Worlds Collide took place Saturday night from the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas featuring inter-promotional matches between NXT and NXT UK.
Braden Herrington & Davie Portman will have a Worlds Collide POST Show on the site later tonight and review the entire card.
The pre-show was hosted by Charly Caruso, Sam Roberts, and Andy Shepherd.
Tom Phillips and Nigel McGuinness are calling the show.
RESULTS
*Kay Lee Ray over Mia Yim in 9:14 in a non-title match on the pre-show
*Finn Balor over Ilja Dragunov in 13:50
*Jordan Devlin over Angel Garza, Isaiah Scott and Travis Banks in 12:05 to win the NXT Cruiserweight title
*DIY over Trent Seven & Tyler Bate in 22:55
*Rhea Ripley over Toni Storm to retain the NXT women’s title in 10:07
*Imperium over The Undisputed Era in 29:52
KAY LEE RAY VS MIA YIM IN A NON-TITLE MATCH
This match was the lone one featured on the pre-show.
Ray missed a Swanton off the top and Yim fought back with a tornado DDT off the apron. Ray knocked Yim off the apron with a superkick and hit a somersault dive off the top to the floor.
Ray’s Gori Bomb was countered with the Code Blue for a two-count. Ray stopped Soul Food and hit her own version of it. Yim responded with a Destroyer that Ray kicked out from.
Ray countered an O’Connor roll and held onto the ropes for the cover to win the match.
WINNER: Kay Lee Ray at 9:14
They had a good match together and got into several near falls that the audience responded to. The finish feels overdone with the heel grabbing the jeans and rope for leverage but nothing with this match in its spot on the show.
The main show opened with footage of The Undisputed Era and Imperium accompanied by a portion of Winston Churchill’s “We shall fight on the beaches” speech.
FINN BALOR VS ILJA DRAGUNOV
Balor was clearly viewed as the babyface among the audience.
Dragunov did the ‘just bring it’ gesture with his hand and then slapped Balor in the face.
Phillips said that Dragunov would “literally” run through a brick wall to win a match. At the very least, I would question that.
Dragunov hit the Bombs Away knee drop off the middle turnbuckle, which only got a two. The highlight of that spot was Nigel McGuinness working in a reference to Pepper Gomez. In 1962, Ray Stevens and Gomez shot a huge angle with Stevens going to drop the Bombs Away onto Gomez’s stomach, per Gomez’s request and Stevens double-crossed him and dropped the knee on his throat.
Dragunov blocked 1916 and Balor hit the Final Cut, a sling blade, and the John Woo dropkick was stopped with a leaping kick from Dragunov.
Dragunov hit a high cross to the floor, a dropkick off the top and Balor was cut on the bridge of the nose. Balor got his knees up for a senton from the top, hit the John Woo dropkick, and landed the Coupe de Grace followed by 1916 for the victory.
WINNER: Finn Balor at 13:50
Balor was a very popular babyface to the crowd while Dragunov suffered from being somewhat unknown but did get heat. The match was well done and a fine opener for the main card. I wouldn’t expect this to be the match of the show and would off on calling it ‘great’ as it was a step beneath that level.
The Grizzled Young Veterans and Matt Riddle & Pete Dunne were introduced in the front row ahead of Wednesday’s Dusty Classic final. The winners on Wednesday will receive an NXT tag title match at TakeOver: Portland on February 16th. Zack Gibson called the final the biggest match of their career and cut a very strong promo. Riddle called Pete Dunne ‘his bro from another mo’. Dunne said, ‘Listen, I’ll just be blunt’ and Riddle got excited. Dunne said Riddle will smoke them and they’ll leave with the trophy.
ANGEL GARZA VS JORDAN DEVLIN VS ISAIAH SCOTT VS TRAVIS BANKS FOR THE NXT CRUISERWEIGHT TITLE
The three attacked Garza before he could yank off his pants.
Banks took over after a suicide dive to Devlin on the floor, he hit a cannonball to Garza and Scott stacked in the corner and then tossed Devlin on top of them.
Devlin bounced back into the ring off Scott’s back and landed a tornado DDT on Banks, which was reminiscent of Private Party’s silly string.
Garza tore off the pants, lifted Devlin and caught Banks while Scott came off the top with a foot stomp to Banks as Garza slammed Devlin to the mat. There were a lot of creative three and four-man sequences in this.
Devlin hit a one-man Spanish Fly to both Scott and Garza. Banks followed with Slice of Heaven and a Kiwi Krusher on Devlin for a near fall.
Garza hit a missile dropkick to Banks on the shoulders of Scott into a poison ‘rana to Scott. Garza hit Scott with the Wing Clipper, Devlin hit Garza with a head butt and stole the pin on Scott to win the title.
WINNER: Jordan Devlin at 12:05 to win the NXT Cruiserweight title
This was off the charts with so much creativity that incorporated three or four people at once. It has become the “go-to” ending in these multi-person matches with one person stealing the cover, but this worked so well and was a tremendous match.
Devlin asked the crowd if they believed him now and is the best sports-entertainer on the planet and ‘you never bet against an ace’.
Keith Lee and Mia Yim were shown in the crowd. Chelsea Green and Robert Stone walked in and took their seats.
TYLER BATE & TRENT SEVEN VS TOMMASO CIAMPA & JOHNNY GARGANO
It started off respectful and slowly escalated with DIY tossing both over the desks on the floor and the crowd chanting for them. They were subtly mocking Bate and Seven with their mannerisms and Ciampa showing off his physique compared to Seven’s.
DIY got control of Bate until Seven was tagged in and fired up with chops, slaps, and lariats. Ciampa stopped a seven-star lariat with a flying knee. The pace picked up with lots of tandem sequences.
Bate went for an elbow off the turnbuckle and was nailed by a knee from Ciampa. Bate the rebound lariat off the rope and a Tyler Driver ’97 for a two-count. After several saves, all four were down and everyone was chanting ‘NXT’.
Bate went for a standing shooting star and landed on Gargano’s knees. Bate used the airplane spin and Gargano turned it into the Gargano Escape while Ciampa applied the Fujiwara armbar on Seven. Bate and Seven got to their feet and broke out of the submissions to deliver dual airplane spins.
Bate missed Gargano and hit Seven with the rebound lariat off the rope. Seven prevented DIY from hitting their finish to Bate and they hit the Bop and Bang followed by the Burning Hammer with Bate off the top with a knee for a massive near fall on Ciampa.
Bate went for a Spiral Tap as Ciampa pulled Seven on top to absorb the landing and nearly got the fall but Bate saved his teammate.
The four went at it with strikes, Bate was struck in mid-air and sent to the floor and DIY hit the combination superkick and running knee to pin Seven.
WINNER: DIY at 22:55
Fantastic match and could be the match of the weekend.
There were several miscommunications spots between Moustache Mountain, which could lead somewhere coming out of this.
The pace was great, it built well and by the closing five minutes the audience was on fire and several of the near falls were outstanding. This was excellent.
The four hugged and shook hands afterward before raising their arms together.
Mercedes Martinez was shown in the audience. They cut to Dakota Kai and she was jumped by Tegan Nox in the crowd. Nox tackled her through the guardrail and they fought ringside. This received a big reaction and was done very effectively.
RHEA RIPLEY VS TONI STORM FOR THE NXT WOMEN’S TITLE
Bianca Belair was shown in the crowd.
Early in the match, Storm used a German suplex to send Ripley into the turnbuckle and rolled to the floor holding her neck. This became the focus of Storm’s attack.
Ripley applied the standing cloverleaf, which was broken at the rope. Storm blocked the Riptide and Ripley blocked Storm Zero. Storm landed a head butt and missed a frog splash from the top. Ripley recovered to hit the Riptide and won the match.
WINNER: Rhea Ripley in 10:07 to retain the NXT women’s title
I would say this one was underwhelming considering its placement on the show and never got the crowd to the next level for a big women’s title match. This felt like it was just starting when the finish came out of nowhere.
Bianca Belair was applauding and exchanged words with Ripley as a preview of their match for TakeOver: Portland.
They aired footage from earlier in the night where Gargano was discussing DIY’s win and attacked by Finn Balor.
THE UNDISPUTED ERA VS IMPERIUM
Early in the match, Wolfe took a kick from Fish and was out on his back. Referee Drake Wuertz held up the count and then separated everyone to assess Wolfe. Wolfe was taken to the floor and checked on as the match resumed. Moments later, they announced it was now 4-on-3 with Wolfe removed.
Undisputed Era had the advantage of Barthel for a long time until WALTER was tagged in. He had an exchange with O’Reilly and built to a double German spot delivered to O’Reilly and Strong simultaneously. This is where Imperium took control of O’Reilly. This saw WALTER get a near fall of one of his chops.
Strong received the hot tag and had this awesome exchange with WALTER that made you want to see those paired in a singles match.
TUE ganged up on WALTER, they made their way to the floor by announcer’s desk and the crowd chanted for the NXT UK champion. Strong proceeded to hit WALTER with an Olympic Slam off one desk and put him through the one next to it.
Aichner flew off the rope with a springboard into a superkick from Cole inside the ring.
O’Reilly hit a dragon screw to Barthel in the ropes, came off the top with a knee drop to the injured body part and applied a kneebar on Barthel. Barthel got to the rope and Aichner drilled O’Reilly with a double springboard moonsault.
WALTER returned from the Olympic Slam, got the tag and attacked everyone with chops. WALTER hit Strong with a frog splash but was hit with Cole’s Last Shot, which Barthel made the save on.
Aichner hit a springboard crossbody to everyone on the floor leaving WALTER with Fish and hit a shotgun dropkick and jackknife powerbomb for the win.
WINNERS: Imperium at 29:52
Excellent main event and it was a coin flip for the match of the night between this one and DUY vs. Moustache Mountain.
As expected, a tremendous show match-wise and coming in at an easily digestible 2 ½ hours.
