It’s week 11 of WedHead2Head. The combat sports style scorecard of the Wednesday Night Wars. NXT came within a point of their first unanimous victory last week, can they continue that this week with their big show bookended by two title matches or would AEW respond with a second win in three weeks. Matt Connolly is back with his last performance as a full-time columnist before he steps back into a guest role. We’d like to thank Matt for his time in the opening 3 months of this experiment.
Read his thoughts, along with JCH and Brum below.
Rd1: Balor/Cole (plus aftermath) vs Omega/Page/Lucha Bros (plus aftermath)
JCH:I liked the commentary on AEW drawing attention to the Page/Omega dissension and the action was good, as you’d expect with Rey Fenix involved. I’m giving the round to NXT though. The match really kicked into another gear as it got near the finish and Finn selling his leg was great. I bought the last shot after he crumpled form a coup de grace attempt as the finish. Great spot. The Johnny return was nice and was better than the stupid picture in picture angle that AEW delivered after another nice Pac promo.
NXT 10-9 AEW
Brum:2 good matches to kick off Wednesday night. I think the Page/Omega frustration ladder is stepping up nicely & I enjoyed Geordie Nev hamming it up like he was a pantomime child catcher. NXT was the pick of the 2 though. Cole & Finn held back a bit, but it was still a really good match. Gargano’s return was handled well & him touching the spot where Balor took him out was a nice touch.
10-9 NXT.
Matt:Two really fun openings. AEW with a decent tag match which gave all four dudes a chance to shine. NXT take the round however and no surprise really. Strange knowing who to root for out of Cole and Balor but a title match is usually going to win the head to head. Glad that AEW seem to have at least a little bit of direction for my boy Page though.
NXT 10-9 AEW
Rd2: Priest/Dain vs Cody/Darby/BBB
JCH:Priest and Dain continue in this feud which just doesn’t wow me. I just don’t remember a lot from the match, and they struggle to hold my attention. The comms again on AEW was great, bringing up the fact that Darby wanted to team with Cody so he could get another match with him. If they’d mentioned that last week then I might have scored the segment differently which would have got AEW the win. Enjoyed the tag, where do the Butcher and the Blade go from here? MJF bought them in to wrestle Cody, that’s’ done, and they lost. Hopefully they stick around.
AEW 10-9 NXT. 19-19
Brum:For the second week in the row, Round 2 is Cody + a mate vs BBB. Like last week, they played a bit with tag conventions by having Cody take the beating & have Darby be the hot tag. It worked too. It was a solid match but not sure if BBB losing so early is a good idea. There was nothing wrong with Dain/Priest, but this feud isn’t clicking with me at all.
10-9 AEW. 19-19
Matt: Tough one to call this. Priest and Dain are two really capable big men involved in a decent big man feud but like with the opening match both have been positioned as heels, so it was hard to be completely invested. The Tag over on AEW was fine but BBB are going to struggle to make an impression if they are losing to makeshift teams. I'll give a slight edge to NXT.
NXT 10-9 AEW. 20-18 NXT.
Rd 3: Grimes/Kushida vs Kong/Alize
JCH:Now back on to NXT feuds I’m loving. Kushida and Grimes! A strong outing from these two with a huge win for Grimes. Will one of these guys move on to Angel Garza? Comfortable victory for NXT over a Kong establishing squash on AEW.
NXT 10-9 AEW. 29-28 NXT
Brum:Not much to say about the Kong squash. Though if you’re a female wrestler based in any upcoming AEW towns, I would advise dying your hair a bold colour as you’ll probably be booked so your locks can be added to Kong’s belt. KUSHIDA Grimes was a good match & it’s a massive win for the latter but I think the biggest Japanese junior since Liger (Kanemoto fans – Don’t @ me) should be protected more than this.
10-9 NXT. 29-28 NXT.
Matt:I love Grimes. I love Kushida. This match was a real banger too. Kong is great but this is just a squash so doesn't lay a glove on the NXT effort.
NXT 10-9 AEW. 30-27 NXT
Rd4: Shirai/Garrett vs Jericho/Jungle Boy
JCH:A fan told Io Shirai ‘Go back to China’. She replied, ‘I’m Japanese bitch’ and then did a split. Absolute queen. Mauro had some nice comms here referring back to their history in Stardom. Decent match, but unfortunately is up against the peak of AEW this week. 10-minute Chris Jericho matches is what I’m all about. I thought this whole segment was great. Hager and Luchasaurus continue their blossoming rivalry, Jungle Boy looked great, Jericho continued his whiny, false bravado Le Champion gimmick. Great stuff.
AEW 10-9 NXT. 38-38
Brum:I loved the psychology & the story in Jungle Boy vs Jericho; well done AEW. Because of his style, I’ve got no issues with Jericho not winning this. I think I would have preferred them to have left it there but understand why they wanted to cram the Mox bit in at the end. Solid squash from Io over at NXT but not enough to take the round.
10-9 AEW. 38-38
Matt:Shirai is fantastic and this was a decent little match but felt pretty unimportant on a show that was stacked. AEW built around this match and had loads of lovely little bits of business. Hager and Luchasaurus continue to tease a match and Jungle Boy showed all the heart required whilst heel champion Jericho kept his heat. JR with a rare good performance on Comms as well. AEW finally take a round here.
AEW 10-9 NXT. 39-37 NXT
Rd 5: Banks/Dunne vs Statlander/Baker (plus Kong)
JCH:Trav again! This was a low-key banger. Absolutely loved this match. Great to see these two doing something like this, I feel they’ve been missed since signing with the Fed. Kris Statlander continues to impress on AEW and her and Baker was good, but a cracker for the BritWres boys scores them the round.
NXT 10-9 AEW. 48-47
Brum:The AEW women’s match was decent. I think giving the rub to Statlander was the right move as she’s the most exciting thing about their women’s division at the moment. Again, like the Mox thing, I’d have preferred to have kept the Nightmare Collective to just the prior squash but also get why they did it. Trav 2 weeks in a row = woohoo. And he’s facing Peter: lovely. These lads both deliver in a really good match & it’s enough for an NXT win.
10-9 NXT. 48-47 NXT
Matt:Loved this match between Dunne and Banks. Did everything they could with the time and hitting three different variants of the same suplex was ace. Baker/Statlander was also a fair outing. I'm not really bothered about the Brandi stuff, but I like that they are committing to the Alien stuff. NXT again for me.
NXT 10-9 AEW. 49-46 NXT
Rd 6: Ripley/Baszler (plus celebration) vs Young Bucks/SCU (plus Dark order)
JCH: The Young Bucks and SCU match was decent but I felt it ended suddenly and felt a bit flat. Now I don’t have a problem with a flash ending, just this seemed a bit anti-climactic. The follow up was weird and apart from Kenny Omega’s excellent full pace running knee it didn’t really land with me. The way I see it a midcard tag team along with a bunch of literal losers they have recruited took out the entirety of your top faces. I did like the lack of Page here though and that the comms mentioned it. Comms definitely winning on AEW. Shayna Baszler is my hero. What a run she has had. The amount of times I thought she would lose the belt and move on, but she didn’t. Her character is great, her in ring is really good. I love watching her and if this is the end for her on NXT then Thanks for all you gave. Rhea Ripley has come out of nowhere into a huge star in about 4 months? I loved the grab on the ref to avoid the tap. I look forward to seeing her on top of this division. Shirai, Kai, Belair are all legit contenders already. FRG bloody loving it in the post-match celebration puts it over the edge for a 10-8 for me.
NXT 10-8 AEW
Brum:On the AEW side of things, the tag match was good for what it was. I just can’t really get into the AEW tag division right now. Also, I wasn’t a massive fan of The Dark Order stuff; it just felt a bit silly. I may forgive it if it leads to a Marty return, but based on the segment alone, it wasn’t great. NXT on the other hand, finished their year just about perfectly. Great match. Shayna gets some beef from some corners of wrestling fandom, but I think she is so good at what she does. She makes her opponent’s offence look like it matters. And Rhea is a bonafide star. Her grabbing the ref instead of passing out & her winning reaction were both gold. Finally, the crowd celebration capped things off well – not just the initial pop but the post-match celebration too. Well done NXT.
10-8 NXT.
Matt:This main event over on NXT was everything I love about wrestling. A whole load of shenanigans but in the end good prevails. Many times I thought they were going to keep the strap on Shayna, but they gave us the big holiday happiness to end the year and I couldn't have asked for more. AEW had a decent tag match and then a rushed Dark Order segment. Such a shame as I've enjoyed their promos recently and the jointhedarkorder.com stuff that flashed up was fun. Hopefully they can go again with this but not a good end to a show and compared to NXT it suffered. NXT with ease.
NXT 10-9 AEW
Overall
JCH:A wrestling heavy week with not a lot backstage and NXT delivered better matches with higher stakes in my opinion.
I think Balor/Cole was probably my fourth favourite match on NXT which shows what a strong show it was. AEW again won segments involving Cody and Jericho and that doesn’t strike me as a coincidence. They are consistently the best thing on the show. Statlander was unlucky not to pick up another win against strong competition.
NXT won in the ratings and they win on my scorecard.
NXT 58-55 AEW
Brum:Clear win for NXT tonight. AEW was a bit hit & miss whilst NXT had banger of a show. I’d say it had 3 must-watch matches, personally (first, last, & Trav/Pete) but some will argue there were 5. Again, well done.
58-55 NXT.
Matt:What a walloping AEW get from NXT. Not much to shout about compared to 4 really good matches on NXT. No competition this week.
NXT 59-55 AEW.
It’s an absolute massacre here as NXT smashes AEW by a convincing unanimous decision. It’s a week off next week where I will try and write up some stats regarding which performers have won the most segments and the like. I LOVE STATS.
AEW has their big homecoming show coming in the new year and they need a bounce back after this destruction.
OVERALL SCORECARDS
NXT - 6 (by split decision - 3, by majority decision - 2, by unanimous decision - 1)
Draw -3 (2 majority draws, 1 split draw)
AEW - 2 (by majority decision - 1, by unanimous decision -1)
INDIVIDUAL SCORECARDS:
JCH: NXT - 7; Draw - 2 AEW - 2
Brum: NXT - 3; Draw - 4; AEW - 4
Matt C: NXT - 4; Draw - 1; AEW – 4
Ross: NXT - 2; Draw - 0; AEW - 0
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