Hey, it’s NXT! Voted best TV show in the world by EVERYONE!

The show started with an address by NXT Commissioner, William Regal, sitting behind his desk. He did not have a book on the go this week.

He announced that the next NXT live special would air on February 11 – three weeks away! He also said that, beginning tonight, there would be a tournament to decide the number one contender to Zayn’s title! AND we are getting an NXT Women’s title match!

Sami Zayn’s music hit and everyone at Linus Towers began to dance. Even the cat. Tye Dillinger was already in the ring and I bet even he felt like cutting a rug.

Probably not for long though, as Sami Zayn ran down to the ring and beat the snot out of Dillinger, before the bell even rang. He then threw him out of the ring and demanded a microphone.

Zayn called out Kevin Owens, his former best friend who had turned on him at the last live special, and who attacked him again last week. Owens did not come out.

Instead, William Regal came out and wanted to know what had happened to him to act this way. Zayn said he wasn’t going to fight anyone else until he got his hands on Owens, but Regal – quite rightly – said that Owens hadn’t earned a title shot yet.

Zayn then asked for a non-title match, and Regal agreed that it would take place on the live special on February 11th!

After the break, Regal announced that there would be a contract signing for Zayn-Owens on next week’s show. That always ends well.

Hey, it’s Curtis Axel! He comes out to Mr Perfect’s music, has “Better Than Perfect” on his t-shirt, and yet still doesn’t use his real name. Baffling.

He’s fighting Finn Balor, and this is a quarter-final match in the number one contenders’ tournament. Balor does his usual (non-makeup) electrifying entrance, made a little better by VENOM! being in the crowd behind him as he crouches in the corner.

They have a match. It is okay. Axel lays it in hard, and squeezes the life out of Balor with some chokeholds. Balor kicked him a lot so Axel clotheslined the back of Balor’s head. I liked that. Balor won with a combo that ended with his double foot stomp off the top rope.

You know what? Balor is very exciting from the minute he steps through the curtain until the minute the bell rings. Then his finisher is exciting. Everything in between is fine, but it’s a bit ordinary. In the company of Neville, Zayn, Owens, and even Kidd, he needs something to stand out.

Backstage Devin spoke to Sasha Banks. She said she was going to beat Charlotte for the title tonight, and with Natalya not around there was no-one who could help Charlotte…

After the break, we are shown an extreme close-up of Bull Dempsey’s hands. They do not look like hands that have ever done manual work. That is why Bull Dempsey sucks. Also, moobs. He said he will beat Baron Corbin next week. He said that before and he was wrong. He is a liar.

Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch come down to the ring for the NXT Women’s Title match. Sasha was singing along to her theme music. Becky was just shouting random things. So Irish.

Charlotte came out to a massive reaction. I know it’s only Full Sail but she is such a star.

Devin announces the title match and the referee holds up the belt and shows it to the hard-cam. I like that. Makes a title match feel special.

They lock-up after the bell. And stay locked-up. The go to the mat, switch dominance, and still stay locked-up. They then fall out of the ring and that breaks their lock-up. Good stuff.

Becky tried to attack Charlotte on the outside but the champ saw it coming and knocked her back. Back in the ring, Charlotte was on top, and Becky came in for the DQ. Sasha did not seem happy at first, but then started to beat on Charlotte and Becky joined in.

BAYLEY! ran in and made the save and ran the heels off. She got distracted by the title belt, but Charlotte snatched it off her and broke the spell. The champ turned to leave the ring and Bayley looked mad. She Belly-To-Bayley’d Charlotte and sprang to her feet, full of fury.

William Regal came out and made a title match for the next live special. It would be Charlotte versus Bayley. Versus Becky. Versus Sasha. A Fatal Four Way. Aces.

Backstage, some geek asked Kevin Owens if he could talk about facing Sami Zayn at the live special. Owens said, “do you work here?” and then told the geek he’d do all his talking in the ring next week.

Hey, it’s the Vaudevillains! Jason Albert, on announcing duties tonight, told us that the Vaudevillains are doing dinosaur training, which involves squats and swinging Iranian clubs like the Iron Sheik. Of course.

They’re fighting Wesley Blake and Buddy Murphy, the dubstep cowboys, who did not get entrance music. The heels got the heat on Murphy, as the announcers teased dissention between everyone’s favourite turn-of-the-century throwbacks.

Murphy made the hot tag to Blake, but the heels were still on top until he suckered Aidan English over to the ropes, where Buddy Murphy kicked him in the head for an upset win.

Tyler Breeze told us, via cell ‘phone video, that he was going to win the NXT title. And then he would get on with his task of separating the world into super good looking people and uggos.

Backstage, the geek spoke to Blake & Murphy, and they did the most old school promo I’ve seen since I put watching Smoky Mountain Wrestling from 1992 on hiatus. They said they were challenging the Lucha Dragons to put up their titles next week. Later, the announcers told us that the Dragons accepted!

Hey, it’s our main event! It’s Tyler Breeze versus Hideo Itami in a quarter-final of the number one contenders’ tournament!

They had quite the match. Itami obviously decided that his gameplan was to kick Breeze in increasingly creative ways. Breeze did not like him kicking him in the face. You wouldn’t, would you? Even you uggos.

The finish came after Breeze fired away on Itami, shouting, “you’re not better than me!” Itami took exception to this, and kicked Breeze to death, finishing with a dropkick in the corner, and that weak-looking spinkick for the pin. Breeze and Itami both looked great in this.

The announcers informed us that Itami’s win meant he would face tag-team partner Finn Balor in two weeks’ time. Nice.

This was a Great Show. As NXT most often is. And next week, with Neville versus Kidd, Corbin versus Dempsey, and the Lucha Dragons versus Blake & Murphy, looks just as ace. What a time to be alive!