WWE NXT 12/23/2020
Last week's show is here: https://prowresblog.blogspot.com/2020/12/wwe-nxt-12162020.html
NXT Tag Titles - Street Fight - Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch vs Killian Dain and Drake Maverick
Lorcan's team gets jumped at their entrance. Burch gets thrown into the cage barricades and Drake throws Oney into the entrance sign. Drake sets up some chairs in ring and Killian sets up double tables at ringside. When you think about it, with the fences up outside, it's almost like a cage match.
Dain gets thrown into the barricades and they make a tag. This is a street fight with no rules, why make a tag? They gonna DQ you? lol Oney gets backdropped through double chairs and really bends one. Drake trips Burch and Spud lands on him, then Dain slams Drake on him. Drake wants a high five, but Dain picks him up and hits Oney off of him.
Burch hits a great clothesline on Drake and Oney does a blockbuster on Dain on the outside. Drake gets a drop toe hold onto a chair and Dain throws Burch over the empty space in the barricades. They set up a table on the barricades and Dain ends up running himself into them, then the remains of the table fall on him.
We come back from commercial and Drake gets whipped with a belt. Burch yells "Please sir, can I have another?" and whacks him with it. Drake goes for the tag but nobody is there since Dain is out. Dain comes in as the tag is made, but again, this is No DQ. Dain belly to belly suplexes his opponents, then powerbombs Burch. Dain gets pushed off the apron onto the tables but neither breaks and he slides off. Were these tables imported from Japan?
Drake low blows both opponents then whips them with the belt. Drake then gets low blow'd and takes a cricket bat to the gut, then they win with a double team DDT on Maverick. I liked the work here, but they were obeying tag rules multiple times in a No DQ match. That wasn't smart at all and really did hurt what was an otherwise good match.
"The love of my life......Candice LaRae" - Johnny Gargano |
We saw clips of Johnny Gargano and Candice LaRae at home celebrating Christmas. Austin Theory said "No Way Jose" and Gargano said we don't say that name here. He yelled at him and made him put the cookie down. Theory was given "The Gargano Whey" protein powder. Gargano also said he was with the love of his life and the camera zoomed in on the North American title.
We see O'Reilly and Balor watching clips of their match. Balor says all anyone remembers is that O'Reilly broke his jaw. O'Reilly said he shatters his legacy next time.
Tyler Rust was with Malcolm Bivens in the back. Bivens said he had one of the best debuts ever. He said Rust was a "Diamond in the Rust".
Isaiah "Swerve" Scott vs Jake Atlas
Scott misses a shot and gets slapped. Swerve then pounces on him in the corner. Atlas hits some push kicks with his feet. Atlas grabs Scott's foot from the ground and then kip-up's which was neat. Atlas then springboards off the second rope into an enzugiri.
We come back from the break and Atlas jumps onto Scott's back into a sunset bomb. Atlas went for a cartwheel DDT but Scott hit the rope and he fell outside. Scott deadlift suplexed Atlas for 2. Scott gets stuck on the top rope and Atlas hits a super poisonrana where Scott lands on his feet. They traded some kicks then fought over pins. Scott then won it with the confidence boost. This was interesting match. They definitely showed a grudge throughout the match and just worked in a different manner than what a normal match does. If you do watch this, watch closely because you can see how well they played up their feud. After the match, Scott gave the suck it taunt to Atlas and asked for a handshake. Atlas then left.
Cole and Strong were interviewed. They said O'Reilly will beat Balor for the title. Strong called Dunne a dork. Velveteen Dream came out. Dream said O'Reilly is the leader of the UE and Cole slapped Dream. He challenged him and said UE had no leader.
Timothy Thatcher did a promo. He said he's gonna take liberties with Ruff and dared Ciampa to come and stop him.
Rhea Ripley vs Dakota Kai
Ripley picked up Kai early and whipped her around like in a piledriver position, then threw her into the corner. Kai got on the apron and banged Ripley's arm on the apron while it was hung on the bottom rope. She then ran Ripley's arm into the post. During the break with picture in picture, Rhea got her arm worked on more.
Back from break, Kai had Rhea's arm tied up and Rhea slammed her while in the hold. Rhea dropkicked her in the back and hit a nice dropkick to her chest. Rhea picked her up for a backdrop but dropped her body first. Kai did a cool back kick to Rhea's face but missed a yakuza kick and Rhea dropped her forward from an electric chair position. Kai facewashed Rhea and got caught in a standing gorilla clutch. Raquel Gonzales came out to watch as Rhea did the move in her direction.
Kai did a sunset flip into an inverted backcracker. Kai got slammed down hard by Rhea and then Rhea won with a riptide in a fine match.
Raquel started walking towards ringside, pushing refs, who shouldn't be able to be pushed by her. She got in the ring and traded some bad shots with Rhea. The male refs couldn't keep them apart which was just silly.
Back at the Gargano house, Indi got a PS5. Gargano said there was nothing in the box since it was his. Instead he gave Indi a nickname of "Indi Wrestling".
Toni Storm did a promo on Io Shirai. She said she is the one woman Io can't beat. We got another promo in the dojo with Boa and Xia Li.
Bronsoon Reed vs Ashante "Thee" Adonis
Reed hit a big clothesline early and ran into him with his body. They had a female ref here which I always find silly. Reed won with a splash from the top.
Io was interviewed in the back and asked if she had heard what was said about her by Toni. She just said she hear it and that was it.
Io sat in the ring and Mercedes Martinez jumped her. She threw her into the support beam and the barricade. Martinez then threw her under the announcers desk.
Back at the Gargano's, Johnny gave Candice the last remnant of Shotzi's tank wheel. Then they all took a photo with Theory spitting out whey protein.
Timothy Thatcher vs Leon Ruff
Thatcher beat up on Ruff early. Gulak hit a big euro uppercut and and a suplex. Thatcher hit an unusual looking belly to belly and grabbed a chair, which he put out for Ciampa to sit on. Ruff got some offense in and did a springboard into a Thatcher euro uppercut. Thatcher kicked Leon in the back hard and Ruff pulled off the upset win! Ruff couldn't believe it and Thatcher was not happy.
Thatcher threw him into the barricade and stomped on him. Ciampa then came in and DDT'd Thatcher while he was on the middle rope. Ciampa said if he wants a fight, he will see him in the fit pit and kissed him.
Damien Priest asked why Kross blindsided him if he's so tough. Priest asked if Kross was as bad as he says he is and he said he would punch Kross out.
Tyler Rust vs Ariya Daivari
Rust did his usual technical work and took down Daivari. Rust extends Ariya's arm over his shoulder and then spins him. Aiyra does a neckbreaker over the 2nd rope on Rust and Rust gets dropkicked to the outside. Rust kicks Ariya's arm and does a forward flipping neckbreaker. Then does a rings of saturn with his legs to win. It made sense for what it was.
Leon Ruff was interviewed. He was happy about his win and said he will get another shot against Gargano for the North American title next week.
Kross says Priest dug himself into a hole he can't get out of. Kross said Priest made the biggest mistake of his life and they said doomsday is coming for Priest.
Velveteen Dream vs Adam Cole
Dream takes a shot at Cole but misses. Dream was on his knees begging off and Cole step-kicked him. Cole hit a jumping neckbreaker for 2 then Dream took a wild bump off of the apron for a pump kick. They both collided heads. Dunne came out and attacked Strong, who insulted him in a promo earlier. Then Dunne hit a bitter end on the apron on him. Dream then nailed Cole in the throat with a rolled up shirt.
We come back from break with Dream in control. Dream misses a top rope elbow as we hit 9:59, when this show would usually be over. Dream and Cole trade shots and Cole hits a bicycle kick/step kick to the face.
Cole hits an enzugiri and a german for 2. Dream stun guns Cole then neckbreaker's him. Dream pounds on him some in the corner, then tries to jump up top. Cole superkicks him in the leg and he takes a nasty bump down. Cole goes outside and Dream tries to dive on him but Cole superkicks him. Cole superkicks him again when he is back in and hits a figure four.
Dream really sells the figure four as Dynamite starts any second. Dream does his blade runner esque DDT and hits an elbow drop from the top. Cole goes up to the top and takes a superkick on the way down, then the same thing happens to Dream. Cole then does a last shot knee to win. I wasn't a huge fan of this one as they did too much and couldn't really do the long term selling needed. Dream did have some amazing bumps and facials here though.
Overall thoughts: Last week's show was better but there was some good stuff here. The Gargano stuff was good. Rhea's match was good, Scott/Atlas was good and the street fight had good parts, but also some issues.
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