Tag: NXT Takeover

NXT Takeover XXV: Every Match Ranked

For the third week in a row now the Gods of wrestling have smiled upon us and delivered us a show that was and absolute joy to watch, and even if they are about to spit on us this Friday for Super Showdown, we must praise them while we can, because as always Takeover was an awesome show. Granted, it wasn’t quite on the level of Takeover: New York (although to be fair, very few shows are), but that shouldn’t take away from the fact that this show was great from top to bottom.

There’s a lot to break down in all of these matches, so let’s not waste any more time and rank the matches.

5 – Street Profits def. The Forgotten Sons, Undisputed Era, Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch
(NXT Tag Team Championships)
(Ladder Match)

Peaks and Troughs, this match had a lot of them.

NXT Ladder matches always tend to have a sense of urgency to them that we don’t often see from main roster ladder matches, which gives me a few reservations about a couple of moments in this match.

I don’t want to rag on this match too much because it was great, but there’s a couple gripes I had. The first was Jaxson Ryker, it totally makes sense for him to get involved, The Forgotten Sons are a three-man faction after all, but he showed up, threw some dudes around and then just…stood there? He sorta picked up a ladder but didn’t do anything with it and he didn’t even try to pull Blake or Cutler into the ring to grab the titles then he was quickly disposed of by everyone else in the match.

The other thing was that following that moment, it felt like the match went on for way too long. Once Jaxson Ryker was disposed of, it felt like the crowd were at their peak excitement and we were ready to head into the climax, but instead the match just kept going for another 5 minutes and lost a lot of excitement that had been built up until to that point, it annoys me even more when there was a match later on the card which I personally thought needed that 5 minutes a lot more.

Now, the good stuff, because there was a lot of that too. For one thing, Kyle O’Reily getting shitcanned at almost every opportunity, along with The Undisputed Era realising something that no-one other teams in ladder matches do: It only takes one of you to grab the titles, so the other one can stand at the bottom and play defence. Every team played a different role in this match and it led to a great dynamic, with Undisputed Era playing the scheming heels, the Forgotten Sons picking their spots and keeping out of harm’s way as much as possible, Lorcan & Burch standing their ground to the aforementioned heels and Street Profits flinging themselves all over the place because they want those titles more than anyone else.

The finish was great too, I honestly though The Forgotten Sons had it after disappearing for about 10 minutes before the finish, but Dawkins running in to get rid of Blake, allowing Ford to springboard onto the ladder (which will never stop being impressive) and take Culter out with a single punch to win the match was a brilliant way to end the match, and if you ask me, the right team won.

4 – Shayna Baszler(c) def. Io Shirai
(NXT Women’s Championship)

Thankfully, it looks like this is just the beginning.

This match wasn’t quite the epic we were all hoping for between these two, but that’s because it served a different purpose, which was getting the characters in the right place emotionally for the epic match to happen.

The main thread of this feud so far has been the fact that Io is just tired of Shayna’s bullshit. She throws her weight around and beats up everyone in sight, and then has a need to rub it in all the time as well and that drives Io crazy, so now she finally has a chance to put her in her place, and she relishes it.

Baszler takes her to the woodshed for a good portion of the match, but whenever Io’s on top you can just see how much she enjoys the opportunity to take it to Baszler, she wants to humiliate her, and treat her how she’s been treating the whole women’s division for the past year. That’s not an attitude that gets you very far in title matches, however, and eventually it costs her, Baszler is once again able to out-think an opponent that could potentially have her number by just taking a beating and laying in wait; she knows Io’s going to make a mistake eventually, all Baszler has to do is be ready when she does.

Sure enough, that mistake comes in paying too much attention to Candice laying out Duke & Shafir, and after lasting in the Baszler’s Clutch a lot longer than anyone else ever has, Shirai has to relent. That’s an important piece of the story too, she doesn’t pass out, she taps, instead of going until her body wouldn’t let her, she chose to give up, which all feeds into what happens next.

Now we get to the point which was necessary to set up their rematch, which will likely be the epic that we’re all hoping for because when Io comes back and starts to wail of Shayna, there’s a very mixed reaction from just about everyone. The crowd, the commentators and even Candice La Rae isn’t quite sure whether Shirai taking a cheap shot and being a sore loser is a thing we should be cheering or not. Looking at Shirai’s face it’s clear that’s it’s all down to frustration. Frustration at Shayna, Duke, Shafir and even herself for letting her emotions get the best of her, then she goes away and we’re left with a lingering shot of Baszler broken and beaten and what do the crowd chant at this woman who was attacked after the bell by a woman she beat fair and square? You deserve it, and you know what? They’re goddamn right.

That moment is everything that Shayna’s character has been building to since she won the NXT Women’s Title. She’s the biggest bastard on the planet who beats everyone down and keeps kicking them until they can’t get up then goes and rubs their noses in it once they’re gone, she only ever gets comeuppance in brief, flukey ways and now someone’s finally shown her she’s not invincible, and it’s glorious. Moving forward, Io’s going to continue to gun for Shayna, only now having learnt from her mistakes and Shayna’s going to be out for vengeance and more vicious than ever. There’s one hell of a storm brewing, and I can’t wait until it hits.

3 – Matt Riddle def. Roderick Strong

These two worked together just as well as I thought they would.

On a show like this with so much deep character work, it’s nice to be able to go back to basics. This story is pretty simple, Strong wronged Riddle and Riddle wants a match to get his revenge, and for a non-title match like this, that’s really all you need. I also like that we’re back to seeing Roderick Strong fight in big matches as a singles guy because as much as he’s perfect with the Undisputed Era, he’s an awesome singles wrestler too.

I wasn’t sure on this match for the first half of it, I didn’t feel like it was moving with the flow I expected, but it made sense when the second half came around. In the second half of the match, I really started to get the feeling that these two fully understood how the other one wrestles and had developed ways to work around it and get on top; which retroactively makes the first half a lot smarter because they were getting a feel for each other and learning how their styles mesh.

This was encapsulated by the finish, which involved them slipping out of each other’s submission holds over and over again, until Riddle eventually had to bust out something new in order to catch Strong off guard and finally put him away. There’s not much else to say about this match, it was pretty simple but really good and honestly if every WWE match was like that, I’d have a lot less to complain about.

2 – Velveteen Dream(c) def. Tyler Breeze
(North American Championship)

A masterclass in in-ring storytelling.

When these two characters met in a Takeover match it was always going to be something special. Both of them seemed fairly niche and a bit rubbish when they were first revealed, but eventually won us all over by being amazing on the mic and really good in the ring as well. So what happens when you throw them together? Magic, that’s what.

The first three-quarters of the match were telling a very clear story, Dream is taking every opportunity to outshine Breeze as a personality, but Breeze can absolutely school Dream in the ring. Everything Dream threw Breeze’s way would get countered, and the only time Dream ever got any offense was when he was able to catch Breeze off guard, and when he did, he’d immediately go to flaunting his personality.

The moment where Dream is busy taking a mocking selfie only to suddenly turn around and realise Breeze has recovered and waiting to kick him in the face was absolute genius from whoever came up with it. The last quarter of the match shifted the story a bit to showing how dynamic and intelligent Dream is in the ring. Dream doesn’t run on instinct, he runs on planning so he works out that Breeze can wrestle circles around him, so he tries to outsmart him instead.

First, Dream deals with the constant counters, running up to the top rope for a move that Breeze will easily counter, makes it look like he’s about to jump, so Breeze leaps up ready for the dropkick, only to fake him out, leaving Breeze to crash and burn so Dream can pick him up and his the Death Valley Driver. Then there’s the finish, where Dream is able to plan three steps ahead of Breeze, knowing Breeze won’t allow the countout, Dream goes for a shot with the title that Breeze once again will easily counter, then while Breeze is “doing the right thing” and throwing the title out of the way, Dream swoops in and takes him out.

Dream wins the match not by being the better wrestler, but by being smarter, which in turn makes his personality come across stronger, which exactly what the Dream is all about.

1 – Adam Cole def. Johnny Gargano(c)
(NXT Championship)

I love it when a plan comes together.

While I loved the match these two put on in New York, I wasn’t as in love with it as everyone else was, THIS match however…holy shit.

For one thing, it lasted over 30 minutes, and it didn’t feel at all like it was too long, every part of the match felt necessary to the story and to the result. If I broke down everything then we’d be here all day, so here are some of the highlights.

Adam Cole is definitely in Gargano’s head because he was able to play him like a fiddle in this match. Cole worked the knee at every opportunity, knowing it would pay dividends later on in the match, and seemed to continuously bait Gargano into sequences were Cole could take advantage of him, the sequence of back and forth superkicks both early and late on in the match for example. The best example of this though was when Cole very obviously gave a signal for The Undisputed Era to come out, knowing Gargano would take his focus off of Cole expecting Fish, O’Reily and Strong to attack him. Cole is smart enough to know exactly what Gargano thinks he’s like and instead of trying to prove him wrong, leans into it in order to make him vulnerable.

At the end of the way though, we see exactly who Cole is, a man of his word. He said he was going to do this on his own, and he did. Yes, he’s a jerk and will use his numbers advantage when he can, but when he has something to prove, he’ll do it himself if it kills him. That’s why Cole was getting cheered over mega-babyface Gargano in this match because he’s got that cool anti-hero swagger, but he can back up every word he says because when he has confidence in his own abilities, he can both out-think and out-wrestle his opponent, even if they’re someone who could get hit by a bus and still kick out.

That’s not to take away from Gargano’s role in this match of course, because he was just as good as he always was. Gargano is a master of the little touches that take a great spot to incredible heights, like using a wristlock as leverage to turn over the Figure 4, or moving his injured knee so it was out of Cole’s reach during the GargaNo Escape. He also did a great job of getting played and falling for Cole’s tricks without looking like a total moron. Yes he fell for the bluff of Cole’s obvious gesture, but he did realise he was being fooled, it just took long enough for Cole to recover.

As much as Cole comes away from this match the champion (which I’m over the moon about by the way), you really get the feeling that these two men are equals in the ring and Cole just got the edge on Gargano this time around. There has to be one more match left in this feud, there’s just so much more story to be told.

So there you have it! Those are my thoughts on every match that happened last night! As always, please share this around on all your favourite social media sites and make sure to let me know your thoughts on the show either in the comments below or on Twitter @10ryawoo. Please join me later in the week to suffer through the hell that will be Super Showdown and then I’ve got some Doctor Who stuff on the way!

NXT Takeover Phoenix: Every Match Ranked

Finally.

I’ve been wanting to do this for ages, but I’d never really found the time. However, NO MORE, as today is the day I get to talk all about my favourite thing in modern pro-wrestling.

Admittedly, I didn’t think this Takeover was quite as good as any of the ones that took place in 2018, but, there is no such thing as a bad Takeover and it was still an extremely high-quality show. So let’s break this down match by match and look at all the lovely wrestling details that lie inside.

5 – Matt Riddle def. Kassius Ohno

This should show how good this show was because even though I’ve ranked this match as the worst, I still thought it was great.

I was pretty interested to see what kind of stuff Riddle would pull out in his first big Takeover match like this. He didn’t necessarily blow me away in this match, but it’s clear he’s a brilliant talent and hasn’t shown all he has in his arsenal just yet.

There were some pretty gnarly spots as well, with Ohno and Riddle hitting each other surprisingly hard at some points in the match. Ohno also tried to eat Riddle’s toe, which is…..fine I guess? It’s what you get for wrestling barefoot I suppose. The finish was pretty fun too, with it referencing their NXT TV match in a couple points before Riddle would pick up a decisive victory.

Ultimately this wasn’t going to be anything amazing given that these guys have already been fighting a whole bunch since Riddle debuted, but it was a good introductory feud for him, I look forward to seeing where he’s going to go next.

4 – Shayna Baszler(c) def. Bianca Belair
(NXT Women’s Championship)

Belair’s stock just got shot into the stratosphere.

This match was nowhere near the level of Baszler vs Sane, but it didn’t matter, because it did exactly what it needed to do, make Belair look like a star.

I don’t think I was alone in that I wasn’t too crazy about Belair going into this match. Granted, I liked her more than Sam Roberts seemed to, but that’s beside the point. This match completely turned my opinion around on Belair though, as it seemed like the perfect showcase for her talents. Baszler naturally came in underestimating her, and it was exactly that which allowed Belair to get in some of her better shots and almost get the win on a couple of occasions.

The finish was also great, with Belair breaking Baszler’s clutch the first time, and then almost breaking it on the second attempt before finally succumbing. She now feels like a much bigger deal than she did going into the match, and it means we don’t have to worry about what might happen to her now her UN-DEA-FEA-TED streak is over.

3 – War Raiders def. The Undisputed Era(c)
(NXT Tag Team Championships)

The team to finally take down the Undisputed Era was going to be a tricky one to work out. We thought it would be Moustache Mountain, but thanks to NXT UK starting up, UE got their titles back pretty quickly and moved on.

However, since last summer things have changed in NXT, ever since War Games, it’s felt to me like Undisputed Era are starting to wind down in NXT before bowing out later this year. Luckily, the perfect candidates to carry the titles next had just arrived in the form of War Raiders.

The thing with UE, is that, even though their small guys, you can’t just have some big dudes run them through. They proved that with Heavy Machinery, sure UE were outmuscled at every opportunity, but the whole point of UE is that their smart, they can duck and move and know exactly when to strike to ensure victory.

War Raiders aren’t just big dudes though. They’ve got the muscle sure, but these guys have the agility and speed to go with it, and they show a level of ring intelligence that UE hasn’t faced very often during their reign as champions. That’s the story I think they’re going to try and tell in the rematch, that UE were caught off guard by something new, and they lost before they could adapt.

UE has always shown such a high level of subtle, yet deep psychology that I’m seriously looking forward to this pair’s second match.

2 – Tommaso Ciampa(c) def. Aleister Black
(NXT Championship)

Kinda funny how Aleister Black’s entrance music claims “No man is ever truly evil” and yet here he’s facing the personification of evil in wrestling.

In terms of hype, this was certainly the match I was most looking forward to. Black is hands down my favourite wrestler in the world right now and Ciampa is arguably the best heel in the whole of WWE. Their styles also tend to be very hard hitting and often featuring lots of quick strikes.

I’m happy to say that’s pretty much what we got. The action here wasn’t exactly at a lightning pace, but it was deliberate and hard-hitting which helped the match feel like an absolute war. I’ll get into some of the similarities between Gargano & Ciampa’s matches later, but the callbacks to Gargano vs Black in this match were brilliant and seeing just how Ciampa was having NONE of the crap Gargano fell for.

I thought the finish was brilliant and made both men look really good, with Black kicking out of a second Fairy-Tale Ending, then being able to counter a third and only failing to hit with Black Mass because Ciampa had spent the whole match wearing down Black’s leg, before finally succumbing to a fourth Fairy-Tale Ending.

I don’t think Black is quite done with NXT just yet, and if I were to hazard a guess, I’d say a triple threat between Black, Gargano and Ciampa is on the horizon, and the way this match ended gives Black just enough to believably claim another title shot.

1 – Johnny Gargano def. Ricochet(c)
(NXT North American Championship)

Gargano strikes again, with another match of the year contender.

I don’t think anyone was ever doubting that this match was going to be brilliant, and yet I still managed to come out of this one blown away at how good it was. The extended sequences of the two going back and forth with all of the flippy stuff is just a joy to watch, and even if it’s not for you, you’ve got to admit there is an inherent sense of fun to it.

This match also gave us the continuation of the Gargano/Ciampa storyline, despite neither of them having any interactions with each other until the very end of the night. The idea that Gargano is trying to be Ciampa in order to echo his level of success is something that has never been more clear than right here, when Gargano would rip up the padding on the floor, as Ciampa would later in the night, and screaming “I win” in Ricochet’s face at the end of the match, just like Ciampa would at the end of his match.

The two of them standing side by side to end the show is just a great shot, and once again I find myself so interested for where this story’s going to go because I think it’s going to be great.

So that was my first ever NXT Takeover review! If you enjoyed it then please share it around on social media, so we can get more eyes on this, and come tell me what you thought of the show on Twitter @10ryawoo. I’ll see you soon!