Worlds Collide 2020 results: Devlin seizes gold, Ripley weathers the Storm and Imperium rules the night
In an epic battle between NXT and NXT UK, WALTER, Marcel Barthel, Fabian Aichner & Alexander Wolfe earned an epic victory over The Undisputed ERA. Elsewhere, Irish Ace Jordan Devlin made history, #DIY and Moustache Mountain fought it out and Rhea Ripley survived a hard-fought challenge from an old friend.
NXT’s HBIC Mia Yim aims to upset NXT UK's Champion Kay Lee Ray on the WWE Worlds Collide Pre-Show. Catch WWE action on WWE Network, FOX, USA Network, Sony India and more.
HOUSTON — In the battle between NXT and NXT UK, the British contingent of the black-and-gold brand landed the first blow, with NXT UK Champion Kay Lee Ray picking up a victory over Mia Yim on the Worlds Collide Pre-Show.
Ray’s title wasn’t on the line in the cross-brand brawl, but she was forced to fight as though it was, eating boots and chops from NXT’s HBIC straight out of the gate. Superkicks, punches and Destroyers followed, but for all the punishment Ray’s 5’8” frame absorbed, however, she didn’t wilt. Instead, she excelled, going high-risk with a senton to the outside to stop Yim’s offense cold and standing toe to toe with Yim in a hockey fight.
Ray’s co-opting of Yim’s Eat Defeat showed she was out to maximize bragging rights in this one, but the way she actually won — by reversing an O’Connor roll and grabbing a handful of Yim’s jeans — left something to be desired in terms of fairness. That said, you can’t argue with the results.
It’s a war of attrition between WWE NXT’s Finn Bálor and NXT UK’s Ilja Dragunov in this brutal physical battle. Catch WWE action on WWE Network, FOX, USA Network, Sony India and more.
Going into Worlds Collide, Finn Bálor laid things out very clearly to Ilja Dragunov: NXT UK’s ruby-eyed Russian would get exactly one crack at the self-proclaimed “Prince” — an opportunity he’d best not miss. The message was received: Even though the Irishman ultimately upended his foe, Dragunov all but made himself famous in defeat, handing the former NXT Champion everything he could handle and then some.
Dragunov — relatively unknown to the American audience, save perhaps for that all-timer against Cesaro last year — gave his foe a painful crash course, thumbing Bálor in the eye and battling through a series of frustrated chops from the former NXT Champion that turned Dragunov’s chest a bright shade of red. The Mad Russian’s crescendo, literally and figuratively, came by way of a coast-to-coast dropkick that might have broken Bálor’s nose.
Finding himself in the unfamiliar position of fighting for survival, Bálor absorbed his punishment and picked his opening perfectly to win. Blocking a top-rope senton from Dragunov, the Irishman uncorked a massive Coup de Grâce and followed up with 1916 for the win. Given the effort put forth by Dragunov, you’d be hard-pressed to say he missed in any sense of the word. But the Russian fell short in the most crucial sense: He didn’t keep his foe down.
The NXT Cruiserweight Championship had quite the night, getting a new look, a new holder and potentially a new home, as NXT UK’s Jordan Devlin relieved NXT’s Angel Garza of the title in a Fatal 4-Way that also included NXT’s Isaiah “Swerve” Scott and UK’s Travis Banks.
To say this one was a thriller is an understatement: Someone was airborne roughly 75% of the time, Banks was kicking someone in the face every other minute and “Swerve” was doing “Swerve” things. Everyone was in such top form that Garza, battling through a banged-up shoulder, barely even got going until the back end of the match. (Never one to drag things out, the champ took matters into his own hands and ripped off his tearaway pants right away.)
Nonetheless, Garza seemed as though he was going to outlast the field, executing a Wing Clipper on “Swerve” after Banks — who more or less made his name off this match — was taken out of the running. But The Irish Ace stole one, dropping Garza with a headbutt and landing a textbook Devlin Side Suplex on “Swerve” to earn the title. Whether Devlin’s win means the title is headed across the pond remains to be seen. Either way, taking it off of him is shaping up to be quite the challenge.
Defending champion Angel Garza, Jordan Devlin and Travis Banks have trouble keeping up with Isaiah "Swerve" Scott during this WWE Worlds Collide barnburner.
Another chapter in the tumultuous story of #DIY is written as Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa enter the ring at WWE Worlds Collide to face Moustache Mountain. Catch WWE action on WWE Network, FOX, USA Network, Sony India and more.
If there are two tag teams that define NXT and NXT UK, respectively, it’s #DIY and Moustache Mountain. So, their dream-match battle at Worlds Collide distilled the entire evening’s spirit into about 20 minutes: Some sportsmanship, some good-natured preening, a smattering of straight-up brutality and a moment of triumph — namely, a victory for #DIY in their first match as an NXT tag team in 10 months.
All of which isn’t to say that Moustache Mountain — dubbed NXT UK’s “Founding Fathers” and themselves former NXT Tag Team Champions — simply ceded the stage to Tommaso Ciampa & Johnny Gargano. They more than made good on their promise to “beat the **** out of” the two former NXT Champions; while Trent Seven happily ceded a posedown to Ciampa, he almost singlehandedly took #DIY out of commission when things started getting “chippy,” as Tom Phillips put it, down the stretch. Similarly, Ciampa’s bold test of strength against Tyler Bate came back to bite him when he was handily overpowered by the “Big Strong Boi.”
A handful of miscommunications seemed to doom Moustache Mountain, but remarkably, Bate & Seven managed to either recover from or reverse them entirely. Still, #DIY quickly reverted their strategy to divide and conquer, isolating Seven to bait Tyler into a double dropkick, then downing Trent with Meeting in the Middle to earn the win. And then, when all was said and done, the two teams shook hands to the tune of a standing ovation and embraced in celebration of a match well fought. It’s all about that, too.
Watching a Superstar come into their own in real time is a rare, thrilling experience. Every little thing seems to go right, every opponent falls down the stretch and every late-breaking adjustment seems to be impeccably timed, thought out and executed. It’s a state of near-invincibility, and Rhea Ripley is in it, adding to her streak by retaining the NXT Championship against NXT UK’s Toni Storm at Worlds Collide.
For Ripley’s momentum, this was no given. It isn’t an exaggeration to say that Storm has had the champ’s number in the past, and emphatically had it during an aggressive opening stint at Worlds Collide. But it’s quickly becoming clear that this version of Ripley is simply a different beast from the one who lost the NXT UK Championship to Storm last year; The Nightmare refused to stay down, and crucially dodged a top-rope splash that was Storm’s go-big-or-go-home move in the deciding moments.
Ripley pounced with the Riptide seconds later for the win, and as close as the match was, it says quite a bit that the result somehow never seemed to be in doubt. Storm’s a champion in every sense of the word, but Ripley simply cannot lose at this moment, and it’s incumbent on Superstars like Storm, and in a few weeks, Bianca Belair, to rise to her level. Thus far, that’s proving easier said than done.
If you didn’t know Imperium, or were only familiar with them from their sporadic appearances on Raw, SmackDown and NXT, consider yourself educated. The elite, European squad led by NXT UK Champion WALTER managed to outwit, outlast and outwrestle The Undisputed ERA, despite a ruthless maneuver that left Imperium down a man at the start of the match.
Alexander Wolfe was the downed Superstar, taken out by a brutal double-team from Undisputed ERA just minutes into the contest. But despite the nominal advantage, NXT’s resident gold-plated faction seemed to be underdogs the entire time. Imperium employed the same pitch-perfect teamwork UE has made their calling card — theirs was just a degree more savage and it only increased as time went on. Cannily, Undisputed ERA took out the biggest dog in the yard when Roderick Strong — who’d gone chop-for-chop with WALTER seconds before — hoisted the massive Austrian onto his shoulders and dropped him through the commentary table with an Olympic Slam.
That left Fabian Aichner & Marcel Barthel to stand alone, and NXT Champion Adam Cole, who’d been seeing ghosts all night, stepped in to finish the job. But the inevitable return of Der Ring General turned the tide in Imperium’s favor: WALTER dished out blistering chops to anything that moved and, following a high-risk maneuver by Aichner that took out everyone at ringside, sealed the bout with a thundering, stacked-up powerbomb to Bobby Fish. In terms of a statement, it’s difficult to top that. What started as an evening of friendly, if heated, competition ended up a brutal statement on behalf of one group who walked in the door and remade the night — and the sport — in their image.
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