i thought steen/zayn was good. definitely slow to get started but the ending sequence is good booking. i do agree he could've been pinned after the first powerbomb but i don't think the extra couple mins was terrible or anything.

i usually tune out the second i see a diva but tonight's four way was very good.

and of course balor/neville was A+

was austin/bret for anything? that's only thing that really comes to mind. and there was that backlund towel match too. not quite the same though.

Austin/Bret was not for anything, was just a grudge match. The belt was on more talented competitors Undertaker and Sid for that event.

The "referee stops the match to protect the safety of the guy getting crushed" ending is a really rare one in WWE.

It's an underused clean ending for sure, that somehow hasn't gotten done to death like the surprise entrance music followed by roll-up victory

I was hoping it would happen during the Brock/Cena match.

That'd basically be a submission loss for Cena, which will never happen (shouldn't they note that on announce that Cena has never tapped out?)

I just don't understand how you guys are so positive towards the ME

Started out with a million rest holds, had about 4 standard spots and somehow made Zayn and Owens look literally total boobs between Zayn getting like 3 total moves on offense and Owens being unable to pin a concussed Zayn after 4 powerbombs.

It was an odd match. I didn't enjoy it as much as any of their previous encounters (of which there are like 10+ counting tags), but I enjoyed it. It was hate filled from Sami's pov. He should've been hateful while Owen's was being business and just trying to take the strap.

I don't think people are being that positive toward the match really, but I did like the booking. Not for a second do I buy that the final booking has Owens "looking like a total boob." He was openly toying with Zayn by the end. He comes out of the match looking really strong, and loses nothing from the fact that he tried a really lax, cocky cover late that Sami rolled a shoulder out of.

Maybe they will have reigns win his matches this way

Most of the Owens/Zayn match prior to the end was disappointing but even in such a match Owens offense and selling looked great. The ending is one of my top match endings of all time.

Had today off so I watched a lot of wrestling. NJPW New Beginning in Osaka was today as well and it was really good. You should all go watch that and if you haven't watched Wrestle Kingdom 9 then gtfo.

Just finished NXT, haven't read the thread so here are some thoughts.

Tyler Breeze waited too long to have a chance to get really over when the roster was dry. He has a lot of talent but his gimmick has gone no where. He has his funny moments but they need to change it up before he gets lost in the now deep roster. I'm hoping they can do something interesting with Hideo's character. The WWE doesn't have a good track record with Japanese wrestlers so I don't have my hopes set high. They put on a pretty good opening match though so I can't fault either in ring.

Bull Dempsey looks funny when he's angry and walking to the ring. He looks like he should be in an old school arcade beat em up like Final Fight or Streets of Rage. Baron Corbin is already looking a little Roman Reignsy.

Skipped the tag match because Sin Cara.

So Finn's special entrance isn't so special when he does it a second time. The cool thing about his entrances as Prince Devitt was they were different every time and you didn't know what to expect. Doing the same one at every major event just causes it to lose its wow factor. Yeah it's cool but it was cooler the first time he did it and lost a lot of its stigma when he started doing it with no face paint. No complaints about the match though, it was pretty awesome. I've never really liked Finn's finisher but I'm probably in the minority. The shaking hands/hugging thing is overplayed in NXT.

I thought the women's title match was really really good. Sasha, Bailey and Charlotte were awesome and even Becky Lynch wasn't horrible. The ending was elite as well. Submission to pin is rarely used and they made it work really well. The boss! I wonder if Charlotte is getting called up and we possibly get Paige/Charlotte at WM.

The hype for this match is real and Kevin Owen's music is awesome. The opening was great and the tension was high but then it just kind of went flat. It definitely wasn't a bad match but maybe my expectations were too high. I've only seen one of their earlier matches on youtube but it was epic. Hopefully this just means we're getting a lengthy feud and they're saving spots. The ending was kind of weird. I like how they just built Owens up as a solid ass kicker and the fact that they tried something different but it would have been much more effective if Sami hadn't just kicked out of like 5 powerbombs by slumping over.

Overall it was a pretty solid show. Still the best wrestling in the WWE.

Bull Dempsey vs Bull Dempsey in Saturday Night Slam Masters.

Though I'm not quite as negative as you, I'm definitely on your side here.

If they were going to do the ref stoppage angle, I would have rather them done it on the outside of the ring. Owens could have continuously come back into the ring and break the count, while doing brutal stuff on the floor/ramp.

Having Zayn kick out after 3 powerbombs was terrible.

Show was still worth watching, if only for the women's match and Neville/Finn.

Kind of off topic but the nxt belt is ugly as sin

Would agree that kicking out after three power bombs was bad (if standard in WWE) if it wasn't a completely nonchalant pin after great looking power bombs. It looked like Zayn was on death's door and just was able to move because Owens let wasn't putting any weight on him. Just perfect for the storyline and characters.

Yeah, the "kickout" was just rolling over against almost no resistance. I don't see getting up in arms over that. Someone who is still conscious instinctively rolling over a bit when he hears the referee hitting the mat doesn't seem like a big stretch.

Random thoughts:

Hideo still needs a better finisher (that isn't the GTS, it isn't near time) than that running kick. Always leaves the crowd confused.

The selfie stick and no-selling the girl were very good small touches that make me think Tyler's character might have a better chance of translating on RAW than I thought.

Sin Cara has no business in the company. The match really suffered from aspiring to be something it couldn't, but that was kinda OK in a developmental trying hard kinda way. Sin Cara however doesn't seem like he's even trying.

Corbin/Dempsy didn't really make enough use of the stipulation to warrant it being used. Corbin is not as threatening of a chair sitter as Itami.

4 way was really, really awesome. 2nd 4 way they've done where everything made sense and you never had those "wrestling I guess" moments where somebody camped out for 4 minutes being "hurt".

Every reservation about Balor's entrance being too dramatic is out the window. He is amazing. I might have to buy his new shirt even if it's almost exactly like the one I already have.

Main event was fantastic. I love that they went there. This was a great chapter 2, and I'm glad that there was no feeling of obligation to keep the belt on Sami. Owen's knee to the neck thing looks like it should never be kicked out of ever, but that's less about this match and more just the way wrestling works in 2015, especially with people like Sami (or say Dolph). Sami's selling all match was great.

I wish the fans smart enough to know Owens/Steen and love him would also know that things work better if they play along and don't ride for the heel so hard. On a night with a lot of face on face stuff, that felt more confused than it needed to be. There's elements in the NXT crowd that are always more concerned with getting themselves over, and while this was about the least toxic form it takes, still not something I loved.

Did you watch the match with your eyes? He functionally wasn't trying to pin him?

The story of the match was Owens getting in Sami's head to the point where Sami did something that hurt himself and then Owens pounding him into nothing. It wasn't trying to be the match you seem to want it to be. On a night where there was lots of other really great, more straight forward wrestling, I don't get ****ting on something that told a different kind of story.

**** you guys I loved Sami rolling out of that pin. Steen should have pinned witha pinky or one foot or something heelish, if for no other reason than to drive it down the throats of those who weren't paying attention for the last however long Sami has been in the company. He's the ultimate good guy that doesn't quit and this fits perfectly with his character.

Perhaps it wasn't obvious to some that the pin Zayn rolled out of was nonchalant. To me it was obvious that was a pin you use on a jobber after a squash, not the world champ at the end of a main event. Unless perhaps deep down you want to hurt him more and think the match is in the bag.

Yeah, it wasn't close to a full pin, but I think it could have been made more obvious (foot on the chest/pose to the camera while draping over him like George Costanza on the bear rug, whatever).

Just little story telling stuff that could stand to be cleaned up.

I was nervous late because I thought they were going to find some way to turn the final sequence into a DQ of Owens for insistently pulling Sami away from the medical staff, which would have been a booking abomination. Thankfully an unfounded fear this time.

Whomever came up with the finish should have watched some Rick Rude vs jobber matches from 1993 first. New great looking I don't give a **** pin every match.

It was painfully obvious if you've ever watched wrestling and know what a pin looks like. He wasn't doing anything but putting his hands on his chest. Anything more wouldn't have been in character.

Wrestling works in part because of shared storytelling language (both in terms of words and actions) and expectations. To be blunt, if you didn't read that as a "cocky-pin", you're still in wrestling fan pre-school and far from ready for the grad level class that was that match

Well, to be fair, "anything else wouldn't have been in character" implies that I know his character in the first place.