Tag: Tyler Breeze

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 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!