Reviews by Dave
By David E Houston II
Show air date: December 7, 2021
I had no interest in the show, but they put together a very nice highlight package for NXT War Games.
Von Wagner defeated Kyle O’Reilly
In a Cage Match
Much like Monday Night Raw, NXT 2.0 opened immediately with a cage match (must be a quota they need to meet by the end of the year) with Kyle O’Reilly facing his brief tag partner, Von Wagner, who the live audience was all over from the start. Sometimes you can see the veteran wrestler leading the younger talent and this was one of those. O’Reilly was like 1986 Ric Flair with Wagner playing the role of a Sting or Lex Luger or Nikita Koloff and now, like then, it was a good and entertaining match with Wagner picking up a huge win.
Not being satisfied with just winning, he then hangs O’Reilly in the Tree of Woe between the ring post and cage door and slammed it repeatedly into O’Reilly’s face. A strong angle and probably the swansong for O’Reilly in NXT.
Harland Debut Next Week
Joe Gacy announced Harland will make his debut next week. Weird but not in a good way.
LeBron Breakker!
To undo the heel turn they forced on Bron Breakker to make a random War Games match, Breakker comes out to challenge NXT Champion Tommaso Ciampa. The challenge is answered by Malcolm Bivens and Diamond Mine. Bivens might be the best manager they’ve had since Vickie Guerrero. “Lebron Breakker”. BRUH!!!
A solid segment that sets up Breakker vs cruiserweight champion Roderick Strong. Since the cruiserweight title is meaningless and Breakker needs more veterans to work with, this makes sense and should be fine as a match.
Brooks Jensen and Josh Briggs defeated The Creed Brothers
Julius and Brutus Creed of Diamond Mine faced Brooks Jensen and Josh Briggs in a battle of young green tag teams with Grizzled Young Veterans (GYV) (James Drake and Zack Gibson) on guest commentary and tag champs, Imperium (Fabian Aichner and Marcel Barthel) watching from the crow’s nest.
I hate Jensen’s raggedy vest almost as much as I hate Ikemen Jiro’s jackets.
The match was fine, but they had a stupid finish where GYV are apparently practical jokers and the ref was super interested in tag ropes. Even with that, Jensen and Briggs still won!!!
So the Creeds look like morons who can’t win even with a little help.
Hopefully, this is just a bump in the road for the brothers because those guys and Ivy Nile are the absolute best of the bunch of the recent PC graduates. It’s them with Tony D’ADngelo and Solo Sikoa right behind them.
Duke Hudson…yawn. Fast forward. I can’t believe they didn’t bring in Brutus Beefcake for this feud.
Carmelo Hayes defeated Dexter Lumis
North American champion (that’s still a thing, right?) Carmelo Hayes had his ribs taped as he faced Dexter Lumis. Uh, Dex. Taped ribs guarantee a win on other shows and he’s coming off being in War Games for 30 minutes two night prior. Might be an issue.
Nope. In an okay match that went way too long, Lumis won by disqualification when Trick stopped playing Rochester to save his tag partner. Unfortunately, there will be more of this.
Matt Riddle is the Shaman
Matt Riddle is the shaman MSK has been searching for. So, no one gets the travel itinerary for Raw? This would work a lot better if they allowed either to do their weed-smoking gimmicks of the past.
Ah. What a terrible episode of “As the Garganos Turn”
Toxic Attraction defeated Valentina Feroz and Yulisa Leon
Toxic Attraction (what if you bought the Beautiful People out of someone’s trunk in the parking lot of the beauty supply store)–Women’s champion Mandy Rose and tag champs Gigi Dolin and Jacy Jayne–not only failed at Sexy Walking this week, they failed at Sexy Walking and talking at the same time.
Dolin and Jayne beat Valentina Feroz and Yulisa Leon in a nice squash that got Feroz and Leon some offense in but not too much to drag it out. Feroz and Leon should have known they didn’t stand a chance. They saw Dolin’s ribs taped. No way a wrestler with taped ribs loses twice on the same show. At least Dolin remembered to hold her ribs that neither opponent even tried to hit.
What did they do to Raquel Gonzalez? Seems to be a makeover for a wrestler that didn’t need to be made over.
Main Event: Santos Escobar defeated Xyon Quinn
Santos Escobar, leader of Legado del Fantasma, beat Xyon Quinn in a solid match. Like O’Reilly before, Esco was Flair here and got a nice showing of the young Quinn. The finish was eh and Quinn took a top rope hurricanrana and still got to his feet before Esco to make the whole thing work
He Didn’t Explain Anything
Johnny Gargano promised to “explain everything” and in 5 minutes didn’t explain anything before he got beat up by shit on a shingle, Grayson Waller. It got good heat with the live audience so there’s that. Possibly the finale to the run of Gargano in NXT as well but he should at least get a match with Waller (and put him over, to be honest).
Middling show with some good wrestling and promos and angles that felt straight from the minds that give us Monday Night Raw.
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