7 Ups And 1 Down For WWE NXT (Jan 20)

Downs...

1. Imperium's Party Is Crashed, Return Of The Wolfe

Ever since popping up on NXT towards the end of 2020, The Lucha House Party appear to be a tag team reborn. Gran Metalik even found himself in a Cruiserweight Championship bout shortly after at New Year's Evil. So, it wasn't much of a surprise to see the team included in this year's Dusty Rhodes Classic. However, with Imperium set-up as their first round obstacle, you sensed an early exit was surely imminent.

Taking Lince Dorado out of his high-flying comfort zone early, Marcel Martel grounded the masked man with vicious strikes and suffocating tactics. Yet, the LHP weren't here just to take part, with Metalik creatively launching himself off of Dorado's shoulders in response to Imperium's early dominance.

Despite dominating for much of the match, though, Imperium ultimately found themselves bested by the dynamic duo after Metalik executed his second top-rope springboard moonsault of the night onto Fabian Aichner and Dorado hit a shooting-star press onto Martel for the victory.

It's undoubtedly lovely seeing LHP being given the chance to spread their wings as performers again, however you can't look past this being an odd choice of winner in the long run. Sure, this now sets up a LHP Vs Legado del Fantasma showdown in the next round, but you can't help but feel like Imperium's once relentless momentum has been thoroughly halted recently and a win here would've been priceless for them.

And with the re-emergence of Alexander Wolfe post-defeat, perhaps it's now time for the technical experts to link back up with Walter on NXT UK before they're dealt a few more devastating blows.