Jack-Hammer
YOU WILL RESPECT MY AUTHORITAH!!!!
NXT - December 20, 2017
1. NXT Tag Team Championship: SAnitY vs. The Undisputed Era - This was a good tag match between them, it wasn't as strong as I'd hoped it'd be but it was still very solid featuring good work from both teams. Both teams got in a good amount of offense and, overall, I think Killian Dane was probably the most impressive; Dane does a good job as the athletic big man, though he doesn't try to do anything insane as he keeps it relatively simple but impactful. Both Adam Cole and Nikki Cross made their presence felt during the match, Nikki mostly by beating the snot out of Cole to the delight of the crowd. The ending comes about the 15 minute mark when Eric Young, after beating up on Cole a bit more, gets back into the ring only to eat a Total Elimination from Fish & O'Reilly to become the new NXT Tag Team Champions. ***
2. Fatal Fourway #1 Contenders Qualifying Match: Roderick Strong vs. Lars Sullivan - A short but very hard hitting, physical bout that was better than Sullivan's bout against Kassius Ohno at the last TakeOver event. The match only went about 6 minutes, but Strong got in a lot of believable, physical offense against Sullivan, including taking him off his feet a couple of times, while Sullivan continues to look like this savage brute. Strong may have looked better here than he has in a while as he endured Sullivan's physical onslaught and kept coming back, including hitting his biggest offense as the match went on including a Superplex and an Angle Slam, which earned a believable near fall. They were able to generate enough drama to make it seem like Sullivan might be vulnerable if Strong proved able to hit one of his patented backbreakers but it never got to that; late in the match, Sullivan catches Strong off the ropes for the pop up powerslam before delivering the Freak Accident for the clean win just a bit before the 6 minute mark. Strong gave Sullivan his best match to date and Sullivan continues to make the most of each given opportunity. It was short, but very good for the time it had. ***1/4
3. WWE United Kingdom Championship: Pete Dunne vs. Tyler Bate - I've been looking forward to this match since it was announced last week. This was the third time these two have clashed in either a televised title match and once again they delivered a genuine MOTY candidate. The chemistry these two have can't be overstated because it just works on every level as the match delivered a lot of hard hitting, physical action coupled with great storytelling, high flying offense and technical knowhow; I always cringe a little bit when Dunne works on his opponent's fingers because he makes it look like it hurts so badly, and it could really with the application of just slightly more pressure and that's something your mind registers. Bate comes off as a likeable, traditional babyface while Dunne is a premiere heel, he doesn't try to be a cool heel nor does he play up to the crowd to get a pop out of them as though he's a babyface like you'll see with the Young Bucks or Omega. Each man did hit his finisher on the other once in the match with the other being able to kick out, which I think is okay to do every once in a while, depending on the match, and as long as you don't run it into the ground during the match. The end comes with Bate delivering a German Suplex to Dunne off the top, only for Dunne to flip and land on his feet before quickly pulling Bate into position for the Bitter End, which he hits for the 2nd time and for the win at about the 23 to 24 minute mark to retain the UK Championship. Just fantastic. ****3/4
Final Thoughts - This was a classic episode of NXT and is probably a prime example of why NXT may well be the best pro wrestling program of the decade. The usual for NXT is that everything that happened on the show had a purpose, including advancing storylines, hyping matches for next week that include an NXT Women's Championship bout between Ember Moon and Sonya Deville and the big Fatal Fourway #1 Contenders match featuring Gargano vs. Black vs. Sullivan vs. Dane, promoting the upcoming debut of Shayna Baszler and setting up a program between Tino Sabbatelli & Riddick Moss and Heavy Machinery. Also, the overall tone of the NXT product as a whole is a much more serious one than we see on the main roster and that makes a massive amount of difference; too often, Raw and SmackDown come off like they're just TV shows because that's how Vince wants them treated whereas NXT comes off more like competition, which is how wrestling should be treated. We all know that NXT is a TV show as well, we all know it's not "real", but it just works a lot better when you don't have grown men dressed up as reindeer wrestling in matches. As for the matches themselves, you had a very solid tag bout leading to a title change, a short but very strong singles bout that made both men look good and title bout main event that's a match of the year candidate. The Undisputed Era are the new NXT Tag Team Champions, which works just fine for me as you can tell that NXT creative has been setting them up for the big matches and defenses. Lars Sullivan is a great, believable beast while Roderick Strong, second only to Johnny Gargano, is the bright, shining light of NXT. Pete Dunne may be the best young heel in wrestling, he and Bate have delivered a trifecta of MOTY candidates and I think if this match had a little more build, maybe a few video packages and a couple of sit down interviews with both men, it would've been a genuine 5 stars. This is a must see episode of NXT, one of the overall best and probably the longest as it went to about 13 minutes past 9 pm last night, whereas most episodes often finish up with 5 to, every once in a while, 10 minutes to spare.
Grade: A+