Posted in: Sports, TV, WWE | Tagged: NXT, wrestling, wwe

NXT Preview: 2 Title Matches Set, 2 Huge Announcements Promised

Published Wed, 10 Mar 2021 13:35:33 -0600

WWE NXT may soon be running like a scalded dog away from the Wednesday Night Wars with AEW Dynamite. The show is heavily rumored to move to Tuesdays following WrestleMania this year. But that doesn't mean NXT is giving up on finally scoring a ratings victory before the war is over. Tonight's episode of NXT has a stacked card, with two major title matches and "major announcements" from William Regal. Will it make a difference in the ratings? That may depend on how people react to AEW's botched ending to Revolution on Sunday. Will people tune into Dynamite this weeks to enjoy the cringe entertainment of seeing AEW try to explain what happened? Or will they tune out from sheer awkwardness?

Match graphic for Io Shirai vs. Toni Storm on WWE NXT this week.

Whatever happens, you can't say WWE isn't trying. The NXT Championship will be on the line tonight when Finn Balor defends against Adam Cole. Who will win that match? The outcome likely relies on how WWE wants Karrion Kross to be perceived since he will almost certainly take the title from whoever wins at the Takeover before WrestleMania. If Kross is meant to be a heel, then beating Balor would serve him well. If he's meant to be perceived as a babyface, then a win over Cole could be the way to go.

The NXT Women's Championship will also be on the line tonight as Io Shirai defends against Toni Storm. It seems unlikely that Shirai would lose the title after holding it since In Your House last year with only weeks to go before WrestleMania weekend, but stranger things have happened. Storm has lost to Shirai before in a triple threat, but hopes her luck will be better in a one-on-one match. Whether she's right remains to be seen.

In other in-ring action on NXT tonight, Kayden Carter will face Xia Li, looking for revenge for Li injuring Carter's partner, Kacy Catanzaro, last week. And William Reagal is set to make two huge announcements. The belief is that the first one will be the introduction of NXT Women's Tag Team Championships, and the second one will be the announcement of a two-night NXT Takeover on WrestleMania week, though it's also possible that Regal could announce that NXT is moving to Tuesday nights in April, or that NXT Takeover's main event will be an exploding barbed-wire deathmatch with an explosion that actually works. That last one is what we would personally do, but WWE didn't ask our opinion.

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