WWE NXT 1/27/2021

WWE NXT 1/27/2021

Last week's show is here: https://prowresblog.blogspot.com/2021/01/wwe-nxt-1202021.html

Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic Quarterfinals - Drake Maverick and Killian Dain vs MSK

One would think MSK wins here due to being new. Carter bronco busters Drake early then slingshot flip sentons him. Dain throws Drake into Carter. Drake trips Carter into a Dain senton then Dain slams Drake onto Carter. Carter takes a double pump kick from his opponents. MSK double kick combo's Dain then Carter double stomps Dain's back. Lee stands on the second rope and gets pushed off onto the floor as we go to break.

Back from break and Dain has control over Lee. Carter tries to tag Lee and Drake kicks his hand away, but the tag is made. Carter does a rolling snapmare then running kicks him. Carter does a backflip and Lee pushes him into a moonsault onto Drake. Carter does a 2nd rope moonsault from the post to the floor but the cameras miss half of it. Carter then holds up Drake and Lee jumping blockbusters him for the win. This was very fast paced with lots of cool moves. Not much story though.

We saw Burch and Lorcan arriving earlier with Dunne driving them.

They do a small package on some of the women in the Women's Dusty Classic.

Curt Stallion does a pre-recorded interview. He talked about driving and seeing a shooting star and that's how he knew he was the Lone Star Stallion. He said he needs to strap the rocket to his back by winning the WWE Cruiserweight Title.

Women's Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic 1st Round - Raquel Gonzalez and Dakota Kai vs Aliyah and Jessi Kamea

RG grabs Aliyah by the head and swings her around. RG has Kamea in a standing Gory Special type of move and pulls her hair. Kamea walks up to the 2nd rope and drops an elbow. Kamea and Aliyah both do splits and Kai jumps over both to be met with a Kamea elbow. Aliyah then hits her with a running blockbuster for 2. Aliyah does a nice running yakuza kick and goes outside where Kai pump kicks her.

RG spinning slams Aliyah and Aliyah gets beat up on for a little.  RG does a one handed hiptoss then lifts up Kai into a double stomp. Aliyah hits a DDT and tags out to Kamea who gets flipped on a lariat. Kai hits a big lift-up powerbomb and wins it. I didn't have any problems with this

The Way was interviewed in the back. LaRae and Indi said the Women's Dusty Cup is theirs. The interviewer brought up Kushida beating Johnny twice and Johnny got mad about it. He then said we don't say his name but Theory kept doing it. Lumis then appeared as they left.

Scarlett was playing with tarot cards in the back talking nonsense.

Brie Larson was doing a video workout with Teagan Nox. She's an actress.

Tyler Rust with Malcolm Bivens vs Dante Rios

Bivens did an inset. He said they will get back on track after losing last week and Rust will win. They never told us who Rust's opponent was. Rust hits some kicks on Rios' arm and stomps on it.  Rust pulls Rios' arm over his shoulder and spins him, then snap flips him over. Rios does a satellite into a guillotine. He jumps off the top and gets caught with a euro uppercut, then Rust does a snapmare flip on him and does a leg assisted rings of saturn to win in a quick one. Bivens and Rust then take a selfie. This was a squash and was what it was. Rios did a nice job selling.

 

The Grizzled Young Vets and Ruff/Kushida both got a quick video package for their match.

 

Finn Balor was interviewed in the back and Kyle O'Reilly walked in. Kyle asked if he was ready and he said he is always ready. Kyle asked if he can trust him and Finn said, "What do you think?". Kyle then said, "I don't have to trust you as long as we are on the same page".

Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic 2021 Quarter Final Match - Kushida & Leon Ruff vs. The Grizzled Young Veterans (James Drake & Zack Gibson)

The Vets did a promo on the ramp. Drake said Ruff didn't have enough experience to go against him and said they would win the cup.

Drake hits a spinning heel kick early on Kushida. Ruff jumps from each rope to the next to evade Drake then dropkicks him, then Ruff and Kushida hit some double teams on Drake. Ruff runs up the ropes then bounces on them and hurricanrana's Drake. Kushida comes in as does Gibson and Ruff cutters Gibson off the 2nd rope.

I don't know if this is how it appeared on TV, but we got a couple of minutes of uncut video. There were no announcers, fake sound effects or camera cuts and it was great. It looked like a completely different promotion. Ruff gets double throat dropped over the top rope. Drake gets slammed by Gibson onto Ruff. Gibson holds up Ruff on the outside from the side slam position and Drake slingshots over the top and drops an elbow on him.

Kushida gets in and does his hiptoss into a cartwheel. The Vets hit a doomsday device for 2 on Kushida. Kushida gets whipped into the ropes and comes back with a handspring double back elbow on both opponents then Ruff topes Drake. Ruff then walks up the ropes on the other side and flip topes Drake. He does his weird bounce on the top rope and lariats Drake, then he tries a swanton and misses. The Vets then hit a ticket to mayhem and win. It was okay but there wasn't a real story here, just moves.

The Way jumps Kushida and Ruff after. Johnny does an outside to inside slingshot DDT and Theory holds Ruff to make him watch it. Dexter Lumis then appears behind Theory staring at him. 

We go to the back with Curt Stallion down and saying he was attacked by Santos Escobar. The announcers said the Escobar/Stallion match would be cancelled for tonight.

LdF was interviewed and Regal came in mad. He started yelling and Escobar's crew all denied the attack. Regal said the match would happen next week and said they would suffer serious consequnces if he gets attacked. Escobar finds a tarot card on his bag that I believe is from Scarlett/Kross and they act scared but aren't.

Toni Storm comes out and cuts a promo on Io Shirai. Toni said she wants to hurt Io for taking away the Dusty Cup from her. She said she wants to ruin her and will take the women's title from her. Io's music hits and Io arrives.

Io said she will fight her anywhere and said she doesn't like her. Toni takes her down and they pound on each other. Io dropkicks her out of the ring then Mercedez Martinez picks her up and drops her down then holds her belt. Toni then grabs the belt from her and Io dropkicks them as they argue. Io drops Martinez and Toni pulls out Mercedes only to slam her on the apron. Toni hits some butt attacks in the corner on Io. 

Isaiah "Swerve" Scott is interviewed. He said he always gets blamed. Swerve makes the interviewer point at him then says, "how many fingers are pointing back at you?".

There's a package on Imperium. They said they are a force. They said they were split up for the last year due to the virus and  said the NXT Tag Titles weren't enough. Alexander Wolfe said his arrival is only the beginning. 

Adam Cole and Roderick Strong were interviewed about Thatcher and Ciampa. They said their hands are full here and they know Ciampa well. They said they are more experienced and tougher as a team and there is no way those dorks will stop them.

Isaiah "Swerve" Scott vs Bronson Reed

Swerve hit a jumping knee and a flurry of shots on Reed. Reed threw him over the top but he did a handspring off the apron and landed on his feet. Reed grabbed Swerve's leg and he took a nasty flip onto the apron. Reed then clotheslined him over the top and hit a suicide dive on him in a big spot.

They went to break and my version of this had the uncut feed where Scott gets thrown into the barricades without any sound effects or announcing. Reed got his shoulders on the apron after some kind of failed powerbomb from the floor to the apron and Scott double stomped them. Scott then started working the arm. Scott hit some open hand shots to Reed's body. Scott went for a rolling flatliner but got swatted down then was body blocked and took a senton. Reed then hit a death valley driver for 2.

Reed goes up top and Scott pulls him down while in the hammerlock position in something like a hammerlock DDT, then 450's him for 2. Reed headbutts Scott, lariats him then does a splash from the top for the win in a good match as expected. All of Reed's stuff looks good and Scott has took some wild bumps here plus has some personality to him.

 

Tomasso Ciampa did a promo. He said there are fights you win, fights you lose and fights you remember. Thatcher then came in and said The Fight Pit changes a man. Ciampa promised a war next week with him and Thatcher vs Undisputed Era.

Kyle O'Reilly and Finn Balor vs Danny Burch and Oney Lorcan

Balor hits some armdrags early on Oney. Oney and Kyle has a short but nice strike exchange where Kyle gets dropped. Finn and Kyle go to work on Burch's arm and stare each other down after a successful double back elbow on Burch. We go to break and when we return, Finn double stomps Oney's chest.

Oney armbar DDT's Finn then pounds on him. Burch and Oney double atomic drop Finn. Oney euro uppercuts Finn then Finn comes back with a Pele kick. Finn hits a slingblade on Oney. Kyle then gets in and does a kick combo on Burch and Burch keeps punching him in the jaw due to his injury with it. Burch comes off the top and gets caught in a leglock and immediately taps. They didn't have much time but there wasn't anything wrong with this except for the finish being out of nowhere. Pete Dunne gets in the ring as Oney gets pulled out by Oney. Then all 5 men brawl in the ring. Finn and Kyle end up getting beat down by Pete Dunne, Oney and Burch. Dunne tries to break Finn's fingers as Undisputed Era comes out and is able to before they make it out. The 7 of them then stare down and Finn stands united with Undisputed Era as the crowd cheers.

Overall thoughts: The show was fine but wasn't great or anything. It did drag a little but they advanced some storylines here and are clearly building to some things down the line like The Way vs Lumis and UE/Finn vs Burch/Dunne/Lorcan.