The September 23, 2020 episode of WWE NXT aired live on the USA Network from Winter Park, Florida at Full Sail University.
WWE NXT Results
- Candice LeRae won #1 Contender Battle Royal
- Tommaso Ciampa def. Jake Atlas
- Danny Burch & Roderick Strong def. Fabian Aichner & Raul Mendoza)
- Damian Priest def. Austin Theory
- Ridge Holland def. Antonio de Luca
- Kyle O’Reilly won Gauntlet Eliminator
Here are the takeaways from this week’s show:
Interesting Tag Team Match
WWE booked a tag team match with a member from four tag teams. It was Roderick Strong representing the Undisputed Era teaming up with Danny Burch taking on Imperium’s Fabian Aichner and Legado Del Fantasma’s Paul Mendoza.
WWE had claimed Fandango came up with the idea for the match. The winners of this match will then face off in another tag team match at a later date for a future shot at the NXT Tag Team Titles.
If there was ever a random tournament type match this would be it. As far as the work inside of the ring, it was fine.
The finish saw Burch hit a cutter to Mendoza off the top rope for the win.
Battle Royal
WWE held a #1 contender battle royal to determine who will challenge Io Shirai at TakeOver for the NXT Women’s Title.
Shotzi Blackheart, Kacy Catanzaro, Indi Hartwell, Aliyah, Dakota Kai, Candice LeRae, Rhea Ripley, Tegan Nox, Raquel Gonzalez, Kayden Carter, and Xia Li were the competitors.
This was a typical battle royal that you’ve seen before until the ending when there were four stars being left.
At one point, there was a spot where Catanzaro was sent over the top rope, but jumped onto the barricade and then back to the ring apron. Ripley and Gonzalez were eliminated at the same time when they brawled over the top rope to the floor.
The final two stars were LeRae and Blackheart. The finish saw LeRae toss Blackheart off the steel steps and Blackheart crashed on her back.
I don’t know if it would matter who won this contest. Io is still early in her title reign and there are no many people on the roster who can be a believable threat to Io’s title outside of Ripley.
This upcoming match should be fun even if WWE can’t convince fans in thinking that Io has a real chance of losing the title.
Tommaso Ciampa’s New Side Continues
Tommaso Ciampa battled Jake Atlas in a singles match on this show. This comes off Ciampa’s recent in-ring return and heel turn in the process.
It also comes at a time where Atlas made his return just last week. Atlas is still an unproven wrestler who has a bright upside and someone that will be pushed under the WWE banner.
Atlas did get some offense here, but it was exactly what you thought it would be and that is Ciampa being a nasty heel. He hit a middle rope DDT before hitting his finisher for the win.
It still seems as if WWE is building towards something much bigger for Ciampa, but with the next TakeOver event just over a week away, WWE might be saving for whatever they have planned after this show or will need to hot shot the feud quickly.
Gauntlet Eliminator Match
WWE held a Gauntlet Eliminator Match that would determine the new #1 contender to the NXT Title, which is held by Finn Balor.
Bronson Reed, Timothy Thatcher, Kyle O’Reilly, Kushida, and Cameron Grimes were the competitors in the match. The way the match worked was having two stars start off the contest with a new star being added every four minutes with eliminations being done by pinfall and submission until there was one wrestler left.
This was built as a first-ever match, but the concept of it was something that we’ve seen in the past. Either way, this was a fun yet different way to determine a new title contender.
O’Reilly and Kushida started things off while Reed came out as the third star. Kushida was eliminated when Reed hit him with a big splash off the top rope and next out was Thatcher followed by Grimes.
Reed was next to be eliminated. O’Reilly eliminated Thatcher. The final two stars were Grimes and O’Reilly, which saw O’Reilly lock in a heel hook.
