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Hello everyone, and welcome to our live WWE NXT coverage right here on 411! Jeremy Thomas here with you as always, and with NXT Deadline in the rearview, we’re dealing with the fallout this week. We only have a couple of matches announced for tonight as Eddy Thorpe will battle Dijak while Josh Briggs, Brooks Jensen & Fallon Henley to take on The Meta-Four’s Noam Dar, Ora Mensah and Lash Legend. We do also have some Men’s Breakout Tournament matches, though the specific competitors aren’t yet revealed, and will also have plenty of developments following Deadline with the likes of Cora Jade and Trick Williams. Here’s hoping for a fun little show!

Here at Thomas HQ, my movie-watching remains in high gear. I caught Netflix’s new psychological drama May December which features stellar performances from Natalie Portman, Julianne Moore, and surefire Oscar nominee Charles Melton. Speaking of Oscar contenders, Killers of the Flower Moon was another amazing film from Martin Scorsese even if its probably just a touch too long. Trolls Band Together was a perfectly fine but forgettable kid’s movie; I followed that up with Godzilla Minus One which is a top three movie of 2023 for me thus far and Silent Night, which I hated for a number of reasons.

I finished out the past week with the wonderfully-titled 1973 giallo film Your Vice Is a Locked Room and Only I Have the Key. The film is fun but not as great as that title. Justice League: Warworld was a weak entry in the DC Animated Movie line. Finally I did some mid-00s rewatches with P2, which I originally hated back when it first came out but now find quite fun, and the first Black Christmas remake from 2006 which I also liked a tiny bit better but still don’t feel is a particularly good movie.

On TV, I’m still watching Drag Race Canada season four and The Boulet Brothers’ Dragula season five. And I watched the ABC true crime docuseries City of Angels, City of Death about the serial killers that plagued LA in the 1970s which was well-done.

Anyway, we’re gonna have a lot to cover tonight so let’s hop right in.

As a reminder, the GoFundMe for Larry’s daughters is still active and if you can make a donation, that would be awesome. Thank you so much to everyone who’s done so thus far.

* We start off with Carmelo Hayes and Trick Williams walking through the parking lot and reporters come up asking Trick about his win at Deadline. Hayes leaves as Trick starts taking questions.

* Up next is a recap of NXT Deadline including CM Punk’s appearance, Izzi Dame helping Kiana James beat Roxy, Dragon Lee winning the NXT NA Title, Melo beating Lexis King, and the Iron Survivor Challenge wins by Trick and Blair Davenport.

* Carmelo Hayes has been attacked backstage! Trick Williams comes up and asks who did it.

* But Cora Jade is in the ring, so we cut there. Cora says it’s been a long, hard, difficult four months — for us! At Deadline the clouds lifted from the sun and the fog was lifted. And all the fans were kissing their 8x10s of her in the meantime, but it’s okay because she’s back now. And that’s what we wanted, right? We messaged her asking to come back. We didn’t like her then but we love her now. NXT Deadline was the best night ever because we learned that no matter how deep the NXT women’s locker room is, everything’s better when Cora Jade is around.

Cora says the Iron Survivor match was great, but at the end of the day everyone was talking about Cora Jade as she stood there holding the Women’s Title high —

Here’s Lyra! Lyra welcomes Cora back and says Cora left something out: the fact that Cora jumped her from behind. She says he’s crazy she’s been away for four months and nothing has changed. She’s still taking shortcuts. She says Cora may not have changed, but things around here have. She’s changed, she’s not the same woman Cora used to mess with; she’s the NXT Women’s Champion. She doesn’t care what generation Cora thinks this is —

Here’s Blair! Blair says Lyra may be at the top now, but she is the Iron Survivor and she beat four women to get there — and Cora isn’t one of them. She wants to remind Lyra she needs to focus on her, as time is ticking for her reign and Blair will become champion at New Year’s Evil.

Lyra says that Blair’s not taking her title, and she’s surprised Blair and Cora aren’t best friends considering they both jump people.

Here comes Nikkita! It quickly becomes a brawl and Cora and Blair get dumped from the ring.

* We get a recap of the Meta-Four and Briggs, Jensen and Henley backstage confrontation and brawl.

* Kelly Kincaid is with Dragon Lee, who says that Saturday night was a dream come true as he was cornered by Rey Mysterio and won the North American Title. He says he wouldn’t have had the chance if it wasn’t for Wes Lee. He wishes Lee a speedy recovery and says he’ll defend the title like Wes did, as much as possible. And he’ll defend it tonight.

Meta-Four vs. Fallon Henley, Josh Briggs & Brooks Jensen

Meta-Four attack before the bell, and it ends up with Lash and Fallon in the ring. Lash with a kneelift and an elbowdrop for two. Lash shoves Fallon and throws her into the corner, she runs into a boot. Fallon with a shot and ducks a clothesline, she leaps up into a sleeper but gets slammed back in the corner — so she leaps back onto Lash’s back.

Lash snapmares Fallon over and they trade shots, Fallon with an Irish whip attempt but Lash blocks it and nails her. Fallon with a sunset flip off the ropes but Lash picks her up — Fallon with a lick and goes into a wheelbarrow drop, but is caught and throws Fallon into the corner.

Jensen and Ora in after the tag is made, Jensen takes over and chucks Ora. Ora with a cheap shot and gets Brooks in the corner, then pulls him out but Brooks with a headlock. Shot into the ropes, Jensen with a facebuster and Briggs tags in. They drop Dar on the bottom rope and slide out for the doubler uppercuts. Lash grabs Fallon in the ring and throws her onto Briggs and Jensen as we go to PIP break.

We’re back with Ora beating on Brooks, but Brooks sends Ora up and over to the floor. Jensen goes to make the tag, Ora slided back in and Brooks jumps over him but Ora sweeps the leg. Dar tags in and the heels take down Brooks, Dar covers for two. Dar with an elbow to the head and another, then backs him to the ropes and kicks him before a snapmare and cover for two.

Dar with a chinlock, Jensen is struggling to try and get the tag. Back to their feet, Brooks fights out but gets hit with a kick and Euro uppercut. Brooks fires back with a lariat and tries to crawl for the tag, Dar grabs the leg and Jensen goes for the enzuigiri but Dar ducks it and locks in an anklelock. He pulls Jensen away, Brooks kicks free and makes the tag but Jakara distracted the ref and so it wasn’t seen.

Ora nails Jensen and Dar wipes him out, cover and Fallon breaks it up. Lash grabs Fallon and they spill to the outside — Tiffany Stratton is out here and attacks Fallon! They brawl to the back, Jensen with an inside cradle in the ring for two. Nova Roller but Jensen tags in Briggs who lays into Dar. Ora comes up behind and gets thrown into Dar, he hits a big boot on Dar and takes them both out. BIG lariat finishes it.

Winner: Josh Briggs, Brooks Jensen & Fallon Henley (11:03)
Rating: ** 3/4
Thoughts: Perfectly decent bout that had some good action back and forth and a little feud building between Henley and Stratton. No complaints.

* Melo is getting checked out backstage and the official says Melo is cleared. Trick says he’s good for Smackdown and asks who did it? Melo doesn’t know but says he knew someone who hit him like that before. He won’t say here but he’s going to call him out. Trick says he’s handling Ilja and then they’ll deal with it together. Melo says they’ll handle their businesses.

* We get a look of the men’s NXT Breakout Tournament competitors on the stage before the first match. But before the first match can start, Lexis King comes out and nails Trey Bearhill with a chair.

Men’s NXT Breakout Tournament Match
Oba Femi vs. Myles Borne

Lockup to start, Femi shoves Borne in the corner. Another lock up and Femi knocks Femi down. They stumble on a lockup and go into the ropes, Borne ducks a big boot but gets battered with elbows and a shot. Femi charges at Borne in the corner, Borne up and over and lays into Femi with stomps. He slams Femi into the turnbuckles and hits a drop toehold, double stomp to the back and cover for two.

Borne lays knees into Femi’s back, Femi is fighting back but is hit with a kneelift. Femi catches Borne off the corner but Borne slides down — and Femi with a lariat. Femi blocks shots and hits his own punches, he knocks Borne down and then picks him up for a BIG one-handed slam.

Femi with an uppercut out of the corner, into the ropes and Borne with a powerslam for two. Femi to the outside, Borne is on the apron but gets tripped. Femi back into the ring, he drops Borne and then hits a powerbomb for three.

Winner: Eba Femi (3:35)
Rating: **
Thoughts: It was a decent enough squash match outside of some real rough moments early on where they were literally stumbling. Femi has real potential but he’s also very green as evidenced by this, or at least let nerves get the best of him. We’ll see where he goes from here but this wasn’t a great start for him on NXT proper.

* Nikkita walks up to Lyra and asks if she’s good. Lyra says she has Blair in two weeks, Lola Vice with the breakout contract and now Cora. Nikkita says that as bad as Lyra wants Cora, she wants Blair twice as much. Lyra opens her locker for water and a photo of Lyra and Becky has been altered to have Tatum in Lynch’s spot. They both think that’s weird.

* Kelly asks Tiffany Stratton about Fallon, and Tiff says she’s over Fallon’s entire existence and that she lost in Deadline due to Fallon. She says Fallon can’t drink top-shelf stuff like her, dress like her or be a star like her. She says Fallon will never be close to her and walks off.

* Dragon Lee is out here for an open challenge defense of his North American Championship. Out comes…Tyler Bate!

NXT North American Championship Match
Dragon Lee vs. Tyler Bate

Show of respect to start, they circle and lock up. Headlock by Bate, shoved into the corner and Lee with a snapmare and bodyblock. Into the ropes, Bate catches Lee and spins him around but Lee slides off into a headlock takedown. Back to their feet, kick and they catch each other’s feet before both going for dropkicks.

Bate catches Lee’s arm, Irish whip reversed, they do some twisting around each other, Bate rolls Lee up for two, they go into the ropes and Bate lands on his feet from a rana, they come off the ropes and hit a double clothesline as we go to break.

We’re back as Bate goes into the corner and catches a charging Lee with a kick. Up to the second rope to take Lee down, he sends Lee out of the ring and DIVES on top of him! Bate rolls Lee in and follows behind, he catches Lee for a half-and-half suplex and kips up. Standing moonsault, cover gets two.

Bate gets Lee on his shoulder but Lee elbows out of it. He sends Bate up into an inverted position on the corner, superkick! And another superkick sends Bate to the outside, so he dives through the ropes onto him. Bate rolled back into the ring, Lee follows and hits a kick in the corner, trips him from the apron and leaps in for a double stomp. Backs up and a diving dropkick to a downed Bate! Cover gets a nearfall.

Lee up now and lies in wait, He goes in but is caught on Bate’s shoulders to go round and round — and round and round and round and a slam! Cover gets two. Bate looking shocked at that, while Lee is woozy. Bate up and grabs Dragon, nailing him in the head a few times. Lee fires back with a kick and pushed Bate off the ropes into a German — but Bate is right back up! He bounces off the ropes into a lariat for two.

Bate up top now but Lee gets on the apron and knocks him back — double stomp off the top! Lee goes for the powerbomb but Bate counters into Tiger Driver ’97, countered into a rana for two-plus. Bate up and gets hit with a superkick, Bate takes him down though. Clothesline misses, Operation Dragon finishes it for the champ.

Winner: Dragon Lee (10:53)
Rating: *** 1/2
Thoughts: Great first title defense against Lee. Both of these guys were on their game and delivered.

* Show of respect and a hug after the match.

* Jensen credits Briggs for pulling out the win, and Briggs says Meta-Four isn’t as soft as they thought. Fallon comes in and apologizes and Brooks says that Briggs pinned the Heritage Cup. Briggs says he wants to win the Heritage Cup and Jensen says he’s more of a one-shot guy. Briggs notes that if he knocks out Dar he wins, and Fallon says his name would look great on the cup. Jensen agrees and they bump fists.

* Lexis King is laughing about his attack to Ava and says HBK is probably pretty pissed, isn’t he? Ava says they all want him in the tournament because they want to kick his ass. He says mission accomplished and Ava is flustered as she’s around him. Ava says “…sure.” She says King is replacing Bearhill in the tournament.

Dijak vs. Eddy Thorpe

They start brawling during Thorpe’s entrance and battle around the ring, trading shots. Dijak takes over and slams Thorpe’s back against the apron, then slams him into the announce desk. He goes to throw Eddy into the steps but Eddy reeverses and rolls Dijak in, then we have a bell.

Eddy pounds on Dijak but gets picked up and slammed in the corner. Thorpe batters Dijak but Dijak slams Thorpe back against the corner — and the ring broke! Dijak grabs the broken turnbuckle and slams it into Thorpe’s back for the DQ.

Winner: Eddy Thorpe (0:56)
Rating: N/A
Thoughts: All about the angle.

Dijak assaults Thorpe with the turnbuckle until officials come out to break it up. Dijak, bleeding from the side of his head, goes back in and grabs Thorpe to drop him on the second turnbuckle (now the top), then leaves as Eddy yells in pain.

* Time for a Chase U segment! Chase asks for the numbers on the bake sale: $66. The car wash? $245. Duke says that’s one quarter…of one quarter one quarter one quarter of the interest. Chase says he’ll take care of it, and Duke says he will? Because he looks liks shit.

Thea says she has an idea and goes with Jacy Jane to watch Riley Osborne’s match at the Chase U section. SCRYPTS walks in and has a proposition.

* Backstage, Blair says Cora stole her moment. Cora says she didn’t; Lyra did. And if Lyra hadn’t come out there, she never would have done so. Blair says Cora won’t face Lyra for the title, she’ll face her. Cora can deal with it. Blair says she’ll take care of Nikkita and they get a bit bitchy at each other before Blair leaves.

Men’s NXT Breakout Tournament Match
Keanu Carver vs. Riley Osborne

Lockup to start, Carver slams Riley down. Riley back into a headlock, back suplex by Keanu but Riley escapes and hits a backslide for two. Riley off the ropes, my feed went wacky but Riley gets LAID OUT with a clothesline.

Riley back up and goes for a middle-rope crossbody but gets caught for a fallaway slam. Carver drives his shoulder into Riley’s back a couple times, but back suplex slam for two. Carver into a chinlock with a knee in the back, Riley fights to get free and makes it to his feet.

Riley fights his way out and they trade shots, RIley off the ropes for a high knee and then a dropkick. Riley off the ropes but Carver POUNCES him! Riley on the apron, Carver picks him up but Riley with a kick to the head. Riley up top, Shooting Star Press finishes it.

Winner: Riley Osborne (3:27)
Rating: ** 1/4
Thoughts: Perfectly fine match for a reverse squash.

* Dragon Lee is walking backstage when Team Gulak comes in and congratulates him. Lee is skeptical and Gulak asks if the touching tribute to Wes Lee is a one-time thing or an ongoing situation. Lee responds in Spanish and Gulak asks again, every week? Lee says yes, and Gulak says they accept. Lee will find out which one of them he faces next week.

* Riley is walking backstage and Thea runs up to him as Jacy watches from behind. He says he appreciated her being out there and Thea says she appreciates him. She means, uh…yeah. Riley says he’s gonna take a shower and she says he needs it. Oh, no — he smells great. He leaves, Jacy gives Thea a “trying to be nice” thumbs up and Kiana and Izzi walk up and mock Thea before leaving.

Nikkita Lyons & Lyra Valkyria vs. Blair Davenport & Cora Jade

Lyra and Blair start it off and feel each other out before locking up. Lyra with a waistlock, they go into some counterwrestling, Lyra with a roll-up and then a trip, both for two. Blair with a snapmare and goes for a kick, Lyra dodges and knocks Blair into her corner.

Cora tags in and goes after Lyra but gets beat into the corner. Irish whip reversed, Lyra comes off the middle rope and takes Cora down with a headlock. Lyra kicks Blair’s hand away from a tag and then does it again, Blair enters the ring and Lyra kicks her down while DDTing Cora for two.

Lyra puts Cora in the corner and tags in Nikkita who tosses Cora across the ring because she wants Blair. Blair comes in and gets slammed down, she tags in Cora who nails Nikkita but Nikkita with a couple big shots. Blair trips Nikkita up and the distraction lets Cora take over. Blair tags back in and knocks Lyons down for two as we go to PIP break.

We’re back and Jade is in control of Lyons, but Lyons is trying to power to the tag. Cora with a shot to the back and goes to knock Lyra off the corner, but Lyra drops off and Lyons rolls her up for two. Cora still manages to knock Nikkita down and tags in Blair, but Lyra tags in and lays into Blair. Off the ropes with a crossbody, a spinning back kick and repeated strikes. Fisherman’s suplex but Blair escapes to the outside, so Lyra with a dropkick through the ropes!

Lyra rolls Blair in and goes up top, but she’s distracted by Tatum Paxley sitting onm the guardrail. She misses a top rope splash, Lyons saves Lyra and we have a brawl with both teams. It ends with Blair hitting the Riptide to Lyra, Nikkita pulls her out but Cora is legal and gets the pin.

Winner: Blair Davenport & Cora Jade (8:27)
Rating: ** 3/4
Thoughts: Good first match back for Cora and Nikkita, they looked perfectly good in there. The heels winning by heeling is Booking 101 and it worked fine; Tatum’s involvement was a thing.

Post-match, Tatum tosses Nikkita out of the ring, crawls to Lyra and caresses her.

* Hank asks Tank what he’s thinking about, and Hank says same thing he has been for a week: Gallus. Gallus comes in and says they should go to the club and drown their sorrows. Hank says they have more heart than all three of Gallus. Joe Coffey says he’s not getting involved. Hank and Tank leave, and Joe Gacy is there to say it takes a Joe to know a Joe, and references a Cup of Joe. Sure.

Set For Next Week:
– More NXT Breakout Tournament Matches
– Thea Hail & Jacy Jayne vs. Kiana James & Izzi Dame
– Tiffany Stratton vs. Fallon Henley
– NXT North American Championship Match: Dragon Lee vs. Member Of No Quarter Catch Crew

* Trick is WALKING backstage.

* We get a rundown of the two Championship matches for NXT New Year’s Evil.

* Here comes Trick to the ring! He does some call and response with the crowd and calls for the music to cut. He’s getting right to business: Deadline was a movie. He walked into this match against the best in NXT, and walked out the Iron Survivor. Usually he’d come out and cut him his opponents, but not this time. He has nothing but love and they put on a banger. And he heard NXT is coming out with an award show at the end of the year, and he’d put that match up against anything NXT did.

But here’s the thing: he was in the ring with some dogs, but they made one mistake. They forgot Trick Williams has been balling his whole life. He’s Trick Curry, he’s Mike Trick, #23 in LA, he’s Trick James, bitch! In three weeks we have New Year’s Evil, the baddest man in NXT vs. the hottest thing under the sun.

That brings out Ilja! The Dragon comes out in his snazzy suit with the title and a mic. Ilja says a few months ago, they stood in the ring and Trick thanked him for pushing him to a whole new level. On his day, he says he admired Trick’s courage and he was proud of him. He couldn’t watch live because he was getting ready for his own match, but he watched it later and saw Trick snatch victory in the final minutes. He says Trick is riding a wave of momentum barely seen before. Ilja starts a “WHOOP THAT TRICK” chant and says it’s the talk of all of WWE. And he says this with respect to Trick’s journey: at New Year’s Evil, it comes to an end.

Trick tells Ilja if he looked him in the eyes and said that a few months ago, he’d have played it cool but wondered if he could beat Ilja. But it’s not then and he’s not who he was; he’s the man here in NXT. And in three weeks he’ll beat the best NXT has to offer and become the new NXT Champion.

Ilja says he likes Trick, but he suffered too much to become champion, way too much to stay champion and he’ll do whatever it takes to remain NXT Champion!

HERE COMES MELO! Hayes limps down to the ring and tells Trick he apologizes, but this can’t wait any longer. He says that business he told him he had to take care of? This is that. For two months his name was dragged through the dirt, and it ends tonight. He knows who attacked Trick, because it’s who attacked him.

Ilja moves to leave and Melo tells him not to. Melo says the attacker was Ilja. Ilja is incredulous, and Melo says Ilja took them both out. Ilja says what the hell is he talking about? He says he had nothing to do with it.

Melo says think about it; who gains more than Ilja? He says he attacked Trick because he didn’t want to deal with them both. Ilja says he knew Melo was arrogant, but delusional too?

Melo says that if he pitted them against each other and then attacked Trick, the whole world would point the finger at him. Melo says this was all his plan all along since Halloween Havoc. Ilja says he didn’t attack him — if he in fact did get attacked.

Trick tells Ilja to tell him he didn’t just say that. Ilja looks him in the eyes and says he didn’t attack him, but he needs to talk to his friend. Melo says they’re on the same page now and there’s nothing he can do to take that. Melo says he needs to have his title taken away and tries to snag it, but in the struggle Trick gets hit with the title. The crowd chants “MELO’S GUILTY!” as we go to black.

And with that, we’re done for the night!