The December 30, 2020 episode of WWE NXT aired live on the USA Network from Orlando, Florida at the Capitol Wrestling Center.
WWE NXT Results
- Bronson Reed def. Isaiah “Swerve” Scott.
- The Grizzled Young Veterans def. Breezango
- Mercedes Martinez def. Jobber
- Pete Dunne def. Roderick Strong.
- Lince Dorado & Gran Metalik def. Legado del Fantasma (Joaquin Wilde & Raul Mendoza).
- NXT North American Champion Johnny Gargano def. Leon Ruff
Here are the takeaways from this week’s show:
NXT North American Championship Match
Leon Ruff vs. NXT North American Champion Johnny Gargano with the title on the line was one of the biggest match to be announced in advance.
The USA Network gave them an overrun as they had a 15+ minute match with various near falls and Ruff being taken more seriously. Gargano sent Ruff into the top turnbuckle then hit a spring board DDT for the win.
This marked the first title defense in the current championship reign of Gargano as he won back the title by defeating Ruff and Damian Priest in a triple threat match at TakeOver: WarGames earlier this month.
Gargano had lost the title to Ruff in November as in the storyline, Gargano was trying to break his title defense curse by facing Ruff. Ruff got the win after a distraction by Priest.
Despite the comedic approach with the character, WWE is pushing Ruff as last week he got a surprise win over Timothy Thatcher with a cradle. However, two weeks ago, Gargano & Theory defeated Ruff & Kushida in a tag team match.
Roderick Strong vs. Pete Dunne
Roderick Strong vs. Pete Dunne in a singles match took place.
This came after last week’s show that saw Dunne suffer a defeat in a match to Kyle O’Reilly to decide NXT Champion Finn Balor’s challenger for New Year’s Evil. Later in the show, Dunne attacked Strong at ringside during the Adam Cole vs. Velveteen Dream main event. It featured Dunne laying out Strong by connecting with the Bitter End on the apron.
It was a hard-hitting affair that had some decent time with both guys getting their spots in and a few near-falls. Dunne went over with his finisher.
Tag Team Match
The Grizzled Young Veterans vs. Breezango took place in a tag team match.
The match was fine. There was a spot where Fandango jumped off the barricade and sold his knee. It saw Grizzled Young Veterans hit their finisher for the win.
Post-match, Ever-Rise came out and started yelling at the winning team before backing down.
Last week on NXT TV, NXT Tag Team Champions Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch retained their titles in a street fight against Breezango. Three weeks ago, The Grizzled Young Veterans defeated Ever-Rise (Chase Parker & Matt Martel) and Imperium (Marcel Barthel & Fabian Aichner) in a triple threat tag match.
Mercedes Martinez Back In Action
Mercedes Martinez returned to in-ring action on this against a jobber, who had wasn’t even advertised in advance due to this being a complete squash match to show off the dominance of Martinez.
The weird thing was that it wasn’t just a quick match, but dragged to further showcase Martinez.
Martinez made her return last week by attacking WWE NXT Women’s Champion Io Shirai, who had been calling out Toni Storm.
Bronson Reed vs. Isaiah “Swerve” Scott
Bronson Reed vs. Isaiah “Swerve” Scott kicked off the show in a singles match.
The match was solid with Reed getting the win. It was basically Scott getting a few spots, but mostly Reed, who won with a splash off the top rope.
This came after Reed returned to the ring on NXT last week where he quickly defeated Ashante “Thee” Adonis.
On this same episode of NXT, Scott was also victorious by defeating Jake Atlas in what was a rematch after Atlas had defeated him earlier this month. It appears that there is still a match between Scott, and Atlas as Scott used a headbutt during the match, which led to him getting the win. Scott had declined a handshake from Atlas after their previous match and Atlas did the same thing last week.
Meanwhile, WWE is still high on Reed and will likely be in the hunt for the North American Title again in the near future.
Two Staredowns
WWE NXT Champion Finn Balor and Kyle O’Reilly had a segment in the second hour to further promote their title match on next week’s show.
Balor cut a promo about how their first match was the match of the year. Kyle came to the ring. Balor said that he doesn’t need a trophy to remember their first match, but rather just the three plates in his jaw as he broke it in that contest to remind him of it. Balor said that he thinks about it every day and the trophy only is good for collecting dust. Kyle said the trophy says to him that he belongs at the top of NXT. He called it a participation award and that he’s done doing so because he wants the real prize. Kyle said that he came up short before, but that will change next week. Kyle said that winning the title will prove why he’s been wrestling for 15 years. Balor promised to make him suffer.
Scarlett and Karrion Kross walked out to the stage. She said that the title belongs to them. She said that Balor’s fate is already sealed. Kross said that doomsday is already here. Damian Priest appeared and had a staredown with Kross. They broke out in a brawl. They crashed through the barricade.