5 Ups & 2 Downs From Last Night's WWE NXT (Aug 31)

NXT's TakeOver: Brooklyn II show proved to be one of the most noteworthy in the brand's history. Despite losing some solid talent in the WWE draft, the developmental league still managed to put on a card that sold out Barclays Center and wowed the fans in attendance. The effects of matches like Samoa Joe versus Shinsuke Nakamura, Bayley versus Asuka, and The Revival versus Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa will be felt for a long time to come.

Last week's episode of NXT TV was a recap show for the Brooklyn event, with a couple of first-run matches that were actually taped just before the TakeOver special. That meant that this week's episode - which was built around Nakamura's first appearance as NXT Champion - was the first real step toward new storylines and matches.

In that sense, it wasn't much of a success. Despite the ratio of ups to downs, most of the ups were only mildly impressive, making for a pretty boring episode of the show. On the plus side, there was a clear interest shown in the future of the brand and in developing talent who could someday play a major role for the brand - it just wasn't a great follow-up to a major show.

Here are 5 ups and 2 downs from August 31's NXT:

Tye Dillinger made a long-awaited return to NXT action last week with a singles win over Wesley Blake. It was the first time Dillinger had been on the show in almost two months, and in his previous appearance, he lost a bout to Oney Lorcan that made him question whether he was still a perfect 10.

In any case, that storyline was dropped and Dillinger looked good against Blake. This week, it was Blake's former partner, Buddy Murphy, who was across the ring from "The Perfect 10."

The match was another good one. The Full Sail University crowd was delighted to see Dillinger back in action, and Murphy - though clumsy in spots - was game for a good bout. In fact, it's pretty safe to say that Blake and Murphy are both showing some improvement as of late - neither guy is a future superstar, but they could be solid undercard workers on the main roster.

In any event, Dillinger picked up the win with the Tye-Breaker once again, causing Corey Graves to ask whether he could make a run at a title in the near future. Thankfully, the losing streak is over.