1 Up & 4 Downs From WWE NXT (January 4, 2016)

Downs...

4. Cold Open

The best wrestling shows kick off with what is known as the hot opener; a pacy and closely-contested affair designed to unglue the crowd. The first match from this Melbourne, Australia house show set an unenviable tone.

The Revival act of Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder is so good, such an expert fusion of old schools and new, that they even have a fan in Jim Cornette - a man notoriously adverse to the vast majority of modern wrestling. As good as they are, even they aren’t capable of carrying the proverbial broomstick to a good match. Their opponents, the tandem of Tino Sabbatelli and Roddick Moss, aren’t a pair of broomsticks. Broomsticks aren’t particularly dangerous. The match was basic at best, disastrous at worst, tonally dissonant; the in-house prospects botched so many attempts at double team moves that The Revival’s usually-ingenious heel tactics were rendered pointless. Their opponents were so poor that their schtick was compromised entirely. It was impossible to believe that they’d need to rely on it.

This was a valuable experience for the rookie team, who will at least have emerged from it with some sobering lessons to learn. But, as an experience for the viewer, it was dreadful. Again - there’s a reason why WWE doesn’t usually film these things.