Csonka’s NXT Review 1.01.20

Csonka’s NXT Review 1.01.20

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– The first NXT of 2020 opens with a video package highlighting 2019. We go to the studio for Cathy Kelley, Sam Roberts, and Pat McAfee for the NXT Year-End Awards. In third place for the Match of the Year voting was the Ladder match from Takeover XXV. They show some of the match.

The Street Profits defeated Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch, The Forgotten Sons, & Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish @ 21:45 to become the new champions [****]: This featured really strong work from all involved, as well as some really outside of the box thinking spot wise, which is difficult in 2019. I think that the Ryker stuff hurt the momentum a bit, but it was an overall great match, with the Profits finally getting their moment to shine as the new champions. Bonus Bobby & Kyle for their bumps and being the glue here.

– Next up is Tag Team of the Year. The nominees include the Street Profits, Grizzled Young Veterans, Viking Raiders, Flash Morgan Webster and Mark Andrews, and the Undisputed Era. The winners are The Undisputed Era! We cut to them walking out at Full Sail in suits. William Regal hands them their awards. Kyle says the peasants have spoken are finally right by voting them as the winners. They hug and give Regal some shit before posing.

– It’s time for the Male Competitor of the Year Award. The nominees are…Adam Cole, WALTER, Johnny Gargano, Velveteen Dream, Tyler Bate, and Tommaso Ciampa. The winner is Adam Cole. Undisputed Era celebrate again.

– Female Competitor of the Year is next. The nominees are Shayna Baszler, Io Shirai, Toni Storm, Kay Lee Ray, Bianca Belair, and Rhea Ripley. Shayna Baszler wins. She comes out with Jessamyn and Marina. Shayna says she’s the most dominant force in WWE and that’s not changing because she lost the title.

– Rivalry of the Year is up. Adam Cole vs. Johnny Gargano wins. Gargano comes out first, followed once again by Adam Cole. Johnny says he won this two years in a row and gets involved with awful people. Cole brags that he won the rivalry. Johnny regrets that his dad didn’t punch Cole when he went to his store. Regal keeps the peace.

– Next up are clips of the #2 Match of the Year candidate, which is the women’s WarGames match.

Team Ripley defeated Team Baszler @ 27:30 via pin [****¼]: Ripley is such a star and is absolutely made after this as if she wasn’t heading that way anyway. This was a great and crazy match, with the babyfaces overcoming huge odds, including the heel turn of one of their teammates, a great emotional element to it and everyone in the match getting plenty of time to shine and deliver. The Kai heel turn felt obvious, BUT it came off really well here and felt like the right call for her going forward. The turn sets up Kai vs. all of her “teammates,” including Yim, and Ripley’s win sets her up perfectly for a title shot; the NXT women’s division continues to kick ass.

– Nominees for Future Star are Kushida, Xia Li, Bronson Reed, Tegan Nox, Dakota Kai, Ilja Dragunov, Isaiah “Swerve” Scott, Taynara, and Cameron Grimes. Dakota Kai wins. She takes the award, avoiding contact with Regal and says that those who voted for her are just late to the party. She will make her own opportunities now.

– The Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic teams are announced: From NXT – the Undisputed Era, Forgotten Sons, Matt Riddle & Pete Dunne, and Kushida with a mystery partner. From NXT UK – Grizzled Young Vets, Gallus, Imperium, and Webster/Andrews.

– The Takeover of the Year is War Games.

– Breakout Star of the Year nominees are Damian Priest, Piper Niven, Dominik Dijakovic, Angel Garza, Joe Coffey, Keith Lee, Candice LeRae, Matt Riddle, and Rhea Ripley. The winner is Keith Lee. He gets his award from Triple H in the back. He thanks the fans and sings that we haven’t seen anything yet.

– The MOTY is Cole vs. Gargano from NXT Takeover: New York.

Johnny Gargano defeated Adam Cole @ 38:13 via pin to become the NEW NXT champion [*****]: While he didn’t get to beat Ciampa, Gargano finally completed his journey and won the title, overcoming the odds, the numbers and again, solidifying his place as Mr. Takeover. This crowd was amazing and added so much to the match, and while I tend not to like the run-ins and ref bumps, they saved it to the end, and most importantly, Gargano overcame it to complete the journey and fulfill his underdog story. I thought that this was an overall incredible match and a great culmination to Gargano’s journey and featured an absolutely tremendous effort from both men. It’s not always about the moves or the story so much, of course it helps, but when you have a crowd that hot and emotionally invested, it’s an absolute triumph.

– Adam Cole, unsurprisingly, wins competitor of the year. Undisputed arrives and Cole says that the group is only getting started. They hold all of their awards, hug, and say they run NXT.

The 411 on Wrestling Podcast returns to the 411 Podcasting Network for episode 78. On the show, 411’s Larry Csonka & Jeremy Lambert break down and preview the huge two-day NJPW WrestleKingdom 14 spectacular, share our love of Jushin Liger, and book the Double Gold Dash. The show is approximately 98-minutes long.

* Intro
* NJPW WrestleKingdom 14 (January 4th) Preview: 3:55
* NJPW WrestleKingdom 14 (January 5th) Preview: 46:45

* iTunes
* Spotify
* Stitcher
* Google Play

– End scene.

– Thanks for reading.

7.0

The final score: review Good

The 411

This week’s episode of NXT TV was a good year-end show, highlighting the awards and clips of some of the best matches of the year. NXT has an embarrassment of riches as far as talent goes, especially when you include NXT UK, which makes 2020 look to have an amazing amount of potential to be even better than 2019 was.