8 Ups And 2 Downs For WWE NXT (Apr 13)

4. Undisputed Open Challenge Leads To New Champ!

Your officially undisputed NXT Cruiserweight Champion Santos Escobar made his way to the ring with one thing on his mind this week; laying down a marker. To do this, the star who put Jordan Devlin in his place at Stand and Deliver issued an open challenge for his beloved purple belt, a title he admitted to saving over the last year or so.

And who answered this call? None other than f*cking KUSHIDA.

Sporting a pair of trunks for the first time in what feels like decades, the technical wizard wasn't here to play games. As you'd no doubt expect, the two put on an absolute clinic, with KUSHIDA's attempts to isolate the champ's arm cancelled out by Escobar's savage ring post assisted Boston crab - it had to be seen to be believed.

After snowballing into one of the finest TV matches the black and gold brand has offered up in recent times, it looked as though the Champion was set to live to fight another day as he caught KUSHIDA with a sweetly timed backstabber on the back of a springboard attempt from the challenger. However, a reversed Phantom Driver gave way to numerous pinning attempts, only for KUSHIDA to roll up the Champion for the win.

Yep, just like that, Escobar's historic reign comes to a screeching halt. But, you can't complain about the results here. KUSHIDA has been on an absolute tear for months and his hard work deserved to be recognised in light of an unfortunate loss to The Bruiserweight at TakeOver.

KUSHIDA weekly open challenge anyone?