The NXT 2.0 Rewind: 9.28.21 – Franky Monet’s Big Title Shot

Previously on the NXT 2.0 Rewind: Class is in session for Chase University, Roderick Strong brings the Cruiserweight Championship to Diamond Mine, and Bron Breakker teams with Tommaso Ciampa.

As always, we’re live in the Capitol Performance Center in Orlando, Florida. WWE Hall of Famer Beth Phoenix, Vic Joseph and Wade Barrett welcome us to the show, Alicia Taylor is on the microphone.

No Disqualification Match: B-Fab (with NXT North American Champion Isaiah “Swerve” Scott, Top Dolla and Ashantee Thee Adonis) vs Elektra Lopez (with Santos Escobar, Raul Mendoza and Joaquin Wilde)

We’re kicking off with the women’s battle that has been simmering for weeks. Ashantee tells us that tonight is all about the ladies and hypes up the NXT Women’s and NXT Women’s Tag Title matches ahead, which is a smart way to promote what is coming up. Swerve notes that his title is NOT being defended again tonight because nobody is trying to come for him, but we do have a Cruiserweight Title match coming tonight. This finally gets us to B-Fab who says the spotlight is on her and she’s going to beat the brakes off Elektra. If you didn’t know, now you know.

B-Fab removes the earrings on the apron as she watches Elektra and friends enter and the brawl is on in the entrance area. Pinfall or submission has to happen in-ring but otherwise, anything goes. They trade blows outside and Elektra finds a trash can under the ring. B-Fab plops her to the ground and pounds away before Elektra shoves her into the steel steps. Mendoza comes running in and Dolla smashes him away and the men are all flying and brawling now as we go to break.

We come back to the ladies in ring and Elektra choking out B-Fab. The men were all ejected during the break. Elektra makes the crowd happy by bringing out a table but B-Fab stomps it down, possibly mad it isn’t branded with a Slim Jim logo. B-Fab slams Elektra’s leg onto the folded table and again on the raised leg of the table. Elektra throws kendo sticks and chairs into the ring slams B-Fab onto one of the chairs then on a different chair. She sets up the third chair, legs up, but B-Fab grabs her and drops Elektra face-first into the legs. B-Fab hits a solid triple with the kendo and keeps working Elektra with it before Elektra flies through B-Fab and a chair with a splash. This is messy but in a good way. Elektra sets up a chair and tosses B-Fab onto a standing chair before planting B-Fab with a power bomb and a pin.

Elektra Lopez pins B-Fab. This was the second NXT TV match for both women and they were given ten minutes to do it. It was messy, it was a bit sloppy but I liked it in this case. They were two women fighting on a grudge and when you’re fighting out of hate, it shouldn’t be perfectly neat. I liked it a lot.

We take a trip to the beaches of Florida and the honeymoon of Indi Hartwell and Dexter Lumis. They draw “Index” in a heart on the beach and we see Johnny Gargano and Candice LeRae watching them from a balcony. Johnny says they’re having good, safe fun. Candice: “For now.” This leads us to Indi doing sexy water things and Dexter giving her the horny eye. Johnny is freaking out. Suddenly a shark fin appears in the water and the lovers run off, Johnny popping up and saying he knew that would work.

When we return from break, Joe Gacy is sitting in the ring. This is still a safe space. He has not been cancelled. “I speak for a generation that nobody understands except for us, the enlightened ones. The rest of you are living in a darkened, obsolete world.” He saw nothing but “triggered faces” when he went to the locker room. He says he is inclusive and all conflicts can be solved with simple discussion. “No one person can change the world but I’m here to usher in the world to a new normal.” Well, this was certainly a way to take all of the current buzzwords and throw them into a two minute promo.

Xyon Quinn vs Oney Lorcan

History lessons! Xyon debuted in the black and gold era as Daniel Vidot, making his TV debut in a one-minute loss against Sheamus on SmackDown in April 2020, just as they were figuring out how the hell to continue the programming with Covid. He only had one prior match before this on the actual NXT show, defeating Boa in about a minute a month earlier. He didn’t do much in his time in NXT though did make it to a Stand & Deliver fatal five-way match. He was left as a free agent in the 2023 WWE Draft and had two appearances in the two years that followed including a six-second loss to Bron Breakker. Here, we have time to watch that entire match.

He had a brief stint in TNA before going to All Japan and winning their World Tag Team Title with fellow former NXTer Odyssey.

Oney Lorcan dates back in WWE history all the way to 2010 when he appeared as the Carolina Panther to lose to Great Khali. He joined NXT in 2015 and would go on to win the NXT Tag Team Titles in early 2021 with frequent partner Danny Burch which would be stripped shortly after due to an injury to Burch. Oney would be released after this match with Xyon. He’d do sixteen matches around against names like Jon Moxley before returning to NXT as a coach and announcing his retirement as a performer in 2023.

And now, the match. The commentary team hypes up Xyon’s Samoan heritage. Oney gets the early advantage with some ground and pound attacks and big chops in the corner before Xyon tosses him across the ring. Oney takes out Xyon’s knee That doesn’t last long as Quinn clotheslines the hell out of him and spears him in the corner before measuring and hitting him with a flying forearm for the pin.

Xyon Quinn pins Oney Lorcan. This was a showcase of Xyon and he looked good in it. The spotlight wouldn’t last though.

Grayson Waller tells us he is a thrill seeker in a vignette. He saw his chance last week to challenge Roderick Strong and tonight he’s taking the gold.

NXT Tag Team Champions MSK (Wes Lee and Nash Carter) are out for some thoughts. We’ll see plenty more of these two so I won’t deep dive into their histories, but they’re in AEW now as part of the Rascalz as Desmond Xavier (Lee) and Zachary Wentz (Carter). Samantha Irvin is in-ring to interview them. Wentz makes a weed joke of course and Lee tells Irvin they are going to continue to be fighting champions. This brings us The Grizzled Young Veterans (James Drake and Zack Gibson), who we’ll also discuss later on but are also now in AEW. Carmelo Hayes and Trick Williams are next out and Melo says he could use his championship shot for the tag gold. Josh Briggs and Brooks Jensen end the entrance party to throw out that they are also interested. It all turns into a brawl and I’m sure it’ll lead us to some sort of four-way.

Mackenzie Mitchell is with NXT Women’s Champion Raquel Gonzalez. Toxic Attraction walk through to tell her that the title looks good on her but will look better on Mandy Rose.

NXT Women’s Tag Team Championship: NXT Women’s Tag Team Champions Io Shirai and Zoey Stark vs Toxic Attraction (Jacy Jayne and Gigi Dolin with Mandy Rose)

We covered the path of the Toxic women in the first episode and their opponents aren’t hard to cover. Io will be around 2.0 for most of its run before being injured and then moving up to the main roster as Iyo Sky at SummerSlam in 2022 and is now widely considered as one of the best wrestlers in the world. She even won the illustrious Doomie Award for Best Female Wrestler of the Year in 2025. We talk about it all the time in our Doomie Award Winners group chat. Zoey was in NXT for a bit before moving to the main roster, battling the injury bug. She was recently released and is counting down to the end of her no-compete period.

Stark and Jayne trade rollups and counters for a start before it all breaks down outside, Dolin leaping onto Stark and then Shirai moonsaulting onto the Toxic crew. We take a break and the Toxics have the in-ring advantage when we return. Stark gets a hot tag and hits a nice German suplex on Jayne for a two count. Jayne dodges a moonsault and hits at least some of a neckbreaker to even things up again. Io and Gigi tag in and Io springboard dropkicks Dolin for a two count. Io tries for a Crossface, Jacy tries to break it and Io turns into into a double Crossface broken by Mandy putting Jacy’s foot on the ropes. Zoey tags in and springs into a German suplex from Dolin, Stark just kicking out of it as the fans chant “this is awesome.” Stark launches onto Gigi on the outside while Io palm strikes Jacy and lands the Over the Moonsault for the three count.

Io Shirai pins Jacy Jayne, Shirai & Stark defeat Toxic Attraction. Hey, this was very good! I have little memory of this period of the tag division but this all worked. Io was great as ever, but Zoey looked very good and both of the Toxics swam well being tossed into the deep waters. Give this one a look.

Here’s a vignette on Bron Breakker. “You want a friend? Go get a dog.” He says he wants a shot at Ciampa and he isn’t a patient man.

NXT Champion Tommaso Ciampa FaceTimes into the show to chat with the commentary crew. He tells Bron that it took him 908 days to regain his gold and the match will happen sooner or later but Bron will drown in the ocean of inexperience.

Boa (with Mei Ying) vs Andre Chase

Yes, let’s discuss Ying and Boa as Tian Sha. After some time in NXT as Karen Q, Ying would go down with injury and return as Mei Ying, the spooky face-painted leader of this new faction. She’d only compete twice as Ying but did some good character work. We’ll see her evolve as this Rewind series goes on and if you continue watching her career, you’ll see her, uh, Evolve. Boa signed with WWE in 2019, competed in that year’s NXT Breakout Tournament, and didn’t do much prior to joining Ying and Xia Lee in Tian Sha. We’ll discuss them more as time goes on.

Andre Chase we have met across the last two weeks but haven’t explored. Chase signed in 2021 after a good indie run as Harlem Bravado, winning tag gold across several companies including Dragon Gate USA. He’s a vital part of 2.0, so we’ll keep discussing his evolution as it happens.

To the match. I loved Andre but I’m not sure I expected the sweater-wearing teacher to be one of the 2.0 characters to succeed. Chase gets a good start with some chain wrestling before Boa just kicks him in the leg and stomps his hand. Chase stomps and elbows Boa in the nose, hooking on a chinlock as Ying stares in the distance. Boa boots Chase repeatedly again and Chase falls to the outside, right in front of Ying and yelling that Boa is a son of a bitch. He yells at Ying and she blows mysterious smoke into his face, Chase stumbling into the ring and into defeat.

Boa pins Andre Chase. This seemed like more of a spotlight for Chase than Boa, but it established them both pretty well. We all know which one had the longer run.

Back to the honeymoon. Johnny finds Candice and realizes that he scared them back to their hotel room. Candice tells them that things can happen while in a room and points to her pregnant belly. Johnny uses some devious means to get into their room and pulls condoms out of their bag. As they come into the room, he ducks into the closet. Dex and Indi have a pillow fight that sounds much sexier to the closeted Gargano and then take a nap. Gargano sneaks out and Dex’s eyes pop open, giving Johnny a thumbs up and pulling out a string of condoms. NXT, the horniest show around.

NXT Cruiserweight Championship: NXT Cruiserweight Champion Roderick Strong (with Malcolm Bivens, Ivy Nile, Hachiman and the Creed Brothers) vs Grayson Waller

Commentary tells us that Bivens tweeted his love for both Diamond Mine and Missy Elliott and Elliott actually responded with a heart emoji. Waller attacks from behind and then dives onto Strong for a hot start and to send us to break. The match starts during the break with Waller being shoved to ringside by Strong. Waller tries for a backslide, Strong counters into a rollup of his own as we do our second “rollup reversals” sequence of the show. Strong hits a big backbreaker on Waller. Grayson is able to get a missile dropkick in and a beautiful elbow from the second rope. Grayson rolls into the ring for his stunner and Strong kicks out at about the 2.9 mark, the fans loving Waller. Waller tries for a legdrop, Strong ducks under with a knockout kick for the pin.

Roderick Strong pins Grayson Waller to retain the NXT Cruiserweight Championship. Hell of a little match here. Strong can go but Grayson looked like a million bucks here. There’s no way they’ll eventually team him up with a goofball and then push that goofball instead of Waller, right?

Mitchell is backstage with L.A. Knight. He says he is the uncrowned NXT Champion and he’s not letting a newbie like Odyssey Jones spew off misinformation about him. Odyssey Jones joins us and says Knight has never seen anyone like him. Andre Chase wanders through yelling and that gives Knight the chance to attack Jones, telling Jones he’ll see him next week.

A vignette features Dante Chen who we met in-ring last week.

Mitchell is with Cora Jade and Trey Baxter. Cora tells us she is 20, the youngest person on the show, and excited for her match next week. She gives Trey a kiss and off they go.

It’s time for the first episode of Lashing Out with Lash Legend, Lash hosting a little stage show with an audience. She hypes up Friday’s WWE Draft and remembers getting the rebound record in a single game which earned her a WNBA Draft spot. She suggests Cora Jade get a real man, giving us a graphic of Ikoman Jiko. The Lash Out of the Week goes to Andre Chase (crowd boos), calling him a Pee-Wee Herman lookalike and betting he won’t do it to her. And that’s our show. Well, it showed some personality. Legend’s legend will grow as time goes on, but I get what they were trying for with this.

Kyle O’Reilly vs Ridge Holland (with Pete Dunne)

O’Reilly attacks through the smoke of Ridge’s entrance and they brawl as we head to a break.

Back from the break, the match is underway. Ridge crushes Kyle for a while in a bearhug before Kyle finally slugs out. Kyle kicks and kicks at Holland and hits a running clothesline before hooking on an armbar. Ridge powers out and spins O’Reilly into a slam that can’t get a three. Holland scoops Kyle into a power bomb and O’Reilly again kicks out. Kyle works the knee again to chop Ridge down, heads up top and Pete Dunne is on the apron. Kyle shoves Ridge into Pete and rolls him into a three. Immediately after, the duo beat the snot out of Kyle until our friend Von Wagner runs out for the save.

Kyle O’Reilly pins Ridge Holland. This was boring, man.

Time for our Tony D’Angelo vignette! He discusses his family working the docks and a few things maybe coming off the dock to help the family. Tony tells us he always handled the situations and he’s bringing the family tradition to NXT next week.

NXT Women’s Championship: NXT Women’s Champion Raquel Gonzalez vs Franky Monet (with Robert Stone and Jessi Kamea)

We discussed Jessi last week, but let’s discuss Franky in her big NXT moment here. She’s better known as Taya Valkyrie, a woman coming in off of having the longest-reigning TNA Knockouts Championship reign at the time as well as three reigns as the AAA Reina de Reinas Champion before joining NXT. She seemed like an easy lock to grow into the Raw or SmackDown divisions, but wrestles one more match after this before being laid off. She has kept busy since, winning another Reina de Reinas belt, the Knockouts Tag Titles, and now being in AEW/ROH with her husband Johnny TV and the MxM Collection crew.

Barrett tells us how he only had a few World Title shots and always told himself he’d get more but learned he never would and hopes Monet takes advantage of this shot as she might not get another. He was right though she has more than made up for it elsewhere. Monet locks Gonzalez into a headlock, Gonzalez powers up and slams Monet to the mat. Monet laughs and trades blows with Raquel, slapping her in the corner before Raquel tosses her with a fallaway slam. Monet rolls out Gonzalez chases, Monet slamming Gonzalez into the ring apron rolling her in for a two count. Monet drops a big knee on Gonzalez and Gonzalez powers out of a pin attempt. Monet hooks a standing surfboard and stomps Raquel face-first into the mat. Monet levels Raquel with more hard knees and yells, firing up Raquel. Raquel boots Mone and hits the future Tejana Bomb for the pin.

Raquel Gonzalez pins Franky Monet to retain the NXT Women’s Title. This was fun. There was some good fire here. I think there was something with Monet but for whatever reasons, WWE just wasn’t for her. Gonzalez will continue to grow into the spotlight though.

As Raquel celebrates, Toxic Attraction walk by and give Monet the eye before attacking her, Jessie and poor Mr. Stone. He didn’t do anything wrong outside of wearing dress shoes without visible socks. Then they surround Raquel as Wade tells us it reminds him of Nexus. They swarm her and Raquel can’t keep the fight up for long, nor can I after we get the Kevin Dunn fifteen camera cuts in ten seconds treatment during the beatdown. God, I don’t miss that. Mandy picks up the title and raises it above the fallen Gonzalez to end our program.

Next week: Knight vs Jones! MSK, Briggs & Jensen vs GYV, Trick and Carmelo!