Dakota Kai and Raquel González made history when they became the first ever NXT Women’s Tag Team Champions … but their reign was short-lived!
The newly created championship was announced on the latest edition of NXT.
At the top of the show, NXT General Manager William Regal unveiled the belts. He awarded the titles to the winners of the Women’s Dusty Classic: Dakota Kai and Raquel González.
But Dakota and Raquel’s reign did not last long. The pair lost the titles later in the night in a rematch of the 2021 Dusty Classic final!
As you might recall, Kai and González defeated Shotzi Blackheart and Ember Moon at NXT TakeOver: Vengeance to win the Dusty Classic, but Wednesday’s match had a different result.
A series of miscommunication between Dakota and Raquel allowed Ember and Shotzi got their win back and capture the brand new (although technically second-hand) titles in the process.
The next WWE NXT Takeover special may be a two-night event during WrestleMania 37 Weekend.
Earlier this week, a WWE Network pop-up revealed that a NXT Takeover event was scheduled for Thursday, April 8, which is the Thursday before Night 1 of WrestleMania 37 on Saturday, April 10. PWInsider has since confirmed that the next planned Takeover special is scheduled for that Thursday before WrestleMania.
There has been talk of this being the first-ever two-night Takeover event. The idea is that Night 1 would air on the USA Network that Wednesday night as the weekly NXT TV episode, while Night 2 would air that Thursday on the WWE Network.
There is no word on if WWE will go ahead with the two-night Takeover event as the idea could change or evolve with more than a month to go.
There’s also no word on if both nights would take place from the Capitol Wrestling Center at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando.
WWE NXT Superstar Kacy Catanzaro has announced that she’s dealing with a partial LCL tear.
It was announced in last week’s NXT Injury Report that Catanzaro had suffered a leg injury in the post-match attack by Xia Li. The report noted that officials were waiting for more information, but Catanzaro was not cleared.
Catanzaro now has confirmed an injury in her latest Instagram post.
“It’s been a tough week.. coming to terms with a partial LCL tear, but working with medical staff to get back as soon as I can. You can’t keep me down,” Catanzaro wrote on Instagram last night.
There is no word on when Catanzaro suffered the injury or when she will be back in action, but we will keep you updated.
There are rumors on the WWE NXT TV show possibly moving to Tuesday nights on the USA Network.
It was reported today by the Mat Men Pro Wrestling podcast that NXT is set to move to Tuesday nights beginning April 13, which would be the first NXT show after WrestleMania 37 weekend. The report noted that an official announcement should be made fairly soon by WWE.
WWE has not confirmed the schedule change as of this writing, but some people in or around NXT have heard of the rumor making the rounds.
Furthermore, Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer noted on Twitter that NXT moving to Tuesday night was definitely a topic of discussion in WWE as of February 24, which was last Wednesday, but at least at that point the change was not final.
Mat Men later noted that they heard the same thing about the February 24 rumblings, adding that NBC staff were told of the move this week. Meltzer said he expected this would happen when the NBC Sports Network shut down, which could bring some NHL content to Wednesday nights.
Tonight’s WWE NXT episode on the USA Network will be headlined by the long awaited non-title No DQ match between Karrion Kross and NXT Cruiserweight Champion Santos Escobar. If Escobar no-shows, he will be stripped of the title and suspended indefinitely by NXT General Manager William Regal.
NXT Champion Finn Bálor has admitted that he initially believed his return to the black and gold brand would be temporary.
Finn spilled the beans on the latest episode of Corey Graves’s After The Bell podcast.
“I didn’t know what to expect. I was under the impression that it was going to be a three-month deal and reboot Finn and reset and then go back to Raw or SmackDown,” the Irishman said. “It’s evolved into something that I don’t think anyone expected. It speaks to how NXT is evolving and is truly its own brand.”
After a three year stint on WWE’s main roster, Bálor returned to NXT in October 2019. “As of now, Finn Bálor is NXT,” he proclaimed during a confrontation with then NXT Champion Adam Cole.
“I don’t know what to expect going forward and don’t know how long it’s going to last,” Finn said on After The Bell. “But I have to say I’m super happy in NXT and there is no reason for me to move anywhere in my career. I’m still growing It’s one of the best things I’ve done in my career,” he continued.
The 39-year-old also said he doesn’t expect his current NXT tenure to come to an end in the foreseeable future.
“I’ll know NXT has run its course and we’ll need to make a change, but I don’t see that coming anytime soon,” he said.
Tonight’s WWE NXT episode on the USA Network will feature fallout from Sunday’s “Takeover: Vengeance Day” event.
WWE is teasing that we will find out the status of The Undisputed Era on tonight’s show after Adam Cole turned on Kyle O’Reilly following the Pete Dunne vs. NXT Champion Finn Balor main event at Takeover.
WWE has announced just one match for tonight – Karrion Kross vs. NXT Cruiserweight Champion Santos Escobar in a non-title bout.
It’s likely that the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic winners will also appear tonight – MSK, plus Raquel Gonzalez and Dakota Kai.
LA Knight, the former Eli Drake, is also rumored to make his Wednesday night NXT debut on tonight’s show.
NXT CHAMPIONSHIP Finn Balor (c) defeated Pete Dunne
After the match, Balor recovers as the music hits. We go to replays. We come back to Balor standing tall with the title. He poses in the corner as the crowd cheers him on. Dunne is down but recovering. Balor poses on the stage with the title around his waist until NXT Tag Team Champions Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch run out, dropping Balor from behind. The boos get louder as Burch and Lorcan bring Balor into the ring for the double team. The referee tries to stop the attack but he gets knocked down, possibly by a recovering Dunne. Dunne joins in for the triple team until The Undisputed Era’s music hits for a big pop. Adam Cole, Kyle O’Reilly and Roderick Strong run down and hit the ring as Dunne, Burch and Lorcan retreat to the stage. O’Reilly checks on Balor and offers his hand. O’Reilly helps Balor to his feet and they shake as fans cheer them on. The Undisputed Era stands in the middle of the ring and does their pose as Balor stands with them, doing his own pose. Cole suddenly superkicks Balor out of nowhere. O’Reilly and Strong, especially O’Reilly, aren’t happy with this. O’Reilly has words with Cole while we hear Strong say he understands what Cole did. Cole superkicks O’Reilly out of nowhere and lays him out next to Balor on the mat. Strong looks a bit unsure about everything but he’s with Cole. The boos get louder now as Cole looks down at O’Reilly, who is barely moving. Cole made his exit from the ring while Balor and O’Reilly are still down. Strong acted conflicted between the two.
NXT WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP Io Shirai (c) defeated Toni Storm and Mercedes Martinez
MEN’S DUSTY RHODES CLASSIC FINALS MSK defeated The Grizzled Young Veterans
NXT NORTH AMERICAN CHAMPIONSHIP Johnny Gargano (c) defeated Kushida
WOMEN’S DUSTY RHODES CLASSIC FINALS Dakota Kai and Raquel Gonzalez defeated Shotzi Blackheart and Ember Moon
Pre-show: The panel is interrupted by the former Eli Drake from Impact Wrestling and the NWA. He is now known as LA Knight. He puts the locker room on notice and warns that he has his eyes on any Superstar who is currently holding a title.
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