6 Ups And 2 Downs From Last Night's WWE NXT (May 11)

4. King Of Rage Style

Balor flip Joe
NXT

As promised last week, Shinsuke Nakamura went one-on-one with Alex Riley in what has turned out to be Riley's last appearance in WWE. Prior to the match, Nakamura was interviewed by Andrea DiMarco, who questioned him about Riley's "rage." "Rage?" queried Nakamura in response, before performing his trademark finger-pointing taunt and commenting, "Shaking with rage!"

The match was short, but Riley didn't get too much offense in. The heat spot was weak (Nakamura missed a kneedrop to give Riley control), but apart from a few chops and a dropkick, Riley didn't do too much. Nakamura hit his charging knees in the corner, a reverse powerslam, and the Kinshasa to put his foe away.

Nakamura's win looked relatively easy (as it should have), but odds are the match didn't feel good. Even though Riley only hit "The King of Strong Style" with a few chops, his chest was bright red and already blistered. Riley may be gone, but he left a mark.

Contributor
Contributor

Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried. *Best Crowd of the Year, 2013