HEYDORN’S NXT 2.0 RECEIPT 8/30: WWE main roster surprises pop crowd, but greatly enhance Worlds Collide matches

This week’s episode of WWE NXT 2.0 has wrapped. Let’s take a stroll down memory lane and relive some of the madness.

-No surprise seeing Grayson Waller defeat Apollo Crews. Waller certainly has a higher upside at this point, but it begs the question of just how impactful someone like Crews is coming back down to NXT full-time, but essentially being booked the same way as he was on the main roster.

-The Diamond Mine and Roderick Strong storyline has been a pleasant surprise. The Creed Brothers genuinely have been able to portray a love for their group that simply doesn’t include Strong anymore. Strong plays the other side well. A clash is imminent and should come sooner than later.

-A Bron Breakker face to face with Finn Balor? Call me intrigued. This was a fun little segment, but it was jarring seeing Balor out there talking like a likable person instead of the whiny heel character he’s been working on the main roster. As a one off, it’s fine I guess, but that inconsistency shouldn’t be a staple of main roster surprises in NXT moving forward.

-Now, with that said, character stuff aside, the various main roster talents appearing with various championship unification challengers and champions for Worlds Collide was a tremendous touch. It gave the titles lineage and history, while building extra stakes on top of the unification because of that history. Great stuff all around.

-Not much to the Chance & Carter match outside of setting up their clash with Doudrop & Nikki A.S.H. Like the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships, it would be nice to see a story unfold somewhere in this division.

-Well, it’s safe to say that this Schism stuff is worse than The Wyatt Family. Nothing Joe Gacy says makes sense and the guy has zero credibility with anything on the show. Cameron Grimes will make lemonade out of these lemons, but Schism is hanging on by a very thin thread.

-We need to see more of Roxanne Perez and Cora Jade together. The video package this week on Perez was fine, but it didn’t fan the flames of their rivalry. We’ve seen a couple chapters of the story and need more rather than recap materials. Perez continues to show a very high upside on a regular basis.

-The tag division will see unified championship at Worlds Collide as well. Makes perfect sense given the tone of the show. Creating a sense of pandemonium between the teams involved in the match was really the only move to make given the short turnaround on the story. Not a great angle, but serviceable when judged against a very low bar.

-Andre Chase beating Charlie Dempsey was a surprise. Dempsey has a huge upside on NXT 2.0 and Chase is one note at best. Curious to see how this plays out.

-Nathan Frazer vs. Axiom is a match I’ll certainly enjoy because I’ll be watching Worlds Collide. Not sure I’d go out of my way to see it, though.

-Carmelo Hayes has developed one helluva promo since being positioned as a top NXT 2.0 act. He’s comfortable with who he is in the ring and it manifests in high levels of confidence that feed that comfortability right back. Just great stuff from him.

-Ricochet vs. Hayes is certainly an example of worlds colliding. See what I did there? Hayes has a chance to really prove himself opposite Ricochet and Ricochet could use a stellar match to jump start his WWE main roster momentum and popularity again. Lots of balls in the air with this one. Can’t wait.

CATCH-UP: HEYDORN’S WWE RAW RECEIPT 8/29: Riddle and Rollins give their feud significant momentum