By John Moore, ProWrestling.net Staffer (@liljohnm)
NXT TV
Live from Orlando, Florida at the WWE Performance Center
Aired December 13, 2022 on USA Network
[Hour One] Highlights from the NXT Deadline PLE aired…
Vic Joseph and Booker T checked in from ringside. Alicia Taylor was the ring announcer…
Roxanne Perez was already in the ring for a promo wearing street clothes. Perez soaked in a “Rok-C” chant. Before she could speak the camera cut to a Truck pulling up to the WWE Performance Center parking lot. Grayson Waller walked out and wouldn’t stop talking about how good he was. He entered the crowd seats from the top of the seats. Perez kept trying to get his attention, saying she needs to shut up now.
Waller said that he’s the Iron Survivor. Perez said Waller wasn’t the only Iron Survivor, and Perez won the match before Waller. Perez also noted she won from the number one spot. Waller called Perez “Booker T’s favorite wrestler”. Waller said Perez only finished the match because she needed to get home early for bed. Waller bragged about hanging out with some reality TV stars after his victory. Waller said there’s no way Perez is beating Mandy.
Bron Breakker made his entrance and called Perez the Iron Woman of NXT by lasting all 25 minutes of the match. Breakker said nobody gives a damn what Waller thinks. Breakker called Perez the future NXT Women’s Champion. A Rok-C chant ensued. Waller called Bron “Bronathan” and asked him how his jaw feels after Waller cracked it. Waller bragged about how he got two pinfalls in the match in the first few seconds he entered. He said others make memories, while he’s here to make moments. Breakker chased Waller away. Mandy Rose showed up and hit Roxanne Perez in the head with the Women’s title. Rose posed to end the segment…
The show cut to the NXT doctor checking up on JD McDonagh. JD didn’t allow the doc to talk because he knew that he was medically cleared. The Creed Brothers showed up. Julius blamed JD McDonagh for screwing up his knee. Brutus said he wants to hurt JD. JD said he respects the love between brothers. The segment was cut when they cut back to Roxanne Perez in the ring. Perez said she didn’t want to wait until New Years Evil, and she wants her title match tonight. Mandy Rose accepted the match…
Wes Lee entered the WWE Performance Center backstage area. He was jumped by Channing Stacks Lorenzo. Both men brawled to the ringside. The referee called for the bell once both men entered the ring…
John’s Thoughts: Bit of a hectic opening, but it gave the show a bit of an organic feel as opposed to a stageplay feel. Perez isn’t great on the live mic, but they hid her weaknesses by having all of the other wrestlers around her cover up. Grayson Waller in particular has done this well in past segments too where he compensates for the promo deficiencies of his opponents.
1. NXT North American Champion Wes Lee vs. Channing “Stacks” Lorenzo (w/Tony D’Angelo) in a non title match. Lee had the initial momentum, but Stacks slowed things down and worked on Lee with methodical offense. Lee recovered and hit Stacks with a dive at ringside heading into picture-in-picture.[c]
Stacks had the advantage back from the break. Joseph noted that Rose vs. Perez for the NXT Women’s Championship match was made official for this week’s show. Stacks put Lee in a Tequila Sunrise. Lee escaped with boots. Stacks came back with a backbreaker for a two count. Stacks reversed a body slam by leaning into a crossbody. Lee caught Stacks with a Saito Suplex after Stacks was being berated by D’Angelo.
Lee flew at Stacks with stirikes and followed up with a CQC combo. Lee caught Stacks with a running kick and German Suplex. Lee hit Stacks with a Waterfall Kick for the win.
Wes Lee defeated Stacks via pinfall in 9:52 in a non-title match.
Dijak made his entrance and entered the ring. Tony D’Angelo attacked Lee from behind and left him lying. D’Angelo glared at Dijak as he left the ring…
Duke Hudson was hanging out with Drew Gulak. After Gulak left, Thea Hail and Andre Chase showed up. Chase wondered if Hudson was entering the college transfer portal. Hudson said he wasn’t transferring. He talked about how he was going to give his opponent Damon Kemp a Chase U sized ass whooping…
The NXT Women’s Tag Team Champions, Katana Chance and Kayden Cater, made their entrance to join the commentary team for the next match…[c]
John’s Thoughts: Nice cred boosting win for Lee. Lee sold a lot for Stacks, but that’s his underdog style. I’m intrigued with the dynamic between Lee, Dijak, and D’Angelo. What I hope doesn’t happen is Dijak becoming D’Angelo’s newest goon. What I think is happening is D’Angelo is playing the North American Title field against each other and is just lightly aligning himself near Dijak because they have a common enemy.
Ivy Nile and Tatum Paxley were already in the ring. Paxley no longer is wearing her nose guard. Gigi Dolin and Jacy Jayne got a televised entrance…
2. “Toxic Attraction” Gigi Dolin and Jacy Jayne vs. Ivy Nile and Tatum Paxley. All four women brawled to start. Toxic Attraction cleared teh face team from the ring. Jayne hit Nile with a cannonball while Dolin nailed Paxley with a PK. Jayne hit Nile with an Air Raid Crash for a two count. Dolin caught Nile with a boot for a two count. Dolin hit Nile with a shortarm forearm and legsweep combo. Jayne tagged in. Nile took down Jayne and Dolin with a kick and punch.
Nile hit Dolin with a high roundhouse. Jayne tossed Nile at Chance and Carter. The tag champions attacked Toxic Attraction for the apparent DQ.
Toxic Attraction defeated Ivy Nile and Tatum Paxley via apparent DQ in 2:26.
Nile and Paxley joined the brawl. All three teams brawled with referees pulling them apart…
Fallon Henley was on the phone with her dad. Briggs and Jensen were also there with Jensen making sure his shirt fit (as Kiana James recommended). Henley said business wasn’t great at the bar. Jensen said to get positive and that 2023 is going to be their year…
Odyssey Jones and Von Wagner were shown heading to the ring from different parts of the WWE PC…[c]
Vic Joseph noted that NXT has a new rock-based intro theme…
Carmelo Hayes and Trick Williams were looking at social media, talking about how Twitter is talking about Melo missing his shot on Saturday. Melo was wearing a Dodger’s themed jersey that said “Dollars”. Melo said he would have won if the match was 30 minutes. Melo said he is still “him”. Trick showed Melo a picture of Axiom posterizing Melo. Melo asked Trick to delete the twitter picture because he’s about to delete Axiom. Trick said you can’t delete other people’s twitter pictures…
Von Wagner and Robert Stone were already in the ring. Odyssey Jones, Malik Blade, and Edris Enofe got a televised entrance…
3. Von Wagner (w/Robert Stone) vs. Odyssey Jones (w/Malik Blade, Edris Enofe). Jones no sold Wagner’s shoulder tackles. Both men went into Three Point Stances. Odyssey got the upper hand with the low tackle. Wagner got the upper hand after hitting Odyssey with a Big Boot. Jones escaped a sleeper by ramming Wagner into the ringpost two times. Jones caught Wagner with a corner splash.
Jones hit Wagner with a delayed World’s Strongest Slam. While the referee was distracted by Robert Stone running around the ring, Malik Blade hit Wagner with a cheap shot as revenge for breaking his dad’s sweater. Odyssey Jones hit Wagner with a running crossbody for the win.
Odyssey Jones defeated Von Wagner via pinfall in 2:54.
John’s Thoughts: Good match while it lasted with Odyssey Jones looking better than he has in the past. We still don’t know what he can really do once polished, but he looked fine coming off that long layoff. I’m okay with Odyssey picking up the dirty win because the dirty win was justified in Blade getting his revenge for getting his dad’s sweater vest torn. It allows Wagner to not eat another clean loss.
McKenzie Mitchell interviewed Javier Bernal and said she’s rooting for Ikeman Jiro in Javi’s match later. Javi said that his fans are eiter Big Body Bandits, Ballers, or Bulldogs. McKenzie said that Javi is no baller. Javi settled on “Big Body Believers”. Javi left. McKenzie said she still hopes Ikeman beats Javi…
A Tik Tok video was shown of Nikkita Lyons showing her support to some of her friends in the Women’s Iron Survivor Match…
4. Ikeman Jiro vs. “Big Body Javi” Javier Bernal. Jiro dominated the early part of the match with jacket punches. Javi came back with a lariat. Javi hit Jiro with a bulldog and sliding lariat for a two count. Javi worked on Jiro with methodical offense. Jiro recovered and hit Javi with a top rope clearing Liger Kick. Jiro rallied with Jacket Punches. Jiro caught Javi with a Gamengiri and Frankensteiner. Jiro hit Javi with a leg lariat and did a handstand into the pin for the victory.
Ikeman Jiro defeated Javier Bernal via pinfall in 3:16.
The aritist formerly known as Reggie, Scrypts attacked Ikeman Jiro. Scrypts had new tighter ring gear (an upgrade). Scrypts stood tall wearing Jiro’s jacket after hitting Jiro with a Molly-Go-Round…
The NXT Tag Team Champions, The New Day, were shown heading to the ring from backstage…[c]
John’s Thoughts: Good win for Jiro, and Javi continues to be a fun act despite being NXT’s designated heel enhancement wrestler. Guy gets a lot of TV time, and he’s not disappointing. His interactions with McKenzie are particularly fun. The jury is still out on Scrypts, but I respect the effort to improve his ring gear. His debut gear was horrible, and this one, while still not mindblowing, is a huge upgrade. Let’s see how the gear looks once he’s in matches. Let’s also hope he’s able to wrestle long-form matches with selling (As Reggie, we barely saw him sell. He was either winning after two moves or getting pinned after two moves).
An ad aired for the NXT Vengeance Day PLE happening in a large arena in February…
The show cut to a Wendy Choo sitdown interview where she talked about how she was so happy that Cora Jade didn’t win. She talked about how she had friends like Cora Jade as a kid. She said when she was invited to a slumber party as a kid, one of those “friends” threw a drink at her at the party and she didn’t have spare clothes. She said Cora throwing drink at her gave her PTSD of that moment and she doesn’t want to live that moment again…
Roxanne Perez was shown warming up in the locker room…
[Hour Two] Alicia Taylor introduced Xavier Woods and Kofi Kingston as the new NXT Tag Team Champions. New Day made their entrance. Vic Joseph was over the top in praising New Day to mock Booker T. New Day soaked in “New Day Rocks” chants. Woods took the mic first and led the crowd in New Day’s signature hip swivel championship thing. Kofi threw in that they were Triple Crowners (which he and Woods usually relate to childbirth).
Woods noted that Kofi is a Triple Crown Singles Champion too. Woods also talked about how Kofi passed Booker T’s Tag Team Title win record with 15. Kofi said as special as this moment is for him, it’s even more special for Woods. Kofi paused to soak in You Deserve It Chants. The crowd also chanted for Woods. Woods talked about being in NXT when it started 10 years ago. Woods talked about being in the first televised NXT match against Big E [Langston]. Woods also talked about being the first NXT callup (they did an ESPN documentary on this).
Woods said he had one thing missing, and that was not winning gold in NXT. Kofi said it was time to celebrate. Kofi started to twerk on the ropes. Kit Wilson and Elton Prince, Pretty Deadly, made their entrance. Wilson said “no boy!”. Prince said that New Day ruined their Christmas. Woods said they wouldn’t ruin Christmas because Santa is in the crowd. The crowd cheered the guy in the crowd in a santa hat.
Woods said Pretty Deadly had a tough week with England getting kicked out of the World Cup and Pretty Deadly losing the titles. Kofi bragged about out-twerking Prince. Kofi said he believes they had magic in the ring last week. Kofi said he’s serious that Pretty Deadly are both talented. Pretty Deadly thanked Kofi for that. Woods then asked Pretty Deadly to say the Pledge of Allegiance. Josh Briggs and Brooks Jensen made their entrance and entered the ring.
Jensen had an American Flag. Briggs and Jensen said they’ll say the Pledge for a title shot. New Day, the crowd, and Briggs and Jensen did the Pledge of Allegiance while Pretty Deadly looked disgusted. New Day agreed to give Briggs and Jensen the tag title shot next week. Woods said that it was so easy and Pretty Deadly should have agreed to the Pledge. The segment ended with Booker T saying he was happy that segment was over.
Mandy Rose was warming up backstage, wearing her Nikki Bella themed ring gear…
JD McDonagh made his entrance for the next match…[c]
John’s Thoughts: Fun segment by and large. A bit weird that New Day ended up taking the low hanging fruit by going patriotic against foreign heels? I just feel that New Day are better than just going for the cheap pop.
A lot of NXT’s women’s roster was hanging out backstage. Elektra Lopez talked about how she would have won the match if she were in Indi Hartwell’s place. Indi Hartwell showed up and attacked Lopez…
Brutus Creed made his entrance…
5. JD McDonagh vs. Brutus Creed. McDonagh put Creed in a headlock takedown. Brutus no sold running forearms. Brutus no sold strikes and a dropkick. Brutus turned McDonagh inside out with a lariat. Brutus hit McDonagh with clubbing hooks. McDonagh fended off Brutus and dumped him to ringside. McDonagh gave Brutus a missile dropkick, sending Brutus’s hand into the announce table. McDonagh targeted his offense in Brutus’s injured hand.
Brutus gave McDonagh a catapult to send him ringside. McDonagh flew off Brutus’s German Suplex. McDonagh tried to hit Brutus with a chair, but the chair was taken away by Sanga, who had Veer Mahan next to him. McDonagh ended up hitting Brutus with a Devlin Side at ringside. JD McDonagh hit Brutus with another Devlin Side inside of the ring for the victory.
JD McDonagh defeated Brutus Creed via pinfall in 4:18.
Veer and Sanga shook their heads in disappointment at ringside…
McKenzie interviewed Zoey Stark about Nikkita Lyons mocking Zoey on TikTok. Stark said Lyons isn’t in her league and a waste of a roster spot. Stark asked Lyons to bring her dances and Tik Tok stuff to the ring, because Stark has the real talent…
A Lyra Valkyria vignette aired to hype Lyra’s debut after the break…[c]
John’s Thoughts: A nice bounce-back win for JD McDonagh. I like that he ended up getting the dominant clean win as opposed to the DQ loss. JD has been NXT’s In-ring MVP for the past few months, and he’s been doing that eating a ton of losses. This win sets him up to possibly feed himself to another opponent down the road while still being Teflon.
A stylistic Isla Dawn promo aired. She bragged about beating Alba Fyre. B-roll footage was shown of a forest and random wolves. She talked about summoning the elements for winter solstace next week. She was shown making up her “poison”. They showed a slow motion clip of her blowing a poison projectile from her mouth to “poison” the referee…
John’s Thoughts: Ah, poison. It’s not magic, but it’s still goofballs…
Amari Miller was already in the ring. Lyra Valkyria got an elaborate entrance. There was a rain filter on the screen for her entrance…
6. Lyra Valkyria vs. Amari Miller. Lyra dominated Amari with chain wrestling. Lyra caught Miller with a wrecking ball dropkick at ringside. Amari grabbed Lyra by the hair and slammed her into the corner. Lyra came back with an axe kick combo. Lyra hit Amari with a Northern Lights Bridge for a two count. Miller came back with a sweep and running senton for a two count. Lyra hit Amari with a modified Dragon Whip. Lyra hit Amari with a frog splash for the victory.
Lyra Valkyria defeated Amari Miller via pinfall in 3:03.
John’s Thoughts: Decent debut for Lyra. I’m surprised they gave Amari some offense here, but she’s been the designated babyface enhancement wrestler of the division for over a year, I wouldn’t mind if she gets her push one of these days. What has really impressed me so far about Lyra is her presentation. I really like the Lucha Underground/WOW style cinematic vignettes. The “rain” filter was a bit much though, and I wouldn’t mind if they just do a fog machine and rain on the video wall. I also like the name change from Aoife Valkyrie. I for the life of me, always struggled to pronounce “Aoife”.
McKenzie Mitchell interviewed Axiom, who was wearing his signature turtleneck. McKenzie brought up Axiom going up against Carmelo Hayes next week. Axiom said you can tell he looks nervous (it was a joke because he has no face). Axiom then asked McKenzie to look in his eyes, which was the same joke. He said he fears no one. He then talked about how people will see his huge smile…
John’s Thoughts: The joke wasn’t great to begin with. He didn’t have to run it back three times. Ugh. What’s interesting is the guy has a great speaking voice. He just really fumbles all his promos. Practice makes perfect. Hopefully he’s putting in the time in promo class.
Duke Hudson, Thea Hail, and Andre Chase made their entrance…[c]
Kiana James caught up with Brooks Jensen backstage, who acted nervous. Kiana said Jensen should be more happy now. Jensen said he’s actually worried about Fallon Henley’s bar troubles. Kiana’s busty secretary handed Jensen a gift. Kiana said it was a form fitting dress shirt. Jensen said he’s still worried about Fallon’s business. Kiana said that Jensen should cheer up and win the tag titles. The camera then cut back to Toxic Attraction, Nile and Paxley, and Chance and Carter continuing to brawl backstage. Robbie Brookside and referees ran in to separate everyone…
Damon Kemp made his entrance…
7. Duke Hudson (w/Thea Hail, Andre Chase) vs. Damon Kemp. Hudson dominated with chain wrestling and power moves. Kemp whipped Hudson to the corner and worked on Hudson with ground and pound. Hudson came back with rapid punches. Kemp came back with a sitout Gutwrench and Spear. Hudson kicked out at two. Drew Gulak showed up to watch the match at ringside. Andre Chase got in Gulak’s face a bit.
Gulak headed to the back after Chase got in his face. Duke Hudson did the Hulk Hogan Hulk Up sequence with a Chace U twist. Hudson hit Kemp with a sidewalk slam. Hudson hit Kemp with a Chase U Bionic Elbow. Hudson then tuned up the horn like Shawn Michaels and gave Kemp some Sweet Boot Music for the win.
Duke Hudson defeated Damon Kemp via pinfall in 3:53.
Roxanne Perez and Mandy Rose were shown heading to the ring from different parts of the Performance Center…[c]
John’s Thoughts: Hey, a win for Hudson! Good for him! He is playing a cheesy babyface, but he’s doing the cheese well enough. Interesting choice to be pulling the Eugene moveset of mimicking WWE legends. I’m just happy to see the guy finally get focus these days as opposed to being the jobber big man who’s booking was all over the place. It’s interesting that we haven’t seen much Damon Kemp on TV since his feud with Julius Creed, because I thought that he really broke out as a future star in that feud, showing not only improvement in the ring, but amazing character work as a pest heel. I’d be intrigue to see how he interacts with Drew Gulak, whatever Drew Gulak ends up doing in his latest reboot.
The New Years countdown vignette aired. The blonde woman’s face still wasn’t shown (again, my guess is it’s a returning Tiffany Stratton)…
The following segments were advertised for next week: Chance and Carter vs. Nile and Paxley vs. Toxic Attraction for the Women’s Tag Belts, Axiom vs. Carmelo Hayes, and New Day vs. Briggs and Jensen for the NXT Tag Team Championships…
Roxanne Perez made her entrance. Booker was over the top in praising his former student. He also mentioned that she was the inaugural Ring of Honor Women’s World Champion. Mandy Rose then made her entrance in her Nikki Bella gear. Vic Joseph plugged the ticket sales for Vengence Day (They’ve done a lot to push tickets for the arena show). Alicia Taylor handled the formal in-ring championship introductions…
8. Mandy Rose vs. Roxanne Perez for the NXT Women’s Championship. Perez had the advantage early on. Rose came back with a cartwheel into a dropkick. Perez came back with a series of armdrags. Perez rolled up Rose with a jackknife for a two count. Perez sidestepped Rose to send her into the ringpost. Perez hit Rose with a suicide dive. Rose reversed a Pop Rocks attempt at ringside. Rose sent Perez into the steel steps heading into picture-in-picture.[c]
[Overrun] The crowd gave both women dueling chants. Perez hit Rose with a jawbreaker. Perez rallied with axe handle strikes. Rose countered a legsweep. Perez adjusted and hit Rose with a shotgun dropkick. Rose gave Perez’s shoulder a big boot to block an uppercut. Both women climbed to the top rope. Perez hit Rose with a Frankensteiner for a two count. Rose hit Perez with a Gutwrench Suplex for a two count.
Perez reversed Kiss from a Rose for a two count. Rose rolled Perez into a Yes Lock. Perez used a rollup to escape. Rose hit Perez with Kiss from a Rose. Perez kicked out of Perez’s finish. Rose complained to the referee. Rose dragged up Perez’s dead weight. Perez reversed the Fairy Tale Ending into a two count small package. Perez hit Rose with Pop Rocks (Code Red) for the pinfall victory.
Roxanne Perez defeated Mandy Rose via pinfall in 9:37 to become the new NXT Women’s Champion.
The camera showed an excited Booker T, who said “we did it!”. Streamers shot in the air as Perez posed with the title belt to close the show…
John’s Thoughts: Good match and surprising finish! I also looked up the NXT Women’s Championship title history and Rose was 3 days away from passing Shayna Baszler for the number 2 spot of longest title reigns. Because of that, I’m wondering why did they have to pull the trigger so soon (a lot of times when this happens, it means callup. But who knows?). I’m surprised they didn’t have Mandy hold the belt and maybe challenge Asuka to a match with the streak on the line?
As for the match, great match as usual from Rox-C. As I continue to also push, Mandy Rose has gotten fairly good in the ring compared to the days when they rushed her onto the Raw and Smackdown. Her time in NXT has helped immensely! She always had the confidence on the mic and the stage presence; but now she can hang in the ring with the greats of the division. She proved that in the Meiko feud especially. A good fallout episode of NXT that became noteworthy with the surprise finish. Heck, they even had Perez kick out of Rose’s protected finisher.
They might’ve changed her name because she had Valkyrie as her last name and of course that’s what Taya uses in Impact.
True, but I’m just happy they changed the first name. Ilja was easier for me to pick up.
That’s an F just for putting the belt on the vanilla midget who can’t cut a promo and can’t make a single move look like she’s trying to win a fight.
Your mother must not have given you any hugs when you were a little ugly child did she greatestturd? Not that I blame her. It would explain why you hate women. That and the fact that no women is desperate enough to sleep with a piece of crap like you
And one other thing greatestturd just because you’ve watched wrestling most of the 75 years you’ve been alive doesn’t make you an expert grandpa. You know nothing you old fart
Surprised to see the title change. Surprised that there weren’t any Toxic Attraction shenanigans for her to overcome to win the title. Now we get to see what happens with the group – will all three be promoted? Will they run an angle where Mandy gets tossed from the group and they stay in NXT while Mandy moves up the ladder?
I hope they keep them together for now as I love the group’s chemistry. By the same token, Dolan and Jayne may be ready to branch out beyond this to start their own singles careers….
As for Roxanne, I love Cora’s heel persona so I wouldn’t have waited all this time to turn her. That said, Cora turning on the night Roxanne wins the title would have had a big impact.
A bit disappointed to see the title change here,but happy for Perez though.I just wonder why they couldn’t wait for her to pass Shayna’s reign,but I guess they have a bigger plan.Also I wish Rose could’ve kicked out of poprocks and Perez could’ve won another way because it was a bit anticlimactic at the end.I suppose I’m overthrowing the whole thing.
*overthinking