NXT Cruiserweight Championship Match Set For New Year's Evil

Gran Metalik to challenge Santos Escobar on next week's NXT.

Dec 31, 2020 December 31st, 2020

With NXT gearing up for its big New Year’s Evil special next week, last night’s episode of black and gold brand action saw a Cruiserweight Championship match set for the first NXT show of 2021.

This week's NXT offering first saw the Lucha House Party duo of Gran Metalik and Lince Dorado interrupt an in-ring promo from Legado del Fantasma. From there, Lucha House Party would go on to secure a tag team victory over Joaquin Wilde and Raul Mendoza. Post-match, Metalik taunted Legado del Fantasma leader Santos Escobar – in turn setting up Gran Metalik challenging for Escobar’s Cruiserweight Championship at New Year’s Evil in a match that’s sure to be an absolute banger.

That means that the card for next week's New Year's Evil event now looks like:

- NXT Champion Finn Balor vs. Kyle O’ Reilly

- NXT Cruiserweight Champion Santos Escobar vs. Gran Metalik

- Rhea Ripley vs. Raquel Gonzalez in a Last Woman Standing Match

- Tommaso Ciampa vs. Timothy Thatcher in the Fight Pit

- Karrion Kross vs. Damian Priest

- The return of Xia Li and Boa

It's also expected that next week will see the full brackets of the 2021 Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic revealed, too.

Andrew Pollard

Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.

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