Setting the Bar High: Ranking Every Match from the NXT TakeOvers before WrestleMania

#1 Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Sami Zayn (NXT TakeOver: Dallas)

Sami Zayn brings Dallas to its feet by taking Shinsuke Nakamura off of his

In the epilogue to the standout WWE Network series Breaking Ground, which focused on the up-and-coming stars of WWE's developmental system, Triple H is shown backstage marveling over the reaction the Dallas crowd gives newcomer Shinsuke Nakamura before his match even begins; the COO and NXT creator marvels that Nakamura earns a chant Sportskeeda cannot publish just from his entrance, and says that's got to be a great sign for the rest of the night.

The story of this match is the debuting Japanese phenom taking on a departing NXT mainstay whom many had seen as synonymous with the yellow brand; a perfect video package narrated by Mauro Ranollo took viewers through the career of Zayn and the worldwide mystique of Nakamura, and the crowd is absolutely lit from the moment Zayn skanks through the curtain.

The match is a brutal affair where The King of Strong Style gives many American viewers their first taste of the hard strikes and spaghetti noodle flexibility with which Nakamura made his name in Japan; an epic showdown where Zayn and Nakamura trade forearms for several minutes draws a standing ovation, and the tornado DDT through the ropes that made WWE's favorite ska fan an NXT star fails magnificently as Nakamura blocks it with a hard kick to the face.

Counters to signature moves don't get much better than this

Every element of the match, from the crowd's excitement, to the entrances, to a masterful story centered around a mysterious newcomer taking over from the established face of NXT, is executed to near perfection; it's a shame that Balor and Samoa Joe had to follow this, and that nothing on the WrestleMania 32 card managed to approach this match's intensity (although another Zayn match, the Ladder Match for the Intercontinental Championship, came the closest).

Nakamura and Zayn owned WrestleMania weekend that year, and dared both NXT and WWE's rosters to catch up.