6 Ups And 2 Downs From WWE NXT (Nov 18)

1.

I'll hold my hands up here, this is a very harsh down. But, well, it's a hard life lads, get used to it.

After a short video package introducing us to Arturo Ruas, we're then immediately given a debut match against Kushida. Given the (admittedly sporadic) run he's been on of late, this felt like a strange pairing. Don't get me wrong, strange pairings are usually a direct route to interesting matches, but this felt like a no-win for the show as a whole. Big debut win for Ruas undoes a lot of Kushidas good work this Autumn, but having him lose really douses cold water on him before he's even got started.

Either way, whatever happens here likely had to lead to a return contest, given WWE's never-ending dedication to booking as 50/50 as possible. While having Kushida just sneak ahead with his additional "experience" still allowed Ruas to emerge with some credit, in reality it's quite a boring result. Ruas can't really justify a return match, but going and getting a win against someone lower down the card just immediately tells you that this man is average.

Don't get me wrong, had this been a ripper of a match then you'd probably get away with all of that, but the amateur-wrestling, martial-art, oooh-this-is-different style didn't really click the way you sense both men were hoping it would. We'll watch Ruas's time here with interest but, on the strength of this week, he's just more meat in the room.