Christmas Day falls on a Wednesday this year, meaning that the Dec. 18 episodes of NXT and AEW Dynamite will be the final two hours of live programming for both shows for the rest of year. Since both brands want to end 2019 on a high note, both have loaded up their respective cards with title bouts and grudge matches that could hint at plans for 2020. NXT will once again take place at Full Sail, while Dynamite will continue its Texas tour with a stop in Corpus Christi. Both shows will return to their normal weekly schedules starting on Jan. 1.
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Starting with NXT, both of the brand’s top titles will be defended as NXT Champion Adam Cole takes on Finn Balor, while Rhea Ripley finally gets another shot at NXT Women’s Champion Shayna Baszler. Ripley pinned Baszler back at NXT TakeOver: WarGames to earn another title shot, while Balor won the No. 1 contender’s spot by beating Keith Lee and Tommaso Ciampa on this week’s NXT.
Over on Dynamite Chris Jericho will take on Jungle Boy in a non-title match, Kenny Omega and Hangman Page will team up again to face the Lucha Brothers, SCU will defend their AEW World Tag Team Championships against The Young Bucks and Britt Baker will take on newcomer Kris Statlander in a No. 1 Contender’s match for Riho’s AEW Women’s World Championship. It’s worth noting that while they’re executive vice presidents of the company and were heavily decorated in other promotions, this will mark the first time Matt and Nick Jackson have had a shot at AEW’s tag titles.
On top of his feud with Jungle Boy, Jericho appears to be building up to a world championship match with current No. 1 contender Jon Moxley. The two had a brief feud in WWE back in 2016, though Jericho assured in a new interview with Sports Illustrated that this new program will be quite different.
“It won’t be the same,” Jericho said. “Moxley was never this confident or this good in WWE. As Moxley said in our ‘Talk is Jericho’ podcast interview, he didn’t know who he was in WWE. He was constantly at odds with the creative and at odds with himself. This is a completely new guy. Dean Ambrose was only a portion of his career. To me, Moxley is the real guy. And there is a new-look Chris Jericho with all this creative freedom in AEW, so it’s going to be very intense and it’s going to be a lot of fun.
“I know a lot of people have already said, ‘This is happening too quickly.’ Everybody needs to sit back, relax, and watch the story unfold,” he added. “Trust me, we are not rushing anything. I wouldn’t allow it.”
