— The Rascalz has made their NXT debut as MSK.
The Rascalz Debut On NXT As MSK
The MSK tag team, formerly known as The Rascalz in Impact Wrestling, is made up of Wes Lee and Nash Carter. Lee is the former Dezmond Xavier, and Carter is the former Zachary Wentz. WWE recently filed to trademark both of their new ring names.
Tonight’s NXT episode saw MSK debut with a win over Isaiah “Swerve” Scott and Jake Atlas in the first round of the 2021 NXT Men’s Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic. They will face the winners of Killian Dain and Drake Maverick vs. Curt Stallion and August Grey next.
Tonight’s NXT also saw The Grizzled Young Veterans defeat Ever-Rise to advance from the first round. They will face the winners of Kushida and Leon Ruff vs. The Way (Austin Theory, NXT North American Champion Johnny Gargano) next.
Fight Pit II Announced
— The Fight Pit II bout between Timothy Thatcher and Tommaso Ciampa has been confirmed for next week.
The match was originally announced for last week’s NXT New Year’s Evil special but WWE did a minor injury angle with Thatcher so they could delay it until next week, likely due to timing or logistics issues.
As seen below, Tonight’s NXT episode featured Wade Barrett hosting a sitdown between Thatcher and Ciampa to promote next week’s match. Thatcher said last week he was injured, but now he’s good and ready to go. Ciampa later warned that he is going to take every single liberty he wants to next week, and Thatcher begged him to, adding that this won’t be like their match at the “Takeover: WarGames” event because he’s a different animal inside the Fight Pit. Thatcher went on and said Ciampa looks like a man who is still questioning if he’s still got it. Ciampa fired back and said Thatcher has no idea what kind of man he is, but he will get his answer next week.