3 Ups & 6 Downs From WWE NXT 2.0 (Nov 2)
2. Establishing A New Contender
Bron is out and Carmelo Hayes is in.
Hayes is being readied as Tommaso Ciampa's next NXT Title challenge. Is it slightly strange that WWE had Carmelo fool around in a haunted house with Trick Williams, Andre Chase, Johnny Gargano, Dexter Lumis and zombie refs before this? Absolutely, but wacky sh*te is becoming a 2.0 hallmark.
That's almost unavoidable on this show, so kudos to Hayes for cutting through the crap and getting down to business on the mic with Ciampa. He believably put himself forward for a title crack, then teamed with Trick to beat The Way in a decent tag-team main event. Keep on building 'dem blocks, WWE.
Carmelo even got to score the match-winning pin in that headliner too, which was the right call. The North American Champion vs. NXT Champ could be a fun focal point for the next TakeOver (assuming they're doing one and WWE will plan on calling those events that name).