NXT Power Rankings: Owens and Zayn Ready For War

With just two weeks before the next NXT Takeover show, there was plenty of storyline development, the crowning of new Tag Team Champions and the contract signing for the NXT title match between Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn.

Arguably the best feud in the WWE right now, NXT continues to do great things with an extremely small amount of time.

Check out this week’s NXT Power Rankings to see who else starred in another solid episode of the show.

Honorable Mention: The NXT Women’s Division: It’s sad that the NXT ladies are better performers (for the most part, taking away Paige and Nattie Neidhart) and the division has far more depth. The Fatal-Four-Way at Takeover is going to be an awesome match, filled with offense- you can bet on it. Add in the return of Emma and the NXT Women’s Division is stronger than ever.

5: Baron Corbin: Although it took him a bit longer to beat Bull Dempsey this week on NXT, he showed off a bit more offense and poise. Those are exactly the elements he’ll need to add to his repertoire in order to be more than a flash in the pan in professional wrestling.

4: Adrian Neville: A big win this week over Tyson Kidd allows Neville to advance in the NXT #1 contender’s tournament. Set to face Baron Corbin, Neville will have his hands full next week. Regardless, Neville is the greatest NXT Champion to date and is inches away from finally getting to the WWE.

3: Wesley Blake and Buddy Murphy: They’ve been that good team in NXT for months that never had ring music or a “soul,” but now they have both, and the NXT Tag Team Championship. Good in-ring workers, they’ll need an adequate double-team maneuver and some more promo time however before they are considered truly “legit” champions though.

2: Kevin Owens: Getting pushed right into a Main Event program would be too much for any other NXT competitor, but Owens is one of the few remaining kings of the Independent Scene, a guy that has a decade of experience and is ready to have a match of the year type encounter with Sami Zayn. He will.

1: Sami Zayn: If you think Zayn has been more focused as of late, you haven’t seen anything yet. His match with Owens will make his career in NXT and will be one of the things that gets him to the WWE. While many are still miffed he wasn’t in this year’s Royal Rumble, Zayn will give them plenty to talk about at NXT Takeover.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14262 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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