Csonka’s NXT Review 11.27.19

Csonka’s NXT Review 11.27.19

OFFICIAL RESULTS
– Tag Team Title Match: Champion Undisputed Era defeated Keith Lee & Dominik DIjakovic @ 20:10 via pin [***½]
– Mansoor defeated Shane Thorne @3:00 via pin [NR]
– Candice LeRae defeated Dakota Kai @ 12:30 via DQ [***¼]
– Cruiserweight Title Match: Champion Lio Rush defeated Akira Tozawa @ 13:00 via pin [***½]
– Xia Li defeated Vanessa Borne @ 1:05 via pin [NR]
– Finn Balor defeated Tommaso Ciampa @ 11:30 via pin [***¼]

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– Josiah Williams starts the show and hypes up how NXT beat Raw and Smackdown at Survivor Series. The roster comes out behind him walking to the ring and celebrating with the Full Sail crowd as Williams raps. Undisputed Era arrives and Adam Cole runs them down for celebrating as if they accomplished something. Cole says the Undisputed Era was the only reason that NXT was successful and that nobody around the ring did anything. They should be thanked for being their champions. they dominated all week as the iron men of the brand. Ciampa interrupts, saying they strangely confident for being a group of guys who got their asses kicked in WarGames. WarGames was the beginning of the end for the Undisputed Era. Their crumble has started and it continues when Keith Lee and Dijakovic win the Tag Titles tonight. With war over, “Daddy” is coming for Goldie once again. Balor arrives, he walks past the Undisputed Era and says that he’s standing in Ciampa’s way of coming for the NXT Title. Ciampa wants everyone to watch, because the Prince has just met his King. Ciampa challenges Finn tonight. Keith Lee says that match can go down later because it’s Tag Title time.

Champion Undisputed Era vs. Keith Lee & Dominik DIjakovic: The champions attack at the bell and look to take control until Lee fires back and tosses Fish to he floor onto Kyle. The champions look to regroup, Fish slides back in and tags in Kyle. Lee tosses him around and Kyle battles back with leg kicks. Lee shakes them off and tags in Dijakovic who follows with knee strikes and tosses Kyle across the ring. Kyle fires back, tags in Roddy (replacing Fish, who was injured early in the match on the press slam to the floor). Dijakovic maintains control, tags in Lee and they trade shoulder tackles, Lee follows with a shoulder tackle and then works over Roddy, tossing him onto Kyle. The big men argue in a moment of tension, the champions attack but they cut them off. Dijakovic suplexes Lee onto both and Roddy tags in. They look to double team Dijakovic, chop block by Roddy and they ground him and start attacking his knee. Roddy takes control, and the sick kick follows for 2. Post break and Kyle has Dijakovic grounded, still working the leg. Dijakovic kicks him away, Lyle nails Lee and Dijakovic kicks him away and Dijakovic drags them to the corner and tags in Lee. Lee runs wild and hits corner clotheslines, forearms and tosses them into each other. Kyle cuts off the spirit bomb, but Lee tosses them around with ease. Lee teases a dive, gets cut off and Kyle follows with a knee strike off of the apron. Back in and Lee manages to fight back, tags in DIjakovic and runs wild on Roddy scoring with a huge lariat. Roddy fires back, Kyle tags in and gets the triangle but Dijakovic powers up and chokeslams Roddy while powerbombing Kyle for 2. He follows with a superkick, elbow strikes and Kyle cuts off feast your eyes with a cradle for 2. The champions follow with double teams, Lee mows them down on the floor but they chop block him. Dijakovic follows with a springboard tope to the floor. Kyle takes out his knee back in but Dijakovic fires up and hits the double chokeslam. Cole runs out but Lee POUNCES him into the crowd! He’s dead, Jim.

Going to have to send out a search party into the fifth dimension to find Adam Cole after @RealKeithLee sent him into a whole different plane of existence. pic.twitter.com/ERDDgrO0Zz

— TDE Wrestling (@tde_wrestling) November 28, 2019

Back in and the high/low finishes Dijakovic. Champion Undisputed Era defeated Keith Lee & Dominik DIjakovic @ 20:10 via pin [***½] This was a really good tag match and Roddy is such a pro, joining the match and working in his jeans and sneakers while not missing a beat. Credit to all four adjusting to the change and still delivering. I get why they booked this coming out of WarGames, but at the same time, I hate that they stifled the momentum of Lee & Dijakovic already.

– Dakota Kai’s attack on Tegan Nox at Takeover. Tegan tweeted that she’s hurt physically but the emotional pain is worse. She needs time to heal.

– Cathy Kelley interviews Candice LeRae about Dakota. She says Dakota is all she has heard about since Takeover. As a friend to both Tegan and Dakota, she’s appalled at Dakota and can’t believe what she did. Tonight, Dakota isn’t facing her friend Candice, she’s facing Tegan’s pissed off big sister.

– We see video of Angel Garza disrobing in front of Lio Rush’s family two weeks ago. At Takeover, Lio attacked Garza after his match as revenge. He defends the title against Akira Tozawa tonight.

Mansoor vs. Shane Thorne: they lockup and work into counters, Mansoor takes him down and Thorne counters out and slams him to the corner. They trade chops and Mansoor cradles him for 2. The dropkick follows and Mansoor’s suicide dive is countered into a Saito suplex. Back in and Thorne covers for 2. Mansoor fires back, but Thorne hits a pop up Saito for 2. Mansoor cuts off the knee strike with an enziguri, the suicide dive follows and the slingshot neck breaker finishes it. Mansoor defeated Shane Thorne @3:00 via pin [NR] A nice win for Mansoor and it’s nice to see him not forgotten following the Saudi show.

– Dakota Kai arrives, carrying Tegan’s knee brace.

Candice LeRae vs. Dakota Kai: Candice is fired up and beats her down right away. Dakota powders to the floor, pulls Candice down but Candice counters back and follows with the suicide dive. Back in and Candice hits the senton for 2. Dakota cuts her off and post Candice. She slams her to the apron and kicks her in the face. Back in and Dakota covers for 2. Dakota kicks her in the face again,. Post break and Dakota misses the running kick. Candice fires back, but Dakota cuts her of with a sitout powerbomb for 2. They work to the apron and sorta slams Dakota to the apron as they spill to the floor. Back in and Candice follows with chops and follows with the flying DDT for 2. Dakota cuts her off with a head butt, the running kick and Candice fires back with an enziguri. They work up top and Dakota gets the knee brace but Candice powerbombs her for 2. The superkick follows, and the lionsault misses. Dakota hits the chiropractor for 2. Kawada kicks follow but Candice cradles her for 2. Candice locks on the Gargano escape, rolls and maintains the hold until Dakota escapes to the floor. Dakota hits her with the knee brace for the DQ. Candice LeRae defeated Dakota Kai @ 12:30 via DQ [***¼] This was a good match and made sense coming out of WarGames. Dakota did well in her first match as a heel, showing good character layers the DQ was fine here to not only protect Candice, but to give Dakota an edge because she obviously shouldn’t have lost here.

– Post match, Kai slams Candice into the steel steps. The referee stops her from using the knee brace as a weapon. Dakota gets a steel chair but Rhea Ripley runs out and kicks it out of her hand. Dakota powders as Rhea checks on Candice.

– Cathy Kelley interviews Ciampa about the match with Balor. He puts over Balor’s success in NXT but says it was he who made NXT the “A” show, and he made Goldie into the top title in the company.

– We get a Cameron Grimes video package.

– Next is a video of Rhea’s great last week, which really cemented her as a star,

Champion Lio Rush vs. Akira Tozawa: They circle and tease attacks, Tozawa hits a shoulder tackle and Lio firs back with one of his own. Tozawa hits the RANA, misses the senton and they work into a stalemate. They work into counters, jab by Tozawa and Lio is down. To the floor they go and then to the apron, Lio teases a German, Tozawa fights off the sunset bomb and hits a leg drop on the apron. Post break and they are back in, as Lio grounds Tozawa. Tozawa counters out, follows with strikes, and slams Lio to the mat, dropkicks him to the floor and follows with the apron cannonball. Back in and Tozawa joys the missile dropkick for 2. Lio picks up the pace, counters the German and they work into a double down. They work to the apron, enziguri by Tozawa and the German to the floor follows! FUCKS SAKE; he’s dead Jim. Back in and Lio cradles him for 2. Tozawa is down, grabs his mouth guard s Lio misses the come up. They trade, and Tozawa counters the come up into a snap German. The dead lift German follows for 2. Tozawa up top, and the senton eats knees. Lio heads up top and the final hour connects to the back of Tozawa. Up top again and he hits it again and finishes Tozawa. Champion Lio Rush defeated Akira Tozawa @ 13:00 via pin [***½] This was really good, Lio retains again and Tozawa shows that he is still really good when given the chance to prove it.

Xia Li vs. Vanessa Borne: Borne attacks, gets cut off with a powerbomb and as Shayna & her minions arrive, Borne gets starched with a head kick as Xia Li wins. Xia Li defeated Vanessa Borne @ 1:05 via pin [NR] I love Xia, Borne failed to get revenge for Aliyah.

– Post match, Shayna sends her minions to the ring Xia knocks Shafir off the apron. She brawls with Duke and the numbers game gets to her. Shayna enters but Xia lights her with strikes. She kicks Shayna down, but Shayna battles back with a clothesline and adds knees to Xia and then gets a mic. She says nobody had a weekend like her because she beat Becky Lynch and Bayley at the same time. She brags about her reign being over a yearlong. Rhea Ripley arrives. Shayna and her friends slide out of the ring to avoid the confrontation. Rhea calls her back in the ring to talk face to face. They come face to face and Rhea congratulates her on winning at Survivor Series. But she beat Shayna in War Games. She’ll do it again and it’ll be for the Women’s Title. Shayna enters the ring, saying she has heard this kind of talk often. Rhea may be the nightmare but she’s the reality. She’ll make Rhea tap or nap like everyone else. Rhea dares her to do it right now, but Shayna declines the offer.

– Pete Dunne faces Killian Dain next week.

Finn Balor vs. Tommaso Ciampa: they lock up and work to the ropes, Balor slaps him and takes him down. He grounds the action, but Ciampa powers up and follows with a suplex for 2. Balor counters back into a dropkick, grounding things. He then dumps Ciampa, but Ciampa counters the PK, and posts Balor. Back in and Balor powders so Ciampa follows him out and hits a clothesline. Back in for real this time and Balor cuts him off. He follows with a slam, elbow drop and covers for 2. Balor keeps things grounded, Ciampa fights to his feet and Balor follows with chops and lays the boots to him. Balor grounds the action again. But Ciampa fires up and hits clotheslines, a boot and clothesline to the floor. Back in and Ciampa hits a running knee strike for 2. Ciampa follows with chops but Balor cuts him off with sling blade, dumps him and follows him out and hits John Wooooooooooooooooo. He looks for bloody Sunday on the ramp (ala Gargano), but Ciampa counters into an air raid crash. Ciampa rolls back in and Balor slides back in, eats a knee strike and project Ciampa follows for 2. Balor cuts off fairy tale ending, hits John Wooooooo and heads up top. Ciampa follow shim up, hits the avalanche air raid crash and covers for 2. he fire sup, says this is for Johnny, but Cole arrives. Ciampa fights him off and Balor gets the cradle for 2. Balor hits the final cut onto the championship and covers for 2. Cole enziguris Ciampa and bloody Sunday finishes it. Finn Balor defeated Tommaso Ciampa @ 11:30 via pin [***¼] This was a match I wouldn’t have run this week, since they didn’t announce it ahead of time and give it any real build, which I saw as a mistake, especially considering that it was a first time ever match, With that complaint out of the way, they had a good match as Cole ends up costing Ciampa, and they work the slow burn to Cole vs. Ciampa at Mania weekend.

– Post match, Adam Cole stands next to Balor inside and does the TUE taunt. Balor points the finger guns at Ciampa. Cole pats Balor on the back and is hit with a PELE to close the show.

The 411 on Wrestling Podcast returns to the 411 Podcasting Network for episode 69. On the show, 411’s Larry Csonka & Jeremy Lambert break down & review the 2019 WWE Survivor Series & NXT WarGames events. The show is approximately 102-minutes long.

* Intro
* NXT WarGames 2019 Review: 5:40
* WWE Survivor Series 2019 Review: 36:53

* iTunes
* Spotify
* Stitcher
* Google Play

– End scene.

– Thanks for reading.

7.5

The final score: review Good

The 411

This week’s episode of NXT TV was a very good show overall, with a lot of good wrestling and good fallout from WarGames weekend, setting a few things in motion coming out of that event.