Reviews by Dave
By David E Houston II
Show air date: February 1, 2022
Imperium defeated Diamond Mine
WWE NXT 2.0 Episode 657 did the right thing jumping right into the intros for the opening match with Imperium–Fabian Aichner, Marcel Barthel, and GUNTHER (with the crowd chanting “WALTER”) facing the Diamond Mine team of Roderick Strong and Julius and Brutus Creed (with Malcolm Bivens and Ivy Nile ringside). Very good match. GUNTHER was able to isolate one of the less experienced Creeds and pinned him with a powerbomb.
Mandy Rose, Kay Lee Ray Face-Off
The Beautiful People if You Got Them on Wish–Toxic Attraction–continued their losing streak to Sexy Walking and we found out they just leave their title belts laying around. Women’s champion Mandy Rose has a better than expected in-ring face-off with Kay Lee Ray. It turned into a 24/7 title chase and somehow Ray singlehandedly kidnaps Gigi Dolin and Jacy Jayne. WWE has to WWE.
Raquel Gonzalez defeated Cora Jade
Cora Jade wanted a match with Raquel Gonzalez to show she was tough enough to be Gonzalez’s partner in the upcoming Dusty Cup Tournament.
Some questionable booking considering Jade was just in the title hunt a minute ago but the two women had an entertaining match with Jade fighting from underneath and Gonzalez, looking like she doesn’t want to miss out on the next Blonde Push, being dominant for most of the match en route to a good win. Of course, now, she accepts Jade’s offer.
Sarray defeated Kayla Inlay
Sarray made her in-ring comeback, beating Kayla Inlay. Solid return. Felt a few minutes too long. Sarray didn’t need a competitive return but a strong one.
Yawn!
Duke Hudson is going to make his own luck now. Yawn.
Still Fast Forwarding.
North American champ Carmelo Hayes and Trick Williams come out. Fast Forward. Cameron Grimes, the number one contender to the North American title comes out as well. Still Fast Forwarding.
Happy to see Edris Enofé and Malik Blade get TV time, even if I don’t see how these segments do anything to make them popular. Again, the only purpose was to put over Mandy Rose. That’s all I’m going to say about that. Oh boy.
LA Knight vs Joe Gacy
LA Knight and Joe Gacy had an alright match but then Grayson Waller predictably came out, lamed it up, and cost Knight the match. Took them a while to finally name Waller’s personal Wardlow on air but they’ve already decided to book Knight against Sanga. Yawn.
Wendy Choo defeated Amari Miller
Amari Miller is a nice prospect but man, she is the third sugar-free vanilla member of Kacy and Kayden. I dare a mofo who has ever said anything bad about Orange Cassidy to tell me how great the Wendy Choo gimmick is. Very basic match with Choo winning when Miller gets distracted by Tiffany Stratton. No gimmick infringement but…yawn.
I Only Watch Because the Remote Control Was Out of Reach
There was a hot nothing segment with Dexter Lumis, Indi Hartwell, Persia Pirotta, who is crushing on Hudson. It gets even dumber when Brooks Jensen wants advice on asking out Kayden Carter. I only watched because the remote control was out of reach at the time.
Andre Chase defeated Draco Anthony
Draco Anthony got a nice intro video package. Then got beat by Andre Chase. Must have needed something to fill time. This was an NXT DARK match if there ever was one.
Main Event: Bron Breakker and Tommaso Ciampa defeated Legado del Fantasma
NXT champion Bron Breakker and former champion Tommaso Ciampa beat the Legado del Fantasma team of Joaquin Wilde and Raul Mendoza in a solid main event. Legado patron Santos Escobar refused a showdown with Breakker after the match.
They do some more silly with Ray and Rose and I guess they have their match next week. They gave the women a lot of time this week and that’s a good thing, even if some of it was Raw-levels of bad.
Nothing held up to the opening match but it was a decent show.
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Reviews by Dave is the best wrestling review on the internet! It’s written by David Houston II, who writes about WWE NXT 2.0, AEW Dynamite, and IMPACT Wrestling.
