I’m trying to find a match from a couple of years or so ago, and I can’t remember its exact date or what specific show it was on. I want to say it was on an NXT Takeover show, but it might’ve been a regular episode. It was a match between Sami Zayn and Cesaro (who had already been doing matches on the main WWE roster by this point), and the storyline was that Sami Zayn had little to no chance of actually beating Cesaro, but he kept getting back up again and again after each brutal takedown, and kept on fighting back. Cesaro did eventually beat him clean, but by the end of the match, he’d gone from looking down at Zayn to actually respecting and being impressed by Zayn’s determination. It was an awesome match.
Anyone know where I can find that?
Freaking hell. I go to WWE.com, do a search for that… “Media Error: Video not available.” GODDAMNIT. That happened yesterday when I wanted to go back and watch Bayley/Banks from last summer. What the hell, WWE?
Huh. It’s on HULU instead. Weird.
I picked up a copy of the DVD Set “Best of NXT: Volume 1” over the weekend. There is a Zayn/ Cesaro match listed but I don’t know if that’s the one in question. I’m assuming the Bayley/Banks match is the one everyone talks about.
There are two Bayley/Banks matches everyone talks about. The single fall match at Takeover: Brooklyn was Bayley’s championship win, which was a big emotional catharsis and won a whole lot of fans’ hearts, but the match itself was a little sloppy. They then had an Iron Man rematch as the main event of Takeover: Respect, which featured some top-notch heeling from Sasha and Bayley channeling new levels of aggression to prove herself as champion.
It doesn’t have quite the same emotional payoff, but I’d still rank the Iron Man match higher. (And Sasha/Becky at Unstoppable even higher, but that’s personal bias.)