WWE NXT Results: Winners, Grades, Highlights and Reaction from January 30

The January 30 episode of NXT may have been a recap show dedicated to reminding fans of the explosive events of TakeOver: Phoenix last Saturday, but it did contain two strong tag team matches, one of which featured the 2018 Overall NXT Superstar of the Year, Kairi Sane.

Sane teamed with Io Shirai against Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir, while The Street Profits squared off with The Forgotten Sons.

Find out who emerged victoriously from those matches with this recap of Wednesday's WWE Network presentation.

Io Shirai and Kairi Sane have been at odds with Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir since Evolution, when the latter two interfered in The Pirate Princess' match against Shayna Baszler, only for the moonsaulting Shirai to wipe them out at ringside.

Wednesday, the teams met in a match taped Saturday night before TakeOver: Phoenix.

Shirai and Sane frustrated Shafir and Duke, with their speed and agility negating the power advantage of the heels. The alert Duke, though, tripped up Shirai and turned the tide in the favor of the villains.

The heels isolated Shirai and worked her over for the heart of the match before a hot tag to her teammate brought about the babyface comeback.

Sane exploded into the match, unleashing months of frustration on Baszler's cronies. Shirai wiped out Duke with a suicide dive, allowing The Pirate Princess to deliver an Insane Elbow for the win.

Result

Shirai and Sane defeated Duke and Shafir

Grade

C+

Analysis

The match itself was very basic to camouflage the inexperience of Shafir and Duke. With that said, Shirai did a great job of selling for them while they, in turn, turned in a solid effort of selling for The Pirate Princess.

The right team went over, and one can only hope this spells the end of this chapter of the rivalry, especially since the babyfaces got the revenge they sought for the events of Evolution and the weeks that followed it.

Duke and Shafir will be assets to the promotion well into the future, but if the plan is to put them in the ring with Baszler and Ronda Rousey against Bayley, Sasha Banks, Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch before they are ready, they will be chewed up and spat out by the veteran performers.

After enduring a beating at the hands of the trio a few weeks back, The Street Profits' Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford battled The Forgotten Sons' Steve Cutler and Wesley Blake (with Jaxson Ryker) in the main event of Wednesday's show.

Blake and Cutler—showing solid tag team chemistry—picked apart the babyfaces, separating Ford from his partner and wearing the smaller of the competitors down.

Ford fought his way back into the match, using tremendous athleticism, agility and elusiveness to escape the grasps of his opponents and tag the bigger Dawkins into the match.

Ryker interfered, cheap-shotting Ford, whom Dawkins caught. As he made his way toward Ryker, Cutler delivered a suicide dive that wiped him out.

Back inside, Cutler and Blake delivered their double stomp/inverted DDT finisher to score the pinfall on Dawkins.

Result

The Forgotten Sons defeated The Street Profits

Result

B

Analysis

This was a solid match that spotlighted some of the depth in the NXT tag team division and gave The Forgotten Sons a much-needed quality win. Not only are The Street Profits a popular team, but they are also the current Evolve tag team champions, so beating them means something.

The question becomes whether anything else comes out of the match or if the teams continue to waste away in the second tier of the tag division.

For now, the right team went over and created the potential for a rematch or a higher-profile bout if the division so pleases.