2. Finn Balor (c) Vs. Kevin Owens - TakeOver: Brooklyn
TakeOver: Brooklyn, the first big show NXT had taken outside of Full Sail University, was one hell of a show. The Vaudevillains defeated Blake and Murphy for the tag titles, Bayley and Sasha Banks put on a genuine classic, Apollo Crews made his debut and Jushin Thunder Liger appeared in a WWE ring for the very first time. The main event of the show was a ladder match for the NXT Championship, with champion Finn Balor defending against previous champion Kevin Owens. Kevin Owens is at his best when he is being a colossal antagoniser, and he was at his prickly best throughout this battle, memorably mocking the injured Sami Zayn. This really came through in his offence, ramping up the brutality to show that he really cared not at all for the well being of his opponent, caring only about the prize he was fighting for. Amongst all of the big arrivals and consistency of NXT in 2015, it is easy to overlook just how good Finn Balor has been this year. This was his finest 20 minutes of the year, as Demon Balor pulled out all of the stops to climb the ladder and retain his title. The finish came after a Coup de Grace from the top of the ladder, a move certainly fitting of the name.
Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.
