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Hey everyone, thanks for logging into PWInsider.com tonight as we continue blogging after ROH's Final Battle and dive into NXT Deadline!
As I wrote earlier today, I dedicate this blog to everyone we've all lost this year, in my family and yours - we've all been through the ringer the last few years alike and I'd be extremely selfish to not acknowledge the kindness and support of all of you who have kept me employed (and to be honest, distracted) through this last year. There's a GoFundMe that was launched this AM to assist my Uncle Frank, who just 3 weeks ago was diagnosed with stage 4 renal cancer, so if you have the ability to help and want to - go for it. If not, please send him, his wife and kids all the good vibes if you can. He's in for a hell of a fight and I'd like to also dedicate whatever this blog to him as well. We love you Uncle Frankie.
I didn't catch the Pre-Show as I was monitoring the ROH Scrum. If you missed it, ROH TV will be returning on Honor Club in 2023.
We are kicking off with the Women's Iron Survivor Challenge.
First out are Zoey Stark and Roxanne Perez, which makes sense as if there were two talents I'd think would be best prepared to go the full 25 minutes, they would be my pick. They had some good wrestling going back and forth. Kiana James was third in. Stark pinned Perez, who she goes off to the penalty box faster than you can say Memphis Wrestling. Zoey gets one point. Cora Jade is the fourth one out. Jade scored a pin in Kiana, so off she goes to the penalty box. Indi Hartwell is last out, so everyone is officially in. Indi scored a pin on Perez. Perez rolled up Stark for a pin, so we've got a four way tie with about four minutes left as everyone but Kiana scored a pinfall.
Stark hit a great looking bodypress off the top to the floor on everyone. With about 3 and a half minutes left, everyone battled. Roxanne scored another pinfall so she's up with 2 points over everyone else. Everyone went nuts trying to score pinfalls with number three minutes left. Indi and Roxanne tumbled over the ropes to the floor. Stark nailed a Spanish Fly on Kiana but Jade, freed from the box, broke it up. No one was able to score another win as the time limit expired, so Roxanne Perez is the winner. She is going to be SUCH a franchise player for the company as long as nothing unforeseen happens.
This was a good opening match. I think WWE may have overshot with the Survivor deal as there was a lot of try and understand and get the viewer behind but they picked the right two women to start this with to help get over the gimmick and it allowed all the big moves to be spaced out. I think the idea of a four-way tie with such little time left wasn't the best way to get this over, but you could argue Roxanna "survived."
This was easily the coming out party for Kiana James as well as she looked the best she's ever looked in my opinion.
They showed Booker "crying" for his charge, Roxanne, who he helped break into the business.,
Backstage, Ivy Nile was explaining that Julius Creed is injured and she wouldn't let him compete. She needs reps for her promos. This wasn't strong. They teased her and Tatum Paxley against Kayden Carter and Katana Chance down the line. This didn't spotlight anyone involved well in my opinion.
Isla Dawn vs. Alba Fyre was next. They put over this was the same referee Isla recently blinded. Dawn was showing some heel ferocity, putting Fyre in the position of fighting from underneath. Dawn nailed a nice Meteora. Fyre fought back and tossed her to the outside, then hit a dive from the top to the floor. That elicited a NXT chant. They were nearly counted out but fought their way back to the ring. Fyre nailed a gourdbuster and unloaded with kicks to the body. I woudn't want Fyre mad at me!
Fyre nailed a dive but the referee started spewing black goo out of him mouth, as if he knew he was suddenly involved in booking diarrhea. Yep, the referee was incapacitated and unable to count Isla down. This would have been dopey in cartoon-era Hulk Hogan WWF but in WWE NXT, it's downright asinine. Indeed, no one even came to check on the referee at first. A second ref came down to count the fall NOT CHECK ON THE REFEREE!
Isla shoved Fyre intro an exposed buckle while the referee finally checked on his fallen compatriot and scored the pin. This was some pretty bad Herb Abrams level goofiness to set up the finish. I once watched a WWF house show at the Meadowlands where The Ultimate Warrior called to the crowd to "Hulk Up" and overcome Papa Shango's voodoo and even that was better than this!
New Day got McKenzie Mitchell to do their deal with them. That was cute.
Next up is New Day challenging Pretty Deadly for the NXT Tag Team Championship. This should be a lot of fun just for the personalities all playing off each other. I greatly respect Pretty Deadly's Santa outfits. The live crowd is very much having a ball chanting for New Day. Some silly shenanigans early, including Kofi Kingston twerking. New Day cleaned up early on offense. Pretty Deadly finally cut off Kofi, knocking him to the floor and smashing him into the ring post. They worked him over for some time, with Kingston fighting to hang on. It's been a pretty solid match thus far and as Pretty Deadly got more heat on Kofi, and then Xavier, it got even better. Kofi finally had enough of them beating on Xavier and hit the ring fighting. This led to a cute back and forth attempt to Lie, Cheat and Steal with the NXT Tag Title as everyone kept faking out a belt shot, right out of Eddie Guerrero's greatest hits. Everyone began busting out near falls until New Day scored the pin with a big Kofi double stomp off the top.
A bit of a surprising finish but if they are going back on the road, it makes sense to add New Day as a reason to bring in casual WWE main roster fans to the NXT shows. I like it.
They announced a countdown to the New Year episode of NXT.
More thoughts on Page 2.
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