3 takeaways from Keith Lee & Dominik Dijakovic’s clash on NXT (February 27, 2019)

A battle of two of NXT’s biggest men broke out last night, as Keith Lee battled Dominik Dijakovic in a match between relatively new superstars.

While the initial moments of the match were slow, and neither men could get a clear advantage over the other, the match progressed beautifully.

The biggest moment that ignited it all came when Dijakovic monkey-flipped Lee, who landed on his feet. While such moves are expected from smaller men like Lio Rush and Ricochet, a 6ft 2in, 320lbs man doing the same is close to unbelievable.

In the closing moments of the match, the 6ft 7in tall and 270lbs weighing Dijakovic delivered an Asai moonsault that left both men reeling at ringside and led to a double count-out to end the match.

While the result may not have pleased the audience, their effort incited a thunderous ovation from a fanbase appreciative of their efforts. This was just one of the many matches to come between these two large men which will progress into a great feud.

After the match, there were 3 things we learned which stand true at the end of the battle.

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#3 The NXT crowd is alive

NXT's audience appreciates its talent

In recent times, we have seen both SmackDown and Raw suffer from a lack of crowd interest in some spots.

This has been made evident every time the ring lacks a big name, even if they lack wrestling talent, and we usually see pops from the crowd when big names come out.

Recently, we’ve seen the crowd give the biggest pops to Becky Lynch on both Raw and Smackdown, while Roman Reigns’ return to Raw received a huge ovation from the crowd.

NXT, however, is a completely different brand which has slowly started to show that its crowd is more about talent and skills than big names.

Keith Lee and Dominik Dijakovic are both relatively new to WWE, even though they’ve been huge names on other promotions before joining the company, but the crowd is well aware of their talent and that was made evident when they delivered one heck of a match last night on NXT.

#2 Big men can put up great matches

The crowd was enthralled by this back-and-forth battle

Speaking of the NXT crowd being alive and appreciating talented men competing, they sure know talent when they see it, and Keith Lee and Dominik Dijakovic may be the most talented big men in WWE today.

Gone are the days when WWE’s big men and ‘monsters’ only knew how to stand tall and deliver a couple of slams and a chokeslam to finish the match without showing any in-ring capabilities at all.

Lee and Dijakovic put up an incredible performance last night which was lined with some great athleticism and moves which shocked many in attendance and at home.

While viewers of the two main brands are stuck watching big men like Brock Lesnar, Big Show, and Braun Strowman put up ordinary matches, viewers of NXT are being treated to the best matches possible by the biggest men on the yellow brand.

#1 WWE is in good hands

NXT has the best exports available

Since the past two weeks, we’ve seen the top four men of NXT- Tommaso Ciampa, Johnny Gargano, Aleister Black, and Ricochet, put up some great performances on the main roster.

Not only has this helped the ratings of the main roster, but also mixed things up for both the brands and allowed the viewers to get a fresher product than it has received in the past year.

While we may have gotten the four top men on the main roster, there is no reason to believe that that’s all we will get.

NXT is currently packed with the best talent in the company, and there is no reason to doubt the fact that the main brands will keep getting pumped with the best performers in the business in the years to come.

While we have seen wrestlers make a name for themselves and stay at the top for decades, now we have men competing to stay on top with constant efforts thanks to NXT.

Since the past five years, we’ve seen NXT give the main roster talent like Sami Zayn, Finn Balor, Kevin Owens, Almas, Shinsuke Nakamura, and Samoa Joe to name a few, and with the development of The Undisputed Era, Velveteen Dream, Keith Lee, and Dominik Dijakovic, we’re sure that we’ll continue to receive future champions on the main roster.