WWE NXT 2/17/2021

WWE NXT 2/17/2021

Last week's show is here: https://prowresblog.blogspot.com/2021/02/wwe-nxt-2102021.html 

They ran down what happened at Vengeance Day and the announcers were talking when Kyle O'Reilly came out.

Kyle said he couldn't make sense of Cole turning on his partners.

Kyle had a really weird tone and said he would probably punch Cole out once he hears his excuse. Roderick Strong comes out. Strong says it was done out of emotion and said Cole likely regrets what he did. Kyle said he needs Cole to explain it and told him to stop. Kyle asks for Cole to come out then Finn Balor comes out. Kyle says he isn't looking for Finn but Finn says he is looking for him. Finn says to get in line to talk to Adam behind him.

 

Finn says he has business to address with Kyle. Finn said he shouldn't have accepted his hand. Strong said Finn had nothing to do with it. Dunne, Oney and Burch then attack and leave the them laying. 

Regal showed a message from Escobar. Escobar said no one threatens him and said he is going home. Regal said the match will take place next week and if Santos doesn't show, he will be suspended and have his title stripped. The main he says will be Dunne, Oney and Burch vs Balor, Strong and O'Reilly.

Candice LaRae and Indi Hartwell vs Shotzi Blackheart and Ember Moon

Gargano was at the booth and had a missing poster for Austin Theory. Shotzi dropkicks LaRae into the barricades from the apron early. The Way gets put on the ropes and takes an enzugiri from Ember then a dropkick from Shotzi. Shotzi does a Brazilian kick. Shotzi chokes Indi over the ropes with a headscissors. We are shown a white van arriving in the back and of course that means it is Lumis. The crowd were given signs for finding the missing Austhin Theory. LaRae does a springboard from the bottom rope onto Moon on the outside and Johnny goes to look at the van. Shotzi has a lighting bolt painted on her face and I think some new tights with it as she reverse sling blades Indi. LaRae sentons a bridging Shotzi and Shotzi rolling forearms Indi.

Johnny bangs on the van in the back. I'm going to laugh if its a just a plumber or something. Shotzi puts LaRae on her shoulders and hits Indi with LaRae's feet. Ember was bridged on the middle rope then Johnny recovered Theory in the back and brought him out. Ember then rolled up Indi. This was a mess as everything except the match was the focus here. 

Pat McAfee did a promo from a jet. He said we are all seeing what he knew all along that Adam Cole was a scumbag. Pat said Cole will continue to be a bum and he will continue to be the best thing to ever happen to wrestling. 

We saw video of Kushida being worked on by a trainer. He said he is not done with Johnny or the North American title. Bronson Reed then came in and said he wanted the N-A title too and they may have to fight for a shot at it. Malcolm Bivens then popped in and said he knows the perfect competitor for him and would talk to Regal.

Isaiah "Swerve" Scott vs Leon Ruff

 

Scott makes Ruff flinch early. He ducks his shots and gets armdragged. Ruff goes for an armdrag and gets nothing on it. Ruff jumps off the ropes to evade Scott, then goes back to the armdrag. Scott does a nice jumping knee to Ruff then powerbombs him over the knee. Scott does a flying kick to his face then stomps his neck hard from the apron. Ruff mounts a comeback and hits a lariat off the ropes, then does a 2nd rope twisting cutter but Scott hits the ropes. They trade shots and Ruff double stomps his neck but is hit with a hard lariat. Ruff hits a crucifix bomb and upsets Scott! There wasn't anything wrong with this at all and it was fine.

They shake hands then Scott slaps and beats up Ruff as he has been working a sore loser gimmick for a while. Scott picks him up his face and death valley drivers him into the buckles. Then he tells Scott he is tired of him being handed everything. Scott asks where's his N-A Title shot?

Kayden Carter and Kacy Catanzaro vs Aliyah and Jessi Kamea with Robert Stone

The KC's did an inset promo. They said this isn't the real Xia but tonight is about getting the job done. They blow an armdrag to start. The KC's do a double kick. Kacy does a cool twirl on the top rope then does a headscissors to Jessie. Boa appears on the stage. Jessi holds Kayden up then Aliyah cutters her.

Kacy hits a bunch of gut shots on Aliya then does a flipping leg drop to Aliyah's back. Kacy then jumps off the top and assists Kayden with a cutter to win. This was the expected outcome here.

Xia Li then walks down the ramp with Boa. Kayden wants some and Kacy tells her it doesn't have to be this way. She said they are worried about her. Xia grabs her and then marks her with something on her hand. Xia says she will hurt her next week. 

Bivens is with Tyler Rust in the back. Bivens says Rust is a once in a generation superstar and said Rust will take good care of him. He said Rust is a diamond in the rust.

 

Beth Phoenix comes out to preset the Dusty Rhodes Classic trophies. MSK celebrated and hugged Beth. They talked about their upcoming title match with Burch and Lorcan and of course said they will win the titles there. Beth then asked them to introduce the Women's Dusty Cup winners, Dakota Kai and Raquel Gonzalez. They talked about their win when Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler came out since Kai and RG won a shot at their belts with their victory.

Shayna said Kai and RG were on the right side of history. RG says Shayna doesn't run this place anymore and Beth and MSK ate popcorn while this happened. Nia said she came out to honor Dusty and said Dusty said she was a big beautiful b*tch. Shayna said they would humiliate them on their home turf on March 3rd. RG said she will shove the Dusty Classic Cup boot up her hole. Lee dropped his popcorn and fell over at that line.

Strong and Kyle argued in the parking lot though we couldn't hear any of it. It didn't look like it went well.

We got a Cameron Grimes video with him enjoying his money. Grimes crashed his car and laughed as he said he will have to get another one. 

Io did a photo shoot and was attacked by Toni Storm with a kick.

Kushida vs Tyler Rust with Malcolm Bivens

Rust wrist throws Kushida early then does a nice takedown into a hammerlock. Kushida does a handspring off the ropes into a back elbow.  Kushida slips off the top when Rust pulls him and he takes a weird fall. We go to break and when we come back, Kushida hits a hiptoss into a dropkick. Rust hits a flying axe kick for 2 then holds his foot over Kushida's neck for a reverse kick. Rust puts him into a grounded sleeper but Kushida gets out of it then he puts him in a very unusual head, arm and leg submission. Kushida puts Rust in the hoverboard lock and Bivens gets on the apron but Rust submits at the same time in an odd finish. Bivens said he will protect his investment and he will live to fight another day. Objectively speaking, so far it doesn't seem like Rust has been a good investment.

Zoey Stark is going to make her NXT debut.

They showed L.A. Knight's debut and they knocked on his door. He says if they knock on his door unexpected again, he will knock their heads off. He said NXT belongs to him and says this is L.A. Knight's game.

Zoey Stark vs Valentina Feroz

Feroz is wearing a weird short dress outfit. Stark lariats her and Feroz shoulder throws her. Stark hits some knees and drops her over the top rope. Stakrs misses a superkick and does a release half-nelson suplex. Feroz then does a neat sliding knee and flips her into a knee to win. This wasn't a great debut.

Kross and Scarlett do a promo. Scarlett says Escobar doesn't have the power to play with time and says there is no pause button on this nightmare. Kross says Escobar's destiny has been decided. Kross says he either shows up and gets destroyed or he doesn't show up, loses the title and he finds him.

Pete Dunne, Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch vs Finn Balor, Kyle O'Reilly and Roderick Strong

Strong wants to do the UE pose but Kyle isn't interested. They said Lorcan was fined for shoving an official at Takeover. Kyle makes Burch fly with a knee. Strong hits a big dropkick on Dunne and Strong takes a hard roll to the outside. Burch and Oney remove the top part of the steps. Strong does a hard backbreaker onto Dunne then Kyle hits some kicks on Oney. Kyle does a nice strike combo on Burch. Kyle jumps off the apron and gets nailed with a Dunne forearm. We go to break and Dunne's crew keeps control on Kyle.

Kyle and Burch double clothesline each other. Kyle tags in Finn who dorpkicks Dunne in the knee. Balor takes out all 3 opponents and Strong dropkicks Oney through the ropes. Balor hits the slingblade on Dunne. The ref and Burch play tug of war over the tag titles then the ref gets nailed by Dunne. Balor goes up top and Cole throws him off. Cole pump kicks Kyle then suplexes him onto the steps. Strong grabs the tag title belt and Finn isn't looking and accidentally pele kicks him. Dunne then hits the bitter end and wins it. There was just a lot going on here on top of not having much time and it was just not anything special.

Cole superkicks Finn after. Kyle lays motionless on the outside with the refs calling for help and since they gave it some attention, I assume the Kyle injury is a work.

Overall thoughts: Not an interesting episode of NXT. Not too much happened and there was nothing must see.