Welcome to the first NXT of the Year, kind of, and the first NXT on BT Sport so UK viewers like me can watch live. It’s not really the first show of the year, that’s next week it’s the NXT Year End Awards show and the announcement of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic teams so there aren’t any new matches.

Cathy Kelley, Pat McAfee, and Sam Roberts hosted the show. They announced the awards, introduced the match highlights, and generally talked about how awesome NXT is, what a good year 2019 was, and how great 2020 is going to be.

 

The Awards

Tag Team of the Year Nominees – Street Profits, Grizzled Young Veterans, The Viking Raiders, Mark Andrews & Flash Morgan Webster, Undisputed ERA.

WINNER – Undisputed ERA

Undisputed ERA were their usual modest and humble selves (hahahahaha) when accepting the award from William Regal.

 

Male Competitor of the Year Nominees – Adam Cole, Walter, Johnny Gargano, Velveteen Dream, Tyler Bate, Tommaso Ciampa.

WINNER – Adam Cole

It doesn’t matter how much the NXT Universe love Adam Cole, he will always love himself a hundred times more. And he’ll always tell you why.

 

Female Competitor of the Year Nominees – Shayna Baszler, Io Shirai, Toni Storm, Kay Lee Ray, Bianca Belair, Rhea Ripley.

WINNER – Shayna Baszler

In her acceptance speech, Baszler reminded us she is the most dominant champion WWE has ever seen and said we could think again if we think that’s changing anytime soon just because she lost the title.

 

Rivalry of the Year WINNER – Adam Cole vs Johnny Gargano.

The nominees weren’t listed. Both Cole and Gargano collected their awards from William Regal. Gargano said it was his second year in a row winning this award. Cole tried to get Gargano to say who won their rivalry, Gargano responded by saying he wished his dad had punched out Cole when he went to visit him.

 

Future Star of the Year Nominees – Kushida, Xia Li, Bronson Reed, Tegan Nox, Dakota Kai, Ilja Dragunov, Isaiah ‘Swerve’ Scott, Taynara, Cameron Grimes

WINNER – Dakota Kai

Kai said she’d known that about herself for the whole time and everyone who voted for her is late to the party. She makes her own opportunities now.

 

TakeOver of the Year WINNER – NXT TakeOver WarGames.

Nominees weren’t listed.

 

Breakout Star of the Year Nominees – Damian Priest, Piper Niven, Dominik Dijakovic, Angel Garza, Joe Coffey, Keith Lee, Candice LeRae, Matt Riddle, Rhea Ripley

WINNER – Keith Lee

Lee’s award was presented by Triple H. He thanked everyone for voting and said we ain’t seen nothing yet. Keith Lee is great, but Rhea Ripley should have won that one.

 

The matches chosen for highlights were the third, second, and first placed Match of the Year nominees. Highlights of the third place match were shown at the beginning of the show, second place in the middle, and the winner was declared, along with the highlights, halfway through hour two. Good long highlights on all three matches as well.

Match of the Year – THIRD PLACE – Undisputed ERA vs Street Profits vs Forgotten Sons vs Oney Lorcan & Dany Burch – Tag Team Championship ladder match – NXT TakeOver XXV.

Match of the Year – SECOND PLACE – Team Ripley vs Team Baszler – Women’s WarGames Match – NXT TakeOver WarGames.

Match of the Year – WINNER – Adam Cole vs Johnny Gargano – 2 out of 3 Falls – NXT TakeOver New York.

 

Overall Competitor of the Year WINNER – Adam Cole

Cole and the rest of Undisputed ERA took to the ring with all their awards and gloated to close the show.

 

 

Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic Teams

NXT UK are taking part this year so there are four teams from each brand.

NXT – Undisputed ERA, Forgotten Sons, Pete Dunne & Matt Riddle, Kushida and Mystery Partner

NXT UK – Grizzled Young Veterans, Gallus, Imperium, Mark Andrews & Flash Morgan Webster

The first round matches pit the brands against each other. The brackets are below.

 

 

Final word

It was good watching NXT on proper tv for the first time. The ad breaks are a little annoying, but they do make reviewing super-easy, so I’m not complaining too much.

NXT UK might have been better off having their own awards. But maybe seeing the nominations encouraged a few people to watch the show.

Undisputed ERA, and Adam Cole in particular, won too many awards. They probably deserved them, but they’re going to be even more unbearable now.