NXT TakeOver: top five matches in the event’s history

4. Adrian Neville vs Sami Zayn (NXT TakeOver: R Evolution)

Prior to this match, Sami Zayn failed to capture the NXT Championship multiple times. Eventually, then-champion Adrian Neville requested to face Zayn again in another title match, but before Zayn accepted, he told Neville that if he loses again, he will no longer wrestle for NXT. After an initial hesitation from Neville, he agreed to the terms.

Zayn’s underdog mentality set opposite Neville’s win-no-matter-what attitude made this match special.  Zayn wrestled like it was his last match. He went all out and held nothing back. Conversely, Neville did everything he could to keep his belt. The fans yearning to see Zayn to win helped this match, too.

The near falls and the big moves were awesome, but what made the match special was whenever Zayn was about to win, Neville found a way to gain the advantage. Zayn never cheated, even when he had that moment of whether to hit Neville with the belt or not. But he never did it, and that’s what made this so great. Zayn wanted to win it his way, the right way.

There were plenty of other highlights. Zayn caught Neville in a Tilt-A-Whirl backbreaker. When Neville rolled out of the ring, Zayn went to the apron, kicked Neville, and hit a springboard moonsault. A couple of minutes later, Zayn busted out a suicide dive. A little bit later, Zayn caught Neville and hit the Blue Thunder Bomb. Zayn went for the pin, but he only got a near fall.

Neville baited Zayn by playing possum and regained the offense. Neville hit a sit-out powerbomb, but Zayn kicked out at two. He then looked to hit the Red Arrow, but Zayn countered it to the Koji Clutch. Neville escaped by touching the ropes with his foot.

Zayn then looked to hit the corner exploder suplex. However, Neville quickly countered it to a pin. Zayn kicked out and Neville bounced off and landed on the referee’s head. Zayn checked to see if the ref was alright, but Neville saw that and took advantage of the moment by super kicking Zayn and hitting him with an inverted frankensteiner. He went for the pin, but Zayn kicked out.

They exchanged shots again until Zayn got Neville in two straight German suplex’s and hit the Half Nelson suplex. He was about to hit the Helluva Kick, but Neville got out of the ring. So, Zayn got out too and hit the corner diving tornado DDT.

Zayn went for the Helluva Kick for the second time. This time he got it, but Neville pulled the ref in at the last second and Zayn hits both Neville and the ref at the same time. After recovering from the Helluva Kick, Neville got the NXT Championship belt and was about to hit Zayn. However, Zayn saw Neville and kicked him.

He looked at the belt and thought of using it for a few moments, questioning whether he should use it or not. Neville saw that and quickly went for the schoolboy from behind, but Zayn kicked out. Zayn immediately went for the Exploder and that sets him up for another Helluva Kick. He hits it again, goes for the pin, wins the match, and, finally, the NXT Championship.

Zayn celebrated with Kevin Owens and the babyface side of the NXT roster after the match. Neville was also in the ring and he hugged Zayn and congratulated him on the match. Once everyone left, it was just Zayn and Owens. And everyone knows what happened next.

This match was my favorite NXT match because of the story and drama between both wrestlers. I wanted to put this first. And it originally was first in the list, but I rewatched a couple of other matches and I thought they were better.