NXT 258

January 8, 2015 – Winter Park, Florida

NXT Champion Sami Zayn returns from injury and celebrates with the fans for a while. He basks in his title win and laments that his oldest friend in wrestling turned on him. Surprisingly, Adrian Neville comes out. He congratulates Zayn, and then Zayn preemptively insists on giving Neville a rematch. I love these two with all my heart, and currently have no room in it for anyone else. William Regal clearly feels the same, because he comes out to pat them on the back and set the rematch for next week. Squee.

Hideo Itami def. Curtis Axel
This was pretty disappointing given what I think these two are capable of. The crowd wants Itami to make his opponents go to sleep, but they seem to be saving that. **¼

They’re doing this spillover angle with Tyson Kidd and Natalya to create synergy with Total Divas. It don’t care for it. Now that Sami Zayn is champion, Kidd wants to go for the title again. I’ve said this before, but I think they really missed out on an opportunity to incorporate Kidd into Neville losing his title. I’m not mad that they didn’t because the Zayn/Neville angle has been great. I’m just pointing out that they put this stipulation on Kidd not being able to challenge Neville for the belt and didn’t do anything with it.

Sasha Banks def. Alexa Bliss
The commentators don’t mention that Banks broke Bliss’s nose in their last match, but Banks brings it up and for that I am thankful. This was too short to be anything, and Banks is now 3-1 over Bliss. *

Tyler Breeze def. Chad Gable
Tyler Breeze is done with his vacation, and frankly I’m pissed that his promised updates didn’t air. The crowd is really behind Gable, which is surprising because he was probably just getting squashed on house shows before this. Are they just really big Olympics fans? He got in a few shots, but this was too brief to get a good sense of him. **

Sin Cara & Kalisto def. Simon Gotch & Aiden English {NXT Tag Team Championship Match}
I can’t tell if the Vaudevillains are just tragically boring or if these two teams don’t have chemistry with each other. Either way, this was just as dull as their Takeover match, and the finish was clunky as hell. *½