WWE NXT 2/10/2021

WWE NXT 2/10/2021

Last week's show is here: https://prowresblog.blogspot.com/2021/02/wwe-nxt-232021.html

Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic Semi-finals - MSK vs Legado del Fantasma(Joaquin Wilde and Raul Mendoza)

Wilde does a nice takeover and headsprings up. Wilde then does a nice roll into an STF like hold. Carter does a bronco buster onto Wilde. Wilde puts Carter into a wristlock and he backflips out and armdrags Wilde. Both Raul and Carter try to armdrag the other at the same time. MSK kick combos Raul then finishes it with a Carter double stomp.

LdF double suplexes Lee then Wilde gets hiptossed into the ropes and is returned back onto Lee. Carter rolling snapmares Wilde and chest kicks him. Carter is on the apron and Mendoza pop's up Wilde into a big dropkick on him.

We come back from break and Carter ducks a shining wizard. Lee comes in and hits a neat jumping kick on Wilde. Then he helps flip Carter onto both opponents on the outside. Lee then flip dives onto his opponents. Mendoza runs the top rope into a John Woo on Lee then Wilde does a slingshot into a poisanrana. Mendoza then does a twisting suplex for 2.

Carter is in the fireman's position on Raul's back. Wilde double stomps Carter then 450's Lee in a wild spot. Carter holds up Wilde and Lee does a jumping blockbuster to win it. This was a pretty good match. They didn't do too much and kept it exciting. There wasn't any story here though.

MSK faces either Ciampa/Thatcher or the Grizzled Young Vets in the Dusty Cup finals.

We get a video package on Xia Li.

Mercedez Martinez does a promo for Sunday's Takeover. She said the NXT Women's Title is her goal and destiny. She said Toni isn't ready and Io will need a lot more to take her down. She says she will win Sunday.

Xia Li vs Cora Jane

Xia does her entrance and Kacy and Kayden Carter are out there arguing with Boa. Cora Jane gets kicked in the back and takes a trouble in paradise kick for the very quick Li win. 

Li argued with Kacy and Kayden after. Kayden goes up to Tian Sha asking who she is and what she did to Xia. Xia grabs Kayden and flips her off the stage. Tian Sha grabs Boa by the throat and Xia hits a big spin kick on Kacy. 

The interviewer went up to Regal in the back. He said he had important business and Scarlett was on his desk. She said time is up for Escobar next week and Regal agreed to Karrion Kross vs Santos Escobar next week.

The Way was in the back with Gargano in an arm sling and a wheel chair. They all came out and lifted Gargano into the ring. Wade said Johnny was unable to walk due to a broken arm which the other announcer mocked. Beth Phoenix said it was a farce.

Johnny Gargano cut a promo from the wheelchair. He said this is the result of Kushida's attack on him last week. LaRae held Johnny's eyes while they showed the attack. Johnny said he can't power walk now and the crowd chanted "Johnny Wheelchair" which was funny. Johnny said he can't wrestle on Sunday now and Kushida should be suspended.

William Regal came out. He said Johnny was cleared by the medical team yesterday and called it a charade. Then Johnny brought up an x-ray that showed a broken arm. Regal asked for the name of the bone and he said he doesn't know because he isn't "Johnny Doctor Guy". Regal said the arm in the pic is the wrong arm and he would be shouting in pain if this injury was real. Regal said Theory can take Johnny's place in the N-A title match or Johnny can forfeit the title right now. Kushida then appeared behind The Way in the ring and decked theory. He then did a tug of war with Johnny who got out of the wheelchair and noticed he wasn't selling the injury, then he fell over in the wheel chair.

Women's Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic - Indi Hartwell and Candice LaRae vs Ember Moon and Shotzi Blackheart

We join this in progress after break. Shotzi trips Candice, then Ember dropkicks her and Shotzi sentons her. Indi drops Shotzi face first on the top rope then sidewalk slams her. Shotzi gets beat up for a bit. Wade accidentally called LaRae "Candice Michelle". Ember gets in and dropkicks LaRae then spinning forearms Indi. She then does a 2nd rope codebreaker and Shotzi hits the brazilian kick. Shotz does a reverse hanging headscissors choke over the top rope. Candice walks the top rope and hurricanrana's Ember on the apron into Shotzi.

We had a picture-in-picture break and coming back from it Shotzi and LaRae are both tagged in. Shotzi does a nice spinning elbow onto LaRae then sentons her on the ropes. Shotzi does a slingblade on LaRae into Ember's knees. Ember hits a hard pump kick on Indi. Indi bridges Ember on the middle rope and Larae springboard moonsaults on her, then she falls short on a dive on Shotzi.

Shotzi comes in and gets kicked by LaRae and then is curbstomped. Indi springboard elbows Shotzi and Moon breaks the pin. Ember does a twist cutter onto Indi from the top then Shotzi sentons both opponents at once as they are stacked on each other and wins it. Shotzi and Ember advance to the finals against Dakota Kai and Raquel Gonazalez. The match was good for the WWE women's standards but it could have been a little better. 

Kai and RG stare them down after. William Regal then came out and said one team will make history. He said the winners of the match will receive a WWE Women's Tag Team Title match. 

Thatcher and Ciampa did a promo. TT said last week's match was brutal and that's the way he likes it. Ciampa said the Grizzled Young Veterans can call themselves whatever they want, but they will whip their @sses. He said they will take home the Dusty Cup. Then Thatcher smiled with his broken tooth.

Santos Escobar was interviewed. He said he is giving Kross the gift of time. Wilde and Raul came in. They said they were sorry. Escobar said they can make it up to him by paying someone a visit. 

We got a Dunne/Balor package. Dunne said everyone wants to follow in Balor's footsteps, except him. He said he sees a geezer with a glass jaw and will take his title. Balor said he doesn't respect Dunne but he is championship material. Balor said there won't be a passing of the torch but a burning of the bridges. Dunne said he will smash Balor's jaw and break his fingers.

Kushida vs Austin Theory

Gargano jumped on the apron early. Theory hit a big dropkick on Kushida. Kushida hiptossed Theory into a dropkick then hit his punch. Kushida but an armbreaker on Theory then did a drop on it. Kushida did more work on the arm then did neat move on both arms. Kushida was forearmed off the apron. Theory kept control over the break and hit a fallaway slam on Kushida. Kushida came back with an atomic drop and a handspring back elbow. Kushida reverse STO'd him into the middle buckle then german suplexed him for 2.

Kushida armbarred theory on the apron then Johnny superkicked Kushida in the head to get Kushida the DQ win.

Johnny's arm then magically healed as he punched Kushida. Theory was near the ring apron and was pulled underneath then Johnny ended up pulling out Dexter Lumis. Johnny was then put into a grounded hammerlock. Theory tried to save him but Dexter put him in a grounded head and arm choke as Kushida held up the North American title. 

Toni Storm did a promo. She said she will win the title on Sunday and didn't say too much else of interest.

Imperium did a promo. They talked about each guy in it and said the mat was sacred.

Karrion Kross did a promo. Wilde and Mendoza seemingly attacked him and he laid them out. He said he will do the same to Escobar next week.

A car was making noise. Cameron Grimes arrived and paid people to park his car then started handing out money.

He said he was back and said Thatcher took him out. But he said in his down time, he was training and playing video games. He said he then ran out of video games and found Gamestop. He said he invested in Gamestop(which had high stock temporarily) and he said he made a ton of money as the stock went up. He then said he invested in dogecoin(but called it dogcoin) and said he is even more rich. Then he went wild and said no one can tell him anything now. He told Regal to kiss his grits and threw his money up and did snow angels in it. This was great and just goes to show how a good promo or a good character can mean as much as a million good matches do.

Johnny Gargano was interviewed. He said he did Kushida a favor by trying to get the match cancelled. He said he is not just Johnny Gargano. He is Johnny "Freakin'" Takeover. He said nobody can hang with him at Takeover.

Io Shirai did a promo. She said Toni is just another challenger and said Mercedez Martinez journey will never end because Io will stay champ.

Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic Semi-finals - The Grizzled Young Vets vs Tomasso Ciampa and Timothy Thatcher

The Vets did a promo as they entered. Gibson called their opponents goofs and said they have a fake friendship. Drake entered and got nailed by Ciampa.

Then the vets got stomped and beat up on outside the ring. Drake was thrown over the rails. Drake saw Gison getting thrown into the buckles and covered the buckle to save him but that probably hurt worse. TT and Drake traded strikes. Ciampa was powerbombed from the floor to the apron and really held his neck over it as we went to picture-in-picture break. A trainer checked on Ciampa during the break with Drake keeping control mostly on TT. TT hit a nice belly to belly when we returned and went to tag Ciampa who wasn't there.

TT bled a little from the nose. Drake dove off the top into a euro uppercut from TT, but Ciampa still wasn't there to tag. Ciampa finally got in and cleaned up, lariating both guys. He then german suplexed both and hit a schwein on Drake on top of Gibson. Giboson and Ciampa traded forearms. Drake got tagged in and leaped off of Ciampa's back into a dropkick on TT. Ciampa then took a doomsday device. The Vets then hit their finisher on Ciampa and won it. It was alright. I thought maybe Ciampa should have sold the damage to his neck a little more since it took him out for a while but that's about it. Just not a match I was that interested in but atleast TT and Ciampa didn't win.

Overall thoughts: Like a lot of NXT shows, it was fine to maybe even good but the shows just aren't that exciting.