6 memorable WWE moments from overseas broadcasts

#2 Finn Balor gets his first WWE gold in Tokyo

Kevin Owens taunts the Tokyo crowd as he takes Finn Balor to Chinlock City.

Airing what was little more than an international house show live from Tokyo on the WWE Network, WWE presented the main roster and NXT co-branded Beast in the East with a dual main event of Finn Balor challenging Kevin Owens for the NXT Championship and, less spectacularly, John Cena and Dolph Ziggler vs. Kane and Wade Barrett, in addition to the spectacle of Brock Lesnar squashing Kofi Kingston in under three minutes.WWE really seems to be hitting its stride with its Network technology, with the aforementioned United Kingdom Championship, Network-exclusive programming like the now-defunct Talking Smack which built on its broadcast television properties, and even the return of Bruce Prichard to WWE programming, but 2015's Beast in the East broadcast was one of WWE's first forays into creative uses for its Network.

A unique look, not just for a WWE arena but for a WWE broadcast.

The show aired at an ungodly pre-dawn hour on Independence Day in the United States; famously, a Tough Enough competitor named Patrick Clark (whom fans know better now as Velveteen Dream) tweeted a picture of himself watching the show while his fellow competitors slept as evidence that he was more deserving of WWE glory and, while it didn't go on last, Balor-Owens was Beast in the East's true moneymaker match.

It's an image that's unique for WWE fans, but not for fans of Balor's earlier work.

Paying tribute to Japan's championship wrestling traditions in its pre-match presentation (including streamers and extravagant bouquets of flowers presented to each man, which Owens masterfully treated with disdain to keep his heel heat), the match proved why Owens was sent to the main roster less than a half a year after making his NXT television debut.

Balor, in his demon face- and bodypaint, took the NXT Championship from The Prizefighter in the land where he'd previously achieved his greatest successes; the win kicked off an incredible NXT run for the Irish superstar, who would hold the belt until the following spring before his elevation to Monday Night RAW.

The former Prince Devitt is victorious in Japan, yet again.

Each man's star power has ebbed and flowed somewhat in the three years since (they were the number one and two holders of the Universal Championship, with Balor relinquishing due to injury and Owens being sacrificed to the Lesnar-Goldberg storyline), but the pair owned Ryōgoku Sumo Hall that night with one of the best in-ring performances of 2015, a very strong year for wrestling action.