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NXT Takeover: The End


Ricky Jackson

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Tag match was easy MOTN. Lots of slightly iffy execution on spots but nothing major. I wish Dash and Dawson had cheated to win though.

 

Good God was Aries's heat segment absolutely horrible. Guy seems to have no idea how to do compelling heel work. Match was carried by the crowd and Nakamura's selling/charisma. I don't think that apron DVD spot could have been placed at a worse point in the match. They just made it mean nothing.

 

WWE cage match rules make the match less violent than a normal match. People are really starting to come around on Balor not being all that good now. That corny-ass Demon entrance has to be at least top 5 on the list of current wrestling things I'd be embarrassed to show my non-wrestling friends.

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Asuka vs Nia Jaxx. Ok, sorry, but it was really Asuka doing 90% of the work, running, moving, bumping and selling for Jaxx decent but unimpressive power spots. Jaxx has no aura. The fact she's got a cute makeup and awful generic r'n'b theme doesn't help, it's like her gimmick is "I'm a big girl but I'm fine with it." She looks like a servicable big girl worker without charisma at best, a sorta Eagle Sawaii if you will, or a much cuter Gary Allbright. Hell, Monster Ripper as Bertha Faye was much more scary. Asuka did a terrific job though, but it never felt anything but an exercise in teaching how do work with a green and limited opponent. Me want Asuka vs a serious opponent. Gimme Emma.

 

Did you see Asuka/Emma from Takeover: London? Loved that match, one of my favorites of last year.

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I like the entrance, but it's the only thing that's any different about him when he's in demon mode. He does a flashy entrance but then he wrestles the same.

Yeah. I appreciate that he's basically trying to do a Mutoh/Muta gimmick, but he does need to try to change up what he does in the ring when he's playing his alter-ego.

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Still not sold on Nia. She is doing nothing for me. Until I see a great Nia match that doesn't include Bayley and or Asuka, I will continue to not be impressed. Put Nia in there with Ember (or is it Amber) and let's see what happens. Hell, put here in there with some of the lesser talent like Bliss, Carmella, etc. and let's see what's really going on. At the end of the day she is the heaviest and tallest of the women and yet I don't get that killer feel from her like I did with Awesome Kong. Kong, at times, would also do some pretty amazing stuff for a woman her size and Nia is still not showing any of that.

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I thought the show was pretty good, but a predictable step back after the last one.

 

Almas vs Dillinger was better than I thought it would be. I honestly thought Dillinger's popularity was going to derail Almas a bit, but his showcase spots stuck and the live crowd helped put him over. I like that Dillinger didn't come off a complete loser here. This felt like a match they could run back if they wanted to make it a feud with no issues, even though they likely wont.

 

Tag match was fire. It is has been beaten to death, but those teams are really good together. I am glad the revival went over clean. I am a sucker for heels winning clean from time to time. This wasn't that much of a shock to be honest. I thought they kind of hinted at the Revival getting it back with them having the shock loss on TV and being more present than AA recently. The match itself was really good. They sprinked in some AA spot moments that might have bothered in in another match, but really acted as punctuation in this one. This was probably a better match than their last one, but with less emotional investment. Just an overall great performance.

 

I was into the run in after too.

 

I really liked Nakamura vs Aries. It wasn't either man's absolute best, but it was fun and different. Aries getting so much of the match was fine. None of the critiques about him not selling the ribs or not getting heat really bothered me. Aries probably could turn up the heel a bit, but he has been sort of booked as face to this point. He has been a heel in a face spot more or less, so I think he walked that line pretty well. To me, he isn't a full heel right now and so him playing that in the match might have prematurely turned him. I assume they have plans for his full switch or maybe they are slow burning it. Either way, this was nuanced work to my eye. I thought the way he executed the story of staying just ahead of Nak, of having him well scouted played well into who and what Aries is, especially in NXT. The end did feel abrupt. I loved the DVD on the apron, but once the finish came shortly after it lost some sting.

 

Nia vs Asuka was fine. I want to like Nia more than I do. I like her in theory. I like the set of tools she can bring to a match. I like the idea of how good a match with her could be. However when I am actually watching her she loses me. There is something about her. Her selling bothers me and she still seems more limited than I imagine her being in my head. She is improving for sure, but every time I see her I get less interested in her. I imagine one day in the future she will just click with me where her work catches up to the expectations I have and I will be on board. This felt like Asuka working REALLY hard. It was a fine match and a good story.

 

Cage match. I liked it a little better than most I think. I thought it was good, but not great. I have been off the Balor bandwagon for a bit. I agree with most people. He needs to work a match differently as the demon. I thought he kind of did that at first, but not anymore. Honestly, he overuses it to. Its basically "takeover" Balor. It doesn't feel special anymore. Joe is the man right now. he is killing it. I thought Joe really carried the final stretch of the match and that is what I liked about it. I also hate escape cage matches, but I am at least glad this ended with a definitive pin. Not only that, I am glad the pin came because Balor was trying to escape. I am sure they didn't mean this, but that just plays right into what I saw in their interview. Balor was being whiny and here is trying to get away from Joe to win. Joe was being confident and here he grabbed Balor, planted him in the ring and pinned him.

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I like the entrance, but it's the only thing that's any different about him when he's in demon mode. He does a flashy entrance but then he wrestles the same.

this has been my biggest problem with him in NXT from day one. Especially since the announcers constantly put over how dark and violent he becomes as The Demon. But he never does *anything* different. It's like as a full-up production team they all get the concept but nobody has figured out that he actually needs to behave differently for it to work.

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I thought the first few times he did it he was a bit more aggressive. he moved with more urgency and he had that "BALOR MAD" fireup near the end where I think he thinks he is doing heelish stuff, but he is really just kind of acting a little mean. Then he more or less adopted that into all his matches and it lost any of its impact.

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I like the entrance, but it's the only thing that's any different about him when he's in demon mode. He does a flashy entrance but then he wrestles the same.

this has been my biggest problem with him in NXT from day one. Especially since the announcers constantly put over how dark and violent he becomes as The Demon. But he never does *anything* different. It's like as a full-up production team they all get the concept but nobody has figured out that he actually needs to behave differently for it to work.

 

He also seems to do it for every single big event, which makes it meaningless. He should've wrestled some Takeover events without the face paint. If Finn were to go up against Joe, lose a few matches, then decide to bust out demon Finn and wrestle differently, it would actually make some sense. It also somehow looks more third-rate than it did in NJPW.

 

Finn Balor is possibly the wrestler with the greatest mechanical proficiency that I just can't care much about. I don't know if he was a beneficiary of favorable circumstances in NJPW with the Bullet Club, or if he is just a bad example of the WWE approach to creating wrestlers with a predictable formula. His main event run in NXT has rarely seemed like the most important or interesting thing on the show, and unless he's given an inordinate push on the main roster he won't stand out and he'll quickly fall down the card.

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A few comments alluded to the production during the main event, but man...almost the entirety of the match was shot from the floor, looking up at the ring. It got to the point that I forgot if they even had a hard camera. Then they would go to it for no more than one or two seconds at a time, and then a ton of cuts between the floor cameras. An uncomfortable watch.

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A few comments alluded to the production during the main event, but man...almost the entirety of the match was shot from the floor, looking up at the ring. It got to the point that I forgot if they even had a hard camera. Then they would go to it for no more than one or two seconds at a time, and then a ton of cuts between the floor cameras. An uncomfortable watch.

 

 

They were desperately trying to hide the fact that it was a shorter cage than the usual WWE one so their solution was to use the Andre shot the whole time.

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Hello Guys and Gals,

 

I wanted to take the time to share my NXT Takeover: The End Thoughts with all of you - http://a-fans-perspective.16mb.com/nxt-takeover/a-fantastic-nxt-tag-team-titles-match-highlights-nxt-takeover-the-end-wednesday-8th-june-2016-show-thoughts/ - If you like them feel free to Favourite/Like/Re-Tweet/Share, thanks!

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