sek69

This rain delay is outing the people in WWE who can and can't do promos off the cuff it seems.

The only issues I had was some sound drop offs with night one of Takeover, but I think that was due to it being a shared feed with USA Network and it was cutting the sound when they were going to commercial. So far the early Peacock days have been way smoother than the early Network experience was. I remember going to a friend's house to watch Mania that first Network year and it was a disaster.

Hell, it's why Apple is worth billions.

Dave made a good point by saying discount prices make you look like a discount promotion. It sounds like something that shouldn't be true, but history has borne out that every time a wrestling promotion raised their PPV prices it led to more buys. I suppose another argument for AEW to run more PPV events is when one fails to stick the landing like the last one, the bad taste lingers more than it would if there was another show in a couple of months instead of 3 to 4.

Becky Lynch posted a photo of her working out on Instagram with a caption that spelled out NIGHT ONE, so there's that.

I'm sure there's an alternate timeline where King Kong Brody is getting inducted in the AWA Hall of Fame,

I thought the show was fine enough, night one was far better of course. I think my issue with Balor-Kross was how so obvious it was that Finn's whole run was just a place holder since Kross got hurt and they had a big plan for him.

I was surprised the title match ended before 10pm, I legit forgot about the Cole/O'Reilly match lol

You and I may not get it, but Kross is basically everything WWE wants in one person so I get why they are so big on the guy. He just better hope he never falls out of favor and they end up booking Scarlett to have sex with Bobby Lashley.

Kross rocking the 80s Hercules Hernandez gladiator garb.

Guess it wouldn't be a Takeover if Shotzi didn't attempt to kill herself.

I popped for Candice sporting the female Thor entrance gear,

My man Santos sending that creep back to the garbage heap he belongs.

Well to be fair it wasn't by design since he was stuck in the UK for a year.

The best part of all this is how it was a completely unnecessary unforced error on WWE's part. All those years with Impact being the only other company to crack national TV left them overconfident to take on a company not run by a complete idiot and treat it the same way.

I was thinking how normally that would be a lame finish but I 100% believe a chop from WALTER would end a man. Plus loved how they established the left handed chops weren't as effective so he was forced to use the injured hand to finish it.

They got Warrior's first wife (not the one who does stuff for WWE now) to contribute, so that should be interesting to see.

The thing with WALTER is not so much he doesn't want to travel to the US, it's that he has regular bookings and his school (I think he's still involved with that) in Europe and doesn't want to leave those for extended periods of time. I get the impression he's only here now to get some work in due to *gestures at everything going on*. Plus I don't see him being one to put up with Vince's Vince-ness very much so I wouldn't expect him to be on the main roster other than maybe a one off appearance.

I can just imagine the unflattering outfits Vince would have WALTER wear on the main roster.

So anyway, NXT was pretty good. WALTER and Ciampa beat the piss out of each other, MSK got their big win, and Raquel got the rocket. I assume Io is going to be the "debut the day after Mania" pop this year.

That seems a bit harsh, he wants to be there since it helps him cope with the sudden loss of his dad to hang out with people who clearly loved him. If they were doing angles with him like some wrestler claiming to be his his real dad, I could see it being exploitative.

This is the same company that had to change the name of a main roster women's faction because it was the same as a porn site, so maybe not?

That would be a pretty big slap in the face to everyone in NXT UK to say a guy being held together with rubber bands and hope is a better option.

Time for Ciampa to die for our sins courtesy of WALTER.

Starting off solid with Dunne/Kushida