10 Times The Opening Match Stole A WWE Show

2014’s NXT Arrival was the first live event streamed on the WWE network, and it could hardly have kicked off in a better manner. Sami Zayn and Cesaro had been feuding off and on since the previous spring, and it came to a head in a breakneck, impeccably worked match to kick off WWE’s new frontier.

Cesaro’s main roster booking has often been questionable and downright disappointing, especially since he gives you the blueprint here: the man is incredibly strong, athletic, and ruthless. He picks apart Zayn like a Terminator; why he isn’t allowed to do this all the time is a mystery.

Zayn for his part is superb, selling the punishment like an artist and nailing some innovative offence - his trademark dive through the corner, a moonsault out of the ring - most of which goes wrong for him. He loses heroically, and the match makes both men look fantastic. They don’t lose the crowd for a moment.

While the rest of the card boasts some solid matches - Paige vs. Emma, the NXT championship ladder match - nothing can touch Sami and Cesaro’s opener, a hard hitting, emotionally resonant match of the year contender that would be a worthy headliner at any event.