WWE NXT 12/16/2020

 WWE NXT 12/16/2020

We get right to the show with Kushida posing.

Leon Ruff and Kushida vs Austin Theory and Johnny Gargano

 

The finish

I actually kind of like the cages around the ring. Kushida rides theory and spanks him on the mat. Ruff jumps up on the top, Theory tries to push him off and Ruff jumps from rope to rope before getting rekt. Ruff does a kip up and then a kip-up kick. Kushida and Ruff double dropkick then Ruff runs up the ropes and slips, powerbombing himself.

Ruff comes in, hurricanrana's Theory and gets a big DDT on him. Then gets a missile spear from Johnny. We come back from break and Ruff gets stretched. Kushida finally gets in flurrying on everyone and hitting a flipping back elbow and another flippy move. Rush comes back in and they double enzugiri Johnny in the corner. Theory does a spinning torture rack bomb on Ruff for 2. Ruff does a weird jump into the ropes and then gets double superkicked for 2. Kushida hits a big punch. Ruff does a springboard turn around stunner on Johnny then Theory does an odd looking type of bomb and wins it. it was a really fast paced match. I thought it was fine with Ruff being the likeable underdog.

 

Dexter Lumis is sitting at a table near the monitors.

Toni Storm says she renews her rivalry with Rhea tonight and they bring up Storm beating Rhipley for the NXT UK Women's title. Toni says its Toni Time and she ends the rivalry tonight. 

We see Dunne and O'Reilly training in the back.

Shotzi Blackheart was interviewed. Shotzi doesn't like Candace calling herself Miss Wargames and she says the war with Candice is far from over. She says she's going to break Candice's best friend tonight then howls.

Tyler Rust vs Tommaso Ciampa

Ciampa comes out with a cool helmet. He puts down a chair with a shirt on it. Rust does a fancy arm takedown. Timothy Thatcher comes down and throws his student, Rust, out at him. Rust accidentally kicks Thatcher and the refs kick out Thatcher. Rust does an arm ringer and drops down off the apron on it. We come back in and Rust has Ciampa in a type of abdominal stretch. Rust hits a nice kick on Ciampa and Ciampa comes back with many clotheslines. Rust spinkicks Ciampa then axe kicks him for 2. Ciampa gets some stuff in and Rust does a flipping neckbreaker which looked great. Rust does a nasty looking rings of saturn with the leg over the one shoulder but Ciampa hits the ropes. Rust kicks the arm but gets caught and Ciampa starts getting some shots in. Ciampa drapes him over the middle rope and wins it with a ddt. This was a pretty good match with Rust really looking good with Rust working the arm of Ciampa. 

 

They really should have let Rust win this one. Ciampa wipes his sweat with a Thatcher shirt as the refs have to hold Thatcher back.

The Grizzled Young Veterans do a promo. They said they are still the best tag team in NXT.

A package was done for Karrion Kross which looked pretty cool.

We were told Malcolm Bivens talked to Rust during the break. He was saying "you're a star" and "pick yourself up". He offered his fist and Rust pounded it.

Lumis was still at that stand, drawing on the NXT New Years Evil logo for some reason.

Kyle O'Reilly vs Pete Dunne

 

The small crowd that was there was really hyped for the O'Reilly entrance. O'Reilly was out there with Strong and Cole and Dunne came out with Oney and Birch. Killian Dane and his partner come out and chaos breaks loose as everyone fights. We get a dive over the top onto everyone.

Dunne and O'Reilly have a cool strike flurry to start.  Dunne does a cool spinning leg takedown. Dunne did an STF type of move on O'Reilly, but he got out of it quick. Lots of reversals and counters on the mat. Dunne then clothesline Kyle. Dune does a backflip off the apron and they do a counter sequence as the count goes on. They trade forearms at 7 and both barely get in. Kyle does a strike combo and takes down Dunne and we go to break(Picture in Picture, but my version of this skipped it). Dunne german's O'Reilly coming back in and Kyle reverses a bitter end into a choke. Kyle lets it go and knees him. Dunne hits a big x-plex and is bleeding from the mouth. Dunne has Rilley stretched out and rubs the knuckle on the ear. Dunne locks up O'Reilly again and does some eh backfists. Kyle flips Dunne with a knee to the gut.

Kyle hits some knees and kicks taking him down with a legsweep. O'Reilly does a cool double underhook suplex into two more double underhook suplexes. They go up top but Dunne gets out of the spider german then stomps Kyle in the tree of woe and dropkicks him out of it. We go to break and when we come back, it's clear we missed something good. They grab each other by the arms over the turnbuckle and pull each other into it. Dunne does a ligerbomb for 2 then stomps on his neck before hitting a nasty armbar with the other arm being locked. O'Reilly then gets an armbar on but then they turn both of them into ankle locks. Dunne does a standing keylock and Dunne hits a headbutt to the chest, but O'Reilly just comes back with a brainbuster.

Kyle hits some more strikes and a clutch backdrop with Dunne losing his mouthguard. Dunne goes to grab it but they get a cool shot of O'Reilly stepping on his arm and blocking it with Dunne looking shocked. O'Reilly had his fingers locked by Dunne but hit some nice forearms. Dunne stomps on both fingers and bent them again. Dunne tried to a bitter end off the apron but O'Reilly turned it into a ddt off the apron that they totally ignored. O'Reilly then won with a knee from the top.

It was a good and pretty intense match at times but they did do too much and as it went on, they sold less and less. They just did not stop at all. The finish was botched here with Dunne taking an apron ddt to the floor and them not even really selling it.

Rhea Ripley was interviewed. What in the hell did they do to this woman? She used to be so pretty and looks like a man now. Rhea said she's not the same Rhea she was when Toni beat her but Toni is still the same piece of trash. She said she would finish it once and for all, but we all know that's not gonna happen.

We get a video package from a karate dojo or something with old some old grandmaster telling xia Li to keep kicking Boa. Boa is all busted up and it's kind of a cool package and would have been cooler without the intergender stuff.

Indi Hartwell vs Shotzi Blackheart

Shotzi comes in on the tank. I love the tank personally and had a similar idea myself for a gimmick...just not a billion dollar company behind me. I personally think Shotzi looks really cool.

Shotzi ties up Indi on the mat early and Indi hits the ropes. Shotzi hits an enzugiri and sentons her in the corner. Ouch. Shotzi hits another corner senton a little later and does like a dropkick through the ropes to Indi, who falls down. LaRae interrupts Shotzi and Indi blasts Shotzi with the trophy in the gut, breaking it and gets DQ'd.

We get a Karrion Kross promo and a promo for Bronson Reed, who I had no problems with until he started virtue signalling on twitter.

Karrion Kross vs Desmond Troy

 

 

Kross gets the cool black and white entrance. Kross gets Troy's back and pounds on him. Kross does a big side suplex and then Saito Suplexes him. He then puts the choke on and wins in a quick squash.

Isaiah "Swerve" Scott is interviewed in the back. Scott was asked why he didn't shake Jake's hand last week and said he was frustrated. He said they will rematch next week.

Everrise then came in and said they tried to get the result overturned last week. They said they didn't want a rematch but wanted their voices to be heard.

Lumis was shown still painting and is going to be the host of New Year's Evil. The announcers want to know how this will happen since he doesn't talk.

Balor did a promo on O'Reilly. He said O'Reilly broke his jaw but he still won and this will be the end of their rivalry.

Rhea Ripley vs Toni Storm

They both go for pins early and keep getting countered. Rhea gets some chops on Toni and she tries to evade them but gets hit again. Rhea hits a nice side kick to the gut. We go to break and come back with Toni in control. Rhea misses two kicks but hits the third in her face then hits dropkick on a downed Storm. Storm headbutts her and both go down. Rhia hits a dropkick for 2. Rhea puts the gorilla clutch on Toni but Toni gets out and sliding clotheslines her into the rope. She then german's her for 2. Rhea electric chair's Toni and then drops her face first onto the top rope. Raquel Gonzalez comes out and Rhea kicks Toni into her. Raquel then drives Rhea into the post and Toni capitalizes and hits the tiger driver for the win.

Like every match on this show, it was rather fast paced and selling was not a major concern. 

Gonzales and Ripley stare at each other to end the show.

Overall thoughts: A super fast paced show with a lot of wrestling and action on it. Selling was secondary as always and these weren't the smartest of matches, but it was hard to turn away and it kept me interested. I enjoyed it despite some of the issues and thought it was better than AEW this week.