As I stated earlier, coming in at #2 on this list is a great sign for the developmental promotion that hardcore fans have latched onto as their preferred brand of choice. NXT is a third of the length of Raw with a fifth of the roster size and ten times the logic and cohesion and it shows. This episode, originally taped back on January 27th, continued to set the stage for the upcoming TakeOver: Dallas special event taking place the Friday night before WrestleMania 32 as part of the weekend's festivities. The highlight was the brief 30-second graphic on the tron that announced the arrival of Japanese superstar Shinsuke Nakamura and named him as Sami Zayn's opponent for Dallas. Video packages and angles were used to establish the matches for TakeOver such as Baron Corbin taking on NXT newcomer Austin Aries, and we also got a fun women's tag team match featuring the champion Bayley and her upcoming opponent Asuka against Nia Jax and Eva Marie. The main event was an action-packed tag bout between American Alpha - who continue to get better with every appearance - against the freshly-turned heel Vaudevillains, and it was a fantastic match that put Jason Jordan and Chad Gable over strong leading into their title shot against The Revival. Just another solid, fun hour of TV that reminds fans how wrestling doesn't have to be complicated to be entertaining.
Brad Hamilton is a writer, musician and marketer/social media manager from Atlanta, Georgia. He's an undefeated freestyle rap battle champion, spends too little time being productive and defines himself as the literary version of Brock Lesnar.
