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

3. In-Jokes From The Outside

The second match, a tag team match pitting Bobby Roode and Elias Samson against Tye Dillinger and Buddy Murphy, was a vast improvement on the first - but it would have been a far better watch, had you been Australian and in attendance.

Much of it was fun. Bobby Roode is on such a tear that practically everything he does is entertaining. Running down his own tag team partner, mimicking his acoustic guitar playing with some intentionally naff air bass guitar (!), tagging out of the action immediately - the man was on typical form.

Elsewhere, Samson was anonymous. Tye Dillinger did much of the legwork, but the narrative was mostly centred around Buddy Murphy’s non-canon face turn. In truth, the man did little to convince that he has been unfairly marginalised. He did strike Roode with a perfectly-timed slingshot somersault senton - but it was set up with a very awkward hurricanrana. Murphy’s legs were practically locked around Roode’s waist. It was a case of one step forward, two steps back.

Rhode’s avoidance of Dillinger aside, there wasn’t much in the way of connective tissue binding the showcase performance together; instead, Murphy and Dillinger, as is the house show norm, spent much of the match mugging to the crowd. Like all in-jokes, you probably had to be there to get it.