Reviews by Dave
By David E Houston II
Show air date: December 28, 2021
NXT 2.0 Episode 652 is in the rearview mirror and it was not one of their better shows, I’m saying as graciously as possible.
Grayson Waller defeated Odyssey Jones
They start with a very Raw open of the intensely boring Grayson Waller doing an in-ring talking segment. I’ll say this for them and him: they saw he was horrible as a face, even with a world-traveled veteran heel in LA Knight against him, so they turned him and he’s better at this while still being terrible. He’s the new Honkytonk Man.
Odyssey Jones, who used to be hot, came out and got beat in an okay match. AJ Styles pops up on the viewscreen, and he will be at the New Year’s Evil show next week as Waller’s opponent. Fine. I’m sure AJ can carry him to his first good match.
Women’s champion Mandy Rose cancels the main event match that would have the Equate Beautiful People–I mean, Toxic Attraction–face Raquel Gonzalez and Cora Jade and replaces them with Kay Lee Ray and Io Shirai with the winning team being in the three-way title match against her at New Years Evil. An upgrade of a match but when did she get William Regal’s job?
How is This Better?
A wildly convoluted confusing segment where Matt Riddle tells MSK to challenge Imperium for the tag titles. They do. Imperium’s boss, WALTER, puts the bad mouth on them, and then Riddle chimes back in and makes a six-man match. TF happened to the tag title match? How is this better for them? WWE storytelling in its purest form.
Nice Edris Enofé got some TV time. Super basic WWE babyface work but he got it. So did Malik Blade.
Harland defeated Andre Chase
Doubling down on segments that don’t make sense, they didn’t deliver the Harland vs The Brian Kendrick match they had set up, had Andre Chase come out for no reason, and then be shocked Joe Gacy booked him as Kendrick’s replacement. Harland beat the hell out of him and kidnapped one of his students. I…I don’t know.
Watching the latest episode of “Days of Our Legado”, I’m starting to think Hit Row came out the winner long-term.
Tiffany Stratton defeated Fallon Henley
Tiffany Stratton debuted and looked solid.
Malcolm Bivens Should Write Everyone’s Script
Contract signing for Cruiserweight champion Roderick Strong vs North American champion Carmelo Hayes revealed what we all knew: it’s less a unification and more the end of the cruiserweight title, no matter who wins. Malcolm Bivens should just write everyone’s script for these because Trick Williams, Hayes, and Strong did the job here on the mic in a Goldberg squash.
Solo Sikoa defeated Santos Escobar
Solo Sikoa remains undefeated, picking up his biggest win over Santos Escobar with a big splash in a solid match. Escobar was doing well but then “Days of Our Legado” came back on and he got distracted, diving on Xyon Quinn.
Main Event: Cora Jade and Raquel Gonzalez defeated Io Shirai and Kay Lee Ray
The tag main event was another solid bout but then it got real stupid at the end with Gonzalez and Jade arguing about who’s pin it was supposed to be. But they still won.
Tuesday Night Raw DARK was not good this week. Very little worth watching and it felt like it was on for 4 hours. One of the least enjoyable go-home shows all year.
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