Finn Balor vs. Keith Lee vs. Tommaso Ciampa Booked for Dec. 11 NXT, Winner Gets a Shot at NXT Champion Adam Cole

This week's NXT ended with Keith Lee picking up a huge pinfall victory over NXT Champion Adam Cole [...]

By Connor Casey

This week's NXT ended with Keith Lee picking up a huge pinfall victory over NXT Champion Adam Cole at the end of a six-man tag match. This led to NXT general manager William Regal walking out to make a special announcement — Lee would face Finn Balor and Tommaso Ciampa in a triple threat next week, with the winner earning a shot at Cole's title on the Dec. 18 episode. Ciampa has been after Cole's title, which he had to relinquish earlier in the year due to a neck injury, ever since he returned in early October, while Finn Balor has established himself as a top contender since moving back to the roster and turning heel.

Earlier in the night NXT Women's Champion Shayna Baszler announced she would defend her title against recent rival Rhea Ripley on the Dec. 18 episode as well.

Back at NXT TakeOver: WarGames Ciampa led a four-man team in a WarGames match against all four members of Undisputed Era. The bout came to a violent end when Ciampa hit Cole with a monstrous Air Raid Crash from the top of the cage through two tables.

But just one night later Lee wound up looking like the biggest star of the bunch. The "Limitless" former independent wrestler was the last man standing on Team NXT during the Men's Survivor Series elimination match, and he managed to pin Seth Rollins and go toe-to-toe with Roman Reigns before falling to "The Big Dog's" spear.

During a recent episode of After The Bell, Balor discussed how he was unhappy with his position on both SmackDown and Raw's rosters. The former Universal Champion first made the jump from NXT to Raw in 2016, but floundered in the midcard after his world championship run was cut short due to injury.

"I wasn't happy where I was at with Raw and SmackDown," Balor said. "I had a conversation with [Triple H], we pinged some ideas, and back and forth, I took some time off, and came back with NXT. People gauge success differently. Not everyone can be champ. I was having a great time on Raw. Sometimes, you have to make the best of what you're given and I feel like I always made the best of anything I was given. I don't think there was anything that was a failure. Maybe, I'm guilty of not being a squeaky wheel sometimes with regards to 'Hey, I don't want to do that.' I'll hold my hand up and say I'm guilty of going, 'Okay, yup, no problem. Whatever you guys want. I'm a team player.' I think that probably affected my performances and maybe my creativity, not believing what I was doing out there. With the time off, I kind of reset, and I feel like I'm not playing ball, and I'm gonna do whatever I want to do. I value myself a little more as a performer."

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