NXT: New Year's Evil (2021)

New Year's Evil is a professional wrestling event currently produced by WWE. It was last used for a special episode of WCW Monday Nitro on December 27, 1999; WWE acquired World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in 2001. After 21 years since that WCW event, on December 6, 2020, WWE revived the name for their January 6, 2021, episode of NXT. Prior to this event, WWE also organized a pay-per-view in a similar theme, New Year's Revolution, which was held from 2005 to 2007.[1] WWE also announced that the show would be hosted by NXT wrestler Dexter Lumis.[2]

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, WWE's NXT events had to be presented from a behind closed doors set at NXT's home base of Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida since mid-March; WWE's programming for Raw and SmackDown were also done in this manner but at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida, before moving to Orlando's Amway Center in August in a setup dubbed the WWE ThunderDome (the ThunderDome was then relocated to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida in December). In October 2020, it was announced that beginning with TakeOver 31, NXT would be moving their events to the Performance Center, which would feature the new "Capitol Wrestling Center" setup, an homage to the Capitol Wrestling Corporation, the predecessor to WWE. Like the ThunderDome for Raw and SmackDown, LED boards were placed around the Performance Center so that fans could attend virtually, while additionally, friends and family members of the wrestlers were in attendance, along with a limited number of actual live fans, divided from each other by plexiglass walls.[3][4]

The card included matches that resulted from scripted storylines, where wrestlers portrayed heroes, villains, or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the NXT brand, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television program, NXT.[5]

At TakeOver 31, Finn Bálor defeated Kyle O'Reilly to retain the NXT Championship.[6] They suffered legitimate injuries during the match, causing them to miss the following episode of NXT.[7][8] On the December 9 episode, Pete Dunne stated his intentions to challenge O'Reilly for the title, but O'Reilly interrupted, followed by Damian Priest, who all wanted their own shot at the title. Bálor then stated that he would defend the title at New Year's Evil, but would also let NXT General Manager William Regal pick the challenger for the title. Afterwards, Scarlett, Karrion Kross' manager, interrupted, and Bálor stated that he would accept Kross' challenge whenever he was ready. Kross himself physically appeared that episode and attacked Priest, sending him through a table.[9] The following week, O'Reilly defeated Dunne to become the number one contender for the title at New Year's Evil. Also that same episode, after Kross won his match, Kross called out Priest for a match at New Year's Evil.[2]

At NXT: Halloween Havoc, Rhea Ripley defeated Raquel González (accompanied by Dakota Kai).[10] At TakeOver: WarGames, González's team defeated Ripley's team, with González scoring the winning pinfall.[11] On the following episode of NXT, after González defeated Ember Moon, González and Toni Storm attacked Moon before Ripley made the save, after which, González and Ripley stared each other down.[9] The following week, Ripley lost to Storm after interference from González.[2] On the December 23 episode, after Ripley won her match, Ripley and González engaged in a massive brawl, even fighting through the officials who were trying to separate them. Later that night, a Last Woman Standing match between González and Ripley was scheduled for New Year's Evil.[12]

On the December 30 episode of NXT, while Legado Del Fantasma (NXT Cruiserweight Champion Santos Escobar, Joaquin Wilde, and Raul Mendoza) were talking about how great 2020 has been for them, they were interrupted by Lucha House Party (Gran Metalik and Lince Dorado), leading to a tag team match immediately afterwards, where Lucha House Party were victorious. Later that night, New Year's Evil host Dexter Lumis announced that Escobar would defend the NXT Cruiserweight Championship against Metalik at New Year's Evil.[13]

On the December 30 episode of NXT, after weeks of training sessions, Xia Li and Boa announced that they would make an appearance at New Year's Evil.[13]

At TakeOver: WarGames, Tommaso Ciampa defeated Timothy Thatcher.[11] On the following episode of NXT, Ciampa won his match despite interference from one of Thatcher's allies.[9] Two weeks later, after Thatcher lost his match, Thatcher attacked his opponent until Ciampa performed Willow's bell on Thatcher before telling him that he would see him in a fight pit at New Year's Evil.[12] However, the day of the event, it was announced that Thatcher had injured himself while training for the match, and the match was postponed.[14] The match was rescheduled to the January 20 episode,[15] where Thatcher was victorious. Afterwards, Thatcher announced that he and Ciampa would team up in the sixth Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic tournament.[16]