NXT 2.0 HITS & MISSES: Diamond Mine vs. The Family, Stark vs. Dolin, Waller vs. Lee, Crews vs. Quinn, more.

WES LEE vs. GREYSON WALLER

For months now, Wes Lee has been trying to find his own as a singles competitor. Unfortunately he’s come up short in most of his matches, but he’s as determined as ever to prove to himself and to the audience that he can do it.

Waller and Lee put on one hell of an opening match with some excellent psychology, making you really want to get behind Lee. It looked like Lee may have had it won until Waller knocked him to the outside and Trick Williams attacked from the crowd. Waller picked up the win shortly thereafter, however Lee shouldn’t be down on himself for this match. He gave it his all, and only lost due to shenanigans.

This is now the third week in a row where we’ve kicked NXT off with a banger of a matchup between two competitors that couldn’t put on a bad match if they tried. I think this is a good formula, start the show off strong and try to retain viewership as much as possible.

Verdict: HIT

APOLLO CREWS vs. XYON QUINN

What is Crews’ plan down in NXT? We’ve heard him lay claim to the NXT title, we’ve seen him with a vigilante during a vignette, and then he started a feud with Xyon Quinn? I would have expected a much more clear direction for someone from the main roster. Crews’ WWE Superstar profile on WWE.com shows that he is an NXT wrestler now unlike AJ Styles and Natalya who remained on their main roster brands. Is this a demotion for Crews?

Xyon Quinn is also someone I’d like to see some clear direction with. He’s played a face and he’s played a heel. While he seems to be landing on staying heel, I’d like to start seeing him in more high profile spots so we can better understand the character.

The match itself was very good, maybe a notch below the opener. Crews came off looking like a million bucks.

Verdict: HIT

ZOEY STARK vs. GIGI DOLAN

Stark returned last week during the battle royal, winning it and naming herself the new number one contender for Mandy Rose’s NXT championship. This week, Dolin challenged Stark to a match to try and wear her down for Mandy Rose.

This was Stark’s first singles match since her injury, and she didn’t seem to lose a step. She took Gigi Dolin out within a matter of minutes, and then took out the rest of Toxic Attraction as they tried to attack her. Thus far in Rose’s reign as NXT Champion, Stark is hands down the biggest threat to her title.

That is… if Cora Jade doesn’t get involved. Jade attacked Stark with a kendo stick afterwards, prompting Roxy to run out and make the save for Stark.

Verdict: HIT

ANDRE CHASE vs. GIOVANNI VINCI

Before the match, Nathan Frazer walked up to Chase U backstage and asked to be their flag bearer for Chase’s match later on in the night. Frazer accompanied Chase, Thea Hail and Bodhi Hayward to the ring but sat in the Chase U Section.

Andre Chase and Chase U have become one of my more favorite acts in NXT. They’re just so over the top and cheesy that its hard not to like them.

Giovanni Vinci is a work in progress still, but he’s heading in the right direction. The gimmick is a bit tired, as we’ve seen something like this many times before in some incarnation. However, he seems to be making it work, and I’m looking forward to seeing what the ceiling is for the former Fabian Aichner with his new character.

Chase and Vinci went a lot longer than I expected! I expected Chase to lose, as he did. But I wasn’t expecting to see them in a long back and forth matchup. Chase is usually staring at the lights after his matches, where Vinci is a new competitor and in the middle of a push. I didn’t think Chase would have been booked to get that much offense in against Vinci. A surprising match, but in the best way possible. They put on a match that sucked me as well as the NXT crowd right in.

Verdict: HIT

ARIANNA GRACE vs. INDI HARTWELL

Earlier in the show, the two women got into it a bit when Grace started bad mouthing Hartwell, who heard her across the room leading into this match tonight.

As much as I love Indi Hartwell, her in ring skills aren’t as polished as I would think they’d be after spending this long in the NXT environment. She’s passable, but whenever she’s in a match opposite someone with less experience than she — it shows.

This was a passable matchup, but it was a bit robotic looking. The way the two moved in the ring looked choreographed and not very natural. Hartwell picked up the win, presumably adding fuel to Grace’s fire, continuing the feud.

Verdict: MISS

D’ANGELO FAMILY vs. DIAMOND MINE

The two biggest factions in NXT collided in the main event. Tony D’Angelo and his family vs. Roderick Strong and his.

This is the first week where Legado del Fantasma seemed enthusiastic to be part of D’Angelo’s family, which is a stark contrast from the past few weeks where they’ve seemed like they wanted to be anywhere but standing next to D’Angelo.

Diamond Mine also appeared to be on the same page as the match started. They’ve spent weeks at odds with one another, even leading to a match between Kemp and Strong last week.

I’m not a huge fan of 6-8 man tag matches, as things can get pretty chaotic and they tend to dip into a bag of tropes. This match certainly had those moments of chaos and followed certain tag team match tropes, but I think they did a great job at trying to keep things fresh and exciting as possible.

With the D’Angelo Family taking the win, I think this is going to play into the probably demise of Diamond Mine. I’m calling it now, next week Roddy is gon’ be pissed.

Verdict: HIT