3 Ups & 2 Downs From WWE NXT (Jan 25)

1. A Killer Main Event Segment

This was the single greatest segment NXT has produced in months; it made use of all four women brilliantly, hinted at but did not telegraph the dynamics of Saturday's Women's Title match, and positioned Nikki Cross, in particular, as the most believable threat to Asuka's crown.

For once, the teeth-grinding obnoxiousness of Billie Kay and Peyton Royce was more effective than alienating, given that they are close enough to having their faces kicked in. An act as grating as theirs cannot go too long without receiving their comeuppance because it is much too reliant on cheap shortcuts.

Nikki Cross entered the fray after some token antipodean screeching, shortly followed by Asuka, who chased Peyton and Royce out of the ring. She then turned her attentions to Cross in a crazed, tense standoff. Foreshadowing the only realistic tactic at their disposal, Royce and Kay then set about Asuka and Cross before the two lunatics formed an uneasy alliance. A flank of security guards separated their teased confrontation, but their lunacy could not be contained. In a raucous and somehow believable scene, Asuka and Cross, in a testament to their unhinged credibility, kicked their faces off. Cross then floored everybody - Asuka, security guards, the crowd - by diving off the top rope to the outside.

Royce and Kay, to their credit, sold the chaotic scene at the top of the entrance ramp with perfectly-judged horror. You could see the blood draining from their faces even underneath the fake tan.

The NXT Women's division was dead, supposedly. The NXT thinktank clearly has enough armour left to withstand the threat faced by the departure of the Four Horsewomen.