The night before the Royal Rumble saw a special selection of matches featuring the stars of NXT vs the stars of NXT UK. They experimented with a similar concept last year as a series of taped specials, but this year they went full TakeOver with it and built up some solid feuds in the process.
Preshow
The preshow featured a non-title match between UK Women’s Champion Kay Lee Ray and NXT’s Mia Yim. Yim kicked off the action with some fast and furious strikes before surrendering to the more measured pace of Ray. Both women took some solid high risk moments to ramp up the excitement. At one point Yim countered an attempted Gory Bomb into a Code Blue for a near fall. Ray continued kicking out of multiple pin attempts until the final sequence. KLR used a handful of tights and the support of the ropes to pick up a dirty pin on Yim.
Worlds Collide
The opening match of the night saw NXT veteran Finn Balor taking on rising UK star Ilja Dragunov. I was actually surprised to see this in the opening spot as I thought it would be a potential show stealer later in the night. That honor went to some other folks, but we’ll get there soon enough.
They started with a solid series of holds back and forth end in a draw. Dragunov gestured for Balor to “bring it” before proceeded to slap the Irishman across the face as an exclamation point. This did not sit well with the “Prinxe.” There were a few awkward moments that I wasn’t sure about. They could have been intentional pauses for drama or simple miscommunications, but once the two combatants got back on the same page things flowed pretty well.
Balor gained control by working over his young foe outside of the ring, but the Russian mounted a comeback thanks in part to his super human strength and endurance. Dragunov very nearly pulled off the win, but the cagey veteran managed to avoid a top rope senton. He followed up quickly with both a Coup de Grace and a 1916 DDT for the victory.
Cathy Kelly was ringside talking with the Grizzled Young Veterans and the Broserweights. The two teams will face each other on Wednesday in the finals of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic. Queen Cathy informed us that the winner will not only receive the coveted Dusty Cup but also get a tag title match against Undisputed Era at TakeOver Portland.
Cruiserweight Chaos
In a truly international showcase, Cruiserweight Champion Angel Garza put his title on the line against America’s Isaiah “Swerve” Scott, Ireland’s Jordan Devlin and New Zealand’s Travis Banks. Fans were surprisingly supportive of Garza at the top of the match, but when he attempted his pants removal gimmick the other 3 competitors hit him with a triple superkick.
As you would expect from such a talented foursome of cruiserweights, there was plenty of quick, creative action throughout the match. Every man really had a chance to shine, but Banks was perhaps the standout. When Devlin landed a double superplex on Swerve and Garza, Banks broke up the pin with a Slice of Heaven and came close to pinning the Irish Ace. The finish saw Garza successfully hit his Wing Clipper on Swerve. However, Devlin broke up that pin and quickly landed Devlinside for the win.
On one hand, it seems to me that Garza’s title reign was cut a little short. On the other hand, Devlin has been one of the best workers representing the UK brand since its inception, and he was long overdue to get some gold around his waist. Moving forward he now has ready to go feuds with Garza on NXT prime and Banks on NXT UK.
Out in the audience Mia Yim seems to have recovered from her preshow loss to enjoy some of the action alongside boyfriend and newly crowned North American Champion Keith Lee. Chelsea Green and manager Robert Stone were also shown making their way to some seats in the audience.
Legends Fight with Honor
Just “for old time sake” the founding fathers of NXT UK Mustache Mountain (Trent Seven & Tyler Bate) went into battle with the heart and soul of NXT Prime DIY (Johnny Gargano & Tomasso Ciampa). This was an exceptionally fun match in which sportsmanship and respect were on full display, and by the end these four stalwarts of the black and gold had clearly stolen the show.
An impressive chain of holds and reversals leads to the first handshake between Gargano and Bate. They hand things over to Ciampa and Seven for a pose down and a test of strength that earn another round of handshakes. Eventually DIY did turn up the aggression a bit to take control of the match, but they never stopped having fun for the crowd in the process.
Bate made a hot tag to a fresh Seven to turn things around in their favor at one point. The pace picked up with a fast flurry of action featuring multiple near falls and reversals. The crowd is loving it and totally split in favor of both teams. DIY locked in dual submissions as they have in the past, but Mustache Mountain muscled them up into stereo airplane spins.
I’m enjoying the match so much that it’s difficult to keep up with my notes. At one point MM nearly won with a Birminghammer/knee strike combination. Eventually though, it’s DIY who hits their classic double knee spot on Seven for the victory. Post match the crowd shows them the respect they deserve as all 4 men stand together in the ring with raised arms.
The newly signed veteran Mercedes Martinez is in the audience, but then the camera moves to Dakota Kai just in time to see her attacked by former best friend Tegan Nox. Those two rivals will finally meet in the ring this Wednesday.
Women’s Title
As the champion Rhea Ripley and the challenger Toni Storm make their way to the ring, #1 contender Bianca Belair looks on to see who she’ll face in Portland. I’ve called out Storm quite a bit for playing too much of an underdog when facing smaller opponents. She finally showed the dominance I want to see from her here, but I question whether the powerhouse Ripley is the person Toni should be dominating. Perhaps it wouldn’t have felt so odd had they been given time to tell a longer story, but it seems this match must’ve had some time taken away from it as it didn’t quite live up to expectations.
Thanks to Storm’s dominating performance early, Ripley spends much of the match selling a neck injury. Hopefully it was just selling, because the young champ is on far too much of a roll to go down with anything serious. The end saw Strom miss with a frog splash allowing Ripley to follow up with a quick Riptide and the win.
Main Event
All 4 members of the Undisputed Era face all 4 members of Imperium in the most hyped match of the show. They start with solid action and no clear favorite until Alexander Wolfe appears to be legitimately hurt by a kick from Bobby Fish. The ref throws up the “X” and the cameras cut away from Wolfe while he’s helped out of the ring by medical staff. From that point on, Imperium become the underdogs in a 4 on 3 handicap match.
Once all parties involved regroup from the unexpected departure of Wolfe, UE takes full control of using their numbers advantage. Walter almost single handedly keeps his faction in the fight until Roderick Strong temporarily removes him from the equation with an Olympic Slam through the announce table.
With a 4 on 2 advantage now, the members of Undisputed Era focus on wearing down Aichner and Barthel. The resident tag team of Imperium is tough though and they manage to hang on until their leader returns. Walter gets back into the fight with hard chops for every foe. After a short reset and a 4 on 3 brawl, Walter power bombs Fish for the final victory.
Final Thoughts
It was a fun night of action and a good gimmick to bring back as an annual show potentially. It will be interesting to see how much of what we saw was truly “one night only” and how much they follow up on during regular NXT and NXT UK programming.
Coming Soon:
Royal Rumble: TONIGHT!
NXT TakeOver: Portland: February 16
- Finn Balor vs Johnny Gargano
- NXT Championship: Rhea Ripley vs Bianca Belair
- NXT Tag Title Match: Undisputed Era© vs Winner of the Dusty Cup
WWE Elimination Chamber: March 8
NXT TakeOver: Tampa: April 4
Wrestlmania 36: April 5
WWE Summerslam: August 23
