4 Ups And 6 Downs From NXT Vengeance Day

3. Crews, Melo Underperform

Let’s get this out of the way: There wasn’t anything technically wrong with the Apollo Crews/Carmelo Hayes 2-out-of-3-falls match. It was mostly very well wrestled and delivered some good action.

But after being built up as a potential instant classic, what we got was far short of that. While the action was good, it wasn’t great. The first fall – with Crews tapping out to a crossface – came out of nowhere, and not in the sense that it was a surprise fall/tapout. It literally came at a point where it seemed like a resthold and transition.

The second fall was disjointed and uneven, and the got marred by some outside interference, with Dabba-Kato returning to help his former running buddy… and Crews still losing the second fall just seconds later.

You almost have to wonder if the match was cut for time, or if someone was injured, because this felt like an underwhelming match from two guys who could have very easily had the match of the night. Not a bad match at all, and a good one at that with the right outcome, but not the classic a 2/3 falls between these guys would theoretically generate.