Wrestlemania is this Sunday. That means the entire North American wrestling industry has converged on the Dallas-Fort Worth area this weekend, drowning the metroplex in top-shelf ring action for a solid four days. Ring of Honor, EVOLVE, Shimmer, Kaiju Big Battel and more have shows in town this weekend, and WWE has a big event every night through Monday. Some of the highlights aren’t being streamed or aired anywhere (sorry, Ring of Honor fans), but there’s more than enough that’ll be available online live or on demand. The fun started last night, but it kicks into high gear this afternoon with the first of two EVOLVE shows. If you can only pick a few shows to watch online this weekend, here are our recommendations.
1. NXT Takeover: Dallas
Friday 4/1/2016 at 9:30 PM ET
Only on the WWE Network
Ostensibly the WWE’s developmental league, NXT has become the hottest promotion in wrestling today, much to the chagrin of those who’d prefer not to support WWE. There are two major reasons for its explosion in popularity. First off, the weekly program on the WWE Network is a competently booked, classically oriented wrestling show, with consistent characterization and logical storytelling that almost always portrays the talent in the best possible light. It’s also turned into a dream federation stocked with some of the best in-ring talent from around the world. Tonight’s show has an NXT title showdown between Finn Balor, the Irish wrestler who became one of the top workers in the world as Prince Devitt in New Japan (where he was the original leader of the Bullet Club), and Samoa Joe, the grizzled veteran who’s been one of the best wrestlers in the world for over a decade now. Expect whoever loses this match to be up on the main roster as soon as Monday night. Austin Aries, an all around stand-out with a long history in both Ring of Honor and TNA, also makes his in-ring debut against the indie-hating big man Baron Corbin. Other matches pit the team of Chad Gable and Jason Jordan, the modern heirs to the machine-like tag team prowess of The World’s Greatest Tag Team and the Midnight Express, against NXT tag champs Dash Wilder and Scott Dawson, a couple of top-notch technicians who are like the classic Horseman team of Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard if Tully had been replaced with a second Arn Anderson. Womans champion Bayley, probably the most beloved wrestler in NXT, defends against the peerless Asuka in what could easily be the match of the night.
As stacked as this card is, the main draw for wrestling fans is probably the WWE debut of Shinsuke Nakamura, who will face crowd favorite Sami Zayn. It’s a first-ever match-up of two of the best wrestlers in the world, and (with all apologies to Hideo “KENTA” Itami and Jinsei “Hakushi” Shinzaki) the debut of the biggest Japanese star to come to WWE since before Vince McMahon bought the company from his dad. Nakamura is one of the most inherently charismatic wrestlers of all time—he is genuinely on the same level as Ric Flair, the Rock or Steve Austin, even though he almost never spoke English during his New Japan tenure—and it’ll be fascinating to see if WWE can properly capitalize on that charisma. His NXT/WWE debut tonight is probably the single most exciting story in wrestling this weekend—at least that we know about in advance.
2. EVOLVE 59
Saturday 4/2/2016 at 1 PM ET
Streaming through the World Wrestling Network
The second big EVOLVE show of the weekend boasts what could be the best match of the entire weekend: Ricochet vs. Will Ospreay. You might be familiar with Ricochet from his New Japan appearances or as Prince Puma in Lucha Underground. Will Ospreay is a young British wrestler who, in only a few years, has become one of the very best in the business; he recently signed a full-time deal with New Japan, where he should become a bedrock of their Juniors division. They are perhaps the smoothest, most acrobatic high flyers in wrestling today, and they should put on a master class of cruiserweight action this weekend. It’s not the only big match on this show, though. The phenomenal Zack Sabre Jr., who was just announced as one of the participants in WWE’s upcoming Global Cruiserweight series, will take on the prodigy Matt Riddle, a former MMA fighter who started in pro wrestling just over a year ago and is already getting buzz as a possible top star for WWE within a short time frame. These two could steal the show from Ricochet and Ospreay—assuming EVOLVE champion Timothy Thatcher and Marty Scurrl don’t steal it first.
