WWE NXT preview (May 10, 2022): Prime suspects

NXT 2.0 returns tonight (May 10) live from the WWE Performance Center in Orlando!

Advertised for this week’s edition of the show:

• Cora Jade vs. Natalya
• Toxic Attraction vs. Wendy Choo & Roxanne Perez
• Alba Fyre in action
• Women’s Breakout Tournament begins

As usual, here are our five questions about NXT tonight:

1) Who’s getting kidnapped this week?

NXT 2.0 has its own tropes, like finding ways to get Toxic Attraction into bikinis. And broad, stereotypical gimmicks.

The rebrand did keep a few holdovers from the black-and-gold era. The Performance Center parking lot being the most dangerous place on earth, for instance. But it’s just abductions in general, really. They can seemingly happen to anyone at anytime in East Orlando.

Last Tuesday’s Spring Breakin’ show featured not one, but two snatch jobs: Santos Escobar & Legado Del Fantasma made off with Tony D’Angelo’s “consigliere” AJ Gallante, and Joe Gacy’s newest acolytes carried out the incapacitated NXT champion, Bron Breakker.

You’d imagine Breakker will reappear pretty quickly. Gacy kidnapped his dad and then let him go (plus, WWE will want the champ on our screens). It’s mostly mind games with the Woke One-turned-Cult Leader, and this is leading to another match... steel cage, maybe? Same goes for Gallante, although there the stipulation isn’t as obvious. Made Man on a Pole?

Either way, it’s a fine enough way to raise stakes in a program — provided its not overused. But seeing as they’ve used it three times in the last month, it’s really just a matter of time before the book another someone to abscond with somebody else.

2) Gacy’s “druids” are Grizzled Young Veterans, right?

I didn’t notice it on first glance (look, I have to* watch a lot wrestling... sometimes it’s all one big blur), but a lot of y’all did. The hooded figures who took out Bron in the deleted scene DVD Extra from Spring Breakin’ sure do move a lot like James Drake & Zack Gibson.

The former NXT UK Tag champs declared that enough was enough and it’s time for a change a few weeks back, and Joe needs new muscle after Harland’s release. The follow-up question here is, what will their names be when they’re re-introduced?

3) Anyone else getting GLOW or WOW vibes from the Women’s Breakout Tournament?

Jumping back to 2.0’s tropes, we’ve seen introductory vignettes for most of (maybe all?) of the wrestlers in first-ever Women’s Breakout Tournament. They have a vibe, don’t they? They’ve kept one foot in reality and aren’t quite Zoya the Destroya or Liberty Belle, but we do have a pageant girl, a generic business lady, and a barrel racer.

It’s probably not how you or I would introduce a bunch of new female characters, but it fits the current NXT. Some of these performers will stand out and impress, earning a chance to develop beyond their current gimmick. Others won’t, and will never be mentioned again.

The field looks to be Arianna Grace, Sloane Jacobs, Kiana James, Fallon Henley, Tatum Paxley, Nikkita Lyons, Lash Legend & Roxanne Perez. Who’s your favorite WOW Superhero to win?

4) Can Roderick Strong be released from his contract after The Creeds kick his ass?

Asking for a friend. Okay, several friends. Undisputed ones.

But in all seriousness, what else do they have planned for Roddy after they finish the ongoing Diamond Mine break-up angle? If Strong wants to go — as has been reported, why not let him?

5) Is Grayson Waller the Baron Corbin of NXT?

That sounds like a slam, but it’s not. Waller’s proving he can make us want to see him get his ass kicked, then delivering decent-to-good matches where that happens. That’s a formula for longevity in this business.

Give us your questions and answers in the comments below. Then join us in our live blog, and we’ll see what Qs and As tonight’s show gives us.

* Cry me a river, right? I’m a lucky son of a gun.