NXT Dusty Rhodes Womens Tag Team Classic 2/3/2021 and 2/10/2021(Semi-Finals)

 By Mark Rodriguez

It's time to continue with the semi-finals to see who will be the two final tag teams to compete and win the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic at Takeover!

First Match- Dakota Kai and Raquel Gonzalez VS Kacy Cantazaro and Kayden Carter

NXT Live February 3, 2021

Kacy and Dakota start out as they try to out-grapple each other, Kacy being the first to armdrag her opponent across the mat. Kacy goes for a headlock but Dakota drags her over to the ropes and sits her on top of the turnbuckle. As Dakota runs towards her, Kacy leaps off and hits her with a takedown. Kacy tags Kayden in who quickly trips Dakota down. Kacy holds onto her as Kayden comes in with a kick to the face. Kayden goes for the pin but Dakota kicks out.

Dakota manages to grab Kayden and slam her down into a backbreaker. Raquel is tagged in and Kayden shows no fear over her larger opponent, smacking her in the chest. Raquel angrily knocks her down with a knee to the midsection. Raquel tries to pick her up but Kayden fights against it. Once Raquel manages to get her up, Kayden slips out behind her and heads for the ropes. Raquel runs after her and right into Kayden's boot.

Kayden back-elbows Dakota's face, and ducks under Raquel's swing. This gets all four women in the ring for a moment. Raquel swings Kayden into the turnbuckle, but she ducks under her big swing again and manages to kick Dakota in the face. Kayden runs out of the ring and dares Raquel to follow her. Raquel chases her around the ring and as both women climb back onto the mat, Kayden lands a dropkick on the taller opponent's face.

Kacy is tagged in and she leaps off onto Raquel but the bigger woman catches her. Raquel slams her knee into Kacy and literally throws her back into the ring. Raquel couldn't get the pin so she angrily elbow drops her. She then tags in Dakota and picks her up and slams her into Kacy. Kacy still kicks out. Dakota holds Kacy back as she is trying to get over to Kayden and she flings her backwards, away from her partner. Dakota is getting frustrated that she can't keep Kacy pinned so she nails her with two punches across the back followed by a brutal kick across the back. Dakota socks Kacy down and then socks Kayden out as well.

Dakota tries to throw Kacy out of the ring, but Kayden is still at the ropes. Kacy bounces off of Kayden and leaps out at Kacy with a takedown. Both women tag their partners in. Kayden runs in, dodging Raquel's big boot attempt. She delivers some rights and lefts but Raquel pushes her back. Kayden jumps in and hits her face with her knee and then knocks her down with a dropkick. Kayden gets Raquel up against the ropes with a missile dropkick and Dakota tries to interfere. Kayden gets out of the way as Dakota crashes into her own partner, and Kayden runs and bumps into both women. 

Kayden gets pumped up and runs at Raquel, hitting her with another missile dropkick (leaping over Dakota Kai). Kayden holds onto Raquel's arm and gets on the ropes, leaping off and taking her down with a hurricarana. Kayden leaps off the ropes and tries to go for a roll up pin but Raquel pushes her off, so Kayden kicks her in the face. Kayden stands on the ring apron and Dakota tries to trip her up. Kayden kicks Dakota in the face, knocking her down, and Raquel suddenly runs in, pushing Kayden off the apron and into the announcement table, knocking her out. 

After the commercial break, Raquel is picking Kayden up, as both women are back into the ring but she slips away. Raquel grabs onto Kayden's leg and tags in Dakota, but both of them couldn't keep her away from desperately tagging Kacy in. Kacy flings Dakota into the ropes and starts wailing on her. Kacy takes her down with a hurricarana and then does a forward summersault kick on her back, going for the pin.

As Raquel and Dakota try to regroup out of the ring, Kacy runs out and steps off Raquel's back to climb onto one of the fixtures. She leaps off and lands onto both women, taking them down. She then grabs Dakota and gets her back into the ring for a pin, but her opponent still kicks out. 

This definitely got the crowd chanting "NXT! NXT! NXT!"

Kacy socks Dakota out and tags Kayden in. Both women bounce Dakota against the ropes, hoping to double-team her, but she kicks both women down and manages to tag in Raquel. Raquel picks up Kayden and tosses her with Dakota landing a flying kick to her face on the way down. Kacy runs in to break up the pinfall attempt. Dakota goes to attack Kacy and picks her up, but Kayen quickly catches her teammate and Kacy is thrown out of the ring.

Raquel tries to pick up Kayden, but she climbs on the taller woman's back instead, trying to punch her until she's thrown off. Raquel runs towards Kayden, but both her and Kacy pull the ropes down so the taller woman is caught between them. Kayden grabs onto her and slams Raquel face-first into the mat. With Raquel out, but still hanging on the ropes, Kacy is tagged in. Kacy hits her with a dropkick off the middle turnbuckle and then does a hurricarana, slamming Raquel's face into the mat once more.

Kacy gets onto the top turnbuckle and does a spinning backflip stomp onto Raquel, going for the pin. Dakota comes in to break it up at the last minute. Kayden pulls Dakota out and tries to fling her into the steel steps, but she ends up being thrown into them instead. Kacy runs into Raquel for a hurricarana, but Raquel catches her. Raquel lifts her up and ruthlessly spikes her into the mat, getting the pin and scoring the win. Dakota Kai and Raquel Gonzalez have advanced to the final match at NXT Takeover.

Extra Match- Cora Jade VS Xia Li

The match opens with Kacy and Kayden trying to see what's going on with Xia Li, while Cora Jade is in the ring as her opponent. As the bell rings and the match officially beings, Cora runs into Xia and knocks her down.

You really gonna turn your back on the Sorceress of Sin?

Unfortunately, this seriously pisses off Xia Li who runs in and knocks her down. Xia Li viciously kicks her across the back.She then grabs and fling Cora towards the ropes, where it hits her neck and leaves her coughing. Xia Li gets in her stance and hits her with a nasty instaguri to the face. This was enough to knock the Sorcress of Sin out and get Xia the win. Xia shows off how vicious she's become and stomps the hell out of the defeated Cora and kicks her out of the ring. 

Kayden goes off to talk to this ominous figure sitting in a chair, asking her what she's done to Xia Li since she's never acted like this. Xia Li attacks Kayden from behind and apologizes to the figure. Their manager tries to talk to this mystery woman but she grabs him by the chin while Xia Li goes over to kick the crap out of Kacy, knocking her out.

Second Match- Ember Moon and Shotzi Blackheart VS Candice LeRae and Indi Hartwell 

NXT Live February 10, 2021

This was kind of awkward, but it started with a promo of The Way, which includes Candice, and then Ember and Shotzi make their entrance in Shotzi's little tankmobile and then... ad break and the big semi-final match just starts abruptly (at least for the TV viewers) with Ember already grappling Candice in the ring. Ember tags Shozti in. Shotzi trips Candice and Emer clocks her with a dropkick to the face just as she falls. Then Shotzi comes in with a falling elbow drop and goes for the pin but Candice kicks out.

Shotzi grabs onto her and hits her with two knees to the face, with the second blow knocking her off her feet and in Ember's corner. Ember is tagged in and she rams herself into Candice a few times. Candice tries to get away but Ember picks her up and throws her right back up against the ringpost and rams into her again. Shotzi is tagged in and Candice manages to run away and tag Indi in. Shotzi tries to attack her but Indi picks her up and drops her face first into the turnbuckle, then picks her up again and hits her with a Sidewalk Slam. Shotzi kicks out and Indi slams her face against the turnbuckle.

Indi kicks Shotzi down and then goes for another pin but she kicks out. Indi grabs her opponent's arm and tags Candice back in. Candice grabs a handful of Shotzi's green locks and slams the back of her head down onto the mat, going for a pin. The Ballsy Badass kicks out, but Candice grabs her in an arm lock. As Shotzi tries to fight out of it, Candice goes for a falling neckbreaker and a pin but she still kicks out. Candice yanks Shotzi by the arm, back over to her corner and tags Indi back in, who stomps down on the green haired opponent. 

Indi bounces Candice against the ropes and takes her down with an elbow to the face. She taunts Ember who can't do much and goes for the pin. The pin is so close to the ropes that Ember is able to kick Indi to stop the count. Indi pulls Shotzi back to her corner and tags Candice in who continues to do damage to the same arm. After breaking another pin attempt, Candice gets Shotzi into another armlock, this time wrenching her arms viciously back and forth. Shotzi tries punching Candice off her, but she won't allow her to tag her partner in. Candice shoulder blocks her and tries to go for another pin. 

After the commercial break, Ember is up against the turnbuckle, dazed from whatever hit her (that I assume the viewers got to see live), and Indi is about to slingshot Candice into her. Ember collapses from the un-aired attack and thus Indi accidentally end up flinging Candice into he turnbuckle instead. Ember tries to crawl over to her side of the ring but Indi grabs her leg. Ember kicks Indi into Candice and she manages to tag in Shotzi.

Shotzi knocks Indi back with a running instaguri. She then tries to run at Candice, but Candice kicks her down to her knees and continues to lay down the kicks. Candice hits Shotzi with a variation of the Curb Stomp (called the Wicked Stepsister) and Indi leaps in with a falling elbow drop. Indi goes for the pin but Ember breaks it up at the last minute. Ember and Candice take the fight outside the ring, taking each other out. Shotzi tries to go for a roll-up pin but Indi escapes it. 

Shotzi runs into Indi with a knee to the face, then drops down with her with a DDT. Candice tags in but runs right into Shotzi's boot. Ember leaps off the ropes and hits her with the Eclipse, knocking her out. Indi crawls over to pin Emer and Shotzi does a flying senton off the ropes to break the pin. Shotzi is able to drag Indi over and pin her for the 3-count!

Shotzi and Ember check out the trophy as Dakota Kai and Raquel Gonzalez show up. As all four women talk trash to each other, William Regal shows up and tells them whoever wins the finals will not only win the Dusty Rhodes Women's Tag Team Classic, but they will also be entitled for a future WWE Women's Tag Team Championship Match. The stakes got higher. 

My Opinions-

The first match was a hell of a slobberknocker that showcased all four women and their skills. I did like the extra spot where Kacy used Raquel as a stepping stool to leap onto the lighting fixture to do that crazy dive. That was pretty intense. Raquel's also pretty impressive, it's always fun to see her use her size to her advantage. The ending was a surprise, I legit though Kacy had that one since she did that amazing spinning stomp move but Dakota came out of nowhere to break it up. This match was pretty intense. 

The Xia Li match was a poor use of Cora Jade's character. I understand the main story deals with whatever is going on with Xia Li that is making her turn on her friends Kacy and Kayden, and her opponent was just a throwaway, but this is where you thrown in some no-name generic jobber, not someone with an established character and gimmick like Cora Jade. Wouldn't it make more sense for the Sorceress of Sin to be working for the mystery creepy woman? 

It also took me a while to find this match, it might have happened during regular NXT. I haven't been on the Network since AEW popped up, but I'm assuming there is now both a NXT and a NXT Live?

The second match was pretty good but it was all Shotzi from her side. Like we barely saw Ember do much, and it felt like Shotzi was trying so hard to tag her in, after the commercial Ember was already down and out and desperate to tag Shotzi in. I didn't like the ad break right before the match started. C'mon guys, this is a semi finals match that determines who goes to NXT Takeover, show it some respect or leave it back on the Network where you don't have to worry about ad breaks. I did like the part where Ember collapses right before Candice runs into her, to where she almost took herself out instead. I don't think I've seen that done too often. I did like Ember's Eclipse and how well Candice sold it. I never get tired of seeing that move.

I'm a bit confused with the 'winner of this will go challenge the WWE Womens Tag Team Champs someday' thing. Mostly cause Ember, similar to Fin Balor, was big on NXT was but was used poorly on WWE and then went back to NXT to regain her stardom status. Imagine if they win that match and become WWE Tag Team Champs, they've have to stay in WWE to defend their titles. I guess the winner of this might be Dakota Kai and Raquel Gonzalez, unless Ember Moon is ready to give WWE another shot? Guess we'll find out at Takeover.