NXT Results, Highlights and Headlines: 12/28

Below, we have the NXT results from the Tuesday, December 28th show, along with highlights and headlines coming from tonight.

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NXT Results, highlights and headlines from last week’s show

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WWE NXT Results 12/28

Grayson Waller Promo: He makes fun of Dexter Lumis’s wife, and worse, AJ Styles’ theme song

Odyssey Jones takes Lumis’ place, Calls Waller a Big Time Bitch

Waller def. Odyssey Jones

Mandy Rose Promo: She teases tension between the babyface team from War Games

Xyon Quinn pleads with Elektra Lopez

MSK confront Imperium, will challenge for Walter and Imperium next week alongside Matt Riddle

Edris Enofe and Malik Blade get yelled at by Von Wagoner for beating him last week

Harland and Joe Gacy Promo: Brian Kendrick won’t recognize his mistakes, Andre Chase takes his place

Harland def. Andre Chase, kidnap a student of Chase U

Tiffany Stratton Debuts, def. Fallon Henley

Carmelo Hayes and Roddy Strong Contract Signing for their North American Title Unification Match next week

Solo Sikoa def. Santos Escobar. Xyon Quinn helps distract Santos

Boa attacks Solo Sikoa

Bron Breakker vs Tomasso Ciampa Video Package: This feud has been pretty awesome

Von Wagoner def. Malik Blade

Cora Jade & Raquel Gonzalez def. Io Shirai & Kay Lee Ray

NXT Highlights From 12/28

MSK Prove that they can be Must–Watch

The shorts of Matt Riddle and MSK have been so drawn out and dumb they overshadowed just how entertaining MSK can be. Tonight, all that came across was that they were a big deal because of the amount of time we’ve dedicated to them. Add in the awesome twist that we’re not rushing right back into a title swap, but much more sensibly Imperium find MSK unworthy currently, so next week we get MSK with Matt Riddle vs Imperium with WALTER. The crowd went nuts here and it made the Tag Team Championship feel huge, and that match should be awesome. It will also feel like bringing your Dad and Fun Uncle to a bar fight, but that’s part of the fun I suppose. Here’s hoping that going forward they don’t have to overdo MSK, and can just let them be big personalities without being so dumb.

Trick Williams should be Everyone’s Favorite Wrestler

The contract signing of Hayes and Strong was pretty typical, but the exchanging of words especially between hype-men Trick Williams and Malcolm Bivens made this must-watch. Both Hayes and Strong cut pretty great, but formulaic promos. However, Trick Williams said he’s always had the numbers advantage because he has eight abs and three traps and I have not laughed that hard in a long time.

To top it off, the segment ended with Bivens egging him into the ring, Williams threatening “baldy” with a beatdown before being put through a table to give Roddy Strong and Diamond Mine a mental edge next week. Trick Williams and Carmelo Hayes are so damn entertaining, and if anything, I hope their amount of TV time only goes up after next week.

NXT Lowlights From 12/28

Waller Underwhelms in Ring as Headliner

NXT 2.0 has made no secret that everything is about Grayson Waller right now. He took out Gargano, he’s appeared in about five segments per week recently, and he is feuding with AJ Styles. The issue? His time in the ring has been lackluster. This week, an injury saw Odyssey Jones return from obscurity only to lose to Waller in a mediocre match no one really gained anything from. Jones is an awesome talent, but his lack of experience leads to really formulaic matches at times, and unbelievability at worst. It just seems like a guy that big should be winning all his matches, and hitting three big moves then going down gets old fast. I like Waller’s character and story, but the build this week was unnecessary and did more harm than good.

WWE Headlines

WWE saw the departure of Kyle O’Reilly last month from NXT, and last week he appeared on AEW to confirm he has joined his former Undisputed Era teammates Adam Cole and Bobby Fish. This signing was expected but is great news for fans of UE and O’Reilly, who have wanted him to join the more indy-friendly setting of Dynamite for a while. If reports are accurate, Johnny Gargano could be following O’Reilly sooner rather than later as well.

All roads lead to New Years Evil on NXT this next week. We should see Bron Breakker vs. Ciampa for the NXT Championship, AJ Styles vs. Grayson Waller, a triple threat Women’s title match, Carmelo Hayes vs. Roddy Strong in a title unification match, and a tag match featuring MSK and Riddle vs Imperium with WALTER. While the build to this show could have been a lot more exciting in places, all the matches have storyline implications and most importantly the in-ring matches are extremely exciting on paper.