WWE NXT TakeOver: Rival Review
By Mike Smith
WWE.com
Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens for the NXT Championship
After a long staredown, Owens escaped to ringside, then climbed back in the ring, only to go to ringside again. Zayn wasn’t going to wait forever though, the second time, he jumped over the top rope, and the referee, to hit a big dive on Owens and get the match going.
Zayn and Owens returned to the ring, but Owens was quickly able to turn things around and get to work on Zayn. Owens’ offense was extremely stiff, and he didn’t hold back, as he looked to keep Zayn down.
Owens was on the offensive for a very long time, completely dominating Zayn, in and out of the ring.
Finally, Zayn started to get things going, just as Corey Graves was comparing this beat down to the one Brock Lesnar gave John Cena at WWE SummerSlam.
Zayn had the offense working, and looked to be going for the Heluva Kick, but Owens hit the charging Zayn with a superkick, and followed with a cannonball in the corner.
Owens went for the closest thing he has to a finisher, the pop-up powerbomb, but Zayn countered it by turning it into a dropkick.
Zayn continued to fight back, as he got Owens to the outside. He went for the split-legged moonsault off the top rope to the outside, but appeared to his his head on the ramp.
Zayn was out of it for the rest of the match. He tried to go for a Heluva Kick, but he stumbled, so he started from the top and tried to his it again, but Owens cut him off and took over.
Owens kept attacking Zayn with punches, and the referee pulled him off a couple of times, as Owens came close to being DQ’d multiple times.
Zayn wanted to fight on though, but Owens kept hitting him with powerbombs, until finally the referee called for the bell.
Owens looked very upset, and the crowd joined him in that feeling, until the referee unexpectedly walked up to Owens and held his hand in the air.
Owens defeats Zayn via referee stoppage.
The referee then grabbed the belt and presented it to Owens. The show ended with Owens holding the title up in the air, standing over Zayn, who was being attended to by officials.
4 out of 5 stars – This was an excellent story told by both men, and that story is far from over.
The only thing that fell flat in this match was the beatdown that Zayn suffered, mostly because the announcers didn’t really sell it as anything special until Zayn hit his head on the ramp, but that was too late in the match for the announcers to make up for the bulk of the match.