Top 3 things that went right on the April 19 episode of NXT 2.0

It’s been a while since the last one of these pieces for NXT 2.0. Fortunately, this show always provides plenty to discuss. Whether that “plenty” is good or bad will somewhat depend on your taste, but these shows tend to lack dull moments, so that counts for something.

Still, this NXT 2.0 isn’t for everyone, and it doesn’t take much effort to figure out what makes this show such a turnoff for the people who loved the “black and gold” era of WWE’s developmental brand. However, that doesn’t mean the show is devoid of quality.

In fact, we’re gonna highlight some of those positives…

These are the top three things that went right on the April 19 episode of NXT 2.0.

Santos Escobar vs. Carmelo Hayes

Even with the interference from Tony D’Angelo’s goons, it was a match between Carmelo Hayes and Santos Escobar, so it was pretty good. Hayes now moves on to his rematch against North American Champion Cameron Grimes while it appears that Escobar is now a babyface who will feud with D’Angelo.

Grizzled Young Veterans vs. Legado Del Fantasma (Cruz Del Toro and Joaquin Wilde)

Between WWE, NXT, and All Elite Wrestling, we’ve seen a lot of excellent tag team matches, and this week’s NXT 2.0 kept that momentum going with the Grizzled Young Veterans vs. Legado Del Fantasma.

Even though both teams are in limbo — the Creed Brothers chasing Pretty Deadly is currently the top tag team storyline — they went out there and made the most of the four minutes of actual ring time, cramming as many cool spots as they could into the limited allotment.

Cruz Del Toro (the former Raul Mendoza) and Joaquin Wilde grabbed the clean win in this sprint of a match, but as we learned in a digital exclusive video, this may have been GYV’s last match in NXT, likely signaling a call-up.

If so, good for them. After reigning as NXT UK Tag Team Champions for 230 days, GYV had become just another team in NXT, and while that could happen on the main roster, too, the lack of teams there could give them an easier path to a sustained push (at least as much as a team can get pushed on Raw or SmackDown).

Roxanne Perez’s debut

So, there are some things to quibble with regarding Roxanne Perez’s (formerly known as Rok-C) NXT 2.0 debut. For one, Booking her to face Jacy Jayne — the co-holder of the NXT Women’s Tag Team Championship — set up a no-win situation for both since Perez shouldn’t lose her first match and Jayne should be protected as a titleholder.

The creative team, of course, tried to circumvent this conundrum with a distraction finish — Wendy Chu messing up Toxic Attraction’s locker room during the climax of the match — but that caused Perez to get overshadowed a little.

However, they did give Perez the win and have already earmarked her for a feud with Mandy Rose, so those outweigh the negatives. Hopefully, this is a sign that they plan on centering the division around Perez as the lead babyface.