Ranking the Top 5 Greatest Feuds in WWE NXT History
At NXT TakeOver: The End, the long-running rivalry between Finn Balor and Samoa Joe over the NXT Championship culminated inside a steel cage. Since last fall, Balor and Joe have traded the title and various victories, but it was their final battle that determined who won the war.
They are far from the first competitors in NXT to engage in a heated feud. Fans have witnessed a number of rivalries emerge since the inception of the brand back in 2012, and those feuds have shown NXT to be much more than WWE's developmental territory.
If anything can be learned by how NXT constructs stories, it's that a little character development goes a long way. Neither Balor nor Joe is the same Superstar he was at the start of the storyline; both have come out of the program better and hungrier for success than they were eight months ago.
Although last Wednesday marked the fourth time they had clashed over NXT's most prestigious prize, the match was as anticipated as their initial meeting back in December. That's a testament to how NXT manages to keep feuds fresh and exciting by constantly adding extra elements to them.
Balor vs. Joe has been a rivalry for the ages, but where will it rank among these fantastic feuds from NXT's past?
5. Sami Zayn vs. Adrian Neville
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Not every iconic rivalry must feature the traditional babyface vs. heel dynamic. As two of the biggest fan favorites in NXT's history, Sami Zayn and Adrian Neville broke barriers with their phenomenal feud in the latter half of 2014 over the NXT Championship.
From the moment he arrived on the NXT scene in May 2013, Zayn had his sights set on the NXT Championship. But for whatever reason, whether it was his shortcomings against Cesaro or Bo Dallas outsmarting him in each of their outings, he was never able to clinch the title.
The closest he came to realizing his dream of becoming champion was at NXT TakeOver: Fatal 4-Way, when he had the main event won, only for Neville to pull him out of the ring and steal the win for himself. That set the stage for their match at TakeOver: R Evolution, but Zayn had to first prove himself as a worthy contender.
In the months preceding the event, Zayn embarked on a road to redemption that saw him score victories over Tyson Kidd, Tyler Breeze and Titus O'Neil. By December, the only thing left to do was to take the title, and although the faithful at Full Sail University had always loved Neville, they booed him when he entered the ring with the Montreal native at TakeOver.
Everything about the bout, from the electric atmosphere to the stellar storytelling, solidified it as one of the most monumental matchups in NXT history. The crowd came unglued for Zayn's victory that earned him his first NXT title, which was nearly a year-and-a-half in the making.
Despite the animosity between the two at times, they still embraced each other afterward, with Neville denying Zayn's handshake for a hug instead. Total respect.
4. Cesaro vs. Sami Zayn
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Few up-and-coming athletes had more of a memorable debut on NXT than Sami Zayn. In his in-ring debut for the brand on May 22, 2013, he defeated Curt Hawkins following an impressive outing, but Cesaro soon challenged him to another match in the main event.
Cesaro looked to humiliate the newcomer on his first night, but it was to no avail. In surprising fashion, Zayn scored the upset victory over the former United States champion, sending the message not to underestimate him.
Although Cesaro eventually avenged the loss on a future episode of NXT, they remained tied at one win apiece. Thus, a rubber match was in order, but it wasn't going to be any ordinary one-on-one encounter. On August 21, 2013, they met in a 2-out-of-3 Falls match.
Zayn rolled up Cesaro mere seconds into the matchup to score the first pinfall, and Cesaro later scored the second fall via submission. The third fall was hotly contested, and despite Zayn's best efforts to battle back against the established star, he fell short of victory in one of the most exhilarating final few moments of any NXT match ever.
They rekindled their rivalry in time for NXT's premier live special, Arrival, in February 2014. Zayn claimed he had not been able to focus on his championship aspirations knowing he couldn't beat Cesaro when it mattered most. Their fourth battle was every bit as exciting as its predecessors, though it was The Swiss Superman who once again had his hand raised when the smoke cleared.
The two rivals recently crossed paths in their pursuit of the WWE Intercontinental Championship, so hopefully it isn't long before they're on opposite sides of the squared circle again.
3. Finn Balor vs. Samoa Joe
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Samoa Joe came to NXT in May 2015 with one goal in mind: to become champion. Why else would he have encountered then-titleholder Kevin Owens upon his debut at NXT TakeOver: Unstoppable?
Unfortunately for Joe, Finn Balor took the title before he could at The Beast in the East, so Joe was temporarily sidetracked in a short-lived program with Baron Corbin, who he defeated in Brooklyn. But the championship was never far from his mind, as he partnered up with longtime ally Balor to win the inaugural Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic in the fall.
A friendly one-on-one meeting between Balor and Joe for the title seemed to be inevitable, but NXT general manager William Regal instead made Joe earn his shot by winning a No. 1 contender's Battle Royal first. He lost, so he turned to betraying his best friend in order to receive what he believed he deserved.
Joe was a force to be reckoned with before, but flipping the switch made him the most dominant entity in NXT. No one was safe from his path of destruction, but Balor somehow managed to survive their match at TakeOver: London and hand him his first loss in the promotion.
Joe remained hungry, however, in his quest to become champion, running through a returning Sami Zayn to earn another shot at the gold. He dominated a majority of his match with Balor in Dallas but was once again unsuccessful in securing the strap.
The third time was the charm for The Samoan Submission Machine at a live event in Lowell, Massachusetts, in April, as he dethroned Balor to capture his first NXT title. The Demon's loss of the prestigious prize seemingly made him more of a threat, although Joe put the exclamation point on their rivalry by emerging victorious in their cage match at TakeOver: The End.
2. Sasha Banks vs. Bayley
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Fans have revered NXT for its exceptional women's division since its inception in 2012. The women of NXT have arguably stolen the show at almost every TakeOver special over the past two years, and never was that more evident than in Brooklyn last August.
Similar to Sami Zayn and the NXT title, Bayley had been chasing the NXT Women's Championship since the start. She came close to clinching the championship on several occasions but always came up short.
Despite that, fans remained behind Bayley, who grew more popular with the fans after each defeat. They were anxious to see her finally fulfill her dream by becoming champion, and after stacking up various victories in the summer of 2015, she earned one last shot at the strap against Sasha Banks at TakeOver: Brooklyn.
The beautifully crafted storytelling and drama of the match combined with the amazing atmosphere in the Barclays Center made it an instant classic. Neither woman held anything back, going to great lengths to pull everything out of her arsenal to put the other away.
Bayley's emotional victory cemented the contest as not only the best bout of 2015, but also in the entire history of NXT to date. Their historic 30-minute Iron Man match was equally amazing and deserving of the main event slot at TakeOver: Respect.
1. Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn
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The greatest rivalries in wrestling are those that have the simplest storytelling, and from the get-go, Kevin Owens made his motivation for attacking Sami Zayn quite clear: He was envious of Zayn for landing his dream job with WWE before he did.
The two had been friends for more than a decade, but that came crashing down when Owens spoiled Zayn's well-deserved NXT Championship victory at TakeOver: R Evolution. He also put him on the shelf for a few weeks before beating him two months later to capture his first NXT title.
A self-proclaimed prizefighter, Owens had always been set on scoring the NXT title, but ensuring the prestigious prize wasn't in Zayn's possession was an even bigger priority for him. He refused to explain his actions as to why he turned his back on his best friend and instead embarked on a reign of terror in NXT in Zayn's absence.
The title rematch at Unstoppable was more of a brawl than a wrestling match, with both men determined to inflict physical pain on the other. Owens took advantage of Zayn's previously injured shoulder, re-aggravating the injury and delaying Zayn's return to the ring another seven months.
No series of matches in NXT ever felt more personal than those contested between Zayn and Owens. And even now, their bad blood continues to resonate on Raw and SmackDown, proving they are destined to fight forever.
Graham Mirmina, aka Graham "GSM" Matthews, is a Digital Journalism major at Endicott College. Visit his website, Next Era Wrestling and "like" his official Facebook page to continue the conversation on all things wrestling.
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