7 WWE NXT Takeover Main Event Matches - From Worst To Best

The rivalry between Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn was definitely the most personal feud for the NXT Championship thus far.

Owens, who’d just made his debut two months prior to the day, would face his former best friend in Sami Zayn, after double-crossing him not only on the night of his own debut, but on the night that Sami won the NXT Championship as well.

Owens felt that Sami Zayn only cared about himself, being called up to WWE from the indies way before he was, depriving him of the feeling of climbing the ranks of WWE with his best friend. So Owens went into business for himself, and decided he’d do what he could to provide for his family, stabbing his best friend in the back to speed up the process and get him closer to the championship, the money and the opportunities that came with it.

The match itself was dominated by Owens. Sami started off strong, leaping over the top rope onto his former friend when he wouldn’t stay in the ring to start the fight, but while he managed to bounce back a couple of times when Owens was delivering a beatdown, Owens would eventually be awarded the championship when the officials at ringside stopped the match.

In similar fashion to Brock Lesnar vs. John Cena at SummerSlam half a year beforehand, there was no doubt who the winner was. It was the single most decisive championship victory in NXT history.

It was sad to see Sami Zayn decimated like that after such a great build-up to his title win, but the fact that he wasn’t pinned and constantly fought back made him look, as JR would say, tougher than a $2 steak.