The Magnificent Seven: The Top 7 NXT Rivalries

Particularly since the launch of WWE Network, NXT has become a special corner of WWE programming. Between the outstanding crops of talent that emerge out of the indies or WWE’s own system, and the old school booking by Triple H, the company has captured hardcore fans’ imagination, and arguably emerged as the most consistently entertaining WWE brand, developmental-label be damned.

This article takes a look at the seven best NXT rivalries with consideration to heat, storytelling, and match quality. I considered longevity and standing in the card (e.g., main event vs. mid-card status) as secondary considerations and tie breakers. As always, my personal opinion weighs heavily.

#7. Aleister Black vs. Velveteen Dream

As the old saying goes, opposites attract. Relatively early in each man’s time being featured in NXT, Aleister Black mixed occult influences, punk rock sensibilities, and realistic striking offense, while Velveteen Dream was a flamboyant heel, molded in the WWE’s style, well-built and athletic. The two clashed in a story built around Dream feeling insulted at Black not respecting him, or saying his name.

This all culminated in a brilliant TakeOver match at the War Games show, with each man positively shining in a genuine barnburner. For Black, the quality of performance and achieving the victory demonstrated WWE’s faith in him, and foreshadowed his trajectory to the NXT Championship. For Dream, the match was a proving ground where he demonstrated he was more than an oddball gimmick, but also a legitimately talented worker with main roster potential. Best of all, while the two didn’t buddy up or hug after the match was over, Black did blow off the rivalry by at last offering Dream a modicum of respect, famously saying, “Enjoy infamy, Velveteen Dream.”

#6. Finn Balor vs. Samoa Joe

One of NXT’s calling cards in recent years has been assembling dream matches between international or indie talents, or at times giving old rivalries that have thrilled on smaller platforms a proper stage to shine for the WWE Network audience. Finn Balor vs. Samoa Joe was exactly that sort of special rivalry between two guys who had been big time stars outside WWE, and whom it was unclear would ever get their chance to prove their talents on the biggest stage in the world.

More than a dream match scenario, Balor and Joe became an old school blood feud, based on the simple story of competing for the NXT Championship. The matches never quite delivered at as a high of a level as these guys were capable of, and the story grew a little wonky with the title trading hands ostensibly to setup Balor for his move to the main roster. These limitations aside, it was a worthy main event program that fit the NXT aesthetic very well.

#5. Neville vs. Sami Zayn

Some of the best elements of NXT booking have been centering major storylines around championship competition, and ongoing stories of performers trying to earn respect. Sami Zayn was one of NXT’s very best characters in these pursuits—an extraordinary worker who could play white meat babyface as well as anyone of his generation. Zayn worked his way up the ranks but, for some time, Neville marked the one hill he couldn’t climb over.

This all built to Zayn vs. Neville at TakeOver R-Evolution, with the storyline that Neville duped Zayn to beat him in their preceding match, and got him to agree to the stipulation that he’d leave NXT if he couldn’t make good on his next, last title shot. Neville leaned heel-ish in this program, but that had at least as much to do with how over Zayn was a face as anything Neville actually did wrong. In an early NXT classic, Zayn finally won the big one for one for an all-time great feel-good moment. Then, in a masterstroke of storytelling, Kevin Owens ruined Zayn’s celebration in thunderous fashion. But we’ll get to that.

#4. #DIY vs. The Revival

You wouldn’t know it by how they’ve been booked on Raw, but The Revival proved themselves as one of the very best tag teams in the world during their NXT run, combining old school tag team psychology with a handful of flashier and faster paced moved to arrive as irresistible heels and particularly great champions. Their work with American Alpha just missed this countdown, but their rivalry with #DIY was too good to be denied.

It’s unclear if the powers that be ever meant for #DIY to get as big as it did, much less for the split to lead to a main event level feud. The quality of matches between the young team and the champs was exceptional, though, and after their initial classic at TakeOver Brooklyn II, they got to put on a two out of three falls classic atgainst their rivals at TakeOver Toronto.

For match quality, and the story of Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa gelling as a team and rising through the ranks, this was NXT’s greatest tag team feud to date. They had a fitting coda to it in a Triple Threat elimination match with The Authors of Pain in the mix down the road.

#3. Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens

The story of Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens has the unique distinction of not only moving from the indies to NXT, but transitioning seamlessly from NXT to WWE’s main roster. Such was the quality and heat of this feud, and readiness of the performers involved to shine on the biggest stage possible.

Kevin Owens debuted in NXT on the same night that Sami Zayn finally won the NXT Championship. The two celebrated in the ring together to end NXT TakeOver: R-Evolution in what felt something like the Eddie Guerrero-Chris Benoit celebration from the end of WrestleMania 20—two real life friends who has traveled the world and survived the indies together, arriving on the national stage. In a truly brilliant moment to follow, though, Owens nailed Zayn with an apron powerbomb and set loose a heated rivalry with the NXT Championship at stake, but that also had a lot of personal pride on the line.

Owens got the better of their NXT issue, including a dominating win in a great match to take the title off of Zayn, followed by battering Zayn in their rematch until Samoa Joe showed up to have Zayn’s back. This was a wonderful continuation of Zayn’s come-from-behind underdog story that defined his NXT tenure, and a fine encapsulation of some of Owens’s finest work as a brutal, bully heel.

#2. Bayley vs. Sasha Banks

NXT had a lot of solid women’s programs and great women’s matches that foreshadowed the so-called Women’s Revolution on the main roster. From Paige and Emma setting the tone that women’s wrestling would be taken seriously in developmental, to Charlotte Flair proving herself against Natalya, and then Sasha Banks proving herself against Flair, and fending off game challengers like Becky Lynch, the division presented the most consistently great, diverse women’s wrestling product any branch of WWE ever had up to that point.

And then there was Sasha Banks vs. Bayley.

Just as Banks had had to climb the mountain that was Charlotte Flair to make it to the top of the developmental women’s division, it was Bayley who played the game challenger to Banks after she’d solidified herself as the heel champion.

The matches between the two were not only well worked but intense, personal, and heated. Their match at the original TakeOver:Brooklyn show was superb, and when they got to main event the next TakeOver in the first women’s Irom Man Match, it was a more than worthy sequel.

When fans who have followed NXT knock how Bayley and Banks are used on the main roster, a lot of it comes back to just how special their rivalry was, and just how much these two proved themselves capable of before they got called up.

#1. Johnny Gargano vs. Tommaso Ciampa

It’s probably little surprise to anyone who has followed NXT that this rivalry arrives at number one on this countdown. While the relative recency of it, and the fact that NXT will probably still come back to it, make it hard to evaluate the rivalry as a whole, the program already has enough storyline and outstanding ring work behind it to qualify for the top spot.

After being rivals in the Cruiserweight Classic tournament, Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa teamed up in NXT for a great run as the #DIY tag team. When their time on top was up—after losing their outstanding Ladder Match tag title rematch to the Authors of Pain, Ciampa turned on Gargano with a brutal attack, made especialy devilish for Gargano having sacrificed his body to save Ciampa from a particularly brutal ladder shot just minutes earlier.

It seemed that tragedy had struck when it came out that Ciampa was hurt at the show, thus heading off any prospect of the feud gathering momentum in that moment. Remarkably enough, though, the injury may have been the best thing for both men and their story. With Ciampa out, Gargano better defined himself as a singles star in NXT, rising up the ranks and becoming a viable title contender. Meanwhile, Ciampa got in the best shape of his life and returned to the ring looking like an absolutely shredded beast.

The two justifiably main evented NXT TakeOver: New Orleans, arguably the greatest TakeOver, and on the short list for best WWE shows ever, putting on a borderline five star match in the process. The feud continued to Chicago, and then to a third straight TakeOver main event in Brooklyn. The latter two bouts weren’t quite as good as the first, but each were rock solid four-star-plus affairs that would be MOTYC contenders in a vacuum.

Take the quality of matches, and the in-depth story told across over a year of NXT programming, now with the NXT Championship at stake, and you have an NXT feud that we may well look back on as one of the greatest rivalries in WWE history.

What rivalries would you add to the list? American Alpha vs. The Revival, Sasha Banks vs. Charlotte Flair, Sami Zayn vs. Cesaro, and Bayley vs. Asuka were some of my nearest misses. Let us know what you think in the comments.

Read more from Mike Chin at his website and follow him on Twitter @miketchin.