8 Ups And 1 Down From WWE NXT (Oct 7)

7. Man Hoverboard

This whole "The Real Kushida" gimmick is inevitably heading towards him bleaching his hair and doing a skit with 30 lookalikes, but until it does it's compelling viewing. After a barbaric (by his previous standards) showing at TakeOver, NXT elected to have him open the show this week with a 'why not' match against Tomasso Ciampa.

Actually, while we're on that subject, commentary seemed to imply there had been a dust-up between the two moments before, and Regal had snapped into action to make it a match. In reality though they'd announced it on the website two days in advance, so, yeah, weird?

Regardless, for all the predictable "this is a TakeOver calibre match by gawd!!" noise from commentary, this was a TakeOver calibre match by gawd. Both men leathered the other and, almost in spite of the predictable non-finish, it felt like this was designed to further Kushida's push. Given how miserly his opportunities have been prior to this, the guy's enjoying an incredible ending to his 2020.