6 Ups & 2 Downs From Last Night's WWE NXT (July 27)

8. Up - The Match Is Signed

NXT opened up with the arrival of Shinsuke Nakamura, who was making his first appearance since scoring a major win over Finn Balor two weeks ago. His opponent was Wesley Blake, who's been repackaged with new music that seemed to herald a definitive end to his team - if not his relationship - with Buddy Murphy.

Nakamura was electric in this brief squash match, playing off of Blake excellently. When the former NXT Tag Team Champion blew Nakamura kisses, "The King of Strong Style" caught them, tossed them to the mat, and stepped on them. Blake did eventually get the heat on Nakamura, but it didn't last particularly long and the popular star soon hit all his signature moves en route to a well-received victory.

The big news came after the match, though - following Nakamura's victory, NXT General Manager William Regal came out onto the stage to announce that "The King of Strong Style" is officially the number one contender to Samoa Joe's NXT Championship. He continued to say that the match will headline the Back to Brooklyn special, and the fans and Nakamura were delighted.