NXT (R)Evolution will be the first special event match for Hideo Itami and Finn Balor (formerly KENTA and Prince Devitt), a tag team bout against the Ascension (more on them in a moment), a team that dominated NXT for nearly a year. Its a high-profile tag match probably more of a spotlight match than the tag title contest and how it goes could be very telling. Itami and Balor are noticeably smaller than their opponents, barely breaking the 200-pound mark. Thankfully, WWE has shown that they can sometimes move past casting smaller wrestlers as fodder for the giants (Daniel Bryan is a great example). But how will Itami and Balor fare against the Ascension? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yqvO5WgwcU They could be forced to use speed and high-flying tactics to counter Viktor and Konnors brute strength, or they could stand toe-to-toe with their larger opponents and out-strike them, showing their toughness against a team that is used to imposing their will on others. If they chop, kick and throw the Ascension around a little, then it could show that WWE has faith in them as a**-kicking stars rather than attractions with flashy movesets.
Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.
