I thought this was a really solid show, I really enjoyed it a lot. There were no 5 Star classics, but there were no duds, either. The match I enjoyed the least was the Main Event, but it was still entertaining enough...I just get the impression that Shawn Michaels is laying a lot of these matches out and is trying to do so using the blueprint of some of his Wrestlemania "epics." I'm still an old school style "less is more" guy, and I've never liked the use of multiple finishers, especially the same move over and over again. I think the Superkick has become the most overused move in Pro-Wrestling today. Also, I'm not a huge fan of Adam Cole, admittedly. To me, he's a lot like Bobby Roode. He's a solid worker and a fair promo. He's not actively bad, but he's somewhat bland and unremarkable and he's been pushed beyond his ability. But I guess somebody important sees something in him.
I really like The Undisputed Era, and I am not keen on seeing them called up and turning into the next Sanity...where they disappear for months, are never used and end up disbanding. I know they are more talented than Sanity, don't get me wrong...but since when has talent and ability determined how well NXT acts perform on the main roster? I especially like Fish & O'Reilly, but I don't want to see them get called up either. WWE already has The Revival, who many (myself included) consider the best active Tag Team in wrestling today - and they're doing back shaving skits with them. I don't want to see Fish & O'Reilly suffer the same fate. Selfishly, I'd rather see them overstay their welcome in NXT. And like I said earlier in this thread, Strong is pretty much doomed if he gets called up. Hell, most of these guys are.
Look at Gargano. He's awesome. He's been in some of the best matches in all of Pro Wrestling over the past couple of years, but with his size, look and promos skills do you honestly think Vince would do anything with him? He's already doing the undersized scrappy underdog gimmick with Ali, Ricochet and Rey to a degree, not to mention he has smaller guys like Cedric and Buddy Murphy on the main roster and he's doing exactly jack shit with those guys. I don't think I've even heard of either of them getting any TV time since the so-called "brand split." Gargano is awesome but he's pretty much doomed if he gets called up again. I am trying to hard to look at NXT exactly the way they are promoting it, as an alternative to the main roster and a separate brand altogether. That's the only way I can enjoy this stuff, to not focus on what is invariably going to happen to these guys when they get promoted.
Looking at it independently and in the larger picture, I'll be honest, and I know a lot of people will disagree with me, call me a troll or tell me I'm crazy - but as an overall show I preferred this Takeover to Double or Nothing. I freely admit, there was nothing on this show that was anywhere near as good as Cody/Dustin, but there was nothing anywhere near as bad as the gawd awful Battle Royal either. Dream/Breeze wildly outperformed my expectations. I guess I'd pretty much written Tyler Breeze off and I wasn't prepared for how much Velveteen Dream had improved. I'd take the Ladder Match from this show over that Young Bucks spotfest any day, and the Main Event of this show was better than Omega vs. Jericho II, as far as I'm concerned. I found the AEW PPV to be wildly inconsistent, whereas this show maintained quality throughout. That's just my opinion. But it seems to me that some people went into this show determined not to like it, just as some people went into Double or Nothing determined to love it, regardless of the quality.
I know it looks like nobody is going to agree with me, and that's fine...but I think this show was damn good.
