2 things that went right on the June 28 episode of NXT 2.0

Before the brand’s third installment of The Great American Bash, this week’s NXT 2.0 put the finishing touches on that card. With the anticipated main event between Cameron Grimes and Bron Breakker for the NXT Championship already scheduled for the annual special, the company added five more matches to the July card, three of them title matches.

Aside from the card building, the episode also kicked off some other feuds (or at least featured angles to set up matches post-GAB) to pad things out. A lot of these segments likely generated more head scratches than actual interest, but not all of it was bad.

These are two things that went right on the June 28 episode of NXT 2.0.

Cameron Grimes and Bron Breakker’s face-to-face confrontation

For the episode’s final segment, NXT Champion Bron Breakker and number one contender Cameron Grimes met in the middle of the ring for a face-to-face confrontation. As the final sales pitch for their NXT Championship match at The Great American Bash, the two stood eye-to-eye and traded the usual “reality era” barbs, mostly about Breakker getting fast tracked by WWE thanks to his family lineage in pro wrestling.

Most of the talking portion didn’t resonate as well as it should have, particularly the portion where Grimes noted that Breakker could get called up if he lost the NXT Title. That meant to illustrate how little this match meant to Breakker compared to Grimes, but in attempting to “infuse real life” into the story, it made the main event feel less important by implying that one of the participants didn’t care about it as much as the other.

Also, if Grimes falls short against Breakker, all this talk about being more passionate and needing to win this match more could make him look silly (unless the endgame is to turn him heel).

When things got physical, though, it got a little more interesting. Breakker eventually hoisted Grimes up in a Gorilla Press, but the former North American Champion slipped out of his grasp. The champ then charged at Grimes in the corner, but Grimes averted disaster again and crashed into the turnbuckle, causing it to fall off its hinges.

The spot caused Breakker to “injure” his shoulder, which now introduces a bit of doubt as to who will leave the Bash as NXT Champion, with bonus points to booking Grimes to relish in Breakker’s self-inflicted malady without going full-on heel.

Even with the creative miscues, Grimes vs. Breakker has worked better than any other program currently going in NXT 2.0. Hopefully, the match will live up to the build.

Giovanni Vinci vs. Ikemen Jiro

Even with NXT 2.0 focussing more on turning athletes from other sports into pro wrestlers (and the headaches that come with enacting that strategy), fans still get to enjoy some quality work from the good workers who are still on the roster. This week’s offering came in the form of Giovanni Vinci vs. Ikemen Jiro.

The match only went for several minutes — Jiro is essentially a jobber to the stars (using the loosest qualifications possible for the word “star”) and NXT clearly has bigger plans for Vinci — but these two made the most of their time before Vinci put Jiro away with the Last Ride. In particular, go out of your way to watch this for the tornado DDT Vinci hits toward the match’s closing moments (credit to Jiro for the bump/sell of that move, too).

While the European model gimmick Vinci has feels a bit tired and dated, it’s nice to see him getting pushed, especially if his matches are going to look like this.