NXT 226

June 12, 2014 – Winter Park, Florida

Bayley, Paige, & Emma def. Charlotte, Sasha Banks, & Summer Rae
Emma was stuck in the heel corner for what felt like an eternity, and Paige was pretty much a non-factor in this. It all sort of doesn’t matter because the match was centered around the BFF falling apart. **¼

Colin Cassady def. Sylvester LaFort
I don’t review squashes. N/A

I’m a little nervous about the main event, because a backstage segment makes it seem like it might be more about setting up an angle between Tyson Kidd and Natalya than about paying off Kidd’s rivalry with the champ.

Aiden English becomes enamored when a mysterious strongman lifts some scaffolding in front of him.

Sami Zayn def. Mr. NXT
Zayn has a new ska theme song and the commentators spend a minute explaining what ska is. Mr. NXT is Bo Dallas pretending to be a luchador to get back into NXT and it’s delightful. The crowd chants, “You can’t fool us,” which is fine, but a small contingent chants back, “Yes he can,” and that’s just great. But the funniest exchange is the following:
Mr. NXT: “I’m not Bo Dallas!”
Rich Brennan: “What did he say?”
Alex Riley: “He was speaking speaking Spanish!”
Dallas gets unmasked just before Zayn pins him. It wasn’t much of a match, but it was the funniest thing NXT has done yet. After the fact, Zayn calls campus police on Dallas, who gives them a hilarious chase and then “kidnap” him. Dallas makes me very happy. ***

Adrian Neville def. Tyson Kidd [NXT Championship Match]
Maybe a little color was what was missing for me in their Takeover match. Natalya got involved here, but not in an obnoxious way, and it was as an accent to Kidd’s character development, not the cause of it. This was a little better than their previous match, but still not as good as I would have hoped. I guess I’m just not that high on Kidd. ***¼