A Room with a Review: NXT 1/8/20

It’s the opening round of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic tournament, featuring invaders from across the pond.

• The show starts with NXT Women’s champion, Rhea Ripley. Rhea’s so intimidating that I bet if she went home to Australia, all of the fires would put themselves out. (All joking aside, you can donate to the Australian Red Cross here). Ripley is talking about never forgetting moments like winning the title when she gets interrupted by former NXT UK Women’s champion, Toni Storm. Storm reminds Rhea of the two times Toni beat her, then says she plans on regaining the UK title on Sunday and following that up with taking out Rhea at World’s Collide to become a double-champion. Current NXT UK Women’s champion Kay Lee Ray comes out and says no dice, Toni. Io Shirai interrupts in Japanese, followed by Bianca Belair. She says that she’s better than all of them, especially Rhea. Before Bianca can earn her beating, Candice LeRae comes down to join the action. Ripley decks Belair, and pandemonium ensues. Via referee, William Regal goes full Teddy Long and turns this into a six-woman tag team match.

• Back from commercial and it’s Rhea Ripley, Toni Storm, and Candice LeRae vs. Io Shirai, Kay Lee Ray, and Bianca Belair. All of the blondes on the face team? Are we sure Vince isn’t booking NXT? I would watch a singles match with any combination of these competitors. Ripley and Belair are the greenest, yet they may be the best two in the ring (please don’t murder me, Io). That’s exciting for the future of women’s wrestling in WWE. Shirai climbs to the top to hit her moonsault, but Bianca tags herself in so she can go for the KOD on Toni Storm. While Bianca has Storm up on her shoulders, Io dropkicks her own teammate in the face. Storm tags in Ripley, who takes out Belair with the Riptide. I can’t wait for a 30-minute Takeover match between Bianca and Rhea.

• They show us a video package detailing Tomasso Ciampa’s injury and recovery. He’s coming for Adam Cole (bay bay) and plans on regaining his beloved Goldie.

• Keith Lee is backstage and he’s ready to become NXT North American champion. I’m ready to make him North American president.

• Time for the first match of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic. The Forgotten Sons (Steve Cutler and Wesley Blake w/ Jaxon Ryker) are already in the ring, which is always a good sign. They are facing Imperium (Marcel Barthel and Fabian Aichner), so we finally get that USA/Germany/Italy WW2 rematch. Fabian Aichner seems like a mix of Dean Malenko and Cesaro, hitting a stiff European uppercut and following it with 30 seconds of selling that made Cutler look like Arn Anderson. Honestly, this is the best match the Forgotten Sons have ever had. Be that as it may, Imperium moves on after the European Bomb. 

• Queen Cathy Kelley is interviewing Matt Riddle backstage. Riddle gives us the story of how he and Pete Dunne became a tag team for the Dusty Classic and dubbed them the Broserweights. Less than a minute and they were able to give justification for a team that hasn’t worked together before. That’s the kind of stuff that Raw and Smackdown have been missing for a while now.

• A quick promo package for NXT UK Tag team champions Gallus, who are facing Undisputed Era later on as part of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic.

• Next up is Austin Theory, who looks like if Alex Riley was Marcus Alexander Bagwell. His opponent is the returning Joaquin Wilde. It still seems weird to see Wilde without his hairspray and Art Garfunkel hairdo. It was a solid match, won by Theory after a jumping TKO. I still think the guy is more vanilla than that jar of extract that’s been in my pantry for three years.

• Damian Priest is either backstage or in a Hot Topic fitting room, talking to random women and telling them that he’s winning the North American title. They nod politely.

• It’s time for the next match in the Dusty Classic. It’s the NXT Tag Team champions, Undisputed Era (Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly w/ Adam Cole (bay bay) and Roderick Strong) vs. the NXT UK Tag Team champions, Gallus (Wolfgang and Mark Coffey). This is an intriguing matchup and I like how they are integrating the UK guys in this show so they get some extra exposure before UK Takeover II this Sunday, only on the WWE Network. Wolfgang gets a quick jump on UE, but the vaunted numbers game helps distract him long enough for Fish and O’Reilly to take the advantage. 

• One commercial break later, and Undisputed Era is still in control. Wolfgang makes the hot tag to Coffey and Mauro can’t help but making all of the coffee puns he can. Nigel McGuinness even gets in on the action. UE gets the win after a Fish distraction, which leads to interference by Adam Cole (bay bay). 

• A quick video recap of the issues between Finn Balor and Johny Gargano to set up a promo from Johnny Wrestling, right after this commercial break. 

• As promised, Johnny Gargano strides to the ring with a purpose and asks for a microphone. Gargano puts over how important Finn was to the building of NXT and that he was the one who made Johnny miss his first Takeover. He says that Balor gave up on NXT when he got the call to move up, but Gargano says he turned them down when he got the call because he truly loves NXT. If that’s true, then Johnny Wrestling may have just become my favorite wrestler. This prompts Finn to come out and say that Johnny is soft. He’s willing to face Gargano at Takeover: Portland, if Johnny can make it there. Oh man, my body is ready for that match.

• Cameron Grimes looks to be in a storage closet backstage, talking to himself about the North American title match. I really don’t know how he is able to take time off from touring with Lynyrd Skynyrd.

• Mauro announces that Kushida’s mystery tag team partner for the Dusty Classic is Alex Shelley. The Time Splitters will wrestle in NXT!

• Mia Yim vs. Kayden Carter, who they bill from the Philippine Islands, yet Mauro immediately says she is a Winter Park native. Do these guys have a script supervisor? NXT is really good at this kind of match, where a rookie gets a great look on TV against a veteran and the veteran gets to win without it being a pure squash. Yim wins with a Protect You’re Neck, but both of them get jumped by Chelsea Green, who is accompanied by a debuting Robert Stone as her manager.

•  Dominick Dijakovic is monologuing backstage about the North American title while shadowboxing. The segments are so weird when they don’t address the camera directly. 

• It’s time for the main event. Damian Priest heads to the ring. He’s the Archer of Infamy, which is definitely a great nickname for a guy whose gimmick appears to be Ghost Rider, but on a Vespa. Time for one last commercial. 

• Back from commercial and it’s Damian Priest vs. Cameron Grimes vs. Dominick Dijakovic vs. Keith Lee, with the winner receiving a shot at Roddy Strong’s NXT North American championship. Lee and Dijakovic team up at the beginning, then set their sights on each other. Lee uses Priest as a weapon, taking out all of his opponents. If Keith Lee doesn’t win this then why are we even here?

• They managed to sneak in one more picture-in-picture commercial. When they return, Lee deadlift superplexes Priest with almost zero effort. The guy is a beast! Lee goes for a suicide dive, but Grimes catches him and hits a killer backflip power slam. Lee is able to fight back, though, and pins Grimes after a Spirit Bomb. Bask in his glory! *shakes fist* I said bask!

• It was another great night of NXT action. I truly think they are the best product on TV right now. Do you agree? Let me know why or why not in the comments below. And while you’re at it, please share this page with someone who might enjoy it. Thanks!

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