NXT: New Year's Evil (2024)

Background

New Year's Evil is a professional wrestling television special currently produced by WWE held around New Year's. It was originally broadcast as a special episode of World Championship Wrestling's (WCW) Monday Nitro on December 27, 1999; WWE acquired WCW in 2001.[1] After 21 years since that WCW event, WWE revived New Year's Evil for its developmental brand NXT as a special episode of NXT on January 6, 2021,[2] and it has since been held annually in early January. During NXT Deadline on December 9, 2023, it was announced that the fourth edition of NXT: New Year's Evil would be held on January 2, 2024, at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida and broadcast live on the USA Network in the United States.[3] The show was held as part of WWE's week-long programming of New Year's-themed shows called New Year's Knockout Week, which included Raw: Day 1 and SmackDown: New Year's Revolution.[4]

In the United Kingdom, NXT had aired on TNT Sports since January 2020. However, beginning with New Year's Evil, NXT moved back to WWE's streaming service, the WWE Network.[5]

Storylines

The card included six matches that resulted from scripted storylines. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the NXT brand, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television program, NXT, and the supplementary online streaming show, Level Up.[6][7]

At NXT Deadline, Blair Davenport won the Women's Iron Survivor Challenge to earn an NXT Women's Championship match against Lyra Valkyria, while Trick Williams won the Men's Iron Survivor Challenge to earn an NXT Championship match against Ilja Dragunov. Both title matches were scheduled for New Year's Evil.[8]

The NXT Men's Breakout Tournament is a tournament composed of eight male wrestlers from the NXT brand. The tournament began on the December 12 episode of NXT. The winner earns a contract and can cash in for an NXT Championship or NXT North American Championship match at any time. The final was scheduled for New Year's Evil.[9]

Tiffany Stratton and Fallon Henley had been feuding since October. Their feud came to a head on the December 19 episode of NXT, where Stratton dumped garbage on Henley and challenged her to a match at New Year's Evil, which Henley accepted. If Stratton wins, Henley must become Stratton's servant for a day. If Henley wins, Stratton must work on Henley's ranch for a day.[10]

On the December 19 episode of NXT, Arianna Grace mocked Roxanne Perez for losing her match to Kiana James at NXT Deadline before being slapped by Perez.[10] The following week, Grace spoke with Ava and recommended her to force Perez to take anger management classes. Ava then informed Grace that a match between her and Perez would take place at New Year's Evil, which was made later made official.[11]

On the December 19 episode of NXT, SmackDown's Dragon Lee defeated Joe Coffey and Charlie Dempsey in a triple threat match to retain the NXT North American Championship. After the match, Lee was attacked by Dempsey and his No Quarter Catch Crew stablemates Drew Gulak, Damon Kemp, and Myles Borne. The Latino World Order (Joaquin Wilde and Cruz Del Toro) then came out to save Lee.[10] The following week, No Quarter Catch Crew challenged Lee, Wilde, and Del Toro to a six man tag team match at New Year's Evil, which they accepted and was made official.[11] However, a day before the event, Lee announced on X that he would miss New Year's Evil due to travel issues and was replaced by Carlito.[12]

Premlinary matches

Main event

Despite Ilja Dragunov signing a contract to defend the NXT Championship against Trick Williams at New Year's Evil, it was announced during the event that Dragunov was not medically cleared to wrestle due to an injury incurred from Ridge Holland two weeks prior.[13][14] In the locker room, as Williams and Carmelo Hayes were discussing the news, they were interrupted by SmackDown's Grayson Waller. Hayes then put Williams in a match to face Waller with Williams' Iron Survivor Challenge title match opportunity on the line. Williams went on to defeat Waller after interference from SmackDown's Kevin Owens, who appeared from the crowd and attacked Waller with his arm cast.[15]

NXT Men's Breakout Tournament