Cole turning on KOR was something I considered happening last go 'round so I'm hoping it is what happens now. The UE break-up is over due.
Cole turning on KOR was something I considered happening last go 'round so I'm hoping it is what happens now. The UE break-up is over due.
The subtle teasing of a civil war within UE seems like it's been incredibly slow-played for a hopeful spark within NXT or its just something that's being done as they're creatively spinning their wheels with UE. I tend to think it is the latter. For better or worse, the group has outgrown NXT and needs to be on the main roster. The pandemic likely caused a delay of a larger exodus of performers from NXT to the main roster. We saw a few people but the list was incredibly short. If that's the case, they found a program of convenience with War Games and they're just trying to do what they can to keep them involved on weekly programming. Case in point: an incredibly cold match for the main event of this week's episode. As I said, it was a match that didn't even make sense with utilization.
TONIGHT:
Year End Award Winners Announced
Roderick Strong vs. Pete Dunne
NXT North American Championship Match
Johnny Gargano vs. Leon Ruff
MORE ANNOUNCED FOR TONIGHT:
Breezango vs. GYV
Bronson Reed vs. Isaiah "Swerve" Scott
Mercedes Martinez in action
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Reed vs. Scott has potential to be a pretty dope clash of styles if they get some time to work.
Bronson is someone who realizes they already have a Keith Lee so no need to be that "high flying agile big man". He's doing his own thing and I was worried for him but he could be something of a threat.
GYV v. Fashion Police....I know FP are doing the job but I hope they have a good match. I have no doubt Dunne v. Strong will be a good technical battle like watching Dean Malenko v. Jerry Lynn for the LHW title.
Tropey but wouldn't mind if Scott/Reed dissolves due to Atlas interfering or just getting involved after the fact to create a triple threat. Let Reed get the win there too and then Atlas and Scott continue.
I just don't want to see Reed try to have a CW style match because that's what happens more often than not with this younger big guys. They need to stop watching tapes of Jushin Liger and watch tapes of agile big men like Bam Bam Bigelow, Big Bossman, shit even Kamala had a presence.
I felt like I was watching a modern entrance for Earthquake when Reed came out to the ring. Very nice touch there. Fun match between the two of them and went ahead to continue to emphasize that Reed is a dude that is probably going to be a major problem for everyone in NXT in 2021.
Considering the sheer volume of the nominees for the award, I'm not sure I fully buy the argument that Shotzi was the breakout star of 2020. I don't have a major gripe over it, but I'd suggest McAfee, Grimes, Priest, and Lumis have pretty significant cases.
Solid enough match between Breezango and GYV. Certainly helps with the calendar that NXT has started to put more of an emphasis on the tag division with The Dusty Classic coming back around. I imagine GYV have to be one of the early favorites to take the whole thing. I guess UE winning Tag Team of the Year was a default choice. I am looking forward to seeing Cole/Strong working as this version of UE for the tournament.
Xi and Boa arriving during NYE is a good addition to an already stacked show.
Spotlight squash for Mercedes. Very good timing with her promo after the match and the sound effects lol. I seriously think she threatened to kill everyone. Not surprised with Io winning Female Competitor of the Year but a little surprised Cole won Male Competitor of the Year. I guess he rode the wave of finishing his historic reign as champion.
Interesting but valid point being made multiple times during Strong/Dunne with them acknowledging Strong really hasn't had a singles match in a few months and having to do so against a guy as fierce as Dunne. Very fun, physical match and the right guy won. I'm really interested to see what happens for Dunne in 2021. He was brought back late this year with loose connective tissue with McAfee and Lorcan/Burch. McAfee very well could be out of the mix for a while and I don't really know what value there is in the three-man group, so a breakout for Dunne should be coming.
Great choices for NXT Match of the Year. Walter/Dragunov was pretty damn great but I just loved the unexpected tension that came with KOR/Bálor. Really, really good and passionate promo by KOR. Bálor came across as a guy who is definitely centered on delivering a receipt to the guy who busted up his jaw. Just a guess, but I think the bleeped out line was: Make you wish you "shit the bed". Really good segway into the Priest and Kross brawl. Again, like the fact Priest isn't scared and actually bowed up and fought Kross head on. Two matches I'm definitely looking forward to seeing.
I'm really surprised they included the real-life friendship between Rhea and Raquel. It's very good wrinkle to add - albeit late - into the story and a fun way to spin it, suggesting Raquel played Rhea. Very well-done promo package and set the stage incredibly well for what I'm guessing very well could be Rhea's swan song in NXT.
Big week for Metalik. I'm not really sure why LHP was suddenly on NXT (maybe a spare team for the Dusty Classic) but I wasn't mad at the idea of an impromptu match. If they're not going to do anything but be fodder on Raw, just send LHP to NXT. Not a surprise but the match probably invigorated LHP in a hurry.
Not a surprise to see Theory win Future Star of the Year. Good to share it with Indi Wrestling. Theory has taken a step in the right direction by getting some personality to his look. The cat didn't make a lot of sense at the start of the episode but they went ahead and rolled with it by creating ridiculously hilarious doses of bad luck for Gargano prior to the main event. Wearing Browns colors was just pushing Gargano's luck.
We're essentially a month and a half into this run and Ruff main evented an episode of NXT. He's no longer a joke and can hold his own with top-tier talent. Wild. Ruff's quickness and agility really do seem to know no bounds. It was a really solid match and helped work in a way to get Ruff over and Gargano over with a silly, manufactured curse lol. Fitting Gargano/Ruff was set as this was something that could have been on NYE but made sense to keep off to just main event the show prior to it.
NYE:
Escobar vs. Metalik for the NXT CW Championship
Thatcher vs. Ciampa in the Fight Pit
Priest vs. Kross
Rhea vs. Raquel in a Last Woman Standing match
Bálor vs. KOR for the NXT championship
Reed/Scott was real good and what I was hoping to see. Reed seems primed to have a breakout 2021 and I am here for it. Nice not to have a predictable Atlas interference.
I absolutely buy Shotzi winning Breakout star. She was the overwhelming response on Twitter. I think the real thing is that NXT does such a damn good job breaking out so many folks that it's such an even playing field.
Breezango/GYV was good. Breezango once again showing they are so much more than the joke team they used to be. NXT has too many heel teams. Will be curious if the Dusy Cup has any thrown together singles dudes as those seem to fare pretty well (I vote Ruff/Lumis become a team).
'Bout dang time the Xia/Boa thing resolves(?) at NYE. Super damn intriguing what goes down next week and how things are going to progress with them.
Mercedes is Queen Badass and I am super stoked for her and Io to throw down whenever that happens.
Strong/Dunne was very good, as expected, glad to see Dunne win and glad to see Dunne have a run in with Balor and the fact that they know that's a wanted match makes me more ok with Dunne losing to KOR for this shot, since it seems highly likely he's getting one later on and it'll be worth the wait. Still not sold on KOR as a personality and his mic work still seems performative rather than genuine.
Kross/Priest confrontation into the brawl was dope and things got pretty wild with what looked like it was supposed to be a Doomsday saito suplex but Priest maybe countered? into the equipment.
Absolutely outstanding video package for Rhea/Raquel. Love that they brought the personal depth to it.
I'm actually surprised it wasn't until now that Lucha House Party showed up to challenge Legado as their promos seemed directly targeted at them from the start. Damn fine match, real good week for Metalik, would love to see these guys hang around, would love to see more matches between these dudes, and will be glad to see Metalik get a CW Title match, should be a real banger.
Leon Ruff is the fucking man. Love how he went for enhancement talent losing squash matches to signing a contract to winning the NA Title to being regularly featured and main eventing NXT. Great stuff and exactly the kind of story 2020 needed. And the dude can fucking GO in the ring. Hopping around the ringside area like Spider-Man, that springboard cutter on the floor, dude is fast, agile, and fun to watch. Love him. Should have gotten Future Star over Theory. Damn fine main event.
Loved Lumis closing the show with the NYE sketches. Killer work and great way to put in the final hype for next week.
The Fight Pit Match is no longer being promoted. You'll notice it's not listed on this from NXT's FB page...also wasn't listed on the new poster/t-shirts for NYE that are on WWEshop.com...
TONIGHT:
Hosted by Dexter Lumis
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Kross vs. Priest will probably be a short impactful hoss fight. Kross winning seems certain to me.
Speaking of hoss fights, Ripley/Gonzalez should be a war. They tore it up last go 'round the only thing that might slow it's pace is the 10 counts but hopefully they're not too frequent to drag it out, just a few big spots. Fully anticipate Rawuel winning, Rhea disappearing until the Rumble and potentially winning that.
Escobar/Metalik will be some solid lucha action and could be a sleeper. Don't think Metalik has a chance of winning.
I give no real shits about Balor/KOR though I'm sure it'll be very good. I'm more than ready for UE to split or get called up or something. With Strong/Cole being in the Dusty Cup I'm not sure about either of those happening anytime soon unless those two opt to boot Kyle out of the group...
Curious to see what Lumis does as host considering what I expected him to do is what he already did to close last week's show with the drawings. Unless he just pops up with each drawing pre-match but that seems a little underwhelming. Shotzi got involved in the in-ring action at HH if I recall correctly so I wouldn't mind seeing Dex do more than just stand around and stare (though I'm happy to take just that, too).
Last edited by mth; January 6th, 2021 at 4:51 PM.
I’d love it if Dexter broke character for a night and turned pure game show host then go back to normal the following week.
Either cut for time or someone tested positive I’d guess.
Ahhhh ok didn’t know he was injured
Yeah, i just saw the news on Thatcher while I was farting around on YouTube...
Hopefully we still get the match later on.
On the plus side, gives more time to the rest of the card, i guess.
They did seem to have a decent amount of
matches with the fight pit included. It’s not like it’s a Takeover show either, where they have a tad more leeway with the time
Hot start with Kross/Priest and two phenomenal entrances. It's been presented across through the duration of the build for this match and held true at the start: really appreciated the fact that Priest wasn't scared and was ready to go at Kross. I do like how Priest tried to change his approach a bit and tried to get a little more technical to shake things up too. Kross looked like he was moving relatively slow through most of the match and Priest's stuff looked more impressive. I think Kross works better with smaller guys but I would say this was better than the match against Keith Lee. The Saito Suplex setup for the running forearm works better for him versus the Krossjacket. I think the tealeaves suggest Priest (thankfully) needs to move on. Kross is going to be a player in NXT for a while it seems and Priest has achieved so much in the last 8-10 months. Time is probably running out for him so let him level up and do some work.
Chugs versus Breezus taking part in a challenge next week? Da Party will be representing, and there will be a lotta respect. The field for the Dusty Classic seems to be coming together nicely. Great announcement by Regal to have a women's Dusty Classic coming. More than enough depth there to make it happen and that means they'll have a chance to bring the tag titles to NXT (Dakota and Raquel...).
Another great facet of NXT is how it can shift gears and have diverse styles going from match to match and that was on display going from the opener to the CW championship match. Really nice recovery by both guys as Metalik and Escobar didn't quite get things set up cleanly for that hurricanrana to the outside. Metalik has some of the prettiest planchas I've seen. It just looks like the dude can levitate. Escobar is just so damn smooth when he's rolling. The CW championship isn't getting a ton of attention in NXT but he looks every part of being a champion.
Loved the stuff from Mercedes. Looking forward to seeing her square off with Io.
Xia looks shredded to the heavens since she's been off TV with this angle. The striking looks pretty fierce, too. She has a great look but it didn't look like they knew where they were going to go with her prior to this stuff. The division is absolutely stacked but they've clearly put a lot of time in terms of a commitment to her, so I'm very curious to see how far she can go.
Shame we didn't get the Fight Pit tonight but I'm sure they're going to find subtle stories to tell to help keep things continuing until they want to really go with it.
It's crazy to think Raquel reappeared in February of 2020 and has come this far, so fast. She's seen a couple of different layers to her character and that was all radically different than the Cowgirl look we saw from her at the MYC. She's going to be a real player as long as she can stay healthy. Great spot with Raquel ripping the cuffs off the fence. The table spot with the backdrop looked really, really painful for Rhea's back. Goodness. The swanton spot was really cool. Rhea was just willing to sell/bump and feed like crazy and do a lot of stuff in this one. Hell of a way to snuff out Dakota by Rhea haha. Wonderful and fitting spot to finish at the end with the slam into the floor. It goes without saying that these two have fantastic chemistry together and they have no problem beating the crap out of each other. Both women look fantastic and this was a class LWS match. The next time we see Rhea better be at the Rumble. Her job in NXT is done.
Theory got his learner's permit and got to drive his parents to the celebration. Good for him. All four of them are insufferable as a group but it's wildly entertaining. I'm not really enthused to see Shotzi and Candice together but I do like Kushida and Gargano together some more. They need to do something to help Kushida back up as he's been a little stagnant for a month or so after getting a pretty healthy push prior to that if he's going to be going up against Gargano more. Not for nothing, it was funny how Barrett needled Lumis for drawing the match setup so quickly and then had to defend himself so quickly after being positioned to suggest Lumis wasn't doing a good job hosting the show.
Bálor/KOR II didn't hit the peaks of the Takeover match but it delivered as they just beat the crap out of each other and were adding some great mat wrestling in along the way. Based on Bálor's comments leading up to the match it was obviously was going to be built towards Bálor getting his pound of flesh. Nice receipt spot as KOR creatively found his way to break the submission hold by biting the rope. It's also nice to see how they mixed it up in terms of the body part that was exploited. That was heightened by the submission finish with the final adjustment to be pulling back and causing some torque on the jaw. Hell, an abdominal stretch was the finish!
We've now got 10 hours of programming to hype Takeover.
I imagine we're gearing towards
- Bálor/Kross
- Gargano/Kushida
- Io/Mercedes
- Lorcan and Burch/Dusty Classic Winners
- Ciampa/Thatcher in the Fight Pit
Dexter's show opening was hilarious.
Priest/Kross was pretty decent but I chalk up most of that to Priest as he impresses but Kross still has yet to really knock my socks off. I did like that finishing forearm, though. Still, probably Kross' best match so far. Rumors are Priest might be getting called up so i could see this as his swan song and then we see him again at the Rumble if not sooner.
Escobar/Metalik was as good as I'd hoped with both guys really showing how they shine and with only that one really glaring botch that they recovered from quite nicely. Some amazing dives and springboards from Metalik throughout.
The new entrance and presentation for Xia/Boa is dope and Xia is looking even more beastly when she was already looking pretty beastly before. Love it. Reset as a killer, she should be on track to buzzsaw her way towards the Women's Title hopefully.
Last Women Standing lived up to the hype. Just beating the shit out of each other and doing some big creative nasty spots to try to keep each other down. Loved the ripping the handcuffs off the fence. Real scary announce table bump for Rhea, hope she didn't fuck up her back on that. Loved Dakota getting stuffed in the locker. Good finish with the stage bump. Big Bad-ass Chick torch has been passed. Rhea's going to the Rumble and the main roster.
The Way appearing was a nice surprise, I assume taking the place of the Fight Pit. Great little celebration, nice to see some of Nalanium's work on the poster. Fun way to set up the match with Dexter. I had been thinking recently that he'd be interesting to have in the booth and while he didn't do much other than some stuff with Barrett, it was still amusing. I'm surprised he wasn't on the show a bit more, though, didn't do a hell of a lot of hosting. Mixed tag was fun stuff. Would like to see Shotzi/Candice blow off their feud at TakeOver and move on to other things. Gargano/Kushida should be dandy. i was kind of hoping since Dex stayed out there that he might get involved and start something with Gargano but oh well.
Balor/KOR was all good and fine but as I said going in, i ddn't really care and nothing particularly noteworthy came out of it so meh. Biting the ropes and getting it kicking in your mouth is a pretty good spot and the only thing I'm really going to remember about it.
Women's Dusty Cup sounds VERY interesting.
All in all, a good show.
Last edited by mth; January 7th, 2021 at 12:22 AM.