BRM Reviews the 12/18/2019 NXT (FANTASTIC!)

[Big Red Machine]

NXT TITLE MATCH: Adam Cole(c) vs. Finn Balor- 8.25/10
An awesome opener, although it was disappointing to see them give up on the story of Cole working the knee after they set it up so well early on. Cole won when Johnny Gargano came out to distract Balor, which also caused the referee to be distracted, allowing Cole to hit a low blow. Cole then hit the Last Shot for the win.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- good
Gargano beat the crap out of Balor with a chair.

DAMIAN PRIEST vs. KILLIAN DAIN- 7.5/10
They showed us a video package beforehand to remind us about Priest having his ribs cracked by Dain at TakeOver, which I had completely forgotten about. That then became the story of the match.

The Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic returns next year. Cool! They’re announcing the teams on New Year’s Day.

CAMERON GRIMES vs. KUSHIDA- 7.25/10
A great match with a story of quick athletic counters. Mauro put Grimes’ big win over strongly.

IO SHIRAI vs. SANTANA GARRETT- 2/10
Too competitive to be a squash, but still short and relatively one-sided.

PETE DUNNE vs. TRAVIS BANKS- 7.75/10
Great, hard-hitting stuff. I spent the whole match dreading the inevitable run-in by the Forgotten Sons but it never came. The announcers used this match to put over Worlds Collide, but I thought that was weird because both of these guys have primarily been NXT UK guys.

CATHY KELLEY INTERVIEWS DAKOTA KAI- good stuff
She points out that she beat Mia Yim in their match, and no matter what Mia did afterwards, that fact doesn’t change.

Advertised for next week’s show is Roddy putting out an open challenge for the North American Title and Lio Rush & Keith Lee vs. Damian Priest & Tony Nese.

NXT WOMEN’S TITLE MATCH: Shayna Baszler(c) vs. Rhea Ripley- 9/10
The standard Baszler match awesomeness. Rhea’s arm got worked over, the Horsewomen tried to interfere, Rhea made a one-armed comeback, submissions were traded, big moves were hit, things escalated, etc. etc. Just go watch the match, okay?


A FANTASTIC episode of NXT. This was almost like a TakeOver with commercials (and one squash). Dynamite should be good, too, but they’re going to have a hell of a time trying to beat this.

[Serujuunin]

I actually brought my mom over to watch this one with me, and I’m glad I did. Everything about this episode was so satisfying.