The March 3, 2021 episode of WWE NXT aired live on the USA Network from Orlando, Florida at the Capitol Wrestling Center.
WWE NXT Results
- Danny Burch & Oney Lorcan def. Timothy Thatcher & Tommaso Ciampa
- Ember Moon def. Aliyah
- Women’s Tag Team Champions Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler def. Dakota Kai & Raquel Gonzalez
- Cameron Grimes def. Bronson Reed thanks to help from LA Knight
- Finn Balor def. Roderick Strong – non-title match
Here are the takeaways from this week’s show:
We Get A Big Title Announcement, Balor vs. Strong
Roderick Strong came out and cut a promo about how he demanded to see Adam Cole, who attacked him last week as the implosion of The Undisputed Era continues.
Instead, Finn Balor came out to the ring. Strong said that everything was fine until Balor showed up and blamed Balor for the chaos. Balor challenged Cole to a title match next week. He told Strong that he would never be a leader, but rather will always be a follower. Balor said that until Strong gets a killer instinct like him, he’ll never…Strong attacked Balor and Balor got the better of it until the referees came out to break it up.
A hot segment with a big random title match on a random episode of NXT. It’s interesting that WWE isn’t saving this for the TakeOver special next month.
Balor and Strong worked the main event, but it was a non-title match. Balor dominated the majority of it as it was a technical bout. They did some near falls down the stretch. Balor won with the 1916. Post-match, he had a staredown with Cole.
Group Therapy
The Way’s storyline with Dexter Lumis continued on this show as NXT North American Champion Johnny Gargano, Candice LeRae, Indi Hartwell & Austin Theory went to therapy.
This came after Gargano said last week he was sending Theory to therapy for having stockholm syndrome Theory was showing after being abducted by Lumis at TakeOver: Vengeance Day last month as he walked with the group to the ring, which featured Gargano retaining his North American Championship against Kushida.
Theory returned to NXT the following Wednesday but thought he had been on vacation for the past three days. Last week’s show saw Lumis defeat Gargano in a non-title match after Theory refused to hit Lumis with a steel chair.
The opening line of this segment was Theory telling Gargano that the place didn’t look like Chuck E Cheese. An older woman was their therapist. The whole group was there. Theory said he doesn’t have a Dexter Lumis problem and thinks he went on vacation. He said Dexter needed a friend. Gargano wanted Lumis arrested. Gargano freaked out and was kicked out. He sent text messages to Candice so both Candice and Indie got thrown out as well.
Non-Title Match
NXT Tag Team Champions Danny Burch & Oney Lorcan vs. Tommaso Ciampa & Timothy Thatcher in a non-title match took place.
Of course, Lorcan & Burch were originally set to defend their titles against men’s Dusty Classic winners MSK (Wes Lee & Nash Carter) on the episode. That was nixed due to Lee suffering a broken hand.
While he injured the hand in the finals of the Dusty Rhodes Classic last month, WWE did a segment where The Grizzled Young Veterans attacked MSK on NXT last week. Thus, WWE claimed Lee suffered his broken hand when The Grizzled Young Veterans used steel chairs in the attack.
After Thatcher defeated Ciampa in a Fight Pit match, the former rivals became partners as they teamed together since then. They fell short in winning the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic.
This match was solid with the champs going over with their finishers. Thatcher sold his left shoulder after the match. Imperium came out during the match to watch on, but they didn’t do anything past that.
Women’s Tag Team Title Match
Women’s Dusty Classic winners Dakota Kai & Raquel Gonzalez challenged Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Titles.
The match took place right around the top of the second hour. There was a referee spot and Jax and Raquel brawled to the floor. Shayna locked in the rear-naked choke for the win after Adam Pearce came out with a new referee. It turns out that Kai wasn’t the legal person for her team.
Kai & Gonzalez defeated Aliyah & Jessi Kamea in the first round of the tournament, Kacy Catanzaro & Kayden Carter in the semifinals, and Shotzi Blackheart & Ember Moon in the finals at the NXT TakeOver: Vengeance Day special.
WWE set up this feud two weeks ago on NXT as the two teams did a face-off where Jax and Baszler looked down on the fellow heels. In fact, on Monday, Jax put out an Instagram post noting that they were going down a level to face them.