner splashes heading into the regular commercial.[c]
Lyons worked on Rose with ground and pound. Rose managed to put Lyons in a heel hook. Lyons turned the tables into ground and pound. Rose came back with ground and pound herself. Lyons put Rose in a kimura. Rose broke it with a rope break. Rose kicked Lyons in her injured leg. Rose trash talked and pie face Lyons. Lyons caught a punch and hit Rose with a back elbow and clotheslines. Lyons hit Rose with running roundhouse kicks.
Lyons hit Rose with a German Suplex. Lyons got a two count. Rose punched Lyons off the top rope. Rose hit Lyons with a Missile Dropkick. Lyons avoided Rose’s knee finisher. Lyons hit Rose with Tae Kwon Do Kicks. Dolin and Jayne ran in and beat down Lyons for the DQ.
Nikkita Lyons defeated Mandy Rose via apparent DQ in 5:29 in a non-title match.
Dolin and Jayne held Lyons in place for a slap from Rose. Perez and Jade ran in for the save. The heels retreated while the face team stood tall in the ring…
John’s Thoughts: Welp, that was a bit rough, and I think we should have expected such with Lyons and Rose. I actually see Rose as further along in the ring that Lyons. This was just plodding and too methodical. Not really great. I think it also meant something that they hid part of this match during the commercial break when every other match got the picture-in-picture treatment.
Solo Sikoa was hanging out with Apollo Crews backstage. Solo said that Waller got lucky last week. Crews said SOlo needs to hold his head high. Sikoa said it means something to get encourage from him. Quinn tried to trash talk Solo. Crews said that he’s got this. Crews asked Quinn what was Quinn’s problem. Quinn talked about being handsome and the future of WWE. Crews mocked Quinn for being cheesy. Crews said Quinn might see his future as bright, but when he looks at Quinn’s future, things don’t look so good…
Cameron Grimes and Bron Breakker were shown entering the WWE Performance Center at different times…[c]
John’s Thoughts: So? Apollo Crews does have the power to see 20 seconds into the future? Hey, if he has precognition, then he should be winning all of the championships. Or is this one of those powers where he can see the future, but can’t change it. If so, that’s a lame ass power, Apollo…
An ad aired for the Smackdown Money in the Bank go home show. Vic Joseph noted that Money in the Bank and Summerslam were both in July…
A JD McDonagh vignette aired. He talked about how he’s tired of seeing others take out of his playbook. Clips of Devlin’s NXT/NXT UK highlights were shown. He said he’s the necessary evil of NXT. He said he’s not just the ace of the UK, he’s the ace of everywhere. JD said “see ya soon”…
John’s Thoughts: Well that’s cool. He got a name change, but like Alba Fyre, they’re not saying he’s different from Jordan Devlin. Hey, he even got to keep the intials. I will miss the Devlin name a bit, if only for his punny finisher “The Devlin Side”. It would have been weird to have a guy who’s won championship matches on NXT US TV to be suddenly a different character, but they also have a multi-time Tag Team champion running around as Giovanni Vinci. Heck, Vinci was a tag team champion on 2.0!
The following matches were announced for the Great American Bash: Bron Breakker vs. Cameron Grimes for the NXT Championship, Tiffany Stratton vs. Wendy Choo, and Toxic Attraction vs. Perez and Jade for the Women’s Tag Team Titles.
[Overrun] Wade Barrett introduced Bron Breakker and Cameron Grimes to the ring, who made their entrances. Barrett was the moderator. Breakker said they didn’t need Barrett in the ring because he just wants to talk with Grimes. Barrett left. Breakker said Grimes has nothing to lose and everything to gain. Grimes said that if Breakker loses the championship he still has a future, like getting called up to Raw or Smackdown, or headlining summerslam. Grimes said he’s putting all his chips on the line against Breakker. Grimes said it’s it for him if he loses. Grimes said he had no backup plan. Grimes said Breakker treats WWE like a backup plan because he couldn’t cut it in the NFL and that Breakker has a hall of fame father.
Breaker brought up beating up the last person that brought his father into play, Joe Gacy. Breakker mocked Grimes by saying that Grimes is “Going to Moon” (yes, he said it like that). He said he’s going to spear Grimes and break him. Grimes said no matter what Breakker does, he’ll get back up. Breakker said he’ll just keep knocking down Grimes to the point where Grimes will have to crawl back to his friend Ted DiBiase. Breakker said he’s bigger, faster, and stronger. Grimes said everybody gets that, but what Breakker doesn’t have is heart, and he doesn’t have the heart of Cameron grimes. Grimes said it’s not Breakker’s fault, but just genetics.
Grimes said Rick Steiner didn’t have heart. Breakker attacked Grimes. Grimes dodged Breakker’s spear in the corner. Grimes then tossed Breakker so hard into the corner that the turnbuckle fell out (looks like it was gimmicked). Breakker sold a bicep injury while medics checked on him. Grimes said maybe he wasn’t able to beat a 100% Breakker before, but Breakker isn’t 100% now. Grimes laughed on his way out as Breakker was selling his bicep pain to close the show…
John’s Thoughts: An interesting approach to say the least? I’m not sure what they’re going for here. Breakker was a bit rough on the mic, but he wasn’t bad. Grimes was very good, but he also came off as a babyface at points until the evil laugh at the end. It was odd. Breakker was a bit heelish too, talking down to Grimes. It also didn’t help that Breakker didn’t have a comeback to any of Grimes’s nepotism accusations, which made Grimes look sympathetic. Yes, Breakker is a meathead, but that’s what made him look rough here.
This was a bit of a rough episode of NXT. I feel like the build to Great American Bash has been a bit rushed. Some of the feuds had underwhelming builds. They booked a handful of matches just this week. What took down this week’s NXT a bit was the rough in ring showings from a few matches. Hey, this was probably one of the more “meh” NXT episodes in a hot minute. NXT tends to deliver on their theme shows, so we’ll see how they do next week.
The WWF showing a commercial during a WWE show is some next level trolling, and I applaud them for it.
Yam Yam Bigelow against Booty Barbie is something I didn’t expect to see for a few more months.
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