NXT Report 11-13-14

NXT opened with the man that everyone wanted to see following his debut last week, Finn Balor. He came out and said that he came to NXT because he's the future. Tyson Kidd didn't take too kindly to that and interrupted along with Natalya. Justin Gabriel joins him to "Who Are You" chants, which is kind of messed up. They go to attack Balor so out comes Hideo Itami who's all like "Hey bro, I owe you one." William Regal makes a tag match for right now. This was a damn good opener and did exactly what it was supposed to. Kidd and Gabriel played a great heel team, Itami looked better than he has and Balor looked great. He stole the show here. They win with his double foot stomp. Great stuff.

Up next is the NXT Divas as Sasha Banks took on Alexa Bliss. I still think that the combination of Banks and Becky Lynch doesn't work. I love Becky, but she looks awkward coming out to Banks' theme and with her. This was much shorter than I hoped for, but I believe it was due to Bliss injuring his nose during the match. Banks won with the Bank Statement before issuing a challenge to Charlotte for the NXT Women's Championship. I hope she gets the shot soon and wins it.

The Lucha Dragons were in non-title action next, taking on the team of Buddy Murphy and Wesley Blake. Murphy and Blake have grown on me and this was their most impressive match so far. They worked a great style and got to do most of the offense, which was great. The Lucha Dragons made their rally and won, which made sense since they're the champions. A damn good showing from the mostly unknown tag team. Really good show so far.

If you thought the show has been really good so far, you haven't seen anything yet. Sami Zayn, on his road to redemption, steps up to face Adrian Neville for the NXT Championship. These two absolutely stole the show. Sami started in control and seemed to have Neville's number, but the champion rallied. Sami grew frustrated as he couldn't put away Neville. He hit the corner exploder and signaled for the Heluva Kick but Neville was holding his knee. The referee put up the "X" symbol and it looked like Neville was really hurt. Sami checked on his friend and was pulled into a small package to finish it. Great storytelling as Neville once again does anything to retain and Sami can't get it done.

That might have been the best episode of NXT that I can recall seeing. Everything was fantastic. The opener made Itami and especially Balor, look like total badasses. The Divas match was good but short. The Lucha Dragons match was damn good. But the NXT Title match is one of the best matches of the year. Go out and watch this episode even if you don't regularly watch NXT. It continues to be the best show the WWE puts on weekly by a mile. 9.5/10.