WWE.com
NXT ArRIVAL received a lot, a lot of hype going into Thursday night. There were three big matches announced, Sami Zayn vs. Cesaro, Paige vs. Emma for the NXT Women’s Championship, and Bo Dallas vs. Adrian Neville in NXT’s first ladder match for the NXT Championship.
The show got off to a good start with the pre-show. Renee Young, Bret Hart, Kevin Nash and Paul Heyman did a great job. They got distracted at time by the extremely loud crowd watching them just outside the arena, but I’m going to look at that as a good thing.
WWE.com
Sami Zayn vs. Cesaro
On the pre-show, NXT GM JBL announced that Zayn and Cesaro’s highly anticipated match would open the show. The only thing that made this seem like a bad choice was the obvious fact that these two were going to have the match of the night, and they did.
This match was better than all the matches they have had before, including the 2-out-of-3 falls edition. This match was better than the match that Cesaro had with John Cena a few weeks ago on Raw. This match might have been better than The Shield vs. The Wyatts at Elimination Chamber. To put it simply, this match was unbelievable.
If WWE was unsure about Zayn being called up to the main roster, they shouldn’t be any more. The same goes for Cesaro’s recent push towards being a main eventer.
WWE.com
CJ Parker vs. Mojo Rawley
Quick match used to give the audience a breather. Shows the vast difference between WWE and NXT. If this was WWE, they would have sent out Emma and Paige for the Women’s Championship (which we’ll get to in a little bit), but NXT actually sent out two men. Also shows what they think of Parker and Rawley, the fact they were used this way doesn’t say much for them right now. It is important to note though, that Triple H, who controls NXT, doesn’t have any talents he considers to be “throw away” talents, so don’t count these guys out.
WWE.com
The Ascension vs. Too Cool for the NXT Tag Team Championships
Yes, that Too Cool. Renee Young announced that The Ascension would take on a mystery opponent tonight for the tag titles, but the crowd assumed that meant Enzo Amore was healed from his injury, and he would be getting out of his wheelchair to take on the The Ascension with his tag team partner “Big Cass” Colin Cassady. Instead, it was Grand Master Sexay and Scotty Too Hotty who battled the tag champions.
The crowd was loving both teams. They were certainly into Scotty’s “W-O-R-M” even though he only did the build-up, without hitting the move. Grand Master Sexay sold for most of the mach, but Scotty ended up taking The Ascension’s Fall of Man tag team finisher as the tag champions retained.
It could be argued that Konnor of The Ascension was the most over man in the match, and it certainly bodes well for The Ascension that their victory was applauded, despite going up against the beloved legends.
WWE.com
Paige vs. Emma for the NXT Women’s Championship
Stephanie McMahon came out before the match to talk about the NXT women’s division. Steph was greeted with a “you still got it” chant, to which she responded “I never lost it”. I would just like to use this forum to let her know that I agree.
There was a lot of hype going into this match, possibly more hype for a women’s match than the WWE has seen since the days of Trish Stratus and Lita. If Paige and Emma never amount to anything on the main roster, they have proven that it will be because of mismanagement, not because they don’t have what it takes. Paige and Emma had a match that was the women’s equivalent to Zayn and Cesaro, it was just so good. It was even greeted with a “this is awesome” chant after Emma kicked out of Paige’s finisher, the Paige Turner.
Paige retained her title by making Emma tap out to the Scorpion Cross Lock. It looked really cool, and painful, and Emma sold that she took as much pain as she could before tapping out.
If Paige and Emma had a match like this at WrestleMania, they would turn the opinion on women’s wrestling from a joke to something taken very seriously, very fast.
WWE.com
Xavier Woods vs. Tyler Breeze
Woods and Breeze made their entrances, with Breeze getting the bigger pop. Before the match could start, Alexander Rusev came down with Lana, and Rusev took out Woods and Breeze, even making Woods tap out to the camel clutch, which he calls The Accolade.
WWE seems to want to keep the illusion of Rusev not being a wrestler for now, that would be the only reason to keep him out of a match on this high-profile show.
WWE.com
Bo Dallas vs. Adrian Neville for the NXT Championship in a ladder match
This match was properly set up with some very well done video packages, WWE clearly spared no expense putting this show together.
Third best match of the night, all three of the matches that were hyped for this show delivered.
The biggest problem with this match is that the entire show was so good, the crowd was noticeably tired out by the time this one started.
Even so, Dallas and Neville delivered with some incredible spots, involving the ladders and a few dives to the outside. This match was well put together and well executed. It seemed going in that Neville was built for ladder matches, he didn’t have any big spots off a ladder, but he certainly didn’t disappoint either. Neville and Dallas wrestled a really good match, one of the best one-on-one ladder matches I’ve ever seen.
WWE.com
Overall Impression
What a great show. What a great showcase for a part of the product that hasn’t been seen in America.
The only match that wasn’t all that interesting was Mojo Rawley vs. CJ Parker, but if they’re given the chance, they can right that wrong.
NXT completely delivered on this show, and if you’re one of the many people whose feed cut out during the main event, please go back and watch it. If you missed the show entirely, please go watch it. It’s available on the WWE Network archives.
If you liked what you saw, continue to watch. There’s more talented women, like Bayley, Sasha Banks and Ric Flair’s daughter Charlotte. There’s more talented men like Enzo Amore, Colin Cassady, Corey Graves and Tyler Breeze, who obviously appeared here but didn’t get to actually wrestle. There are many more, it is a very talented young roster.
If this was you’re first experience with NXT, I’m sure you were very impressed.
Come back to DailyDDT.com for more on WWE and NXT. Follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook.