TJR WWE NXT Stand & Deliver 2022 Preview
Welcome to the TJRWrestling WWE NXT Stand & Deliver preview featuring the biggest show of the year taking place on the afternoon of WrestleMania Saturday.
Let me start by saying I miss the Takeover name for these shows, but we know WWE has gone away from that label since last September. I just think it was better to have “Takeover” as the name of these events.
I think this is a pretty good card featuring a nice mix of the newer NXT 2.0 talent that we have gotten to know well on NXT TV in the last seven months. There are also some bigger names from the black & gold era of NXT while the NXT Champion Dolph Ziggler has only been around NXT for a few months. The NXT Women’s Champion Mandy Rose has had a great run in the last six months since she was brought to the brand. I think there could be a lot of title changes while two of the main guys like Tommaso Ciampa and LA Knight are rumored to be moving to Raw or Smackdown post-WrestleMania, so this could be their NXT farewells.
This will be the biggest crowd for the NXT 2.0 brand at the American Airlines Center, which is the home of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks. I believe they are setting up for about 5,000 tickets sold. It’s an improvement over being in front of 500 fans at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando. I expect a vocal crowd on Saturday afternoon. It starts at 1pm ET/12pm CT with a likely runtime of around three hours, so you get three hours of NXT on Saturday afternoon before WrestleMania part one on Saturday night. Busy day of writing for me! I love it. Let’s get to the preview.
(Note: All graphics are from WWE.)
NXT Women’s Tag Team Championships: Toxic Attraction (Gigi Dolin & Jacy Jayne) vs. Raquel Gonzalez & Dakota Kai
The graphic that was shown on NXT this past Wednesday said this was on the Kickoff Show although it doesn’t say that on WWE.com as of today. If it’s on the Kickoff Show that’s fine with me, but if it’s on the main show then that’s cool too.
The Raquel/Dakota team were Tag Team Champions in the past, then Dakota turned on Raquel, who became a babyface and a long-term singles champion. They were kind of thrown together here due to common enemies in Toxic Attraction, who also attacked Wendy Choo – the most recent tag team partner of Kai. It’s possible that they do a title change with Choo coming back to help Kai win, but I feel like Raquel has done all she can in NXT and is heading for Raw or Smackdown soon. I think Gigi & Jacy as champions since they have chemistry together as well as being a heel team that fans are going to root against. I just think NXT could build up others to take the titles from them. I’ll go with the champs retaining by cheating somehow.
Winners: Toxic Attraction (Gigi Dolin & Jacy Jayne)
Tommaso Ciampa vs. Tony D’Angelo
This is likely Ciampa’s NXT farewell as he indicated last week on NXT when he had a chair listing his NXT debut date and also Saturday’s date, which is the end of this run for him. Ciampa has been on Raw a few times in the last couple of months, so I think WWE liked what they saw and are going to find a role for him on one of the bigger shows. Tony D has done pretty well as a Mafia-like character that had a long-term feud with Pete Dunne. Some of the dialogue is a bit cheesy, but I get that WWE wants him to be a different kind of character than a typical heel. I think this will be competitive the whole way, Ciampa might come close to winning a few times, but in the end, Tony D should get some kind of cheap shot (a low blow or using a weapon) leading to his finish. If Ciampa wins it’s okay, but I’d rather see him lose on the way out of NXT.
Winner: Tony D’Angelo
NXT Tag Team Championships: Imperium (Fabian Aichner & Marcel Barthel) (c) vs. The Creed Brothers (Julius Creed & Brutus Creed) vs. MSK (Nash Carter & Wes Lee)
This one feels like a title change with The Creed Brothers getting their first taste of gold after winning the Men’s Dusty Cup tournament. It’s nothing against Imperium as champions and if they were to keep the titles then I wouldn’t mind that at all. It just feels like The Creed Brothers have a lot of momentum, they have started to get cheered more and their matches have been better as they get more experience. It would mean a lot for the NXT brand to have one of their young, newer tag teams to win the titles. I think with MSK in the match, they could certainly win the titles as well since they are former champions. I just think MSK is there to make it a more competitive match and they’ll tease a lot of nearfalls from the moment the bell rings.
Another story to keep in mind is that The Creed Brothers have had to deal with mystery attackers and people sending them messages at their Diamond Mine training facility. It’s possible that those mystery attackers cost The Creed Brothers the match, but I think it’s more likely that The Creed Brothers win the titles first and then they deal with whoever the mystery people are.
Winners AND NEW NXT Tag Team Champions: The Creed Brothers (Julius Creed & Brutus Creed)
LA Knight vs. Gunther
I think Gunther is my favorite male wrestler on the NXT brand. The hard-hitting Austrian is in great shape right now, he seems ready to get a big push and I look forward to seeing it happen. I’m actually surprised we haven’t heard more rumors of him being pushed to Raw or Smackdown soon because of how talented he is while also being a bigger guy. I fully expect Knight to be moved to Raw or Smackdown. Knight put over Grayson Waller in their feud (although it wasn’t clean) and now he’ll put over Gunther. Anything other than a Gunther win would be a surprise. Knight’s an elite talker that is pretty good in the ring while Gunther is among the best in the ring, so I think they’ll do well together. This should be a win for Gunther, who might be hearing a few “Walter” chants as well.
Winner: Gunther
NXT Women’s Championship:Mandy Rose (c) vs. Cora Jade vs. Io Shirai vs. Kay Lee Ray
This is another match where a title change is certainly possible since it’s a Fatal 4-Way where you can do a finish that sees the champion lose her title without being pinned. I also wonder if this might be the end of Shirai’s run in NXT or near the end anyway because she’s done it all in NXT and I think she’d be a valuable performer on Raw or Smackdown. Io has been one of my favorites to watch on this brand, so I want to see what more she can do.
I’m going with my personal favorite Mandy Rose retaining her title just like her Toxic Attraction allies earlier in the show. Why not? The group gets a lot of heat, they’ve been dominant in some ways and I think if you’re going to do a title change, it should happen in a singles match because then it means more. Cora Jade has a bright future at 21 years old, but I don’t think they have booked her strong enough going into this match. KLR is talented although I think she’s more of a natural heel. Shirai, as I said, might be gone from NXT after this. I think they should have Mandy pin KLR and have Cora chase a bit more for a few months down the road. It may even be a better option to wait on newcomer Nikkita Lyons to get some momentum and put the title on her in a few months because the fans love her. Anyway, I think it will be a good match. Io never has bad matches while Mandy and KLR are both very good while Cora has done well in these bigger matches in the past. I’m going with my girl Mandy, but it’s not a lock.
Winner: Mandy Rose
NXT North American Championship Ladder Match: Carmelo Hayes (c) vs. Santos Escobar vs. Solo Sikoa vs. Grayson Waller vs. Cameron Grimes
This is tough because I really like Melo as the champion, but this story is perfect for a Cameron Grimes win. They have really been pushing the idea of Grimes being in NXT for the past three years and he hasn’t won a title yet. Yes, he was Million Dollar Champion in the past although that’s a created title that went away when the storyline ended. I think this is Cameron’s time to win some gold especially after he lost the first qualifying match, then won the next qualifying match and now he’s in the match. If Melo loses, he can go after the main NXT Title or perhaps get moved to Raw or Smackdown later in the year.
I think in terms of the match of the night, it might be this. There’s a lot of talent here with Melo as the standout performer, Escobar is the veteran leader that has had some damn good ladder matches in the past, Waller is a bit of a daredevil that will probably do some huge leap off a ladder, Solo is very physical and I think Grimes is going to do some big spots too. You don’t really have a big guy in the match. They’re all kind of average size, athletic guys. I’m sure they’ll plan the spots well and have a very entertaining match. It wouldn’t surprise if they went on first too. I’ll go with Grimes to win.
Winner AND NEW NXT North American Champion: Cameron Grimes
NXT Championship: Dolph Ziggler (c) vs. Bron Breakker
There should be a title change here with Bron Breakker winning the gold in front of his father Rick Steiner, uncle Scott Steiner and the rest of the family. The Steiner Brothers are going into the Hall of Fame this Friday, so it wouldn’t shock me at all if we see them at ringside for this match and perhaps we could see Scott put his hands on Robert Roode to prevent Ziggler’s buddy from interfering.
By the way, if WWE ever wanted to change Bron’s name to Bronson Steiner, that’s one of those name changes I doubt many fans would complain about.
They should have a great match with Bron showing in the past against Tommaso Ciampa that he’s definitely capable of keeping up with a veteran like Ziggler. The good thing about Dolph is he is a heel that you know is going to cheat, there will be a lot of nearfalls and he’s going to make Bron look amazing by selling his power moves perfectly. When Bron hit Dolph with a Spear a few weeks ago, it was one of the best Spears I’ve ever seen. The reason they took the NXT Title off Bron a few weeks ago was so that he could win it back here. Would I have booked it that way? No. I would have kept it on Bron. However, I understand WWE wanting to do it this way to have Bron win it back with his family right there to celebrate with him to end the show. If Bron doesn’t leave this show with the NXT Title I’ll be very surprised.
Winner AND NEW NXT Champion: Bron Breakker
By the way, great video packages on Breakker and Ziggler earlier this week. I posted them below.
BONUS TOPICS!
The Match I’m Looking Forward To The Most
NXT North American Title Ladder Match. I love ladder matches in general, so that’s my choice, but I want to see Bron-Dolph too.
The Match I Care About The Least
NXT Women’s Tag Team Title Match. A weak story. It should be fine, though.
Longest Match
I think Ziggler-Breakker will be the longest at around 20 minutes.
Shortest Match
Gunther beating LA Knight in about ten minutes. Maybe less.
Excitement Level on a Scale of 1-10 (1 being low, 10 being high)
It’s about a 7.5 out of 10. I think the higher-end matches are going to be four stars or higher and when you have a few matches at that level, they will carry the show. I don’t think there’s going to be any match that is that bad on here. The Ladder Match will be outstanding, the tag team title match should be full of action, the women’s match will be better than if it was just a singles match between Mandy/Cora and I like Ziggler/Breakker a lot too. In the other two men’s singles matches, you have Ciampa and Gunther (Wally!) there to lead the way because they never have bad matches.
If you’re not a regular NXT TV viewer, that’s okay. I understand not having time for it or being upset that the black/gold era ended last September. I’m telling you now that you don’t need to know everything going into the matches. I think if you go into this show cold (after reading this preview), you’ll probably like what you see. Everybody works hard in NXT, the “rookies” that started six months ago have improved a lot, the crowd in Dallas should be hot and they’ll do a nice job of building to some big moments. Plus, we might get to see Rick & Scott Steiner celebrating with Bron Breakker, so that should be amazing. I think the NXT brand has been pretty good for the first three months of 2022 and now they get the chance to show it.
In Closing
I’ll be back with a review of WWE NXT Stand & Deliver on TJRWrestling.net on Saturday afternoon.
If you’re out there on Twitter you can message me @johnreport any time. If you want to send an email, send it to me at mrjohncanton@gmail.com as well. Thanks for reading.