WWE Programming's Best Match for Week of February 8

With a knockout NXT live event and the Superstars of the main roster well on their way to WrestleMania, this week was a true standout for in-ring competition.

There were a host of matches worth watching, the best of which will surely be in contention when we're discussing match of the year candidates toward the end of 2015.

Honourable Mentions

This week's SmackDown featured a lengthy Tag Team Turmoil match centred around Roman Reigns and Daniel Bryan. With a strong narrative running throughout and some great action, it was both a boon for SmackDown itself and a promising step toward the pair's showdown at WWE Fastlane.

Elsewhere, Dolph Ziggler and Bray Wyatt had another good match on Raw following their strong showing the week before. The Showoff can do great work with just about anyone, but it's something of a shame he's just being presented as a stepping stone for Wyatt at present.

The most anticipated show of the week for many was NXT Takeover: Rival, and it certainly lived up to the high standards set by previous Takeover events. The show opened in fine form with Hideo Itami vs. Tyler Breeze, and it finished with a spectacular run of matches.

The way the night ended won't have pleased everyone, but the way that this chapter of Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn's feud has got underway is certainly intriguing. Their WWE rivalry is shaping up to be just as gripping as their battles on the independent scene.

Match of the Week for Week of February 1: TIE between Finn Balor vs. Adrian Neville on NXT Takeover: Rival and Bayley vs. Banks vs. Charlotte vs. Lynch on NXT Takeover: Rival

This week, two matches were a step ahead of their competition—and they were so good that it was impossible to set them apart.

The long-awaited clash between Adrian Neville and Finn Balor came as the conclusion to the No. 1 Contender's Tournament, and it was as intense a matchup as anyone would expect from having seen their matches in Japan.

Japanese influences could be observed throughout the match, but it was tempered with touches of the WWE style—and even, perhaps, the burgeoning NXT style. Finn Balor's theatrics are a big part of his character's appeal, but here they were secondary to the cutting-edge action going on after the bell had rung.

Credit: WWE.com

With two athletes so evenly matched in their conditioning and respective war crates, there were always going to be fireworks here. Cannily, the early stages saw Neville attempt to extinguish Balor's fire and keep him stunted, building toward the thrill ride of the bout's closing stages.

Once again, the supremely able Neville demonstrated his immense talent for bringing his character into the ring with him. Whether it's a clothesline he's delivered, or his response to his opponent's offence, Neville always presents himself as a cocksure talent able to back up his talk with razor-sharp performances.

Both men benefited from sharing the ring in this bout, as did the NXT Championship. The lengths that these two men went to just for a shot at the title only served to further legitimize the importance of that belt to any future star travelling through NXT.

However, it's not the only belt that matters in developmental. Even though it had never changed hands in the ring before last Wednesday, the NXT Women's Championship has become a talisman of the future of women's wrestling in WWE despite the continued irrelevance of Divas matches on the main roster.

Credit: WWE.com

The Fatal 4-Way match at Rival for that belt was yet another resounding victory for the blossoming women's division. Charlotte, Bayley, Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch are all future stars, and their excellent contest last week further solidified each woman's enormous potential.

It's a testament to the success of NXT that an indy-tempered talent like Lynch and a relative rookie like Charlotte can both find the tutelage they need to become bona fide stars. Based on the build to this title match and the bout itself, there's nothing standing in the way of any of these four other than the substandard presentation of women's wrestling on the main roster.

On a standard pay-per-view, the Divas title match will typically be placed just ahead of the main event as a break from the action; on a Takeover special, the Women's Championship match might hold the same position on the card, but for quite different reasons.

Credit: WWE.com

This is a belt that means something, with contenders who can put on a great match to contest it. It's a match that any WWE fan should watch, if only to prove that there's more to women's wrestling than the half-baked division that we see each week on mainline WWE television.

The closing moments of the Fatal 4-Way were quite remarkable, and the post-match follow-up was a moment that will long be remembered by anyone who saw it.

So often, title reigns are simply a statistic when belts go back and forth with little forward planning. This particular win won't soon be forgotten by the woman with the belt or the fans who saw it unfold.

What was your match of the week? Let us know in the comments section below.