7 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE NXT: New Year's Evil (Results & Review - 2 Jan)

3. No Messing About

Maybe it was the jam-packed card, but the NXT Women’s Championship match didn’t waste much time in getting going and hitting high gear.

After a brief opening of mat work, Blair Davenport and Lyra Valkyria were sent right into the heavy artillery, with Blair nailing a diving stomp to Lyra’s head, then continuing the attack. Valkyria would come back with palm strikes and a running crossbody before Davenport wiped her out with an avalanche Falcon Arrow.

Blair drove her knee through the announce desk, leaving both women wounded and stumbling around for the remainder of the match. The war of attrition ended shortly thereafter when Valkyria hit a Landslide for the win.

What worked nicely with this match was seeing NXT not do a 15-20 minute back-and-forth struggle with 10 chinlocks and extended selling for drama. Instead, they worked a crisp 8-minute match where both women got rocked, playing into each going for knockout shots before the other could land a KO blow on them.