page_title: The Beast in the East
section_title: Preliminary matches
hierarchical_section_title: The Beast in the East / Event / Preliminary matches
caption_attribution_description: English: Finn Bálor shortly after winning the NXT Championship from Kevin Owens at The Beast in the East.
context_page_description: The Beast in the East was a professional wrestling event produced by WWE, an American-based promotion, that aired live on the WWE Network. It took place on July 4, 2015, at the Ryōgoku Kokugikan in Sumida, Tokyo, Japan. It aired live internationally on the WWE Network and live on J Sports in Japan. The replays of the event aired on J Sports 4 in Japan. Additionally, it would be available on demand on both the WWE Network and J Sports. To date, the show is the only time in WWE's history that an event was broadcast live from Japan. It was available to subscribers of the WWE Network, in over 140 countries.
  Seven matches were contested at the event, with two of the matches shown exclusively on J Sports. The main event saw John Cena and Dolph Ziggler defeat Kane and King Barrett. In other matches, Chris Jericho wrestled his first televised match since Night of Champions, defeating Neville, Finn Bálor defeated Kevin Owens to win the NXT Championship, and Brock Lesnar defeated Kofi Kingston.
context_section_description: Dark matches were held, where Cesaro defeated Diego by submission and The Lucha Dragons (Kalisto and Sin Cara) defeated The New Day (Big E and Xavier Woods).
  The first match was Chris Jericho facing Neville. Neville kicked out of a mid-air Codebreaker. However, after Jericho countered a Red Arrow attempt, Jericho forced Neville to submit to the Liontamer for the victory.
  Next, Nikki Bella defended the Divas Championship against Tamina and Paige. In the middle of the match, Paige executed the Rampaige on Nikki, only to get a near-fall. Tamina superkicked Paige, which was the last of Paige for the match. Nikki pinned Tamina after a forearm smash for the victory to retain the title.
  After that, Brock Lesnar faced Kofi Kingston. Lesnar dominated though being dropkicked to the turnbuckles twice, but it didn't stop him from executing three German suplexes. In the end, Lesnar pinned Kingston after a F-5 for the victory. After the match, Lesnar would deliver more German suplexes and another F-5 on Kingston. Big E and Xavier Woods appeared, but Lesnar ultimately executed F5s on both Big E and Woods.
  In the fourth match, Kevin Owens defended the NXT Championship against Finn Bálor. Owens mocked John Cena, with whom he had a running feud, with Cena's trademark shoulder tackles, spin-out powerbomb, and Five Knuckle Shuffle. However, Owens became one of the very few people to kick out of the Coup de Grâce. Balor pinned Owens after a second Coup de Grâce for the victory to win the title.
caption: Finn Bálor celebrating his victory after defeating Kevin Owens for the NXT Championship.
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