5 Ups & 3 Downs From Last Night's NXT (Aug 5)

1. Pat's Entertainment!

Undisputed Era playing face in an NXT main-event with a championship on the line is... something. They've been one of the greatest heel stables in the company's history but you do wonder what might have happened if they'd been allowed to just, like, have a lot more fun.

Regardless though, this was incredible.

Take a 200mph tag-team wrestling match that was as smooth as Fabian Aichner's head and constantly sprinkle it with just this creeping sense of anxiety as the camera shifts down to Adam Cole glancing over his own shoulder. A main-event with an enormous distraction like this shouldn't really have worked but the subtle way it was cut to was a masterstroke of TV production. Just infrequent enough that you kept forgetting about it, and never lingering so long that it detracts from the match.

In the end, after a barnstorming contest that made you mourn for Kyle O'Reilly's PWG days, it was Cole's own inability to focus on the prize that cost the Undisputed Era. His shouting match with McAfee provided the distraction Imperium needed to retain their gold, as the seeds for the groups inevitable implosion finally begin to sprout.

Last week Strong came off as likeable and sympathetic against Gargano, this week Fish and O'Reilly played face sensationally, and all the while Cole's unraveling mindset sets him further and further apart from the group. Best of all, this moment, from now, from this moment on, this was be the moment, starting now, of the Genesis... of Pat McAfee saying Cole couldn't cut it without his boys.

A decorated pro-wrestler getting laid out by a commentator is an outright humiliation, and a chef's kiss of a twist in this story.