8 Ups & 2 Downs From WWE NXT (Jul 13)

Downs...

2. Escobar Reigns Supreme, But Through Tired Methods

Take nothing away from the work that Santos Escobar and Dexter Lumis put into making their clash on last night's show a highly watchable affair. The two's styles meshed surprisingly well, with the freakish Lumis' odd comebacks complimenting the former Cruiserweight Champion's long spells of grinding and chopping at the bigger man.

However, this match unfortunately found itself in the spot of being the third contest out of four, at that point in the night, to have been decided due to the dreaded 'numbers game'. Sure, this trope can be used to great effect every now and again, should you need your vicious heels to look strong whilst protecting the poor soul outnumbered in the middle of the squared circle. But, like everything, it gets a little dull after a while.

There's no questioning the fact that Escobar needed the 'W' here and few would complain about seeing the supposed babyface Lumis staring up at the lights. But would it have been so hard to just give the Emperor of Lucha Libre the clean win and blame it on Lumis being a lovesick puppy? The less said about Indi Hartwell attempting to repay the whisking of the feet favour the better too.

Also, Hit Row showing up in the closing stages to simply bark at Legado del Fantasma didn't really set the world on fire and did little to get people excited about a future Escobar vs. Swerve revival. A shame too after last week's compelling cypher.