WWE NXT Review - May 6, 2015

Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks sign the contract.

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Charlotte def. Emma

These two have had some clunkers in the past, so it was encouraging to see them work a pretty nice match. It wasn't given much time (which was to be expected on a show jam-packed with so much content), but they made the most of the time they had by having a nice outing. Emma worked well as a heel and I look forward to seeing her continuing to hone her character. I wish she would win a few more matches, but the constant losses will only fuel her heel turn. Bayley showed good aggression after the match and it's nice to see a women's feud developing that isn't over the NXT Women's Championship.


Rhyno def. Bull Dempsey

If Dempsey wasn't already dead in the water after his three straight losses to Baron Corbin earlier this year, he is now. This wasn't as quick of a squash as we're used to seeing from Rhyno, but it wasn't much longer. Dempsey hardly got in any offense before he took the loss, and the Full Sail University audience ate it all up. Rhyno calling out Corbin in the post-match promo was well-received by the crowd and I'm intrigued to see how the match plays out.

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Tyler Breeze lays out his Unstoppable opponents.

Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder vs. Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady Went to a No Contest

Many Amore and Cassady matches seem to blend together after a while, so it might have been for the best that this bout didn't come to fruition. The whole "hitting on Carmella" thing for Blake and Murphy has been strange to say the least, but they effectively built heat for themselves by laying them out here. They were made to look aggressive and I hope we see more of this side of the NXT Tag Team Champions before the title match in two weeks.


NXT Women's Champion Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch Signed the Contract for Their NXT TakeOver: Unstoppable Match

It's amazing how far Lynch has come as a character since her NXT debut last summer. Then again, that's par for the course for most of the women in NXT, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised. The video package that spotlighted her career that aired earlier in the show was excellent and she excelled on the mic in this segment. Banks was a natural per usual and really made the fans side with Lynch after attacking her. I don't want to see Lynch as a face in the long-term because I think the heel suits her better, but for this feud/match, it works.


Hideo Itami def. Tyler Breeze

This wasn't on the level of some of their previous encounters, but the match was still quite good. They picked up the pace down the stretch and delivered a fun final few minutes. It also served as solid way of building toward the No. 1 Contender's Triple Threat match at NXT TakeOver as well as teasing tension between all three guys in the match. I liked how Breeze was the last man standing because he still feels like the least likely to win, so that was a good close to the show.


Overall Show

Looking at the spoiler-free preview for the show, I feared I wasn't going to enjoy it merely because the shows that pack too much in often aren't very good. Well, much to my surprise, I enjoyed the hell of out this episode. All the matches served some sort of purpose in regards to NXT TakeOver in two weeks, and everything aired that aired in between was flat out awesome. The interviews with Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn were phenomenal, Alex Riley's brief promo was intriguing, and the impending debut of Uhaa Nation (never expected to see him on TV so quickly) has me excited. The card for Unstoppable is shaping up to be something special and looks to continue the strong streak of exceptional live specials.

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