December 23, 2020 – Orlando, Florida
Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch def. Drake Maverick & Killian Dain {NXT Tag Team Championship Street Fight}
Did the crowd noise sweetening tech start his Christmas break early? They left these guys high and dry out there with only the small crowd noise, looking terrible compared to the fake roars of recent months. The match was a solid plunder fight, though it’s a bit of a bummer to see the challengers just lose clean. Well, as clean as heels winning a street fight can be. It’s also a bummer when the ref calls for rope breaks in a match without rules. The champs hit Maverick with the hanging DDT at 12:19 (shown). ***
A Very Gargano Christmas sees Johnny upset that No Way Jose gets mentioned, custom branded whey protein, a PlayStation 5 fakeout, and Indi Hartell getting a name change to Indi Wrestling. That’s just clever is what that is. Then we see Kyle O’Reilly and Finn Balor recapping their Takeover match and hyping the rematch.
Isaiah Scott def. Jake Atlas
I’m not sure why they’re dragging their feet on a full blown Scott swerve to the heel side. Here he struggled a la Gargano in ‘18 and ‘19 to remain a good guy. I do like his Bismuth dreads though. This was quite good. The action was quick and the counters were wild. Scott got the win with the Confidence Boost at 7:01 (shown). ***1/4
Velveteen Dream interrupts and Undisputed Era promo. Adam Cole slaps him and challenges him to a match. Then, Timothy Thatcher dares Tommaso Ciampa to stop him from taking liberties with Leon Ruff later tonight.
Rhea Ripley def. Dakota Kai
Raquel Gonzalez is banned from ringside because this exists to make Ripley look credible again for the inevitable match against Gonzalez. But then Gonzalez shows up in the stage anyway. Luckily, it was just fodder for Ripley to shove a win in her face. After a predictably dope match between the two, Ripley hit the Riptide for the win at 7:59 (shown). Gonzalez and Ripley brawl after the match. It takes the Herculean power of Steve Corino to keep them apart. Later, Dexter Lumis announces it’ll be a Last Woman Standing match at New Years Evil. ***1/2
Toni Storm wants Io Shirai’s title now that she’s beaten Ripley and helped win WarJanes. Then, two-time Future NXT Star of the Year nominee Xia Li and Boa are done crying. They’re rage monsters now.
Bronson Reed def. Ashante Adonis
A fast squash for Reed, who hit the Tsunami for the win at 1:08. N/A
Shirai comes out to call out Storm, but she’s attacked by Mercedes Martinez. There are so many heels in NXT.
Leon Ruff def. Timothy Thatcher
Thatcher dominated nearly the entire match even while focusing more on calling out Ciampa. That lack of focus caused Thatcher to lose to a roll up at 3:58. Ruff is all about surprising wins, though I do hope they find something substantial for him to do soon. Thatcher went back to beating him up after the match. Ciampa made the save and then challenged Thatcher to a Fight Pit match, presumably at New Years Evil. This is a stacked two hours. *
Tyler Rust def. Ariya Daivari
Malcolm Bivens is officially representing Rust. Daivari isn’t as good as Ciampa, so this was less impressive than Rust’s match from last week. He won more or less easily with a Rings of Saturn at 4:33. *3/4
Heeding my request, Ruff announces that he gets a rematch for the North American Championship next week. Also, Damian Priest and Karrion Kross cut promos hyping their New Years Evil match.
Adam Cole def. Velveteen Dream
I had to look up whether these two had met one-on-one before because I guess I’d blocked out their disappointing feud over the NXT Championship earlier this year. More interesting than dead-in-the-water Dream being pulled out of the mothballs is Pete Dunne running out and attacking Strong during the match, probably because Strong made fun of him in a promo earlier in the show. They’ll fight next week. This was at least as good as the matches from the spring, maybe a little better. That’s not saying much. Cole hit the Last Shot for the win at 10:51 (shown). I guess jobbing to the top guys is an okay role for Dream, but nobody is gonna buy him ever winning a match again at this level and I’m not really sure there’s a point. ***