Christmas comes early this year to NXT with not one but two title matches that featured Finn Balor vs. Adam Cole for the NXT Championship, and Shayna Baszler vs. Rhea Ripley for the Women’s NXT Championship. With some great matches in between, the NXT 12/18 episode was a great episode of NXT that comes right before the holidays, and gave a nice reprieve to all the madness that comes during this time of year.
The first match was Finn Balor vs. Adam Cole for the NXT Championship. This felt like a very old school match that ate up almost a quarter of the episode. Most of the match took place on the ground while the two tried to trade finishers, but to no success. Near the end of the match Johnny Gargano came out to distract Balor, and it worked! Balor didn’t know what to do, he should’ve had the match in the bag but this was too much. The referee turned his attention to Johnny and that’s all the opening Cole needed. Cole low blow’s Balor, and then Last Shot to retain the title.
This was an interesting the match given the heel vs. heel nature, eventually Cole got most of the heat by getting a low blow on Balor while the ref was distracted. It also seemed like the crowd was buying into the idea of Cole being a heel, he does it so well. After the match Cole exits, Gargano and Balor stare each other down, until Gargano grabs a chair, gets in the ring, and starts beating the hell out of Balor. Gargano is clearly irate, and is back for revenge, Balor is left motionless on the floor as Gargano makes his incredible exit.
What better way to follow up a heel vs. heel match, than with another heel vs. heel match? Damian Priest and Killian Dain come out to face each other. This match is such a stark contrast to the previous one, whereas Balor and Cole gives showcases NXT’s more agile wrestlers, this is a showcase of large men taking each other on, almost like gladiators ready to fight to the death. This was a great follow up to the opening title match, both Priest and Dain throw themselves at each other and the hits come hard! Eventually Priest wins with a Reckoning and Dain, they both looked really good, but it felt like a showcase match for Priest to send him as far up as he can go.
The next match was Kushida vs. Cameron Grimes. This was a pretty quick and okay match by comparison to what was seen earlier, especially considering this is a rematch from a few weeks ago that didn’t feel very different from their last match. Grimes won via double stomp. There isn’t much to take away from here except that NXT will probably keep this feud going for a while.
Next was Io Shirai vs. Santana Garrett. I was personally a huge fan of this match but I’m definitely a mark for Io Shirai, this honestly just felt like a time killer. Shirai dominated Garrett in a very quick match. Garrett looked good, but right now it doesn’t look like there’s any way to stop Shirai, she has incredible charisma and has moonsaults like I haven’t seen in NXT since Ember Moon.Â
The second to last match was Pete Dunne vs. Travis Banks. Dunne looks really great in this match, which they dubbed a World’s Collide preview. The World’s Collide hype felt too contrived unfortunately, and just something that was being pushed hard by the announcers, especially since Dunne is representing NXT not NXT UK. It was a good match with the Bruiserweight winning and offering a first bump to Banks afterwards for some good sportsmanship.
The final match of the evening, the NXT Women’s Championship featuring Rhea Ripley vs. Shayna Baszler. This match was as good, if not better, than the opening title match. Shayna tried nearly every heel tactic to win, having her goons distract Rhea, taking advantage of a distracted ref, and aiming on parts where Rhea was injured to try and win. Conversely, Rhea looked like the scrappiest underdog ever, having held Shayna down for almost a ten count while the ref was knocked out, and having doctors clearing here in the middle of the match due to an injury! The match seemed over when Baszler got Rhea into the Kirifuda Clutch, Rhea looked like she was about to pass out, but when the ref went to check on her, she grabbed the ref’s arm and shook her head to indicate she wasn’t done. Shayna would not be deterred, she got the weakened Rhea into a corner and starting wailing on her. Eventually Rhea got a huge head-butt and landed an Avalanche Riptide for the win! Rhea Ripley is your new NXT Women’s Champion and I could not be happier. I was really happy with the both of them, because they are both incredibly talented wrestlers, but it’s time for a new Women’s Champion.
This was a great episode of NXT being bookended by two incredible matches. I’m excited to see where the Women’s Card goes next, but I’m sure we’ll see Rhea and Shayna is a re-match soon, they’re too talented to not cross paths again.
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