7 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE NXT: New Year's Evil (Results & Review - 2 Jan)

by Scott Carlson

1. The Saga Of Trick Melo Gang Continues

Kevin Owens Grayson Waller Trick Williams
WWE.com

By now, it’s pretty obvious to everyone except (possibly) Trick Williams that Carmelo Hayes is not completely on board with the Iron Survivor ascending to the NXT Championship.

Besides the backstage intrigue, there’s also been the constant side-eye from Melo, including a heavy dose of it Tuesday night after Williams defeated Grayson Waller – with some help from Kevin Owens.

Williams found himself in the match defending his title shot after Carmelo put it on the line for him, the match itself a substitute for the original main event since Ilja Dragunov wasn’t cleared to compete. Still, Trick was on the cusp of winning when Hayes ran out and “accidentally” distracted his buddy, which allowed Waller to set up for his finisher.

Enter KO, who continued his SmackDown rivalry with Grayson and laid him out, allowing Williams to get the win despite the Melo distraction. Afterwards, Hayes looked far less than pleased with the outcome.

Things will boil over soon, but they’ve managed to keep it bubbling just beneath the surface, or at least just enough out of view that it isn’t making Trick look foolish to not call it out.

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Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.