Kevin’s WWE NXT Report 1.1.20

The first NXT of 2020 opens with a video package highlighting 2019. Pat McAfee narrated. 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 a chunk of the match. I didn’t do live coverage for that show, so here’s Larry Csonka’s writeup of the match.

Fatal Four-Way Vacant NXT Tag Team Championship Match: The Street Profits vs. Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch vs. The Forgotten Sons vs. Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish

They all brawl at the bell, spilling to the floor and Fish & O’Reilly work over Ford, and then Cutler, and then Blake. They now battle with Lorcan & Burch, trading strikes, and Burch lays in head butts as Lorcan lays in chops. TUE cut them off, and clear the ring. They look to climb, grabbing ladders, and Blake hits a suicide dive and about dies, hitting the ladder head first. We get mass brawling and Dawkins hits a dive onto the pile. Ford gets the ladder and they look to climb and TUE cut them off and Blake cuts them off. The Sons run wild with ladder shots, taking everyone out until Lorcan & Burch hit Germans. The Profits cut them off, and the spine buster and frog splash follow. They double team Blake, and hit the AWA special on the ladder. Flapjack to Cutler onto the ladder. O’Reilly now flies in with a missile dropkick and TUE double teams Ford and Germans him onto the ladder. Fish takes out Blake and climbs but Cutler powerbombs O’Reilly into the ladder to stop that. O’Reilly or Blake are getting broken here. The Sons set up a ladder over O’Reilly, Cutler climbs, but O’Reilly locks on a heel hook in the ladder, but Blake makes the save. They dump O’Reilly, and then double team Fish with the stomp/DDT combo off the ladder. The Sons climb but Dawkins & Burch cut them off and Lorcan flies in with a doomsday uppercut as Ford hits the doomsday blockbuster. Ryker arrives and powerbombs O’Reilly into a ladder, chokeslams Lorcan, and dumps Ford. The uranage on Ford follows, cuts off Dawkins and smashes him with the ladder in the corner. He then backdrops Lorcan onto the ladder. Ryker then levels Ford, but O’Reilly is back and he and Fish attack Ryker as the others join in. They beat on him with the ladder and TUE clears the ring. They then take Ryker to the floor with a ladder shot. Ford then follows with the tope con HELLO. Lorcan then follows with a dive (Ryker didn’t really catch either dive) and Burch dropkicks the ladder into TUE. Fish gets posted and Lorcan hits half and half on O’Reilly. It breaks down and Lorcan & Burch smash the Profits with ladders. They then toss the ladders, taking out al three Forgotten Sons. They climb now, but TUE cut them off and now they climb. Lorcan and Burch follow, they all brawl on the ladders, and go crazy fists until the Sons topple the ladders over. They climb, but Dawkins makes the save and Ford springboards in onto the ladder, knocks off Cutler and the Profits win the titles.

The Street Profits defeated Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch, The Forgotten Sons, & Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish @ 21:45

Time to talk 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 a feed of 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 throw shade at Regal who shrugs it off. The quartet hug and pose.

Returning from break, 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 BAY-BAY! Again, the Undisputed Era come out to the ring for another award. The group brags 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. The win goes to Shayna Baszler. She comes out flanked by 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. The nominees are…not mentioned. 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.

The #2 Match of the Year candidate is women’s War Games. The clip picks up from Rhea Ripley’s entry. Again, here’s Larry’s work.

WarGames Match: Rhea Ripley, Tegan Nox, Dakota Kai, & Candice LeRae vs. Shayna Baszler, Io Shirai, Bianca Belair, & Kay Lee Ray

Ripley joins the match. She brings in a trashcan and slams the door into Bianca’s face, grabs more toys, chairs, and kendo sticks. Ripley slams Bianca onto a trashcan and sets up chairs as she and Candice look to attack until Io cuts them off, they all brawl and Ray joins the match. She grabs chairs and brings them in. She attacks with chair shots, and hits a tornado DDT onto a chair. They lay Ripley on the chairs and Candice follows Bianca up top and Ripley then follows them up until Io makes the save. Ray takes down the chairs and piles them up as we get a tower of doom into the pile of chairs. Bianca follows with a 450 onto Ripley and Kai attacks Nox, kicks her ass in the mini-cage and lays her out. She slams the door onto Nox’s bad knees and rips off the brace. She takes a swing at Regal and is escorted out. DARTH KAI IS HERE! Shayna laughs her ass of fat this as the heels dominate in the ring. Shayna is in and takes her time heading to the ring, and they beat down Ripley and set up a trashcan in the corner. WarGames has officially started according to commentary as Kai was taken out and Nox is not medially able to compete. It’s 4 on 2 in favor of the heels, and the faces battle back with weapon shots and until they get cut off. Ripley keeps fighting back, suplexes Ray into the cage and applies the hanging cloverleaf on Io as Shayna chokes out Candice, but she escapes with iconoclasm and Bianca makes the save. She press slams Candice onto Ripley and Ray hits the Gory bomb, moonsault from Io and Ripley makes the save. She slams Ray to the cage, Bianca hair whips her and Candice cuts her off with kendo shots. Io cuts her off and heads to the top of the cage, and Candice follows her up top. Ray joins in and Candice hits a SUPER POISON RANA for 2. Io hits the top of the cage moonsault into Candice & Bianca! Ripley cuts off Shayna with chair shots, sets up a bunch of open chairs and lays a trashcan onto them. She then hits Ray out of the air with a can, but Shayna gets the choke on Ripley. Ripley fights, powers her way out and handcuffs herself to Shayna . She follows with kicks, and riptide onto the chairs follows for the win!

Team Ripley defeated Team Baszler @ 27:30 via pin

Back to the studio. Nominees for Future Star are Kushida, Xia Li, Bronson Reed, Tegan Nox, Dakota Kai, Ilja Dragunov, Isaiah “Swerve” Scott, Taynara, and Cameron Grimes. Our winner is Dakota Kai. She comes out at Full Sail and takes the award, avoiding contact with Regal. She says that those who voted for her are just late to the party. She makes her own opportunities now.

The Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic! From NXT, we’ll see the Undisputed Era, Forgotten Sons, Matt Riddle & Pete Dunne, and Kushida with a mystery partner. From NXT UK, we get Grizzled Young Vets, Gallus, Imperium, and Webster/Andrews.

The next award is TakeOver of the Year. The winner is War Games.

Up next is Breakout Star of the Year. We’ve got 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 doesn’t get the Full Sail treatment, instead getting his award from Triple H in the back. He thanks the fans and sings that we haven’t seen anything yet.

The 2019 MOTY is Cole/Gargano from TakeOver: New Yotk. Here’s the writeup.

NXT Championship Two Out Of Three Falls Match: Adam Cole vs. Johnny Gargano

Iron Man themed gear for Gargano. Crowd is split. They lock up and work the mat for a while.  Cole avoids a leapfrog and they go at it. Gargano with an armdrag after avoiding a strike. Cole fights to his feet and takes a shoulder block. Cole scurries to the ropes to avoid the Gargano Escape. Forearm by Cole. They trade blows and Gargano wins out by clotheslining him to the outside. Cole avoids a shot from the apron but Johnny knocks him back with a dropick through the ropes. Cole is rolled in but goes all the way out to the other side. He catches Johnny with a step up enziguri. Chop from Cole followed by knees. Cole takes it to the mat with a chin lock. Gargano fights out and runs into an elbow for one. Gargano fights out of a modified dragon sleeper and they cross body each other. When they get up, they trade shots and clotheslines. Johnny with a snap belly to belly suplex. Cole counters a pin into one of his own for two. Johnny with the roll through kick and Cole rolls outside. Cole gets in and eats the slingshot spear for two. They fight and Johnny fakes a leap off the second rope to fake out Cole’s kick attempt. He follows through with a swinging Paydirt. They fight over a suplex and some waistlocks before Cole catches him with a Backstabber for two. I miss a bit of the next sequence and they roll each other up for two. Cole ducks a kick, Johnny ducks a kick and pins him for two. Cole counters a sunset flip and hits the Last Shot to win the first fall in 13:55. In the second fall, they trade shots. Cole with a German suplex and the Shining Wizard for two. Johny fights free of a fireman’s carry and ends up on the apron. He spears Cole on it and climbs back on before hitting a somersault dive. Inside, Cole counters the slingshot DDT and hits the USHIGIROSHI for two. They fight up top and Gargano hits an avalanche Air Raid Crash, Ciampa’s move, for two. Gargano goes to the apron for the slingshot DDT but Cole drops down and joins him on the apron. He hoists Gargano up on his shoulders. Gargano gets out and does the slingshot DDT to the apron. Outside, Cole gets vicious and throws Gargano into the ring post a few times. Inside, Gargano grabs his leg to block the Last Shot. He pulls him into Ciampa’s armbar. Cole counters and Johnny counters back into the Gargano Escape. Cole immediately taps at 20:55. Johnny has a cut above his eye. They trade blows inside and Johnny takes Cole down. he wants the DIY taunt superkick but Cole blocks. Johnny with a kick to the head. Cole with the Brainbuster on the knee to answer for two. Cole brings Johnny over to the corner. he climbs up but Johnny hits him with a step up enziguri. Lawn Dart connects and he gets two. With both men on their knees, they trade strikes. They get to their feet doing that. They catch each other’s superkicks and then hit enziguris. Forearms, clotheslines, and superkicks all at the same time. Cole holds the wrist but hits a forearm. He leaps over Johnny and superkicks him in the back of the head. Straightjacket suplex gets two. Johnny blocks an Fairytale Ending but takes a backdrop driver. Gargano avoids the Panama Sunrise. He hits a reverse spike rana and added a superkick, but Cole rolls outside to avoid getting pinned. Johnny takes a sick wheelbarrow suplex onto the apron. Cole rolls him inside but Gargano hits a spike DDT. Slingshot DDT only gets two. Cole goes back outside. Johnny follows with a tope suicida. He tries to slingshot in but eats a superkick. Panama Sunrise follows to a huge pop but Gargano gets a shoulder up. Johnny is out on the apron. Cole kicks him outside and calls him a failure. Johnny responds with a forearm and throws him over the announce table. He clears it off but Cole turns it around with the Fairytale Ending onto the table. Gargano beats the countout and gets inside. Cole hits the superkick but Johnny kicks out. Cole looks for another Last Shot but Johnny pops up with a superkick. Cole with another one of his own. Johnny blocks Panama Sunrise and pulls him into the Gargano Escape. Roderick Strong shows up and is knocked off the apron. Johnny puts him back in the hold but Strong distracs the referee as he taps. Kyle gets in and rakes Johnny’s eyes. Cole kicks Gargano into the referee. Undisputed enter and hit Total Elimination on Johnny. They roll the referee in and Johnny still kicks out. Johnny sends Cole out onto the Undisputed Era. He throws him back in and sends Roddy into the post, superkicks Fish, and hits a tornado DDT on Kyle. Inside, he eats another superkick. Another one to the back of the head. Last Shot connects and again Johnny kicks out. Johnny ducks another Last Shot and puts on the Gargano Escape again. He rolls away from the ropes and Cole taps out.

Winner: Johnny Gargano in 38:10

And the winner for Overall Competitor of the Year…Adam Cole. He’s out for one more meeting with William Regal, flanked by his buddies. He just says that the group is only getting started. They hold all of their awards, hug, and say they run NXT.