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Kevin’s WWE NXT Review 12.23.20

December 23, 2020 | Posted by Kevin Pantoja
WWE NXT 12-23-20
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Kevin’s WWE NXT Review 12.23.20  

NXT Tag Team Championship Street Fight: Danny Burch and Oney Lorcan [c] vs. Drake Maverick and Killian Dain

Dain and Maverick attack during the entrance of the champions. The fight gets into the ring where the champs take control by taking out Drake and isolating Dain in the corner. Dain backdrops Lorcan onto two open chairs to turn the tide. He and Drake hit a drop toe hold/senton combo and then Dain starts using Drake as a weapon. On ht outside, Lorcan takes out Dain with a running Blockbuster. He fights back but runs into a table outside and crashes through it heading into commercial break. Returning, they’ve oddly gone the traditional tag route with legal men and such. The champs whip Drake with a leather strap. Drake wants the tag but Dain is still down from the table spot. Dain finally returns and gets the hot tag, hitting everything moving and suplexing people. He squashes both guys in opposite corners and powerbomb. Still, he gets knocked out again and nearly put through a table that doesn’t break. Drake is left alone. He uses low blows to swing the momentum and starts whipping both champions. The numbers game is still too much and Drake is planted with the elevated DDT that ends this.

Winners: Danny Burch and Oney Lorcan in 15:35 [That was hard hitting and fun but the strange decision to go with traditional tag rules hurt it. ***]

Time for a segment from The Way regarding how to celebrate the holidays. That includes putting a Johnny Gargano figure on top of the tree. Not Elf on a Shelf but Gargano on a piano as he literally plays on a piano. Candice says the kids want to open their gifts and it’s Indi and Austin. Johnny notes that the love of his life is there and aims the camera as the title instead of Candice. They scold Austin for mentioning No Way Jose. It looks like we’ll be checking in throughout the night.

It’s time for a look back at Kyle O’Reilly and Finn Balor’s classic at TakeOver 31. Kyle watches and puts over how good Finn is and says he feels like he was destined to wrestle him. He’s pissed off watching it back. Finn is more confident, saying he pounced on Kyle once he had the chance. Kyle gains confidence watching the broken jaw back. Finn says that’s what people remember but he won. Finn says there won’t be a trilogy.

Backstage, Malcolm Bivens is with Tyler Rust. Bivens puts over Rust’s impressive debut with the interviewer. He says he’s not a rookie but a diamond in the rust.

Isiah “Swerve” Scott vs. Jake Atlas

We’ve got a more cocky Swerve here. They work the mat and trade holds there to start. Atlas slaps him, which causes him to unleash strikes in the corner. Swerve gets a kick caught and a dragon screw leads to an awkward landing. However, Swerve ties up Atlas’s feet with his own and trips him up, only to take a springboard enziguri anyway. Swerve is frustrated outside as he regroups heading into break. Returning, they trade shots and Atlas scores two on a sett sunset flip style bomb. Swerve superkicks Atlas to interrupt the cartwheel DDT finisher. He adds an apron pump kick and a tilt-a-whirl inside. Swerve gets two on a suplex. Atlas wants a poison rana off the top but Swerve lands on his feet. They trade boots but Swerve trips him up for the advantage. They jockey for position on a pin and when Atlas doesn’t break on the ropes, Swerve headbutts him. He hits the Confidence Boost (?) to win.

Winner: Isiah “Swerve” Scott in 10:30 [Another quality match, though it was a bit disappointing. The new attitude for Swerve is interesting. ***]

Adam Cole and Roderick Strong are interviewed about their confidence in Kyle O’Reilly. Velveteen Dream interrupts to say that the mighty have fallen. Now, Kyle is the head of The Undisputed Era and not Adam Cole. Cole simply slaps him and says there is no leader of the group and he challenges Dream tonight.

Timothy Thatcher cuts a promo backstage on Tommaso Ciampa. He asked for a match just like Ciampa did and he got no respect for it. He promises to take liberties with Leon Ruff and if Ciampa is who he says he is, he’ll save him. Thatcher wants to fight Ciampa.

Dakota Kai vs. Rhea Ripley

Raquel is barred from ringside. Rhea has the size advantage and uses it well until Dakota brutally stomps her arm onto the apron. She then sends her arm first into the ring post, having a target heading into break. Kai holds serve throughout the commercial but upon returning, Rhea manages to overpower her. Even with one good arm, she hits a snapmare and dropkick. Rhea screams in pain and tries to fix the arm to no avail. She still gets several near falls on different slams. Kai sends her into the middle buckle and follows in with a running boot. Her rollup attempt is countered into the hanging inverted cloverleaf. Raquel Gonzalez appears on the stage, which isn’t ringside. Rhea sees her and talks trash, threatening to snap Dakota’s legs. Kai gets to the ropes though. She fights her off in the corner and delivers the Kai-ro-Practor for two. Kai counters Riptide into a guillotine but gets overpowered and slammed. Riptide connects on the next attempt and that’s all.

Winner: Rhea Ripley in 11:28 [Match of the night. Dakota continues to deliver and Rhea sold the hell out of her damaged shoulder. That’s all I can ask for sometimes. ***1/2]

Raquel walks down to the ring and has a faceoff with Rhea. They circle the ring and then finally start trading blows but officials hold them back. Both women break free at different times to leap out and fight more.

Back to the Garganos. Indi opens her gift and it’s a PS5. By the way, Austin’s gift was protein powder. Anyway, the PS5 box is actually empty since it was done for dramatic effect and he has the actual PS5. The real gift is the nickname as she is now Indi Wrestling. Theory cries tears of joy for how beautiful it is.

Toni Storm is interviewed about what’s next. She says that it’s taking the NXT Women’s Title from Io Shirai. Toni says Io knows that she’s the one woman who she can’t beat. Toni brings up the Mae Young Classic for a reminder.

A Bronson Rreed vignette airs.

A new Xia Li training video is shown. She fires off training shots. She also beat sup Boa, who shouts that he wants more. It’s still weird as hell.

Ashante “Thee” Adonis vs. Bronson Reed

Adonis strikes early but Reed runs him over and hits a senton. He adds the Tsunami to win.

Winner: Bronson Reed in 1:09 [NR]

Io Shirai storms away from McKenzie Mitchell and demands someone play her music. She hits the ring with no title and gets a steel chair and microphone. She sits in the middle of the ring and calls out Toni STorm, sitting down until she gets an answer. Toni’s music hits but instead, Mercedes Martinez sneaks up from behind and attacks. She chokes Io and then uses a DVD to drive her into the gate. She leaves Io lying heading into break.

More Gargano Christmas. The last gift is for Candice. It’s the wheel from Shotzi Blackheart’s tank, which he spent 17 hours in the junkyard finding, even though he hates wheels. They try to take a family photo but Theory spits up protein powder during it.

Leon Ruff vs. Timothy Thatcher

Tim is vicious immediately, hitting Ruff hard and wrenching back on various submissions. Even when Ruff gets in offense, Thatcher responded with knee lifts and a suplex. After more abuse, he sets up a chair outside for Ciampa. Ruff rolls him up for two when he returns and fires off dropkicks. Of course, Thatcher just wails on him some more. Then, from out of nowhere, Ruff uses an inside cradle to pull off another upset.

Winner: Leon Ruff in 3:59 [A fun little match that did what it had to. **]

Thatcher goes after Ruff but Ciampa appears and attacks. He says that if he wants a fight, he’ll see him in the Fight Pit.

Dexter Lumis is drawing again. This time, it’s a Last Woman Standing picture of Ripley and Gonzalez. That seems to be the case for New Year’s Evil.

Ariya Daivari vs. Tyler Rust

205 Live stalwart Daivari gets twisted around by Rust to start. Malcolm Bivens praises him by the commentary table. Rust also throws in stiff shots as Bivens keeps talking. Ariya comes back with a running boot and gets offense going. However, he talks smack and that opens the door for a triangle choke of sorts from Rust. Ariya reaches the ropes but Rust fires off kicks to the shoulder. He ties Daivari up into a sick submission to win.

Winner: Tyler Rust in 4:32 [Kind of bland even if the work was solid. *3/4]

Backstage, Leon Ruff says that he just got a North American Title rematch next week.

Karrion Kross gets to respond to Priest. He says Priest dug himself into a hole he can’t dig himself out of by questioning his manhood and making comments to Scarlett. Doomsday is coming.

Adam Cole vs. Velveteen Dream

Dream looks to goad Cole in with smack talk and even tries to slap him but misses. He gets in a cheap shot that puts him in control until the two run into a good old fashioned DOUBLE NOGGIN KNOCKER. Pete Dunne shows up when both are down and hits Roderick Strong with Bitter End onto the apron. Dream lays out Cole due to the distraction heading into commercial. During the break, Dream holds serve and wears down Cole but returning, Cole starts fighting back and he scores a near fall. Dream eats an enziguri and German suplex for two. Dream comes back with a neckbreaker that also gets two. He blocks a Figure Four and sends Cole outside. Dream wants the axe handle off the top but leaps into a superkick to the gut. Dream is too hurt to get back in, so Col takes a breather inside waiting for him. Cole pounces with another superkick and locks in the Figure Four. Dream survives and hits the Dream DDT. He goes up top and connects on the Purple Rainmaker but Cole kicks out. They trade more stuff with Cole hitting another superkick and the Last Shot

Winner: Adam Cole in 13:19 [This was weird. The ending stretch featured a lot of hollow near falls and the early stuff was kind of just there. **1/2]

7.0
The final score: review Good
The 411
That was another good episode from NXT. It wasn't overly great and nothing stood out other than the Dakota/Rhea match and the fun Gargano segments. It hit a lull late and ended on a weak note but was still enjoyable overall.
legend

article topics :

WWE NXT, Kevin Pantoja