Top 3 Performers of NXT (December 26, 2018)
Another massive episode of NXT saw a Tag Team title match, as well as a fatal four way to crown the next number 1 contender for Shayna Baszler's NXT Women's title. The episode kicked off with the fatal four-way match. Io Shirai, the finalist of the second Mae Young Classic, was first into the ring. Next out was Lacey Evans, Evans has already been advertised for promotion to the main roster, they were joined by another Mae Young classic competitor in Mia Yim and Bianca Belair.
Shirai and Yim teamed up to take out Belair before Evans tried to take out Io Shirai but only succeeded in propelling Shirai into Bianca Belair. A miscue between Shirai and Yim caused Yim to kick Shirai in the face and allowed Evans to gain the advantage against Yim and Shirai.
While the faces chose to work together, Belair and Evans were not on the same page at all, with Belair using Shirai to take out Evans. Shirai and Belair were the standouts of the match, with Shirai hitting a stunning springboard Missle Dropkick.
Evans and Shirai picked up near falls after hitting the Women's Right and a Moonsault respectively. Bianca Belair would pick up the pinfall victory on Lacey Evans after hitting her with a Torture Rack Facebuster.
Next up, we got Mitch Taverna facing off against the Forgotten Son's Jaxson Ryker. Ryker was accompanied to the ring by his stablemates in Wesley Blake and Steve Cutler. Ironically, the Forgotten Sons seem to be the Forgotten Sons of the tag team division following their arrival.
They have mainly faced off against jobbers and lesser talents in squash matches but have not progressed to facing anyone of note in NXT's overloaded tag team division. The crowd was absolutely silent for this match, which shows how little they are invested in Ryker and Forgotten Sons. They only seemed to cheer when Ryker hit his finisher, as they realized the fight would soon be over.
The Velveteen Dream capped off his stellar year with a signature video package hyping up what awaits the strangest, but great, performer on NXT's roster. This was followed by a video package of highlights from Gargano's cage match against Aleister Black from last week's episode of NXT. After the highlights finished, Ciampa once again delivered his signature backstage promo in the darkened room. Ciampa used the promo to push not only himself but also to try and get Gargano to challenge for the North American title. The prospect of Gargano and Ricochet facing off at NXT TakeOver: Phoenix would be something of a dream match, but it seems more likely that Gargano, Black and Ciampa's story isn't over.
The main event of the episode saw the Undisputed Era defend their NXT Tag Team Title against Heavy Machinery. Unfortunately, the result of this match was already obvious, as Heavy Machinery has already been advertised for the main roster. This was also not overly surprising, as Heavy Machinery had been put in the position in the first place following the injury suffered by War Raider's Hanson during War Games back in November. Roderick Strong and Kyle O'Reilly came to the ring sans stablemates Adam Cole and Bobby Fish.
Considering how Heavy Machinery was pitched as a mid-card tag team, as opposed to how Undisputed Era who were booked as main eventers, both Knight and Dozevic got a surprisingly large amount of offense in against the champions. Both Knight and Dozevic fell foul of high-risk offense attempts, with Knight missing Strong with a Moonsault and Dozevic had his attempt stopped at the top turnbuckle.
The Undisputed Era won after Strong and O'Reilly hit Dozevic with their double team move called "Total Elimination". As Knight and Dozevic sat in the ring, The Undisputed Era celebrated at the top of the ramp with Adam Cole and Bobby Fish to end the episode and NXT for the year.
#3 Io Shirai
In a match among four of NXT's most talented women's division, the fatal four way for the number one contender had its ups and downs this week. Despite having 4 of the top talent in the ring vying to be Shayna Baszler's next contender at TakeOver: Phoenix, there were some scrappy parts of the match.
However, one of the standout stars, and certainly one of the most talented females in NXT or WWE as a whole, Io Shirai proved once again why she deserved to be in the Mae Young Final and also justified why the WWE had wanted to sign her for such a long time.
Shirai delivered the highlights of the match at various points, between taking out Belair on the outside, the picture perfect springboard Missle Dropkick she landed on Lacey Evans, to her Tiger Feint Kick and even her Moonsault were all delivered perfectly in a match that wasn't the cleanest. She may have been beaten by Belair at the end, but Shirai will have her time at the top of the NXT Women's division next year for sure.