I think Finn's gonna be in NXT for awhile now, especially since it's an intermittently touring brand. He's the face of it, although now that Aries is there maybe they've got a new potential head face. I was at the show in Albany tonight, and Austin got a massive reaction. Still though, he's not yet as marketable as Balor's demon gimmick.
Great, great house show, by the way. Match lineup:
Asuka vs. Eva Marie - Asuka won with the Asuka lock, and all was right with the world. Great opener choice - Asuka was crazy over, Eva Marie might've gotten the most heat of the night, and it was an energetic match with Asuka leading Eva Regal-style through some wrestling sequences. Eva's heelin' pretty well now, but she's still crap in the ring and can't sell well. Definitely hasn't developed the way Dana Brooke or Alexa Bliss have.
Apollo Crews vs. Alex Riley - Straightforward match, extended squash for Apollo. He looked great, Riley was okay. Apparently previous shows on this tour had Riley vs. Sami Zayn, I guess they're switching up the card as they go.
Carmella vs. Peyton Royce - Fun little comedy match playing off Peyton's flower gimmick. Brilliant spot: Carmella takes the flower and when Peyton begs for it back, she throws it up in the air and small packages Peyton as she tries to catch it. I would've loved that as the finish, but they went with Carmella's STO into headscissors combo. Carmella's getting better and she's really connecting with the fans now. I think that Enzo/Cass/Carmella vs. Blake/Murphy/Bliss feud made her a permanent face with the NXT crowd.
Enzo & Cass vs. The Vaudevillains - Enzo & Cass got a tremendous reaction tonight. Nice, long tag match with an extended heat sequence on Enzo and a lot of fake-outs and hope spots. Really nice job of listening to the crowd - they drew it out until there was an absolute crescendo for the big tag. Vaudevillains played heels here, and are damn good at it, especially English. Killer condescending expressions. Gotch is probably more natural as a face, but put him up against a smaller dude like Enzo and he's a great power heel.
Sami Zayn vs. Elias Samson - This was probably a better choice for Sami than Riley, because the crowd got to mess with Samson during his pre-match guitar playing by singing Sami's theme and Olé chant at him. A little meandering, because Samson couldn't really keep up with what Sami was building, but he's got a good heel gimmick and that's carrying him along well enough.
Bayley vs. Alexa Bliss - Huge reaction for Bayley, of course. Fun, fun match. Great heelin' by Alexa, who's really looking better in the ring. Much smoother and her moveset's developing. Bayley's level of confidence is up every time I see her, but she's never let it hurt how approachable and likable she is. And man, she sells so well.
Main Event: Finn Balor & Austin Aries vs. Samoa Joe & Baron Corbin - Great match. Tons of energy and crazy sequences. The fans won't totally accept Joe as a heel, but he did a pretty good job of shutting down their cheers. Corbin's turning into an awesome heel. Finn's got crazy presence, just totally commands the ring. Austin was surprisingly good as a face-in-peril. I'm so used to him being a jerk heel, but he's great at developing face momentum, and he killed it during the heat segment - more aggressive during the hope spots than a classic Ricky Morton type, but he's got impeccable timing, so when he gets cut off, you feel it.