Background
On December 27, 1999, the former professional wrestling promotion World Championship Wrestling (WCW) produced a New Year's-themed television special titled New Year's Evil, which was broadcast on TNT as a special episode of WCW's flagship program, Monday Nitro.[1] This would be the only New Year's Evil event produced by WCW, and then in March 2001, the company was acquired by WWE, at the time still known as the World Wrestling Federation (WWF; renamed WWE in May 2002).[2] On December 6, 2020, after 21 years since that WCW event, WWE announced that it would revive New Year's Evil to be held for its developmental brand NXT on January 6, 2021, as a special episode of NXT, broadcast on the USA Network. Prior to this special, WWE's previous New Year's-themed event was the New Year's Revolution pay-per-view event, which was held from 2005 to 2007.[3] WWE also announced that the show would be hosted by NXT wrestler Dexter Lumis.[4]
Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
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.[5][6]
Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
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.[5][6]
Storylines
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.[7]
At TakeOver 31, Finn Bálor defeated Kyle O'Reilly to retain the NXT Championship.[8] They suffered legitimate injuries during the match, causing them to miss the following episode of NXT.[9][10] 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
Canceled and rescheduled match
At TakeOver: WarGames, Tommaso Ciampa defeated Timothy Thatcher.[14] On the following episode of NXT, Ciampa won his match despite interference from one of Thatcher's allies.[11] 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.[15] However, the day of the event, it was announced that Thatcher had injured himself while training for the match, and the match was postponed.[17] The match was rescheduled to the January 20 episode,[18] where Thatcher was victorious. Afterwards, Thatcher announced that he and Ciampa would team up in the sixth Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic tournament.[19]
