NXT 208

February 12, 2014 – Winter Park, Florida

Alicia Fox, Summer Rae & Sasha Banks def. Bayley, Natalya & Emma
They finally announced the name of NXT Arrival, and that Emma will at long last cash in her title shot there. Was Charlotte injured around this time? That’d explain a lot about this storyline. This was a damn fine match, highlighted by Rae finally shining as a heel and actually working for the match and not just to get her shtick over. I didn’t love the finish, in which the BFF abandoned Fox to get beaten by Emma, because why would they deliver up a surefire loss like that? That bit (which is symptomatic of the directionless nature of the heel stable) was the only blemish on this otherwise good opener. ***¼

Aiden English def. Colin Cassady
English has really dominated this feud. This was a cute little showcase for both guys. **

Sami Zayn comes out to lament his 2/3 Falls loss to Antonio Cesaro, as it was the biggest match of his career to date and he can’t figure out where he went wrong in it. Cesaro comes out to let him know that he never stood a shot at winning it. He thinks Zayn’s career will be great, but it will always be in NXT and never on the main roster. Cesaro wants to be sure that Zayn’s injury is 100% healed and that he’ll have no excuses after he beats him again. Zayn is willing to pinky promise but Cesaro says no and kicks Zayn’s knee. Then Triple H comes out and makes the match anyway. Isn’t JBL the GM?

CJ Parker def. Tye Dillinger
This was supposed to be Parker’s coming out party as a heel, but he didn’t do anything heelish in the match at all. He heels it up on the mic (evil eco warrior instead of a groovy hippy) after the match, and that’s some lazy ass progression right there. I don’t review squashes. N/A

Erick Rowan & Luke Harper def. Jason Jordan & Marcus Louis
This was some indy nonsense, where the headliners are in the main event because they’re the biggest stars, despite this being totally disconnected from everything else going on in NXT and just being a squash. As a matter of fact, this whole episode was backwards, with the squashes at the end, the main event calibre match at the beginning and the big angle development in the middle. N/A