{"id":13745,"date":"2019-12-20T02:25:41","date_gmt":"2019-12-20T02:25:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/?p=13745"},"modified":"2019-12-20T02:25:53","modified_gmt":"2019-12-20T02:25:53","slug":"nxt-report-card-12-18-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/2019\/12\/20\/nxt-report-card-12-18-19\/","title":{"rendered":"NXT Report Card 12\/18\/19"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Adam Cole vs Finn Balor-NXT Championship<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You know it\u2019s gonna be a great match when Finn Balor\ncomes out with \u201cPrince\u201d on his graphics. That\u2019s pretty much as close as we\u2019re\ngoing to get to WWE acknowledging the existence of Prince Devitt but it was\nstill so cool to see! This match was fire from start to finish. And the Johnny\nGargano distraction (and subsequent chair beatdown) was a fantastic booking\nchoice. Now we get more of their feud while also continuing with Adam Cole\u2019s\ntitle reign. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Winner: Adam Cole<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grade: A<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Damian Priest vs Killian Dain<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The match ran a little long for me, but overall it\nwas good. They played off their clash at Takeover and sold Damian Priest\u2019s rib\ninjury well. Sometimes I forget just how well Dain can move for such a big\ndude.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Winner: Damian Priest<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grade: B+<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cameron Grimes vs Kushida<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It seems the newness and the hype has died down a\nbit for Kushida, which is a shame. I feel like he\u2019s capable of doing a lot more\nbut maybe it\u2019s because I\u2019ve seen other stuff of his. However, this match was\nquite good and now the feud is even and ready to continue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Winner: Cameron Grimes<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grade: B<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Io Shirai vs Santana Garret<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was a decent match; we\u2019ve definitely seen much\nbetter out of the women\u2019s division. Also, Garret looked a million times better\nthan she did with Taynara Conti. Let\u2019s consider this her debut match and erase\nthat other one from our minds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Winner: Io Shirai<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grade: C<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Travis Banks vs Pete Dunne<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was a fantastic preview match for the upcoming\nWorlds Collide tournament! I feel like Dunne and Banks have styles that\ncomplement each other and keep the audience engaged throughout the match. I\nhope that we get to see this match again during the actual tournament. Also\nTravis Banks gets an extra point because he was so nice to me at this year\u2019s\nWorld Collide tournament!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Winner: Pete Dunne<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grade: B+<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dakota Kai interview<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I haven\u2019t really bought Kai as a heel so far but at\nleast she gave this interview with confidence. Something needs to click for her\nthough so this heel turn can really work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not Graded<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shayna Baszler vs Rhea Ripley-NXT Women\u2019s Championship<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have to say\u2026I was absolutely speechless after this\nmatch. This was amazing and everything a championship match should be. All the\nstars aligned for this moment: Baszler as a cocky and easily hateable heel,\nRipley as the top babyface, the War Games match, and Survivor Series. This was\nabsolutely match of the night! I have to give credit to Baszler too for making\nherself seem like such a monster. She\u2019s probably on her way up to the main\nroster, though I wouldn\u2019t mind a rematch feud for the title. I wish I could\u2019ve\nbeen there for Ripley\u2019s mosh pit celebration!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Winner: Rhea Ripley<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grade: A+<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Final Thoughts<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

NXT brought their A-game to last night\u2019s episode! We\nhad a championship match open the show and one close the show and both\nabsolutely killed it. Now that there\u2019s a couple of weeks to think about, moving\nto television has definitely elevated NXT as a brand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall Grade: A<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Adam Cole vs Finn Balor-NXT Championship You know it\u2019s gonna be a great match when Finn Balor comes out with \u201cPrince\u201d on his graphics. That\u2019s pretty much as close as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":12667,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,186,22,185,35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-featured","category-nxt","category-reviews","category-wwe","category-wwe-reviews"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9jnWd-3zH","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/nxt-logo-5.jpg?fit=960%2C540&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/29"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13745"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13745\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13746,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13745\/revisions\/13746"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}