A Room with a Review: NXT 12/25/19
It’s a surprisingly fun Christmas Day edition of NXT, split between Brooklyn, NY and Full Sail University in Orlando, FL.
- It’s Christmas Time in NXT/Hunter’s gonna close up all the indies (my apologies, Run DMC). The show starts in the studio with Cathy Kelley, Sam Roberts, and Pat McAfee, whose gift to us is wearing pants instead of shorts. It’s a Christmas Miracle!
- They throw to Mauro Ranallo and Nigel McGuiness at Full Sail. Roddy Strong is backstage and says he feels like defending his North American title. He’s giving someone an opportunity and a “Season’s Beating” right now.
- North American Championship Match – Roderick Strong (c) vs. Austin Theory. Theory is a former Evolve champion and has generated a lot of buzz on the indy scene. He looks like some weird mix of Chris Benoit and Shawn Stasiak and would have fit right in as the heater for WCW’s Natural Born Thrillers. Nice mat wrestling to start the match that leads to a stiff elbow from Roddy. Theory gets his receipt with a stiff dropkick to Strong’s jaw. Theory busted out a rolling blockbuster that confused Nigel and Mauro (and me, to be honest). They’re telling a great story in the ring, but it really seems to be all Roddy. For all of the buzz, Theory doesn’t seem to be anything special. Roddy gets the win with the Stronghold. Nice start to the night.
- Back to the studio. If you told me Sam Roberts was Mick Foley’s long lost son, I wouldn’t be surprised. Now they throw to Brooklyn, NY, with Tom Phillips and Beth Phoenix.
- Isaiah “Swerve” Scott vs. “Gentleman” Jack Gallagher. They talk about how big a win this could be for Gallagher, like he isn’t the one who has been wrestling on WWE TV for the past three years. It took a minute for these guys to start clicking, but it ended up being a pretty good match, two-minute commercial break notwithstanding. Swerve wins with a kick to the head.
- Back to the studio, where they plug the end of the year awards show on New Year’s Day.
- Taynara (nee Conti) vs. Candice LeRae back at Full Sail. Taynara does great as a heel jobber (and is fun at house shows). Candice wins with the Asai moonsault.
- More studio filler, including a promo package for Arturo Ruas. He looked like a total badass until he claimed that Capoeira was the most dangerous martial art. Maybe for white dudes trying to imitate it.
- Dominik Dijakovic vs. Bronson Reed in Brooklyn. Dijakovic is the only guy whose name got longer after he joined WWE. Bronson Reed going for the Australian Big E gimmick. His singlet says thicc and he literally has one boob hanging out. It starts as a battle of side headlocks, which prompts the crowd to entertain itself. Chants of Baby Yoda ring out as someone in the crowd shows off their toddler in a Yoda hoodie. I’m all for a good old fashioned hoss fight, but this would have been better in front of the Full Sail crowd. Dijakovic wins with a turnbuckle-assisted choke-bomb.
- Back in the studio, they announce NXT vs. NXT UK at Worlds Collide in January. The main event will be Undisputed Era vs. Imperium and I would be okay if that was the whole show. This is followed by a promo package for Bianca Belair. She could be huge in 2020 and the one to dethrone Rhea Ripley when the time comes.
- Shotzi Blackheart makes her debut against Belair at Full Sail. The crowd is hyped for this. Like Austin Theory, Blackheart has been a big name on the indies, but she clearly has much more personality and ring presence than he does. This was a fun match that Belair won with the K.O.D.
- Back in the studio and Cathy is dogging Sam for his stupid comments about Bianca Belair from a year ago. Am I the only one who would rather see Peter Rosenberg instead of Sam Roberts?
- Main Event: Lio Rush and Keith Lee vs. Damian Priest and Tony Nese in Brooklyn. Odd pairings, but why not? Damian Priest looks like Hot Topic Diesel. I’m glad they kept Lio Rush around. He is so fun to watch and has tons of charisma. Speaking of tons of charisma, Keith Lee comes out wearing a Santa hat and eating Christmas cookies. This previously dead Brooklyn crowd busts out a “Bask in His Glory” chant. The match heads outside the ring and Nese gets pounced into Tom Phillips. The crowd is hot for Keith Lee. They recreate the Lee/Finn Balor spot from a few weeks ago, this time with Lee wearing the Santa hat. I love it when this stuff gets meta. Rush gets the pin after a Final Hour frog splash off of Keith Lee’s shoulders. I like the pairing of these two and they hinted during the match that they may team again for the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic.
- NXT delivers again. This stitched-together holiday show was still more entertaining than the recent episodes of Raw or Smackdown. Let me know if you agree in the comment section below.
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