7 Ups & 2 Downs For Last Night's NXT (May 20)

2. Drake Of Fire

I think the reason I'm so annoyed by the Drak Maverick angle is because it's overshadowing what is, without a shadow of a doubt, the best in-ring run of his career. Certainly in North America, anyway.

All three of his matches in the Cruiserweight Championship tournament have been absolutely excellent, and this contest against Kushida will probably go down as one of the best things he's done in his entire career. It was a spectacular blowoff match that sets up a really enthralling triple-threat next week. It's just been booked under a risible premise.

Some will argue that without the narrative of the sacking then this wouldn't have been the great all-or-nothing pro-wrestling spectacle that it was, but, sorry, there are a million other ways to add stakes. Either way, what Maverick and Kushida sculpted here was a triumph of underdog storytelling, and purely in isolation it's worthy of heaped, heaped praise.