Finn Balor def. Samoa Joe (NXT Championship)
This one opens with a staredown, but it’s not long before Balor sends Joe outside the ring and hits him with a high-risk maneuver over the top rope. Joe was busted wide open near his eye, but he still has the composure to launch Finn over the guard rail. After a brief exchange, Joe tosses Balor out of the ring, just to do an impressive dive between the ropes to take out the champ. The cut appears to have been unintentional, as Joe got a great deal of medical attention at various points in the match. In between, Joe displayed his power and overall wrestling ability, while Finn’s quickness was featured, albeit briefly between onslaughts by the challenger. Later in the match, Finn manages to mount some offense, but Joe battled back to lock Finn in a Boston Crab followed by a crossface. Finn rallied, even kicking out after a musclebuster to eventually escape from a Coquina Clutch for a pinfall victory to retain the title.
This victory for Balor is somewhat surprising, as many expected Joe to take the title to send Finn up to the main roster on a full-time basis. Of course, the victory doesn’t mean that Finn is staying on the NXT roster long-term, as both Sasha Banks and Kevin Owens came up still holding NXT belts. Further, it may always be unknown how much the story of this match was affected by the cut on Joe’s eye that seemed to have been outside the plan for the match. Either way, the two veterans told a good story surrounding the injury to close out a very solid night.
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