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WWE News: Full NXT Results & Spoilers–Sami Zayn Returns [December 23, 2015]

By Dustin Murrell
Published on: 22:59 PST, Dec 22, 2015

After WWE kicked the week off with a special Slammy Awards episode of WWE Monday Night Raw and a rare Tuesday night SuperSmackDown Live, the up-and-coming talent from the developmental NXT division will take over the WWE Network tonight as they hope to build on the momentum of last week’s NXT TakeOver: London.

NOTE: Full spoilers for tonight’s episode of WWE NXT on the WWE Network are below.

  • Of course, as displayed at WWE’s official NXT site, the big story for tonight’s episode is the return of Sami Zayn to NXT television. As the site advertses:

    “In a special edition of NXT from London, Sami Zayn makes his return to the ring after a grueling recovery from injury. See how the former NXT Champion fares in his first match back, tonight at 8/7 C, only on WWE Network!”

    In a match taped after TakeOver: London went off the air, Sami Zayn defeats Tye Dillinger in front of a very hot NXT crowd in London in a match that lasts just short of the ten-minute mark. Sami Zayn has been out of action since injuring his shoulder in a freak accident on May 4 of this year. It what could only be described as a dream-come-true of a debut, Zayn has his first (and to date, only) match on the WWE main roster when, in his hometown of Montreal, his childhood hero Bret “The Hitman” Hart introduced Zayn as the surprise challenger to face the biggest name in the company — John Cena — as part of the U.S. Open Challenge series.

  • As noted by Wrestling Inc., during tonight’s episode of WWE NXT on the WWE Network, the NXT tag team division is on display in a Fatal Four-Way featuring NXT Tag Team Champions Blake & Murphy vs. Jason Jordan & Chad Gable vs. The Vaudevillains vs. The Hype Bros (Zack Ryder and Mojo Rowley). Jordan and Gable — apparently the most over team in the match — gets the win in this non-title bout.

  • The other match on tonight’s card has the guitar-toting Elias “The Drifter” Samson defeating Bull Dempsey after the in-ring debut of Samson’s new gimmick. Prior to the current push that has included several pre-taped promo packages, Samson worked mostly as “enhancement talent” whose most significant match was losing to Blake & Murphy in the first round of the Dusty Rhodes Classic. A lot of quirky gimmicks like this go over huge in front of the NXT regulars at Full Sail University and completely bomb once transferred to the main roster. Obvious examples include Bo Dallas, Adam Rose and The Ascension. The guys who seem to be making the transition well are the guys who rely much more on their in-ring talent or natural charisma, like Kevin Owens, Big E, Neville and Seth Rollins.

Also, with WWE’s Royal Rumble 2016 just around the corner — and the NXT talent and programming being as over as ever with the WWE Universe — Triple H must be considering the idea of putting a few members of the NXT roster into the Rumble Match. Could we see Sami Zayn finally get his hands on Kevin Owens again during the most important battle royal of the year? Could a super-hot tag team like Jason Jordan and Chad Gable get an opportunity to impress the main roster before capturing NXT gold?

Tonight’s episode of WWE NXT can be streamed live on the WWE Network starting at 8/7c. Starting tomorrow, a replay of this week’s NXT TV can be streamed on-demand with a Hulu Plus account.

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