4 Ups And 4 Downs From Last Night’s WWE NXT (June 10)

1. Lukewarm Debut For Joe

Say it isn't so. Well, ok, it wasn't bad. No one can out-and-out call the match he had with Scott Dawson bad, but after riding a near tidal wave of hype, the way NXT chose to book his first in-ring bout was pretty baffling. First of all, they had Dawson - the designated jobber for the evening - get in way too much offence, pounding on Joe in the corner and biting his face. It's understandable that NXT might want their main event match to be slightly longer than a straight squash, but in this case, it was a bad call. You could see the fans sitting in their seats, sitting on their hands. This should not be the case for Samoa Joe's first match. Compare it to Kevin Owens' debut. He came in, took a few licks, then destroyed CJ Parker with a few big moves to keep the crowd pumped. Not so for Joe. When he began to take it to Dawson, the crowd came alive, but there was a definite lull in the proceedings. Secondly, and in a more egregious misstep, Kevin Owens was on commentary for the match. Superstars being on commentary is a constant bugbear in the WWE, and for a hyped debut match, it was downright moronic. Kevin Owens is a charismatic man, no doubt, and certainly in the slim margin of superstars who work well at the table, but during Joe's opening match there were four voices, who spent a large chunk of the match talking about Owens' upcoming bout with John Cena! That's main roster-level shenanigans right there. NXT should be better than that.