2 things that went wrong on the May 24 episode of NXT 2.0
We’re now well into the “2.0” era of NXT, and it feels like any shock over what the current product is now has been replaced with a “this is what this is and you’re either along for the ride or not” attitude from people who watch it.
As stated in an earlier piece, there are bright spots on this show, and it is fascinating to watch some of these wrestlers progress, but those points in the NXT’s favor are often dwarfed by the bad acting, cringey dialogue, and head-scratching booking decisions.
Today, we will discuss those decisions that popped up on this show.
These are two things that went wrong on the May 24 episode of NXT 2.0.
Fallon Henley vs. Tiffany Stratton
With Nikkita Lyons forfeiting her spot in the women’s Breakout Tournament due to a legitimate injury, the NXT creative team needed to quickly pivot from whatever their original plans were. Unfortunately, the audible they called showed that they either have little faith in Fallon Henley or a lack of ability to get babyfaces over.
To make up for the Lyons injury, hey chose to have Tiffany Stratton goad Fallon Henley into wrestling her for a spot in the next round, which Stratton won after Henley suffered a knee “injury” of her own during the match’s closing moments.
Clearly, WWE figured that this would put heat on Stratton for cutting the line and winning one fewer match to reach the end while making Henley look valiant for wanting to “earn” her trip to the finals (ignoring that she did earn her spot by not getting hurt as Lyons did).
In actuality, it only makes Henley look dumb for volunteering for the match even though she didn’t need to. The injury does little to protect her, either, since the injury wouldn’t have happened if she simply elected not to face Stratton.
Bron Breakker loses to Duke Hudson via disqualification
This Bron Breakker/Joe Gacy feud is easily the worst storyline on WWE television right now (and consider the ground that covers). Between the hocus pocus stunts that look too cheesy for a B-movie and the apparent desire to test Breakker’s acting ability, these segments have gotten worse by the week.
This week, we saw Breakker take on Duke Hudson in NXT 2.0’s main event. There’s not much to say about the match, especially since it primarily served as the backdrop to the ongoing nonsense with Gacy and his druids. To make matters worse, it ended when Breakker got disqualified for striking Hudson with a chair.
The finish was designed to establish that Breakker could lose his temper and get DQed against Gacy at NXT In Your House (Breakker would lose the title if that happened), so it made sense based on the story they’re telling. The story they’re telling, however, sucks.