Adrenaline was pumping through the veins as tonight’s WWE NXT kicked off live from the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida. The fans’ favorite Cody Rhodes kicked off tonight’s show in grand style, making not one but two special announcements that will blow your mind.
We also had appearances from John Cena, Asuka, and the WWE Hall of Famer The Undertaker as WWE pulled out all stops in their ratings war against AEW Dynamite.
Dusty Rhodes’ Tag Team Classic is back
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Addressing the WWE Universe, Rhodes revealed that Shawn Michaels has made him the NXT General Manager for tonight. This sent a wave of excitement and joy across the arena, and then he made other announcements as well. Well folks, guess what! The Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic Tournament is back.
Also, Rhodes announced that the 2023 Breakout tournament for the men’s division alongside the women’s division will take place. As the fans settled these announcements in their minds, Ilja Dragunov made an entrance. He made his way to the ring and started heaping praise on Rhodes.
Just then Dominik Mysterio and Rhea Ripley interrupted his promo and began laying insults on Rhodes and Dragunov. Mysterio then challenges Dragunov for the NXT title. The General Manager for the night made the match official with one condition, thus appointing LA Knight as the special guest referee for the match, YEAH!
Asuka vs. Roxanne Perez
The bout of the night featured Roxanne Perez going up against former WWE Women’s Champion, Asuka. Before the match commenced, Shotzi came out to the ringside and sat beside the announcer’s table to have a closer look at the match.
The ending segments of the match saw Perez getting knocked with a punch to the face. She fought with all her might, but in the end, Asuka prevailed as she got the 1…2…3… WIN. Then the fans saw Kiana James popping out of thin air to attack Perez, but Shotzi rendered her endeavor useless.
Winner: Asuka
Next, a brief backstage clip of Paul Heyman arriving at the arena also popped up on the screen.
The Brawling Brutes and Tyler Bate vs. Gallus
As Brawling Brutes made their way to the ring for the pub rules 6-man tag match, Gallus blindsided them. Chaos spewed all around the ring, and the match hadn’t even started yet. After many punches, kicks, blows, and whatnot, the match finally commenced.
The men went all out and used every weapon available to crack open their opponent. It was quite a brutal match between (Ridge Holland, Butch, Tyler Bate) and (Joe Coffey, Mark Coffey, and Wolfgang). In the end, The Brawling Brutes and Tyler Bate prevailed as the three stars three-man power bombed Coffey through the table.
Winner: The Brawling Brutes and Tyler Bate
John Cena is in the house
John Cena comes out next to address the NXT crowd. Claiming that NXT is the future, he asserts they are making history tonight. He continues to increase fans’ enthusiasm with motivating words but soon gets interrupted by Bron Breakker.
As soon as Breakker enters the ring, he starts bad-mouthing Cena. Still, the latter gave the former the benefit of the doubt. Cena was soon disappointed for not knocking him down when he had the chance when Breakker attacked him first. Luckily, he rolled out of the way before Breakker could leave any serious damage to his body.
Cena then attempted an AA on him, but Breakker was quick to retreat out of the ring.
Dominik Mysterio vs. Ilja Dragunov for the NXT title
Next up in the match card is a match that was made official on the kickoff segment of NXT 10/10 by Rhodes. Knight, Dragunov, and Mysterio (accompanied by Ripley) make their way to the ring one by one. Despite knowing The Judgment Day antics, Rhodes didn’t ban Ripley from the ringside.
This might not have been a wise decision, knowing that Mami does everything in her power to prevent Dom from losing his matches. She even caused a distraction a few minutes after the opening segments of the match. Each second grew crucial for the two men as fatigue started taking over their bodies.
Just as things started to look bad for Dom, his friends from The Judgment Day (Finn Balor and JD McDonagh) came to the ring for distraction. But Knight took care of them. Ripley tried to knock Dragunov with her belt, but Trick Williams prevented her from doing that.
This gave Dragunov a window of opportunity to capitalize and pin Mysterio after hitting a Torpedo Moscow thus winning the surprise title match.
Winner: Ilja Dragunov
Dani Palmer vs. Lola Vice
The second match in the first round of the Women’s Break tournament saw Lola Vice going up against Dani Palmer. Both women fought incredibly hard to proceed to the next step in the tournament, but there could be only one winner. It was Lola Vice who picked up a big win after knocking out Dani Palmer with a kick to the side of the face.
Winner: Lola Vice
Jade Cargill arrives in NXT
As NXT proceeded, the fans saw someone pulling outside the WWE Performance Center. It was Jade Cargill in a huge white SUV. As she dismounted and proceeded to enter the building, Shawn Michaels came to welcome her. He then escorted her to the building after expressing his utter joy upon the arrival of the former AEW star.
Carmelo Hayes vs. Bron Breakker
The fans first saw Carmelo Hayes, and then Cena came out to accompany him. Next Paul Heyman comes out to the stage and introduces Breakker to the crowd as the latter makes his entrance. Earlier fans saw Heyman hyping up Breakker backstage. Is he trying to recruit him to The Bloodline?
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Watch this story – The Act of Ultimate “Savageness” By NXT Star Towards Rhea Ripley & Dominik Mysterio Makes Fans Lose Their Mind – “10 Second Dom”
Coming back to the match, after quite a tussle between the two stars, fans saw Solo Sikoa coming out of nowhere to attack Cena. Throwing punches and fists, the two stars made their way backstage, followed by Heyman. Melo capitalizes and pins Breakker.
Winner: Carmelo Hayes
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Breakker didn’t take his loss well and attacked Melo after the match. Just when the fans thought NXT was closing for the night, The Undertaker popped up. He made his way to the ring on his iconic motorbike and confronted Breakker, who was still inside the ring. An irate Breakker insulted Taker without thinking about the repercussions.
The Undertaker then showed him who is the real, bigger badass as he flattened him with a chokeslam. With this, tonight’s special edition of NXT went off-air. Good night, folks! We’ll meet again next week.