Happy after Thanksgiving everyone!
The Prinxe of NXT made his return and brought the Undisputed Era back with him, Io and Rhea Ripley tore the damn house down, Boa appears to have begun pushing product from his home, Leon Ruff has had enough of everyone’s guff, and Regal yelled “WOOOAAAAH GAMES” after the show ended.
This Week: Who will Candice and Shotzi recruit for their War Games teams? Is Ciampa gonna rant in an empty room again? How will Mr. Regal and Boa deal with Tuco with Hank right on their trail?
POP: NXT OG TRIPLE OG
“Hi Candice! She’s…she’s busy.”
Kevin Owens on commentary this week. What else even needs to be said.
POP: Toni Storm Frontin’
First match of the night was as usual a very competitive and fast paced match, that also re-established to the audience who’s on Team Candice and gets Candice a much needed win so she comes off as a legitimate threat at War Games.
What happens after the match however, is more notable. Indi pushes Candice out of the way and takes an Eclipse for her (which you would think would look weird or wouldn’t work but comes off well) and Candice hits her finish on Ember for the win. Then as Team Candice is surrounding Ember, Toni Storm comes out for what we assume is the save, but it turns out, SHE’S GONE TO THE DARK SIDE!
Storm then proceeds to beat up Ember and align herself with Team Candice for War Games. Afterwards MacKenzie shows up to continue her feud with the Gargano family and asks Candice questions! Ugh, the nerve. Toni explains her turn by calling back to her stating that a “new Toni Storm” would be coming to NXT. To be continued…
Under The Mask
Legado del Fantasma is here to remind you that they exist and are low-key one of the most successful stables on this show and beat everyone. Apparently they wanna fight this guy named Curt (Thee) Stallion who appears to be tiny and wears a headband. I don’t know, it’s been a good time tiny guys facing cocky guys on this show lately.
POP: Johnny Consumer
If there’s anyone who can convince me to needlessly spend my money on things I don’t need because it’s on sale, it’s the Garganos.
POP: Yo! NXT Graps
Thatcher’s students are watching TV in a very strange way to lead into his match with Kushida. They should attend the Young Bucks School of Watching Television. Ciampa’s out here to watch the match because he still wants to fight Timothy Thatcher instead of getting Goldie back for some reason.
The actual match is more of what I’ve wanted from Timothy Thatcher for a while which is stretching guys out, grappling them and a lot of submissions. Kushida was great here too as instead of the usal more high flying style we’re used to from him, he tries to meet Thatcher on his level in this match and match him move for move.
End of the match comes when Thatcher let’s himself get distracted by Ciampa doing…absolutely nothing and getting himself stuck in a Hoverboard lock. Whoops. At least now he has a reason to want to fight Ciampa (despite it being his fault) which should be a really great match.
POP: OK KO
Since we have Kevin Owens here doing commentary, you know we have to have an episode of The KO Show, featuring the North American Champion, Leon Ruff. Kevin Owens-Warner is explaining to Leon how WWE shows work (side note: Leon said he signed his WWE Contract 7 weeks ago so that might be the fastest someone in NXT has become a champion) and how he has to be careful and confident because people will take advantage of him to get that title (ngl, part of me expected Ruff to eat a stunner), and as soon as Ruff drops Johnny’s name, KO sighs, counts down his appearance (the count being slightly off which was probably for laughs) and out comes Yosemite Johnny.
Kevin, being the good host that he is, offers Johnny a chair who then throws it out of the ring, probably because it has wheels. Kevin immediately gets another chair because he’s been in WWE for about 6 years now and knows a promo parade when he sees one and sure enough, out comes Damian Priest. The 3 men banter for a while before KO wishes for a Teddy Long type to come out to make a match and holla holla holla out comes William Regal who makes a Triple Threat for the NA Championship at War Games (“…playa.” 5 Stars.).
I love how every time KO comes back to NXT he rocks the classic duct tape KO NXT shirt and has gone from merciless, soulless prize fighter who would murder his own best friend for a title to 4th wall breaking, snarky, meta troll.
Finn the Cat
This man said “Don’t play in my kitty litter.” with a straight face lmaooooooooooo
No seriously, he’s gotta belt out “Memory” one of these days, just go all out with it.
Mid: Always Strapped
Cameron Grimes beats Jake Atlas in a match that is relatively quick and ok. Then afterwards, Dexter Lumis shows up to scare him, play a video of Grimey running away from him constantly (combined with caricatures) and challenge him to a strap match at War Games.
Yeah, I’m shocked I’m giving a “Mid” to a Cameron Grimes segment too. Small POP to Grimey just straight up asking Regal why he hates him so much (BECAUSE IT IS OBVIOUS) and Regal basically saying it’s his personality.
Which is odd to me because his personality is why Grimey is one of my favorites.
POP:…right now!
NXT played a cool recap of last week’s boss main event and laid out the question of the night being “What’s next for Rhea Ripley?”. Later, Rhea comes out to indeed talk about what she wants to do next. She says the hug to Io last week was only respect (*sucks teeth* yeah aight), and starts talking about the Women’s Championship which is a beacon for Candice Karening, along with…Toni Storm (who if you are unfamiliar with NXT UK, has a bit of a history with Rhea Ripley that I wish got highlighted more here)!
Candice lays out why she deserves another shot before Rhea does, and then to emphasize her point, Kai and Gonzalez come out, with a knocked out Io(!!!) draped over the shoulder of Gonzalez. They then beat up Rhea Ripley, which to me seems like a pretty bad idea to do so close to War Games. I understand you’re feeling yourself right now Candice and you even got Gonzalez on your squad…but yo, that’s still Rhea Ripley I mean come on. How soon we forget last year’s War Games, huh.
Later, Candice tells MacKenzie that Gonzalez is facing Shotzi next week to inevitably beat her in order to win the War Games advantage, and then the Gargano family drive off with yet ANOTHER Ghostface in the backseat.
We’re doing this again I guess.
???: I Don’t Know, Man
What is happening? Xia and Boa have been kidnapped and also look like they’re on meth (been in FL for too long) and they drive to this empty warehouse or something. Shifu is there and he takes them to this woman in a dark cloak. They start crying and asking for one more chance and Shifu marks their hands with some symbol and I do not know what the fuck is happening, why is this student film happening in the middle of NXT?
POP: GYV ARE BACK, NOTHING ELSE MATTERS SORRY
Liverpool’s #1 Zack Gibson and James “No Nicknames” Drake are back to yell at the audience very loudly in a thick english accent. TAKE YOUR SHOES OFF.
POP: Boom Baybay
Earlier in the night, the UE made their way to the ring to talk about their plans to beat The Kings of NXT at War Games and choose who’s gonna lose to Pete Dunne in the main event; a ladder match for the War Games advantage. The homie Kyle O’Reilly steps up to get his ass beat.
Side note, I don’t know why but the style of promo they were cutting kept making me think of It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia. Like, Adam is Dennis, Kyle is Mac, Roddy is Charlie, Bobby is Frank. I guess Dee is Britt Baker, but that’s also kinda gross for obvious reasons.
The Kings respond backstage a little later. Pete gives a backhanded compliment saying it was impressive that Kyle took out Finn for 2 months, but if it was him, it would’ve been 2 years. Oney then mentions that the UE has won the War Games advantage every year but this year is gonna be different (because they’re good guys now).
Fast forwarding to the main event, Regal shows how good he is at his job by placing both teams on top of tall platforms so that neither of them can interfere in this match. The announcers note that Pat McAfee is too busy to come to NXT tonight, but has faith in his team. Remember that for later.
Am I crazy or does it feel like NXT does a ladder match like every other week these days? I’m not exactly complaining, just noticing something.
Either way, this was another one in NXT’s long list of memorable ladder matches. It’s kinda funny to me that Pete doesn’t really wrestle any different than he usually does but now it’s supposed to be seen as bad because he’s the bad guy despite UE karmically deserving everything happening to them right now. Like, that little moment where Pete shrugs after shoving the ladder so Kyle falls was peak shitbird Pete.
It felt like he really beat the crap out of Kyle here. That running powerbomb onto the ladder looked so painful, I touched my back when he hit it. That suplex onto the ladder that lead to the break (no pun intended), smashing Kyle’s hand on the ladder, it really felt like the match was almost all Pete.
Kyle definitely held his own though, but once the masked guy who definitely isn’t Pat McAfee showing he might be the smartest guy on this show interfered, it was all she wrote. Plus you know, the UE are good guys now.
I didn’t even cover every single insane moment in this match so definitely go check it out, easily the match of the night.
And yeah, Regal it was totally Pat but Oney has a point about how dangerous the NXT Parking Lot is.
Overall, it a great episode of NXT with a strange short film in the middle. The card for War Games is coming along nicely and it looks like we’re getting a good lineup.
As always, please check out all our other recaps & reviews on this site, share this on all your sharables and hey, check out the SRP Discord.
Peace.
Next Week:
Shotzi Blackheart vs. Raquel Gonzalez – Winner gains the War Games Advantage for their team
