5 Ups And 3 Downs From Last Night's WWE NXT (Nov 25)

2. The Night Of The Effective False Finish

Despite both title matches being inherently predictable (the introduction of a regular TakeOver event schedule has made title changes on regular TV much rarer), the competitors in both the Women's and the Tag Team Championship matches created a run of excellent false finishes. Not only were the fans in attendance physically wincing and moaning with surprise and relief when the wrestlers kicked out at 2.5, but you could feel it watching at home. During The Vaudevillains vs Dawson & Wilder, finishers were teased, and surprise pins were used so effectively that fans jumped from their seat in tense excitment. The Shatter Machine was reversed into a sunset flip pin which came tantalisingly close to a three. The Whirling Dervish was countered into yet another close pinning attempt. Despite knowing that title rematches almost never have the champions regaining their gold, the excellent timing displayed by the performers allowed the audience to suspend their disbelief. The presence of Nia Jax and Charles Robinson did similar wonders for the Bayley vs Eva Marie match. The endings to matches in NXT are almost never booked with this much shenanigans. On normal WWE TV this would be seen as standard over-booking, but in NXT it's so rare that it made the outcome of the match genuinely unpredictable (unless you read dirt sheets of course). When the first ref went out and Robinson took his place, an unshakable feeling of dread descended over the crowd, giving every false finish a wonderful amount of weight.