6 Ups And 0 Downs For WWE NXT: New Year's Evil

1. 'The Prince' Halts The Golden Prophecy

Anyone who sat through the pair's previous Match of the Year clash at TakeOver: 31 will know exactly why the internet has been frothing at the mouth at the thought of the sequel. Last time round, Finn Balor wound up needing surgery on a broken jaw and Kyle O'Reilly suffered a debilitating liver injury during the grizzly affair.

With both men understandably wary of the other after that last skirmish, the rivals took their time early on, not over committing when it comes to offence and desperately trying to wear down the other with precise submissions. Things took a turn for the worse for O'Reilly, however, when the Champion exacted some long awaited revenge on the UE man by damaging his jaw with a kick to the rope the challenger was at that point chewing.

From here on out, the Champion isolated his nemesis' jaw, ramming it with forearm strikes and squeezing it out of position with a cross-face. O'Reilly wouldn't stay down, though, fighting back with his trademark knees, rapid submission transitions and a kick so hard he sent himself out of the ring. Relentlessly refusing to quit, O'Reilly threw everything including the kitchen sink at Balor, smashing him with a super-plex, roll-up, brainbuster sequence, busting open the 'The Prince' in the process. But, a Hail Mary liver shot (another callback from TakeOver 31) was enough to give Balor the opening he needed to lock in a vicious abdominal stretch for the submission win.

All signs now seem to point to that highly anticipated Kross/Balor showdown in the near future, but how will the Undisputed Era react to yet another failed attempt to bring the big one back home?