The Successor and The ChampionThings have certainly escalated in the NXT universe. While Kevin Owens has to face Samoa Joe everytime he comes back to NXT, Finn Balor who is the number one contender for the championship that Mr. Owens holds, is embroiled in a feud with the Man Beast Rhyno. Dana Brooke is still green, Eva Marie hasn’t wrestled yet and this week’s episode aired straight from Tokyo.Storylines were continued and Owens was again the MVP of the show. Inspite of your awe for Balor, how much will you miss Owens once he’s not the NXT Champion, once he’s forever gone to the main roster?Here are the 5 points to note from this week's show.
#1 An Itami Sighting
Being held in Tokyo, it would have been shocking if Itami was not present. So, on cue Itami was there in front of his homeland. But he wasn’t just there to say that he’ll be back, he was there as part of an unravelling story.
The ones who watched Unstoppable saw Owens walking by with a smile when Itami was wincing away in pain on the ground. That was the best of Owens in all his nonchalance.
So this week, the story continued which indicated that Owens was behind causing Itami’s injury. Itami didn’t have any nice words to say about Owens. Interesting.
#2 Owens\' the showstealer
The best part of the show was Owens’ presence and performance. He pleaded not guilty on the claim that he was the one who inflicted the injury on Hideo Itami. He then went on to order Itami to apologize which Itami did not, obviously.
The champ had no qualms in walking straight towards Itami to work on his other arm. Then he was on commentary during the main event, as hilarious as ever, chiding away the usual commentators. True heel.
And then all heck broke lose when he and Rhyno led an attack on Balor only to be interrupted by Samoa Joe.
#3 The Finn Balor Story
Another video package made its way to NXT featuring Finn Balor. Now, these are the kind of videos that show him being someone beyond the demon. Balor has the looks, the flair for drama and the wrestling skills to get massively over with wrestling audiences anywhere.
These videos are doing a great job of making him much more familiar and much more likeable. This is the right step towards the moment where the baton will finally be passed on to him. That means winning the NXT Championship, of course.
Balor with the title seems like a good picture.
#4 Where\'s The Boss?
Sasha Banks has been missing in action since that classic match against Becky Lynch at Takeover: Unstoppable.
This is a good thing as distance makes the heart grow fonder. It’s been almost a month since she graced the WWE Network and she has rubbished all injury rumours, so the exact reason behind her absence is not quite clear.
Is there a main roster debut on the go? Or is it just to lay the platform for other female wrestlers to have time to develop their own skills and become a worthy next contender for the championship?
Well, whenever she comes back, she’ll be welcomed with a huge pop.
#5 Eva Marie
So, the build up to Eva Marie's first match has begun. William Regal quite excitedly asked for an invitation to her training. She’s been practicing promo work with The Road Dogg and improving her wrestling skills with Brian Kendrick. The few glimpses that we’ve seen of her have been promising, but it takes more than just pulling off a move to pull off a match. Getting the psychology right is important.
Anyways, hopefully, she’ll counter every critic there is with her performance.
