To close out the year, NXT decided to do something a little different. Tonight’s episode is two hours long (as opposed to the usual 1 hour long episode), and showcases their house show from Osaka, Japan. Like most house shows, all of the championships are defended, including Samoa Joe losing the NXT Championship to Shinsuke Nakamura.
Oney Lorcan vs. Andrade “Cien” Almas
Both of these men were involved in the short #1 Contender’s Tournament, and Andrade “Cien” Almas fared slightly better than Oney Lorcan. Almas is known for his quick paced lucha libre style, whereas Oney Lorcan is a hard striking, smash mouth wrestler who can change the course of a match with one strike.
Almas goes to the top turnbuckle, but Lorcan sweeps his legs and hits an inverted exploder suplex from the top rope to put Almas away. Winner: Oney Lorcan
Liv Morgan & Aliyah vs. Peyton Royce & Billie Kay
While Peyton Royce and Billie Kay are shifting their focus towards Asuka, they face the two women they were feuding with for weeks. A few weeks ago, Liv Morgan and Aliyah teamed up with Ember Moon to take down Royce, Kay, and Daria Berenato. While Royce and Kay did leave Berenato to fend for herself, Morgan and Aliyah still technically have the lead going into this match.
Liv Morgan misses a blind tag while going for a roll-up, and Peyton Royce takes advantage to slam Morgan’s head onto Billie Kay’s knee to get the pinfall. Winners: Peyton Royce & Billie Kay
#DIY vs. Akira Tozawa & Tajiri – NXT Tag Team Championships
This is the first time that Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa are defending the NXT Tag Team Championships. They just won the titles from The Revival at NXT TakeOver: Toronto, and now they defend them against a team that has home field advantage. We haven’t seen Akira Tozawa since the Cruiserweight Classic, and he should be coming to 205 Live soon. Tajiri is making his 205 Live debut next week, so this is a great sneak peek at what we are going to get on Tuesday nights.
Tajiri and Akira Tozawa get very close on multiple occasions at capturing the NXT Tag Team Championships, but DIY hit Tozawa with the superkick/knee strike combination to retain the titles. Winners, and STILL NXT Tag Team Champions: #DIY
Asuka (c) vs. Nia Jax – NXT Women’s Championship
Since Nia Jax got called up to Monday Night Raw through the brand split draft, it seemed like her days challenging for the NXT Women’s Championship were over. Jax took out Bayley in NXT, and went to the main roster without looking back. However, since the Raw Women’s Championship scene is filled by Charlotte and Bayley, Nia Jax could still earn championship gold tonight by defeating (the still undefeated) Asuka.
The experience from Monday Night Raw could be the deciding factor in this match for Nia Jax. Jax was arguably Asuka’s toughest challenger, and they had a hell of a battle at TakeOver: The End… of the Beginning. Now that Jax is more experienced, this could be the toughest match of Asuka’s NXT career.
After an incredible German suplex to Nia Jax, Asuka connects with a swift kick to the side to the head to somehow retain her title, and keep her undefeated streak alive. Winner, and STILL NXT Women’s Champion: Asuka
Samoa Joe (c) vs. Shinsuke Nakamura – NXT Championship
You may be reading the header to this match and thinking to yourself, “Didn’t they show this on NXT a couple weeks ago?” Well, yes they did. It seems like the NXT roster is taking a little bit of a holiday break, so to cap off a house show that happened weeks ago, we see the NXT Championship match that we’ve already seen on a previous episode.
If somehow you don’t know what happens in this match by now, here it is: Shinsuke Nakamura, who lost the belt to Samoa Joe at TakeOver: Toronto, wins it back in his home country. He would then go on to retain the title in a cage match, and he now has to defend it against Bobby Roode at TakeOver: San Antonio. Winner, and “new” NXT Champion: Shinsuke Nakamura
