Finn Balor Retains WWE NXT Title At New Year’s Evil

The highly anticipated rematch was memorable

The big rematch between Finn Balor and Kyle O’Reilly was just as memorable as their first encounter. 

The contest took place in the main event of Wednesday’s episode of WWE NXT on the USA Network, which was touted as New Year’s Evil. It served as the main event of the show that was the first 2021 episode from Orlando, Florida at the Capitol Wrestling Center.

The match went long as they had no commercials and about 20 minutes. It was building off what they did in their first match. Balor worked over the jaw of Kyle throughout the match so the finish had Balor get O’Reilly in a chin/arm submission. 

WWE set up this contest on the December 16th episode as the company held a singles match between Pete Dunne and O’Reilly. Because O’Reilly was victorious, he earned the right to challenge Balor for the NXT Title. 

Their first bout took place at the TakeOver 31 event this past October. Although Balor successfully retained the title at this show, both stars walked away with injuries as Balor broke his jaw in two places in the match. O’Reilly reportedly suffered a concussion. 

Balor hadn’t wrestled since undergoing surgery for a broken jaw a few months ago. 

Andrew Ravens
Andrew Ravens is a pro wrestling beat writer covering news and events for some of the biggest wrestling sites in the world. After growing up as a WWE fan, Andrew became a full-time writer in 2013. Andrew can be contacted at [email protected] for news tips, results, interviews, general news, and corrections.
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