WWE NXT Review - November 11, 2020

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Leon Ruff def. Johnny Gargano to Win the NXT North American Championship

Yes, you read that correctly: Leon Ruff is the new NXT North American Champion. Gargano spun a wheel to determine his opponent, which was clearly rigged so it would land on Ruff, who he expected would be an easy opponent. Ruff has been NXT's designated jobber in 2020 and has sold well for everyone he's gone up against, but he obviously isn't championship material, at least not yet. We'll see where this leads, but it feels like Gargano is trying to elevate someone new and maybe it will work. I was looking forward to him having a real, lengthy title reign for a change, but apparently not. It's more likely he continues to feud with Damian Priest without the championship involved. I'd actually love for Ruff to have a little run with the belt by defending it against a bunch of people and barely managing to escape with the victory.

NXT Cruiserweight Champion Santos Escobar def. Jake Atlas

As great of a match as this was, I have to question why the title was on the line after Escobar already disposed of Atlas with ease in a matter of minutes two weeks ago at Halloween Havoc. Viewers had no reason to view Atlas as a threat to the title here, but he did put up a hell of a fight before losing. Escobar winning was a nice touch, but I question who's left in the Cruiserweight division for him to defend against at this point. They have to be waiting for fellow NXT Cruiserweight Champion Jordan Devlin to be able to travel and return, right?

Raquel Gonzalez Attacked Boa

Xia Li called out Gonzalez last week yet didn't show up here. Boa didn't explain why and got his ass kicked by Gonzalez as a result. If NXT is trying to get over Li and Boa as an act, it hasn't worked out too well so far based on how they've been beaten up at every turn over the last month. Even weirder, an unidentified man walked down the stage, confronted Boa and marked his hand after handing him an envelope similar to the one Boa has been giving Li lately. NXT doesn't do "sports-entertainment" often, so I'm willing to give it a shot and see where it goes. That said, I don't have a lot of hope because this came off incredibly campy.

Candice LeRae def. Toni Storm

The commentators were on point when they said this was TakeOver-worthy. They didn't go all out here, but what we got from LeRae and Storm was solid. This marked Storm's first loss since returning, but I don't think she lost much in defeat here, not to mention that LeRae needed the win more now that she's feuding with Shotzi Blackheart. Speaking of whom, she emerged afterward and attempted to save Storm but got outnumbered by LeRae and the person with the Scream mask, who unsurprisingly was revealed to be Indi Hartwell. That isn't to say I don't like the pairing, it was just obvious from the start.

Timothy Thatcher def. Dexter Lumis

This came about after Thatcher and Lumis got into it in the back. Lumis is coming off his win over Cameron Grimes at Halloween Havoc, but I didn't think it was imperative for him to win here, too. In fact, I'd argue Thatcher needed it more and thus I was happy with the result. The match itself was pretty good for what it was and the interference from Grimes protected Lumis in defeat. The Haunted House of Terror matchup felt like a blow-off, so I'm curious if Grimes will go over in the inevitable rematch.

NXT Tag Team Champions Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch def. Breezango

The outcome was never in doubt here with Lorcan and Burch recently winning the NXT Tag Team Championship, but that doesn't mean this main event wasn't entertaining. This was an improvement over their original encounter because of the added intensity and they worked a great pace. Fandango even came close to winning the belts back at one point after that diving elbow that led to the suspenseful nearfall. I wasn't fond of the interference, but it didn't ruin the match for me. Post-match, the heel stable of Lorcan, Burch, Pat McAfee and Pete Dunne stood tall over Breezango and Drake Maverick, so I assume they face Breezango, Maverick and Killian Dain on an upcoming episode of NXT before they collide with Undisputed Era in WarGames.

Overall Show

After two above-average editions of NXT, it was back to normal for this show. That's not to say it was bad by any means, but there wasn't a ton to write home about. Even with three title matches (and one of them featuring a shocking title change), it felt like a transitional show. On the bright side, the in-ring action delivered and all of the key storylines were furthered in some form or fashion. I enjoyed the episode overall, but there's not a ton of stuff you should drop what you're doing to check out.