NXT Results, video highlights, and analysis - December 5th, 2018
The build towards NXT Takeover: Phoenix continued this week on NXT with a number of new faces being utilized as well as old favorites being given the opportunity to headline the show once again. War Games is now firmly in the rearview mirror, but it appears that the show had lasting effects for a number of superstars, which made for an interesting episode of the show once again.
Matt Riddle vs Punishment Martinez
Punishment Martinez made his TV debut on NXT against former MMA star Matt Riddle. The King of Bros had already made quite the impression with a six-second win over Kassius Ohno, but he knew he was in for a fight against Martinez.
The two men jockeyed for position in the opening exchanges before Riddle went for a sleeper after a series of missed strikes, but Martinez escaped and landed a fantastic right hand. Riddle laid in a number of kicks to the chest of Punishment but received a Cyclone Kick for his troubles.
Riddle landed a vicious chop to the chest of Martinez, but the receipt was a thunderous clothesline from the bigger man. The former MMA star managed to hit a roundhouse kick before locking in the Bromission but Martinez refused to tap, so Riddle lit up his chest with a number of chops to force him to tap. Riddle remains undefeated in NXT, but Martinez made quite the impression on his first outing in NXT.
As Riddle was about to leave the arena, he was blind sighted by Kassius Ohno from behind as The Knockout Artist looked for some revenge for the humiliation that he suffered at War Games a few weeks ago.
Ricochet was shown backstage where he stated that he wanted to be more than a human highlight reel on NXT, before he revealed that he was issuing an open challenge for his NXT North American Championship next week on NXT.
It was then announced that there would be a women's fatal four-way match in a few weeks time to determine the number one contender for Shayna Baszler's Championship and that Bianca Belair was the first woman to qualify.