8 Ups And 4 Downs From NXT TakeOver: Orlando

3. Roode, Nakamura Tee Off On Each Other

Bobby Roode Shinsuke Nakamura
WWE.com

It wasn’t Samoa Joe/Finn Balor, but Bobby Roode and Shinsuke Nakamura had a pretty good rematch for the NXT Championship Saturday night.

Nakamura, nursing a previously injured knee, managed to damage Roode’s arm, leaving both men somewhat hobbled. That made for a more slowed-down match that focused on the drama of Shinsuke’s knee injury than anything else. The wounded warriors traded haymakers and built up to Roode resorting to a tornado Glorious DDT for the win, needing the boost to overcome his injury and his opponent.

While that title match probably wouldn’t make a “Best of” series on NXT Championship matches, it certainly was pretty damn good. And if that was Nakamura’s last bout in NXT before heading to the main roster, then it was certainly a nice way to go out.

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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.