NXT New Year’s Evil

January 6, 2021 – Orlando, Florida

Dexter Lumis’s idea of hosting is pushing buttons and hanging out. I get that it’s meant to be a joke, but having a mute guy host a show isn’t funny. Hopefully he doesn’t get more screen time than Shotzi Blackheart got at Halloween Havoc. Also, Vic Joseph’s bowtie makes him look like a What We Do in the Shadows extra. 

Karrion Kross def. Damian Priest
This match is commercial free. Priest has a new haircut, looking like Kai from Lexx. I might need more relatable and updated cultural references. Priest sold Kross’s offense as if he was taking hits from a grizzly bear, but to me the offense from Kross wasn’t convincing enough to justify it. Priest’s offense was plenty convincing though. The guy is over (I think, hard to say for sure in the current environment) and he moves way faster than Kross. I wish he’d get the main event push instead. Anyway, Priest almost literally wrestled himself here, which was insanely impressive. Kross laid down some heavy offense down the home stretch and finished Priest with the Doomsday Saito and a running elbow to the back of the head at 15:26. ***¼ 

They announce six of the teams in the Dusty Classic: Undisputed Era, Ever-Rise, Drake Maverick & Killian Dain, August Grey & Curt Stallion, Breezango, and Imperium. The Way and the Grizzled Young Veterans are my guess for the last two teams. UE will face Breezango in the first round next week. 

Santos Escobar def. Gran Metalik {NXT Cruiserweight Championship Match}
I suppose Legado del Fantasma might be in the tournament instead of the Way, but that would be lame. Just as lame as Stallion being in the tournament but never getting his CW title shot. The commentators finally acknowledge Jordan Devlin’s parallel Cruiserweight Championship reign in the UK. These guys wanted to throw things back to their CMLL days together so badly that they even botched spots in true lucha libre fashion. All jokes aside, they also did some great high flying. It lost some serious steam before the finish, which saw Escobar hit the Phantom Driver for the win at 9:56 (shown of 12:29). Lince Dorado, who seconded Metalik, bid farewell to NXT after the match on Twitter. Why the hell did they bring Lucha House Party in for one week when Stallion was right there?! ***

Xia Li def. Katrina Cortez
Boa is at ringside and mystery Karen Q sits on a throne on the ramp. Li’s new gimmick is that she can’t feel pain and she has braid extensions. She wins with a roundhouse kick at 1:28. N/A

Mercedes Martinez is stoked to be back and she wants Io Shirai’s title. Toni Storm is nowhere to be seen. Then, Timothy Thatcher has come down with a fake injury so that Tommaso Ciampa can convalesce, so the Fight Pit has been postponed. But it will happen. 

Raquel Gonzalez def. Rhea Ripley {Last Woman Standing Match}
Bronson Reed is interviewed before the match. He predicts Ripley will win. The match starts off so furiously that Ripley’s ear plug comes out. These two took a few cues from the great Ciampa vs. Johnny Gargano LMS match but made those moments their own. They also did a glass spot, which looked cool but felt a bit silly given that blood was never on the table. Dakota Kai ran out to abuse Ripley with a kendo stick and got wrecked and shoved in a locker for her trouble. Ripley’s chair-assisted Prism on the ramp was terrific. We get a head drop in the spirit of Kurt Angle vs. Shane McMahon as Gonzalez gets bounced off of the LED screen and lands on her noggin. Gonzalez hit Ripley with her one-legged powerbomb through the stage for the win at 14:29 (shown of 17:29). Just amazing violence on display here. If this is it or Ripley, she goes out of NXT on a major high note. ****¼ 

The Way comes to the ring and rambles about the same old for a while. They give Johnny Gargano a plaque commemorating the curse being broken and a drawing of the Way as superheroes. Gargano & Austin Theory will be in the Dusty Classic. Shotzi Blackheart comes out and shoots Theory with her tank. Then she clears the ring and Kushida runs out to get her back. Lumis rings the bell, insisting there be a match that he’s already drawn a picture of. If he can summon zombies I suppose he can also be psychic. 

Kushida & Shotzi Blackheart def. Candice LeRae & Johnny Gargano
For when you have to make up for the Fight Pit getting postponed. This seems like as good a time as any to put an end to the Blackheart vs. LeRae issue. I would not mind at all if Kushida got the next shot at the North American title, and it’s nice of the commentators to explain why he’d rush out to fight the Way. After some botched Theory interference, Kushida gets a roll up on Gargano for the win at 5:42 (shown of 9:02). This was good, harmless fun. Plus it sets up what I want from Kushida and it reinforces the Way as a midcard goof show (which this show needs). **¾ 

William Regal announces a women’s Dusty Classic. I predicted that last week, right? Yeah I did, and I’m super stoked for it. 

Finn Balor def. Kyle O’Reilly {NXT Championship Match}
O’Reilly grabbing the ropes with his teeth to escape a hole during the age of COVID feels off. Anyway, these two have magical chemistry. It is undeniable that these two were made to wrestle each other. They didn’t lay into each other in quite the way they did at Takeover, but of course they didn’t because that match left both of them injured. They played up those injuries here, though it was O’Reilly who got caught with both a liver shot and multiple hits to the jaw. O’Reilly went to the arm and even busted Balor open, but Balor’s return to the liver left O’Reilly scrambling and Balor locked in a crossface for the win at 16:40. ****¼ 

NXT’s 600th episode (yes that includes Takeovers, but not Worlds Collides) was a resounding success. Two phenomenal matches and nothing stinky make this one of the best episodes (if not the best) of this show since the debut on USA.