The December 4, 2019 episode of WWE NXT aired live from Winter Park, Florida at Full Sail University. Here are 5 takeaways from this week’s show:
Killian Dain Receives New Opponent
WWE had advertised Killian Dain wrestling Damian Priest in a singles match for over a week. However, that all changed when WWE announced earlier today that Priest wasn’t medically cleared to compete on this show against Dain.
Thus, WWE opened the show with Dain and out walked Pete Dunne. These two battled in a contest that was solid and featured Dain going over. WWE gave these guys plenty of time to work and tell the story that they wanted.
This was a good replacement as NXT is still building up Dain as their next big monster type heel while also using Dunne on television in a prominent role.
It also helped that these two guys have a history and have been feuding over the last few weeks. In fact, they were most recently part of a Triple Threat Match that saw them lose to Roderick Strong at NXT TakeOver: WarGames III event from the Allstate Arena in Chicago, Illinois over Survivor Series weekend.
Strong would go over in that contest to become the #1 contender for the NXT Title where he suffered a defeat to Adam Cole the following night.
The Undisputed Era Speaks
The Undisputed Era (Adam Cole, Kyle O’Reilly, and Roderick Strong) came out to the ring where Cole cut a promo about a strong November to remember and brought up invading RAW and SmackDown then winning their matches at Survivor Series.
Cole talked about Fish dealing with a neck injury then brought up being tackled by Keith Lee last week. Cole brought up how Finn Balor turned his back on them and kicking him in the face. Cole wants answers from him and wouldn’t leave until they get those answers.
Instead, Lee walked out. The group talked down to him especially O’Reilly, who called him a loser for losing to Roman Reigns at Survivor Series. Lee called himself a game changer and said that he turned Cole into a viral GIF. Lee brought up winning at WarGames and said that he’s deciding which title he wants to take first.
Cole threatened to beat him down and end his career. A brawl broke out. Tommaso Ciampa ran out and attacked Cole. This ended the segment.
This was a nicely done segment although now we can throw Lee into the talk of who is the actual #1 contender for the NXT Title as we have Ciampa and Balor in the mix as well.
It also set up the main event that was a six-man tag team match.
Dakota Kai Brawled Instead
Rhea Ripley vs. Dakota Kai was supposed to open the second hour of the show. However, the match didn’t take place as Ripley brought out Mia Yim, who brawled with Kai.
Eventually, Shayna Baszler, Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir ran out and laid out Ripley before challenging her to a title match on December 18th.
This was a continuation of the fallout from Kai’s heel turn at NXT TakeOver: WarGames III event from the Allstate Arena in Chicago, Illinois. In fact, WWE aired black and white footage of the attack before the match was supposed to take place. Kai also walked out with the knee brace.
This was a nice touch and appears to be part of her entrance. It’s also a follow up from last week when Kai beat down Candice LeRae until Ripley came out to make the save.
For those who may have forgotten, Kai was the mystery attacker at the show a few weeks ago that took Yim out of the WarGames match and allowed Kai in the contest.
Matt Riddle Takes On Kassius Ohno
WWE booked somewhat of a random match between Matt Riddle and Kassius Ohno.
This contest took place around 20 minutes after the second hour had started. It was a decent match that left somewhat to be desired considering these two talented guys. The obvious outcome happened with Riddle going over.
Ohno had been off of NXT television as he’s been working the NXT UK TV tapings as of late. With that said, it was nice to see Ohno back but he doesn’t hold much stock with fans as a believable contender especially going up against someone like Riddle, who is an established top star in NXT.
This is by design as it’s no secret that Ohno is a wrestler/teacher for younger stars in NXT.
This is a repeat of history as these two have feuded before and I doubt that this match will reignite a feud but rather this was a one-off.
Kushida Returns To In-Ring Action
Kushida made his grand return to in-ring action on this show.
He did so when he beat Cameron Grimes in a singles match. It was a fine match but nothing to write home about.
This comes after he suffered a wrist injury in late September then re-aggravated it in a one-on-one bout with WWE United Kingdom Champion WALTER.
As a result, it forced him out of action. Now that he’s healed up, Kushida will look to get back to form and where he was before he went down with an injury.
It’s nice to have Kushida back but at the same time, he does still face the same issue that he was dealing with prior to the injury, which was the fact of his position in the brand.
This was a question when he signed with the company. That question still remains.
