The January 6, 2020 episode of WWE NXT aired live on the USA Network from Orlando, Florida at the Capitol Wrestling Center.
WWE NXT Results
- Karrion Kross def. Damian Priest
- Santos Escobar def. Gran Metalik to retain the Cruiserweight Championship
- Xia Li def. Katrina Cortez
- Raquel Gonzalez def. Rhea Ripley in Last Woman Standing Match
- KUShotzi (KUSHIDA & Shotzi Blackheart) def. The Way (Johnny Gargano & Candice LeRae)
- Finn Balor def. Kyle O’Reilly to retain the WWNXT Championship.
Here are the takeaways from this week’s show:
NXT Cruiserweight Title Match
Gran Metalik challenged Santos Escobar for the NXT Cruiserweight Title on this show, which was set up on last week’s episode.
Although Gran never had a chance of actually winning the title by beating the champion here, it was a good spotlight for him.
The match was a fast pace highly impactful contest. There were some near falls that made it seem like Gran was close to victory. After a lengthy match, Santos hit his finisher for the win to successfully retain the title.
Karrion Kross vs. Damian Priest
Karrion Kross vs. Damian Priest in a singles match was just what fans had thought it was going to be. A fight. This marked Kross’ second match back after being sidelined with a shoulder injury that resulted in him getting surgery.
This was the opening contest and had no commercials. They had a hard-hitting style with two big guys just throwing. Priest got plenty of offense so it didn’t feel like a one-sided fight. The finish saw Kross hit his finisher for the win.
Kross made his return a few weeks ago by attacking Priest, who had been making his case to be the next challenger for Finn Balor’s NXT Championship.
There’s no date for NXT’s next TakeOver special, but it’s likely to take place later this month or in early February, it will be interesting to see whether Kross gets his shot at the NXT gold at this event.
Last Woman Standing Match
A last woman standing match took place featuring Rhea Ripley vs. Raquel Gonzalez.
The match saw them use various weapons such as a bell hammer, a piece of fence, and other things.
At one point, Ripley was backdropped onto the side of the announce table, which broke. Raquel threw several chairs on top of her as the referee counted. They brawled backstage and Rhea tackled her through a glass door. Dakota Kai came out and hit Rhea with a kendo stick several times. Rhea placed Kai in a locker. They crashed through the stage with Raquel coming up to stand.
WWE made this match official last week after a confrontation between Ripley and Gonzalez. Gonzalez came out to the stage during Ripley’s match against Dakota Kai on the show. They then went face-to-face following Ripley’s win. They got into a brawl.
Two weeks ago, Ripley lost to Toni Storm due to interference by Gonzalez. Ripley defeated Gonzalez when they faced each other at Halloween Havoc this October.
NXT Title Match
NXT Champion Finn Balor defended against Kyle O’Reilly with the title on the line in the main event.
O’Reilly defeated Pete Dunne on an episode of NXT TV a few weeks ago to earn this match.
O’Reilly previously challenged Balor for the NXT Championship in the main event of TakeOver 31 this past October. Although Balor retained his title, he suffered a broken jaw in the process.
This latest match featured a similar style to their first match. Balor had a nasty cut on his left eyebrow. The finish saw Balor have Kyle in a chin/arm submission and Kyle tapped out. This comes after Balor worked over the jaw of Kyle throughout the match.