Tag: Damian Priest

NXT Takeover 31: Every Match Ranked

I knew I was right to not give up on Takeovers just yet, this was a lot more in line with what we liked them for! As it happens, I don’t think this show will be remembered all that much in the years to come, purely because there wasn’t any major story or event that stood out in the whole thing. Every champion retained, and the two big surprises will live or die on how they’re followed up on, so there’s not much to look back on in a year’s time. However, it was still a damn good night of wrestling, so let’s break it down.

5 – Damian Priest(c) def. Johnny Gargano
(North American Championship)

This is one of those cases where I have to specify that, even though it’s last, I still really liked this match. It’s just that all the other matches were even better.

After having a key role in the ladder match at Takeover 30, this was the first match where I’ve felt really impressed by what Priest has to offer. He’s had plenty of good matches up until now, of course, but this was the match where I got the feeling that he could properly hang with the best of the best in NXT. Gargano has finally settled into a style that captures the right balance between his heel & face styles. He’s still able to slow the pace, and make nastier moves, but without sacrificing the excitement of the match.

Priest winning was definitely the right decision. I’m a little confused as to why the referee seemed so concerned about the random security guys who were standing in a stupid position. Still, nevertheless, it gave Gargano an opening to do his thing. My only real concern is where Gargano goes from here. There’s no room for him in the NXT title scene at the moment, and he can’t keep hanging around the North American title like he has been most of the year. Personally, I’d think the best creative decision would be to leave him off TV for a while, so we can get excited about him when he’s back. However, I know that’s not realistic, so I just hope they’ve got a good non-title feud on the horizon for him.

Damian Priest, meanwhile, could fight just about anyone. He’s technically a heel, but this feud proved that doesn’t matter too much, and as long as it’s someone he gels well with, I’m sure the final product will be great.

4 – Io Shirai(c) def. Candice LaRae
(NXT Women’s Championship)

I didn’t expect this to seem like it was closing the book on the past year of NXT’s women’s division, but that’s the feeling I got coming out of it.

As expected, these two had all the chemistry you could want in the ring after all the times they’ve competed before. I will say that I don’t think it was either woman’s best work, but it was still an utter joy to watch. Io’s persona has shifted into a face a lot better than I thought it would, and her in-ring style has kept a definite edge to it that makes her feel different to what she was like a couple of years back. Candice, meanwhile, knows exactly what she’s doing, and exactly how to do it. I’d say she’s far better at working heel than her husband, which is a bit surprising considering how lovable she was as a face.

The headlines here though are about what happened after the match. First of all, Toni Storm kicked the door down and declared she’s coming for Io. This is brilliant, I’ve been waiting for Storm to break free of NXT UK and spread her wings here, so we should finally be getting to see her at her peak. The big surprise though was Ember Moon’s return. I honestly wasn’t sure if she’d ever wrestle again after the news of her various injuries, but now she’s back, and we’re going to get to see her fight Io, which is terrific. I think her underwhelming run with the title in 2017 made people forget just how amazing Moon can be, so hopefully, this will be a reminder.

3 – Kushia vs Velveteen Dream

This definitely wasn’t the match I was expecting from these two, so maybe that’s why I liked it so much.

Given Kushia & Dreams styles, I was expecting a highly technical affair. Both men have shown countless times that they can make mat-wrestling look very exciting, so I was settling in for a nice hefty dose of that when this match started. What I got instead though, was very interesting indeed. The pace was exceedingly quick throughout the whole match, as these two really tried to brutalize each other. Both of them came out of the gate with incredible energy that got me pumped for the rest of it.

Things eventually slowed down a bit, but it never lost the pace and energy that the beginning had built up, and it created the kind of back-and-forth contest that I haven’t seen in NXT for quite a while now. It definitely felt like Kushida controlled the match, but Dream was still able to look like an even match for the guy. They played around with the character work a lot, and I was wondering if they were trying to cast a shadow on the heel/face rolls, and if the aftermath is anything to go by, I think I may have been right.

I’m not sure if this would count as an out-right heel turn for Kushida, but I definitely wouldn’t be against it if that was the way they wanted to go. With Undisputed Era having turned face, it’s left a bit of a hole at the top of the card for heels, and I’d be excited to see what Kushida could do with such a role.

2 – Finn Balor(c) def. Kyle O’Reilly
(NXT Championship)

Kyle O’Reilly is a singles star now, it’s as simple as that. Anyone who already followed O’Reilly’s career already knew that he was a fantastic singles competitor, but to finally see it manifest in NXT is wonderful.

I was resistant to Balor’s heel style when he first started having featured singles matches in NXT, but I’ve absolutely come around to it now. I tend to prefer the fast-paced and flashy styles, but I think over the past year I’ve learned to appreciate the slower, hard-hitting styles that someone like Balor can produce. It makes for a match that feels weighty, where every move has a meaningful impact, and the story is allowed to flourish.

The way they structured this match got to show all of O’Reilly’s strengths as a performer and, by extension, Balor’s strength as a champion. People had already fallen in love with his charm – stuff like his belt air-guitar – but here we got to see a very sympathetic side to him. When a character like O’Reilly is a heel, it’s scarce that we see them struggle. The only time that he could be classed as ‘struggling’ as a heel, we’re too busy cheering because we’re happy he’s getting beaten up. I got the clear idea in this story that, Balor had the edge and was the better competitor overall, but O’Reilly was ready to give him one hell of a fight.

It was precisely the kind of feeling you need for an upcoming face. It felt like last night, Balor was the better man, but on any other night soon, it could very easily have gone the other way.

1 – Santos Escobar(c) def. Isaiah “Swerve” Scott
(Cruiserweight Championship)

This is the first time since the Cruiserweight Classic in 2016 that I feel like the Cruiserweight Division is living up to its potential.

This was honestly everything you could ever want from a cruiserweight match. It wasn’t super-heavy on high-flying action, but it didn’t particularly need to be. It gave us a healthy dose of the hyper-athletic stuff but didn’t bear down on us constantly with it. I think this ability to hold back from being super flashy all the time is what allowed the story of the match to properly grasp me and become my favourite match of the night.

This is one of those rare cases where the interference enhanced the story of the match and made it more exciting. I know one other match had interference last night, but the way they balanced it before quickly and efficiently disposing of it was far better than the other example. The thing with putting the Cruiserweights in a meaningful Takeover match for the first time is that you have to impress upon the audience that there’s more to the division than just the two guys you’re currently seeing. This interference did that, I don’t really know much about any of these characters, but I absolutely want to know more now I’ve seen this match.

The near-falls scattered throughout were a lot of fun. I know many people don’t like a bunch of false-finishes, but I always have been, and always will be a sucker for a good kickout. If this is the template for the Cruiserweight division from here on out in NXT, then I’m all-in, because this was brilliant.

And there you have it! Thank you very much for taking the time to read this. Please, let me know what you thought of the show, either in the comments below or on Twitter @10ryawoo. Finally, make sure to come back this time on Saturday, where I’ll be counting down the worst ever Treehouse of Horror episodes of The Simpsons.

NXT Takeover XXX: Every Match Ranked

The 30th Takeover is officially in the record books and well…I definitely enjoyed it. It feels like a notable shift in the style of PPVs that NXT is going to be putting out from now on. It feels like, in order to appeal to the broader USA Network audience, they’re shifting their PPVs to have more or something for everyone, rather than constant, hyper-focused top-quality wrestling matches to please Meltzer’s star ratings. Whether this change is for the better or worse remains to be seen over the next year or so, but if the shows they come out with that like the ones of Saturday, I don’t think I’ll mind.

This was by no means among the best Takeovers of all time, but it was a show that kept me entertained from start to finish, and I can honestly say there wasn’t a bad match for the entire night. Sure, it didn’t blow me away, and I doubt it’ll be remembered all that vividly in the years to come, but sitting here, 12 hours after the show’s finished, I’m feeling positive about it.

6 – Breezango def. Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch, Legado del Fantasmo
(Winners become #1 contenders for the NXT Tag Team Championships)

I was wondering how NXT was going to treat their pre-shows. Whether they were going to give the matches room to breathe and let the wrestling sell the show. Unfortunately, they made the time restrictions even heavier, as they only had 30 minutes for Booker T to bicker with Sam Roberts, instead of the usual 60.

It’s a pretty simple case with this match, it wasn’t bad, all of the action was enjoyable, however, coming in at just under 7-minutes, it didn’t have time to be anything more significant. Especially given that it was a triple threat tag match, it seemed like a really bad decision to cut the time on this one so heavily. That’s the kind of match that needs the time to build to a chaotic climax, but that phase of the match never got the chance to arrive.

What we got was perfectly enjoyable, Legado is doing a great job character-wise in the ring, and I want to see more of them in the near future. Breezango winning is an interesting choice, as they already got a tag title shot recently, but I don’t mind going for round two. As I said in my predictions, they’ve had a new fire lit under them since returning to NXT, and they feel like very different wrestlers to what I knew them as during their first runs in NXT.

5 – Finn Balor def. Timothy Thatcher

Good match, zero build.

There’s honestly no better way to put it in my mind. I think I probably would’ve liked this match more if I had some greater reason to be invested in it. I know Thatcher has been screwing Balor over here and there, but I don’t think it was given nearly enough focus every week on TV. This is one of those situations where it seems like management just wanted to have a Finn Balor match on the PPV, without having any real plan for what he could do.

Regardless of how invested I was in it, the match was of good quality. I’m still not adjusted to Balor’s more muted style, but this was an instance where he had an opponent it played well with. Thatcher is a proper mat-based wrestler, and he knows how to make it look impactful and intriguing (something unfortunately rare in the modern wrestling scene). Balor responded to it well, trying to speed the pace of the match up at every opportunity to stop Thatcher getting one over on him.

The match’s narrative was fairly basic, but it was well-told in this instance. I adored the shot where Balor landed hard on his feet with a missed Coup-de-Gras only for both him and Thatcher to go wide-eyed, realising the opportunity Thatcher has just been given. Sure, Balor predictably came out on top, but I now understand Thatcher’s style and enjoy watching him more than I did going into it, so that’s got to be a positive.

4 – Karrion Kross def. Keith Lee(c)
(NXT Championship)

Sure, this felt more like a main-roster main event, but it was a very good one.

In my predictions, I theorised about the different ways this matches could go. While I pointed to Lee vs Dijakovic for a formula they could try to replicate, that ended up not being the case, and what we got instead had upsides and downsides.

The downsides first, which are mostly to do with pacing. I don’t care who you are, or how in-line with your character it is, ‘working the arm’ by holding it in place for 5 minutes, isn’t entertaining. Putting that spot to early on in the match was a bit of an issue too because it meant I felt out of the match almost immediately, and it had to win me back later on, rather than winning me over straight away and keeping me into it for the rest.

However, once the match left those spots behind, things picked up. The match was never fast, but I don’t think it needed to be, because it was impactful. When you’ve got a guy as big as Lee, and a guy as jacked as Kross, the entertainment value is going to be in the hard-hitting stuff, so that’s what they went for. I don’t feel like it entirely lived up to it’s potential, but I still enjoyed what we got, and I’m not going to sit here crying about how I didn’t get the match I wanted.

The finish was a bit odd. I know the Doomsday Suplex is one of Kross’ signature moves, but it didn’t look all that impressive in this instance. It looks great when he can throw a guy half-way across the ring like they’re nothing. However, with Lee, it looked like any standard middle rope spot – a type of spot that hasn’t won a match in about a decade. It made the finish feel a bit sudden and took the wind out of me a bit when Kross won off of something I wasn’t expecting.

Ultimately, I think he has all the potential to be a fantastic champion, so I’m happy to wait and see on this one.

3 – Adam Cole def. Pat McAfee

Well, it was definitely a lot better than I was expecting.

To point out the obvious, the in-ring action was reasonably basic. McAfee pulled off some impressive stuff here in there, but there wasn’t a great variety in the moves he gave or took (although, he took a picture-perfect Panama Sunrise, so props there). The thing is, the action wasn’t the point of this match, it was never going to be. This was a match all around the drama and the story, and looking at the in-ring storytelling on display here, it was really entertaining.

Pat understood the role he needed to play and played it to perfection. He picked all the right moments to be a cocky jackass and all the right moments to run away scared. I didn’t particularly care for the faction warfare stuff, but it was a good bridge to take us from the 100% drama-focus of the early stages to the latter phase of the match, where action became much more critical to the story.

Cole played off of McAfee really well too. His facial expression on the kickouts and impressive manoeuvres worked into the attitude that they have been presenting each other with. What’s most important is that, when the time came for McAfee to take his beating, he made it look good. Like I said, none of the moves he took (other than the Panama Sunrise) were particularly complicated or impressive, but he made the beatdown on him feel weighty, so watching Cole kick his ass was satisfying.

Nothing about it was a technical masterpiece, but I came away from it in a good mood, having thoroughly enjoyed the match I just watched.

2 – Io Shirai(c) def. Dakota Kai
(NXT Women’s Championship)

Weirdly, despite this being in the number two spot, there isn’t a great deal I have to say about it. It was just a really good match.

I don’t think anyone had any doubts over the result, so my focus around this match was more getting the most out of the action as possible, of which I think both women did a great job. Io looked beatable at several points without ever coming across as week, while Kai got to show off just about everything she can do. Momentum was continually shifting between the two women in this one, which meant we got a great variety in terms of the action. Yes, it had slower spots where Kai worked a limb for an extended spot because it was buried in between plenty of action, I was happy for the match to take a short breather every now and then.

As predictable as it was, I think it’s important to Kai’s story that we hit the obvious beat of Gonzalez getting involved. Given Kai’s insistence that she’s got to where she did ‘on her own’, something like this should sow the seeds of discourse between her & Gonzalez, especially since I’d imagine Kai will find a way to blame Gonzalez for her loss. Meanwhile, I think it’s time for Io to move onto someone else, probably Candice LaRae. Kai could absolutely come back later down the line and challenge whoever the champion is again, but for now, I don’t think we should overplay that hand.

I’m intrigued by the Ripley/Gonzalez tease though. I’m not sure if they want to head in a tag-team direction with that, or whether it’ll be a singles feud. Either way, I’m looking forward to it, and I hope it serves as a coming-out party of Gonzalez as a major player in the NXT women’s division.

1 – Damian Priest def. Johnny Gargano, Bronson Reed, Velveteen Dream, Cameron Grimes
(North American Championship)
(Ladder)

20-minutes of mental ladder-match antics. Perfect, exactly what I wanted.

This one had everything you could want from a multi-man ladder match. It didn’t need much time to warm up, the pace accelerated to maximum pretty darn quickly and stayed there right up until the end. Everyone got a chance to shine, each of them getting their own memorable moments, and somehow, everyone getting a chance to look like they were about to win the match. I honestly thought ladder matches were very limited in terms of pulling off convincing false-finishes, but man, every time someone got to the top of that ladder (which, in the final 5 minutes, was a lot) I thought it was over.

Outside of that, it was ladder-spots galore. Priest running up the ladder to do a dive onto the outside, Grimes holding the ladder on shoulders and smashing everyone to bits with it, Gargano awkwardly power bombing Grimes onto the ladder in a way that made it look even more brutal than intended. We even got a spot I can’t remember ever seeing before in a match like this, where they kept piling up people and ladders into the corner, only for one guy to squish them all together. All of it was a blast to watch, and what makes this match take the number one spot.

Damian Priest was absolutely the right person to win this one. I’m not sure who he’ll feud with first (probably one of the other participants in this match), but I hope he has a long and fruitful reign. He’s been threatening to break through in NXT for a while, and hopefully, a run with the North American title will seal the deal.

And there you have it! Thank you very much for taking the time to read this. Please, let me know what you thought of the show, either in the comments below or on Twitter @10ryawoo! Finally, make sure you come back here this time tomorrow, where I’ll be giving you my review of Summerslam!

NXT Takeover XXX: Predictions & Analysis

NXT Takeover time! A time where we can all rejoice and feel happy that great wrestling is going to be on our screens very soon. Except…this time around, I’m not nearly as excited as I usually am. At least 3 of the matches have unlimited potential, that is true, but weekly NXT TV the past month or so has felt pretty soulless to me. None of the builds to any of the matches have been anything unique or exciting. The only build that’s done things differently ended up being killed dead in the water on Wednesday when Pat McAfee cut the world’s most generic heel promo.

Maybe the pessimism of the world has gotten to me, who knows? Let’s try to stay positive as we break down the matches.

Breezango vs Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch vs Legado del Fantasma
(Winner becomes #1 contender for the NXT Tag Team Championships)
(Kickoff Show)

You know, the NXT Tag Team division became utter barren so quickly, I barely even noticed.

The tag division on NXT has heavily suffered from Imperium very rarely being on TV week-to-week. I like Imperium as champions, and I hope they hold onto the titles for a while, but they were such a bad choice given the current situation. This isn’t like Lesnar with a world title, where him not showing up as much adds to his drawing power, with the NXT tag titles gone from TV most of the time, it just means we stop caring. I want to care about the NXT tag titles, they’ve given us some of the best matches in NXT history, but right now, they’re in serious trouble.

That said, I’m confident this will be a fun match. I’m not entirely sure what the point was on putting this on the pre-show but provided it gets a respectable amount of time, I have no reason to doubt the excitement we could be in store for. Breezango have had a new fire lit under them since returning to NXT, Lorcan & Burch have always been extraordinarily reliable in situations like this, while Legado del Fantasma are the exciting new prospect and still feel quite fresh.

There’s a couple of ways to go in terms of a winner here. My first instinct was that Legada del Fantasmo would win because they’re the fresh guys and even if they aren’t going to win the tag titles, a high-profile match with the champions would be great for them. However, I’m actually going with Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch. My logic behind it is pretty simple, I think they’ve been killing it over the past year, and while their role is mainly to put guys over, I think it would be really cool to see them go for the titles. I don’t think they’d dethrone Imperium, but it’d be great to watch.

Finn Balor vs Timothy Thatcher

This is one of those matches that most people won’t give much thought, but could absolutely tear the house down on Saturday. I’ve still not made my mind up entirely about what I think of Thatcher, but there’s definitely a lot to love about his character. His stuff with Riddle was a great way to bring him to prominence, and I like the idea that he’s someone who slowly crawls his way up through the ranks in NXT over the next couple of years.

I don’t really know what this match is going to be like, these are two guys who have pretty different styles, and that always makes it hard to tell how they’ll mesh. I have faith in them though, so I’m remaining optimistic that it’ll be good. I’m torn for a winner though. As much as Balor’s in a position where nothing will hurt his stock too much in the long-run, I still don’t think he should lose too often. Looking into recent history, he got a win over Damian Priest at the last Takeover, but that’s it, he’s lost to just about everyone else with name value. That said, beating Balor would be an excellent way to turn some heads towards Thatcher.

It’s a tough call, but I’m going with what I think is the more sensible pick in Finn Balor. I just don’t think Thatcher has been built up enough to the point where he could beat someone on Balor’s level. That said, I would certainly be on board if Thatcher won.

Adam Cole vs Pat McAfee

Ok, just to get it out of the way, I don’t know if the radio show blow-up was a work, or a shoot that NXT turned into a work, and quite frankly I don’t care.

I’m of two minds with this feud. There’s the optimistic side of me that says McAfee is going to blow us away. I have no idea how long or hard he’s been training for, so I can’t make a judgement call yet, but he’s been around the industry long enough, and he’s in the ring with Adam Cole, so I think there’s a good chance this could be a killer match. Then there’s the pessimistic side, which says this is going to be like every other time an ‘outsider’ tried to come in and have a serious wrestling match.

The story’s been ok, it certainly had a decent amount of heat to it following the blow up on McAfee’s show, but I don’t think they capitalised on it all that well. Things started alright, with them seeming to patch things up, only for them to come to blows on NXT again, I even liked Cole’s rant about the situation, because Cole can talk with the best of them. What killed my excitement for the match was McAfee’s promo on Wednesday. I alluded to it in the intro, but it was dull and generic, not just with the words he was saying, but the style he delivered them, it was like what a trainee would put out after their first week of promo classes.

I’m a bit torn with a winner because I think there’s a chance McAfee is going to stick around and wrestle semi-frequently on NXT. If that’s the case, then I think he should win, not to mention, with a draft coming later in the year, I wouldn’t be surprised if Cole is leaving NXT sometime soon. That said, this is Adam Cole we’re talking about here, he’s just off the back of a 400+ day title reign and is bouncing back from a high-profile loss. Surely he’s got to win? Admittedly, I don’t think it would do all that much damage to Cole in the long-run, but it just doesn’t feel right to pick anyone other than Adam Cole to win this one.

Damian Priest vs Cameron Grimes vs Johnny Gargano vs Bronson Reed vs Velveteen Dream
(NXT North American Championship)
(Ladder)

Ahhh, a good old fashion multi-man ladder match. These will always be entertaining, regardless of which promotion they take place in. That said, the last time NXT had a ladder match for the North American Championship, it was arguably one of the best multi-man ladder matches ever, so…

That doesn’t answer the question of who wins though, so let’s take a look at the participants.

Velveteen Dream – I don’t think Dream was even supposed to be in this match initially. Given the uncertainty surrounding his return, I think NXT management decided that the only thing they could do with him so close to the PPV was to shove him in this match. On top of that, Dream’s already had a run with the North American Championship. There are indeed a lot more opponents he could face now, but I don’t see what could be gained from it.

Bronson Reed – The case with Reed is that I think just being in the match will be enough to raise his stock. He’s still a fresh face in NXT, and this is the perfect opportunity to show everyone what he can do. That said, I don’t see him winning the title for at least another year, he’s just not been built up enough yet. Hopefully, his performance in this match will go some way to remedying that.

Johnny Gargano –  It’s really starting to feel like the NXT writers have no idea what to do with Gargano. That’s the problem when he’s been in NXT for so long – Ciampa’s got the same problem – as great as he is, NXT doesn’t have as deep of a roster as Raw or Smackdown, so there’s very little for him to do nowadays other than to take high-profile losses to the new guys. That’s not to say he won’t add anything to this match, I think he’ll be fantastic, but much like Dream, there’s nothing to be gained from him winning the title again.

Cameron Grimes – Now we’re getting to the people that I think have a chance of winning this thing. To me, the North American title seems to be the perfect tool for taking someone who’s not quite a huge star yet and getting them over and a main eventer in the eyes of the fans. This is technically the role of any mid-card title, but in practice, it very rarely works out that way. However, Grimes is in the perfect position to pick up a mid-card title right now, if he were to go on a bit of tear for it for 8 months or so, it’d be the perfect launching pad to send him to the main event scene. I’m not picking him to win though, as I think there’s one guy that NXT is more likely to invest in right now.

Damian Priest – Honestly, I think Priest is the only real choice for this one. It’s felt like he’s been on the cusp of breaking through for around a year now, so we’re coming very close to ‘now-or-never’ territory. Priest has all the makings of a top guy in NXT, and I think his feud with Balor was a mini-test of that fact. The way I see it, Priest is a perfect fit for the North American title in his current state. NXT in need of a heel champion, and who better than a man who will probably be one of NXT’s biggest stars in a year.

Io Shirai(c) vs Dakota Kai
(NXT Women’s Championship)

It’s amazing how briefly Charlotte was champion. It already feels like it was years ago.

I’ll speak plainly, Io Shirai has been absolutely killing it since winning the title. I was pessimistic about waiting this long to put the title on her, but all my doubts have since been cleared. Sure, she’s not been wrestling as much, but when it comes to pure force of personality, there is no woman better in NXT in right now. There’s nothing about her character that inherently draws her to a heel or babyface alignment, a fact that I think will be fantastic for her stories throughout her title reign. Dakota’s been on fire too, she grasped her heel persona almost instantly, and since then it’s been built to an incredibly compelling degree.

I honestly think we could be in for one of the best WWE matches of the year so far, I really do. Io has already proven that she can go with just about anyone, and I really get the feeling that we’ve not seen anywhere near the limits of what Kai can do yet. I firmly believe that these two women will have near-flawless chemistry, and we could be in for a fast and fun fight.

That said, I think this is by far the easiest match to predict. Io Shirai is winning this one, her title reign has barely begun and has so much potential. Meanwhile, Dakota’s story can be enhanced by a loss here. She’s already getting a bit too full of herself, so if she blames Raquel Gonzalez for her loss, then there could be months of great TV in that. Not to mention, Io herself is proof that Dakota could easily come back in a year’s time and pick up the title without it feeling any less of an accomplishment.

Keith Lee(c) vs Karrion Kross
(NXT Championship)

Colour me impressed, I really thought they were going to wait on this one.

There’s so much to break down here and so many directions the story could go. First of all, Kross is incredible. He’s the first person in so long that I think genuinely gives off a Lesnar-esque vibe of indestructibility. Not only has he torn through everyone he’s come into contact with, but everything surrounding his persona & characterisation gives him an aura of an unstoppable badass. Meanwhile, Keith Lee is the purest human being on the planet, so watching him being pushed to his mental limits by Kross is very compelling stuff.

I have all the confidence in the world this match is going to rock. Lee’s shown time and time again that he can wrestle any style he needs to for a match. Kross has a wide range as a performer too, so I think there are several ways this one could play out. Personally, I think this will be akin to Lee vs Dijakovic in January, with plenty of big & explosive moves and a pace that refuses to ever let up.

This is where it gets tricky though because honestly, neither man should be losing here. However, I don’t think we’ll get a screwy finish, that’s not the NXT way. The thing is, Keith Lee has only just won the title, he’s barely held onto it for a minute, which, under normal circumstances should mean there’s no way he’s losing the title this quickly. The problem is when you look at NXT’s history, the brand’s biggest babyface always have insultingly short title reigns; Sami Zayn, Johnny Gargano & Drew McIntyre are all clear examples of this. On top of that, Kross has been built up like no-one else has since he debuted. He SLAUGHTERED Tommaso Ciampa, and if that isn’t a sign that he’s destined for stardom, I don’t know what is.

The way I’ve rationalised it to myself is thus: Keith Lee can recover from a loss, a hell of a lot better than Karrion Kross can. Sure, Lee won’t have the title anymore, but people are still going to love him regardless because of everything he is as a person and a performer. Meanwhile, Karrion Kross’ whole persona has been built around his unstoppable nature, so taking such a high-profile loss this early on in his NXT run could be catastrophic in regards to the audience’s view of him. Maybe I’m overanalysing it, but I’m going to go with the logic I’ve laid out and pick Karrion Kross to be crowned our new NXT Champion.

And that’s it! Thank you very much for taking the time to read these predictions. Please, let me know what you think is going to happen on Saturday, either in the comments below or on Twitter @10ryawoo. Finally, make sure you come back here this time tomorrow, where I’ll be running down my Summerslam predictions!

NXT Takeover: In Your House: Every Match Ranked

NXT Takeover had been and gone yet again and…well it wasn’t the best Takeover ever, was it? Admittedly, even a sub-par Takeover is still a damn good show, but I don’t think I’ll be alone in calling it the worst Takeover of the past few years. I feel Takeovers are the kind of shows that depend on a crowd for a lot of their heat, more so than other shows. There are a couple of matches that I’ll discuss in just a moment, where I think the performances were noticeably lesser than they usually would be in front of a full live audience.

That said, there was still plenty to enjoy, including what might be my favourite WWE match of the year so far. Let’s break it down, shall we?

6 – Mia Yim & Tegan Nox & Shotzi Blackheart def. Candice LaRae & Dakota Kai & Raquel Gonzalez

This match didn’t feel like a Takeover match in the slightest.

As I said in my predictions, unless it’s a fight between factions and 6-person tag match isn’t something that should be featured on a PPV (or equivalent). It just doesn’t feel like that big of a deal. It’s good that these women got a chance to show their stuff, but given how many people were involved, everyone was fighting to be seen. NXT touted that their women’s division was “the deepest in the world” several times last night, a valid claim, but it’s entirely pointless if they don’t work out a good way to feature it on their biggest shows. Takeovers have always been about the biggest feuds, and most important matches and NXT needs to start building to more than one big women’s match for each show.

The action in the match was alright, but I didn’t think it was anything overly exciting. I liked how big of a role Shotzi Blackheart got to play in the match. With her being the newest star in the match, I was happy to see her getting show her stuff notably more than anyone else involved. Nox and Kai, unfortunately, feel like they’ve lost the heat from their feud a bit now. Whenever they were together in the ring, the intensity that I felt during their initial feud was seemingly gone. That might just be a factor of all the women involved with the match, so I hope it comes back when this splits into singles’ feuds again.

5 – Adam Cole(c) def. Velveteen Dream
(NXT Championship)
(Backlot Brawl)

It’s official, NXT just doesn’t understand what made all the other on-location matches great.

First thing’s first, the look of this match was absolutely horrible. The way they’d rigged up the lighting with the car headlights and massive spotlights meant that every shot they were in it was much too bright, with glare on the lenses making it hard to follow what was going on. Then, whenever they went outside of those lights, it was way too dark, so it was still hard to follow the action. This wasn’t helped by the hyperactive camerawork. Nevermind the fact that they cut to a different shot roughly every five seconds, but every shot was ridiculously shaky and even out of focus at some points during the match. I can understand what they were going for with the chaotic nature of the match, but it just made it difficult to watch.

Even if there wasn’t a problem with the cameras, I didn’t care much for the action. It was your standard WWE ‘hardcore’ match, which meant a lot of slowly meandering around the place, occasionally stopping to hit each other with something. Dream didn’t feel like he was playing the same character tonight either. I don’t mind him adding a more intense facet to things, but Dream is a character with a VERY distinct style, and it didn’t feel like he stayed true to it last night.

As much as I harped on about how Dream had to win in my predictions, I don’t think Cole retaining is the end of the world. It’s undeniable how amazing of a champion Cole has been, my only worry is that we’re very close to running out of challengers. I assume that Dexter Lumis is next in line for a title shot, given his involvement in this match, so I imagine he’ll be the one to finally slay the king, but if he doesn’t, then we could be at risk of this getting stale.

4 – Keith Lee(c) vs Johnny Gargano
(North American Championship)

This is the match that I think suffered the most from now crowd.

Gargano is the type of character that draws a great deal of the drama and story of his matches from the crowd. This regularly makes for some excellent matches, but now he’s taken his character in a new direction, and one of the critical tools in his arsenal is suddenly gone. I don’t think Gargano suited the slower, more methodical heelish style very well at all. Especially when he’s going up against a guy like Keith Lee, I don’t have any interest in seeing him ‘wear down’ a limb. I wouldn’t call the match boring at any point; however, it didn’t feel like it ever kicked into a higher gear that makes Takeover matches amazing.

There were a couple of points in the match where it looked like things were about to ramp up and get great, but they never did in the end. I praise Gargano for experimenting with his style, but this was a match where he was undoubtedly the underdog. I think the match could’ve worked a lot better if Gargano had started off by manoeuvring circles around Lee, only for Lee to have to try and slow Gargano down or match-pace with him. That way Gargano could’ve continued to wrestle his more fast-paced, exciting style without screwing up the face/heel story the match was trying to tell.

It wasn’t all bad, though. Even though I don’t think Gargano was at his best last night, he was still very good and was able to play off of Lee’s swagger and style to significant effect. I think he showed signs of the effective heel character he could become if he goes down the route Seth Rollins did in 2014/15. I’m not entirely sure where his character goes from this point, but I remain optimistic that Gargano can learn from this match and create something great for next time.

3 – Finn Balor def. Damian Priest

Balor has seemed so much more comfortable since coming back to NXT. I’ve not loved his promos where he’s been talking like someone who read the Wrestling Observer once and thinks they know it all, but in the ring, he appears to be back in his element.

This match didn’t blow me away, but it was definitely an enjoyable bout. The styles of these two meshed well, and I think they had some really nice chemistry. The element of the steel stairs constantly being a factor in the match was a nice way to tell a simple story and it helped break up the big sections where Priest would be slowly picking Balor apart. Balor was able to switch back to a face style while maintaining the more hard-hitting feel he gained since arriving back in NXT. It feels like Balor is really relishing in the freedom the black & gold brand has given him.

This didn’t feel like the star-making match I feel like it was designed as for Priest though. I do think he came away from this with his stock in NXT raised, but not nearly as much as it should’ve been. I’d be curious to know what the explanation is behind having Balor winning. I guess we’ll see if it was worth it depending on what he does next, but I still think this should’ve gone to Priest. Looking good in defeat absolutely helps him build himself up, but looking good in victory would’ve done it so much more.

2 – Karrion Kross def. Tommaso Ciampa

This is what a star-making performance is supposed to look like.

This wasn’t a long one, but it didn’t need to be. It had a job to do, so it got in, did it and got out, sometimes that’s all you need. It got a bit of everything in there too. The opening had lots of intensity to it as both men fought for control and one Kross got a handle on things, you got the feeling that it was just a matter of time until Ciampa was finished. I hope they find a way to play on this a bit more in the coming months because there’s the potential for a really good story of Ciampa having to look inwards to see how he was so quickly dispatched of by Kross.

It wasn’t just a glorified squash match though, because there were a couple of fun back-and-forth sections. Ciampa’s last comeback spot especially got my blood pumping with how freakishly fast he seemed to be able to execute something. These arguably helped Kross look even better than if it was a straight-up squash match because now it feels like his victory was more hard-fought than it otherwise would’ve been. It wasn’t as easy as all his other wins so far, he actually had to work for it. More importantly, we saw that when he does attempt to work for it, very few will be able to stand in his way.

This was a great way to establish a new feature player in the men’s division, and right now, it feels like a championship reign for Kross is very much a matter of ‘when’ instead of ‘if’.

1 – Io Shirai def. Charlotte Flair(c) & Rhea Ripley
(NXT Women’s Championship)

Match of the year, I’ll call that right now. I loved this match.

As I touched on in my predictions, all three women here have a firm grasp of their characters and exactly what their motivations are going into this match. There was so much heat going into this thing, and they absolutely made use of all of it. Contrary to how I thought the match would go, all three women were involved in pretty much all of the action. There were very few moments where one woman petered out of the ring but even when they did, it wasn’t for very long. It meant that the pace of this one could move at a fever-pitch from start to finish, which is the kind of match that I absolutely love.

All of the dynamics between the women got played upon here. I really got the sense that Rhea was just out for revenge on Charlotte and paid much less mind to Io, which eventually cost her the title. Charlotte, meanwhile, was at her heelish best, doing everything in her power to get Io and Rhea to fight each other and anytime there was an opening for Charlotte to get the advantage, she pounced right on it. Then you had Io who was fighting desperately and viciously the whole way through. She gave the impression of someone who didn’t care who she was fighting, she was going to do everything she could to get the title.

There were so many fantastic moments that to list them all would do a disservice to this incredible match. My personal favourite moment was when Charlotte and Rhea decided they were just going to spend two minutes absolutely wailing on each other with some really stiff looking punches and kicks. At first, I genuinely thought that tempers were flaring between the two women, but it eventually became clear that they were trying something different to tell the story of how much they hated each other; it definitely worked.

In the end, the night belonged to Io Shirai though and I’m thrilled that things turned out this way. I initially thought she didn’t have a place in this story, but she instead became a vital part of it, and now she’s finally got the championship. Hopefully, Charlotte sticks around in NXT long enough to have a one on one rematch at the next Takeover because that will undoubtedly be another top-tier match. Even if she doesn’t, the NXT women’s division has so many spectacular wrestlers in it right now, that I don’t think Io will be hard-pressed to find good challengers anytime soon.

And there you have it! Thank you very much for taking the time to read this review. Please, let me know what you thought of the show, either in the comments below or on Twitter @10ryawoo. Finally, make sure you come back this time on Saturday, where the wrestling just doesn’t stop! As I’ll be giving you my predictions for Backlash.

NXT Takeover: In Your House: Predictions & Analysis

AEW has shot their shot, now it’s time for NXT to fire back. This should be a loaded one.

Like always, looking at the card for this Takeover has me very excited. I honestly think that NXT had suffered significantly more than Raw, Smackdown or AEW since we’ve been forced into empty arena shows. So much of NXT relies on the performers at Full Sail feeding off one of the most dedicated crowds in modern wrestling and it feels like everyone’s performance has been lacking something since the fans were forced out. Of course, this is happening all across wrestling right now, but for some reason, the issue really stands out to me when I watch NXT.

That said, all of these matches have ‘match of the year’ potential as far as I’m concerned, so I sincerely hope this show blows me away like almost every Takeover from the past few years has.

Mia Yim & Tegan Nox & Shotzi Blackheart vs Candice LaRae & Dakota Kai & Raquel Gonzalez

I mean, it’s good that the women’s division is finally getting more representation on Takeovers than just the one title match but…was this really the best way to go about it? Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure it’ll be an entertaining match but, unless it’s a fight between duelling factions, 6-person tag matches always feel really unimportant.

As for the competitors, I like them, but I can’t see how this will do much in benefitting any of their stories. I know the Yim vs LaRae feud is still pretty fresh right now, and I would’ve preferred a one on one match between these two rather than a fairly pointless match that just gets everybody involved for no real reason. Nox and Kai remain firmly opposed, but after their match in January, the shine has come off the apple somewhat in regards to their feuds, and I don’t really fancy seeing it again. Blackheart, on the other hand, is a wrestler that I can’t get enough of, so more of her, please.

As for picking a winner, it’s pretty tricky purely because it’s such an unimportant match. It’s not like anything significant will be gained for the victors. It probably won’t even be mentioned on Wednesday. I’m going with Mia Yim & Tegan Nox & Shotzi Blackheart, purely to balance out the face/heel wins that I’ve predicted throughout the other matches.

Finn Balor vs Damian Priest

While it’s impossible to deny that Finn Balor has been given a fantastic new lease on life since joining NXT, he seems to have ended up floating around without a purpose more than I’d have hoped. Until a few weeks ago, Balor had basically no role on the show. While I’m happy that he was finally given a solid storyline in the form of searching for his attacker, I’m not sure this match will do anything to help his position in NXT long-term.

Damian Priest, on the other hand, can pretty much only gain from having this match. He’s been teasing a slow and steady rise to the top for about 6-8 months now and just being a part of a big match with Balor should give him some form of a boost, even if it isn’t the biggest. I’m not sure what kind of match these two will produce either. I’ve always found Balor’s style hard to define, it’s a bit hard-hitting, but also quite technical and there’s a lot of high-flying stuff in there too. Meanwhile, Priest focuses more on the quick but brutal style of offence that people like Aleister Black use to great effect, so as long as these two guys click in the ring, we should be in for a treat.

As for a winner, I think it’s got to be Damian Priest. Unless there are plans for Balor to chase the NXT title anytime soon, then I don’t think there’s anything to be gained from Balor winning. Priest is still an up-and-comer with all the potential in the world to be a star and NXT are usually good at valuing their fresher stars over the established guys on the brand. Speaking of…

Tommaso Ciampa vs Karrion Kross

If you need any indication as to how much NXT are investing in Kross, just watch his entrance. It’s a veritable rock-opera that takes the mystique and cool factor of Aleister Black’s entrance and turns it up as high as it can possibly go. Like most people who show up in NXT, I know basically nothing about any of Kross’ previous work, but I’ve heard only good things, so I’m excited to see what he can do in his first big match.

Looking at Ciampa, his return has been pretty underwhelming all things considered. WarGames was a fantastic standout performance for him, but then he lost Cole in his big title match. That was fine, as it led to the final payoff (hopefully) to the Gargano/Ciampa series which was…actually quite boring. I know this divided opinion somewhat, and it was by no means an awful match, but it didn’t bring the excitement out of me like all of their previous encounters had.

I don’t think that’s going to change following this feud with Kross either. He’s said several times that he never wants to leave NXT (and will basically quit wrestling if anyone forces him to) so the only thing left for him to do for the foreseeable future is put over the younger guys. It will undoubtedly help NXT has a whole, that much is undeniable, but I think it could cause people to lose interest in Ciampa pretty quickly.

If I hadn’t already made it clear, I’m confident that Karrion Kross is going to walk away from this one as the winner. Unless someone unexpected costs Kross the match, then I see absolutely no value in Ciampa winning this one.

Keith Lee(c) vs Johnny Gargano
(North American Championship)

So Gargano vs Ciampa also gave us the brand new heel Gargano. Something that would’ve been awesome if it had happened a couple of years ago but now…eh. The promos he’s been cutting with LaRae have been alright. What he’s actually been saying has been good enough, although the presentation of it is a bit weird. The main problem I have with it is that he doesn’t feel like he’s doing anything unique as a heel. When he was skirting the line between the two early last year, it was incredibly compelling, but now it just feels like he’s doing heel things for generic heel reasons. Keith Lee, meanwhile, is still the greatest human ever. Everything about him is just absolutely lovable, and nothing will ever make me stop rooting for the guy.

These two have very different in-ring styles, but I think it they’ll mesh well in this match. Gargano’s style is one that I don’t think needs to be altered all that much now he’s a heel, it’ll still make for a fantastic match where he’s able to look like an arsehole the entire time. Conversely, Lee’s power and agility will work wonders against Gargano’s frantic style, so I think this is going to be an exciting match to watch.

This is probably the one I’m struggling the most with in terms of picking a winner. After beating Ciampa and taking his character in a new direction, it would make sense for Gargano to get the belt and do something interesting with it. However, Keith Lee is still wildly popular, and I don’t think we’re even close to seeing everything he can do with the title. It’s a tough call, but I’m leaning more towards Keith Lee retaining. As much as I think Gargano could benefit from holding the title, I don’t think it’s in any way essential, especially considering he’s already won it once before. Plus, I really like Keith Lee, you guys.

Adam Cole(c) vs Velveteen Dream
(NXT Championship)
(Backlot Brawl)

When it comes to feuds that have suffered thanks to the pandemic, I really think this one does it. Everything was primed and ready for Dream to take the title from Cole at Tampa Bay, it would’ve felt like a proper culmination of the story. Then, the real world intervened, and that match was put on hold. So now, the NXT creative team had to scramble to put together another two month’s worth of story to get us here. The promos have been pretty good, which is to be expected given who’s involved, but the elements like the first match ending in a DQ have been uninspired and hurt the story in the long run.

In regards to what this match will be like, I’m not optimistic if I’m being honest. Were we going to get a straight wrestling match then I’d be anticipating a match of the year, but it’s not. I’ve tried my best to avoid any spoilers, but from what I’ve heard, it’s going to be an arena with cars. I’m not sure if there’s going to be an actual ring in there, or if it’s going to be more like an Iron Circle match (I hope it’s the former). For the most part, these pre-taped matches have been awesome, but NXT has produced the only one I didn’t like so far (Gargano vs Ciampa), so I’m a bit worried my opinion of this one will come out similar.

Velveteen Dream has undoubtedly got to win this. I think Cole has been a spectacular champion, but his time is over now. Not only has he already beaten almost every face NXT has to offer, but this just feels like Dream’s time. I felt it when the Tampa Bay show was still a thing, and NXT isn’t the kind of place to change all of their plans on a whim. With the added stipulation that Dream will never get another shot at the title if he loses too, there’s nothing to be gained from him losing. The only possibility is if he’s joining Raw or Smackdown soon, but that would be a colossal mistake on WWE’s part. I desperately hope he gets to have a stellar run with the NXT title first.

Charlotte Flair(c) vs Rhea Ripley vs Io Shirai
(NXT Women’s Championship)

Now, this is something I can really get excited about.

I mentioned it in my Wrestlemania review, but Ripley vs Charlotte is easily my favourite pure-wrestling match of the year so far. Their chemistry in the ring is outstanding. Both women have such a firm grasp on their characters that it made for a brilliant watch. So this match looks to top the efforts of the Wrestlemania match by throwing in an element of chaos known as Io Shirai.

While Shayna Baszler was running strong over the NXT women’s division, Shirai felt like she had her legs cut out from under her. She was a brutal heel wrestler in a division that was already dominated by one of the best heel wrestlers in the business, so she felt somewhat out of place. Now, she has more of a chance to shine. While it’s true that she still has to contend with a strong heel champion, they’re distinctly different types of heels. Charlotte is the stuck-up “I’m superior to you” kind of heel, while Shirai is the “I’m going to try and kill you” kind of heel. All three of these characters are so perfectly conflicting, and it’s created some strong heat going into this match.

I imagine we’re going to get a little bit of everything in this match. It’s a triple threat, so it’s sure to have plenty of fast-paced action, but there’s also going to be room for slower, technical-based moments. I imagine Ripley and Charlotte will pick up right where they left off at Wrestlemania, and I’m really looking forward to seeing what Charlotte and Shirai can do together when given a proper platform to show their stuff.

I’m reasonably confident in picking Charlotte Flair to retain the title in this one. I think the end-goal of this feud will be for Ripley to get the title back, getting a huge win over Charlotte and making her even more of a star than she was before, but I think that has to happen in a one-on-one match. To solidify Charlotte’s reign as champion, she has to get a strong-looking win here, probably by pinning/submitting Io Shirai. As much as I’m not happy about Io being sacrificed to help boost the Flair/Ripley storyline, I think the eventual payoff will be worth it.

And there you have it! Thank you very much for taking the time to read this. Please, let me know what you think is going to happen, either in the comments below or on Twitter @10ryawoo! Finally, make sure to come back here on Monday, where I’ll be giving my review!