WWE NXT 2.0 Recap 11/16/21

Highlights of the Night with Dakota Mayes

TONY D'ANGELO VS. DEXTER LUMIS

Last week, Tony gave Indi a dead fish with Lumis’s name as a mafia-style message. Dexter responded this week by showing a painting of Tony sleeping with the fishes. Despite his stoic personality, Dexter brought intensity in his own way. The two hammered each other throughout the match. Tony matched Lumis’s in offense but soon fell behind and ran out to grab the painting easel as a distraction. As the referee removed it from the ring, Tony thumbed Lumis in the eye and hit his finisher to win. Carmelo Hayes and Trick Williams attacked Lumis after the match and injured his hand, possibly breaking it. They only stopped their assault when Johnny Gargano ran in to save his son-in-law. It was later announced that Carmelo would defend the North American Championship against Pete Dunne and Johnny Gargano next week.

DIAMOND MINE VS. JACKET TIME & ODYSSEY JONES

Strong started the match with Jiro, and the two danced around a bit until Strong decided to chop Jones, who then tagged in to fight Roddy, only for the heel to tag out. The faces got the better of Julius, but the heels rebounded for the action to move back and forth until they found their opening to take control, that is until Jones and Strong tagged in, and Jones inflicted punishment on the cruiserweight champion. Strong found the strength to hit an angle-slam to stop Jones, but the fight soon turned to 3 on 1 as the faces worked together to take out Strong, allowing Jones to win for his team.

GRIZZLED YOUNG VETS

Grizzled Young Vets had a segment where they fooled Zack Gibson’s grandmother into thinking they won back the tag team championships, face-timing her with the women’s tag titles in a ploy by Gibson to secure an inheritance. We also saw a rough plan of their con on a whiteboard. This appears to be a new gimmick for the two, as they ran a similar scam last week to get free food. This seems to go along with the new format of NXT, which puts more focus on character and gimmicks. Personally, I’m not too fond of this. They are former tag champs and were a force to be reckoned with. But it does fit Vince’s vision of what he wants in stars on the main roster.

POKER ROOM SHOWDOWN

This segment was a Texas Holdem rematch from the game Grimes and Hudson played two weeks ago. They play for a single hand. The advantage stays with Duke for much of the segment as Grimes had a hand of nothing, but his overwhelming confidence and crowd jeering got into Hudson’s head. Grimes fooled him into thinking he had a flush, and Hudson folded. After finding out what Grimes’s hand was, he was angry and attacked him, putting him through the poker table and cutting his hair and beard. This segment shouldn’t have been as good as it was, but it was entertaining. It’s debatable whether or not it would work on the main roster.

TOMMASO CIAMPA & BRON BREAKKER

The NXT Champion had a problem with the current crop of stars, believing they had no respect and had not paid their dues, specifically referencing Carmelo Hayes and Grayson Waller. Bron Breaker interrupted and thinks it pisses Ciampa off that there are new stars but states that he needs to be worried about him because he still wants the gold. Ciampa doesn’t care for his charisma and asked for a recap of their last match to show Bron that he’s in the back of the line now, saying he can bark up the tree all he wants, but he’s just a puppy.

RAQUEL GONZALES VS. DAKOTA KAI

Raquel almost immediately forced Dakota to retreat and gave chase, not letting her catch her breath for a second. She beat Kai from post to post until Dakota managed to cause Raquel to run shoulder-first into the ring post. The pink-haired heel wore Gonzales down, and she enjoyed every second of it, smiling the whole time. Gonzales found life again with a big power-slam to Kai and began to rebuild her momentum, being brutal in her assault, but Kai shut her down by sending her face-first into an exposed turnbuckle. Kai was about to end Raquel with the same shovel she had used at Halloween Havoc to cost her former friend the title before it was forcefully taken from her. However, Toxic Attraction stopped Raquel before she could use it herself. Both Cora Jade and Io Sharai came to the rescue and fought off the heels together. The show ended with Io challenging the four to face her, Raquel, and Cora in War Games.

Dakota Mayes is our resident wrestling expert at The Pyrrhic. Be sure to keep on top of all the latest in news, previews, and reviews in the world of professional wrestling right here with Dakota at thepyrrhic.com.

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