6 Ups And 3 Downs From WWE NXT 2.0 (Oct 5)

Downs...

3. Joe Gacy Doesn't Land, And Look What They Did To Parker!

When bringing a brand new wrestling gimmick into existence, more often than not it can take a few weeks to iron out the kinks and figure out what in the holy hell the direction or overall point behind the character is. In the case of Joe Gacy, it appears that NXT still aren't entirely sure what they're doing with this new "Woke" persona.

Once again, the admittedly talented in-ring worker threw out his usual variety of buzz words, claiming that the squared-circle would be our safe space during his match against Ikemen Jiro and that the platform of NXT 2.0 would never crash because LOL Facebook. He also made the claim that the match would see two victors crowned which surprisingly isn't the oddest statement made on this show in recent times.

During the bout itself it was evident just how damn over Jiro actually is with the live crowd, with the jacket punching hero earning massive pops upon every strike and comeback against the passive aggressive Gacy. Sure, there were cute moments involving Gacy egging Jiro on to knock him off his feet, but the presentation of the apparent heel as someone willing to peacefully resolve conflicts by cheap-shotting and using the stale ol' heel tactics of the past feels lazy even by WWE's standards.

Then, following on from an acrobatic springboard clothesline for the win, Parker Boudreaux, now under the guise of Harland and sporting a bald head, popped up to stare at the winner. This visual shake-up was likely brought about on the back of Parker being unfairly compared to Brock Lesnar online - which brings with it a ton of unreasonable expectations - but to say that his debut was a little underwhelming is a bit of an understatement.

And added to all this, Gacy will now remarkably get a chance to be added to the Halloween Havoc NXT title picture should he best Ciampa in a week. Looks like one win over Jiro can really take you far these days. They wouldn't, would they?