FEEDBACK: upNXT "New Year's Evil" 01/06/20

Allo, allo, allo! Davie Portman here requesting all of your feedback for tonight’s episode of NXT - New Year’s Evil featuring Finn Balor vs Kyle O’Reilly for the NXT Championship, Rhea Ripley vs Raquel Gonzalez in a Last Woman Standing Match, Karrion Kross vs Damian Priest and the return of…Xia Li!!!

Join us on Twitch at 10:15EST for our LIVE Post Show!

Not gonna comment on much since I want to go back to watching the US Capital stuff, but here are my thoughts on NXT tonight:

  • Mercedes is not winning that title. I have no idea what she lost, but she’s just…utterly boring without Robert Stone.
  • The Women’s Dusty Rhodes Classic has me more excited than the mens stuff. Any predictions for the teams? Some are obvious (Indi/Candice, Raquel/Dakota, Kacy/Kayden), but other than that, I have no idea. I would guess Io/Rhea (if Rhea isn’t called up) is one of the teams as well. Maybe Shotzi/Ember on top of that.

New Year’s Evil was a good start to NXT’s 2021. Damien Priest went out on his shield against Karrion Kross, lasting as long as he did hasn’t made him look weak. The cruiserweight title match between Santos Escobar and Gran Metalik was solid. Rhea Ripley and Raquel Gonzalez brought the violence in their LWS match (Dakota Kai getting shoved in a locker was hilarious) and the finish evoked Bam Bam vs Taz. I fear that Rhea’s time in NXT has come to an end. Kyle O’Reilly vs Finn Balor 2 was a very good main event that was just as physical but it’s stuck under the shadow of their first encounter. Kyle using his teeth to get a rope break was clever.

P.S. I’m so here for a wushu assassin Xia Li.

If the Mercedes Martinez who faced Meiko Satomura shows up to face Io Shirai. It’ll be dope.

Zoom was fire. Thanks guys for the fun conversation and watch party. Loved the Last woman standing match and the main event ,while not at the same level as before was a hard hitting match with good storytelling. Not sure where Kyle goes from here. But most important tonight Xia did not let us down. Someone check on Dakota please. 8 Lumis drawings out of 10.

Alright mates. Zoom chat was fuego tonight. I enjoyed tonight’s show but can’t help to think they could have made even more of the hype. Opening with Rhea/Raquel would have made more sense to me with the story built in, and it being a wild brawl but I guess Kross is the next challenger so I understand him wanting to be shown first. However that match wasn’t fantastic for me, I don’t really love either guy.

CW match was good, the main event was good but didn’t live up to the Takeover classic. Cutting into its match time with The Way’s match felt strange to me, that could have been announced for next week. I think you could reorganise this show into a classic, but I still liked it overall. 5 weeks until Takeover, I’m excited to see what we get.

Finally - Xia. Li. I loved everything about this. The 16:9 ratio for the entrance, the leader’s spooky ass make up, Xia looking like a killer, Boa mean mugging on the outside. As soon as Io is done with Mercedes, please push Xia. Also if Triple H is listening, please give me merch ASAP. Thank you. Cheers lads!