Wow, just finished watching this. What an event. What a ****ing great event.
The Revival vs. American Alpha
Chad Gable is the ****ing man. He's seriously so good it's ridiculous. He makes the face-in-peril role so well, but he's also extremely fun to watch on the offense. Jordan is alright too, but he needs to sell a little more, IMO. Dash and Dawson are great, despite their miscommunication botch.
RATING: ***1/2
Baron Corbin vs. Austin Aries
I love Aries, but I feel like they should have matched up sizes a bit better for his first match. He looked like a jobber compared to Corbin.. who also kind of looks like a jobber. So that's saying something. Match as fine. Aries is capable of having the best match on the show most nights, but this was just okay. Perfectly acceptable, but disappointing given it was his debut.
RATING: **1/4
Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Sami Zayn
What really needs to be said? A definite Match of the Year CANDIDATE. Why only candidate? Simple.. there was a match including Nakamura against our very own AJ Styles on January 4th that was absolutely incredible too. I'm honestly not sure which is better. They're both freaking awesome. And both two of my favourite matches of all-time. I don't think anything will ever top Bret vs. Owen from Wrestlemania X for me, but this was damn close.
Also, I wonder how PISSED Vince was when Nakamura licked his own blood.
Two full monty matches in NXT in the past 7 months (Brooklyn: Sasha Banks vs. Bayley is the other). It's crazy how good this little thing called NXT is.
RATING: *****
Bayley vs. Asuka
Fantastic match. Any other night and this is MOTN. It was close to being a MOTYC as well. Bayley is just incredible. She's an amazing story teller, she's amazing at giving the fans hope, she's amazing at everything. No one thought she was passing out there. The crowd was stunned. That was the first time you could audibly here Asuka being booed on NXT. Literally no reaction for her title win. It's crazy just how over Bayley is. She's compared to John Cena a lot.. but the thing is - she's believable. Bayley makes you WANT to cheer for her. I love her! Asuka is great too.. but screw you Asuka! You will pay for this!!
RATING: ****1/2
Samoa Joe vs. Finn Balor
Wow. The crowd was hot as hell for this (they've been pretty hot all night), but this was great. The constant stoppages were fine (hell, maybe great) at first because Joe kept coming back vicious. It made for a good story, but the last stop was infuriating because they were in such a good groove. Joe was clearly defeated that point, you could tell how mad he was. I honestly think that the ending may have been adjusted on the spot to have more of a "fluky finish" because of the constant stoppages. It makes the storytelling of a rematch that much easier for the creative team. Samoa Joe was a star here. Very good match that was hurt a little by the last couple of stoppages, but as far as entertainment goes? It was ****ing awesome.
RATING: ***3/4
PS. Bobby Roode? Freaking awesome!
