NXT TakeOver: San Antonio/Royal Rumble Weekend

[KawadaSmile]

 

Really smart, really good idea of having Rollins invade Triple H's baby. Amazing.

 

Was that the first time we actually saw Triple H acting like the usual version of Triple H in an NXT environment?

 

Indeed it was. Him playing the heel on his own playground is such a simple, yet effective idea. Rollins looked his best ever since his return from injury.

[hammerva]

I thought over the top crazy Nikki Cross was too much. I was so so wrong she is awesome. You can put her in a straight jacket and she would still be effective she is that bat shit crazy

[stro]

Says a lot about the state of NXT where a non-confrontation between Seth/HHH (a feud that has no heat or juice on Raw) is by far the hottest and most exciting thing on a Takeover event.

[hammerva]

Loved seeing Matt Riddle photobomb Tyler Bates

 

Seriously Percy Watson should be fired alone for the "why do you need 6 women to begin with " comment <_>

 

As much as we weren't that excited about Nakamura vs Roode, the crowd says otherwise. This crowd is electric for this match and that never happens for a bobby Roode match

[El Dragon]

Is this the biggest "Contrast of Styles" match that has ever Main Evented a WWE show? Cause I have 0 idea how this match is even going to be worked, cause Nak working a Roode style match would probably be boring and Roode working a Nak style match seems like it's insanity.

[Coffey]

Unless Tye is actually going to the main roster, having him lose to Eric Young seems really stupid. I mean based on the storyline he really is a loser who should leave

 

He's a jobber. Just so happens that his gimmick got over with the NXT fans, much like Blue Pants. He's just simply in the role that CJ Parker used to fill but he left, so now we get Tye.

[El Dragon]

It's probably a problem then when your undercard jobber is the 2nd most over person on your roster.

[Coffey]

It's probably a problem then when your undercard jobber is the 2nd most over person on your roster.

 

Says more about the shitty NXT fans than the booking, honestly. Bobby Roode is over because of his theme song, so...

[El Dragon]

Wait, so fans getting really behind someone makes them shitty fans, but the booking has apparently been good in the last 6 months? There has been tons of problems with the booking for a while now.

[hammerva]

Fuck I hate to see Roode win the title but congratulation on having the best match of your career

 

So are we not going to Nakamura vs Ohno now?

[KawadaSmile]

This overdelivered. A completely unremarkable card was actually one of the best TakeOvers from top to bottom and had the best men's main event since I dunno, Zayn/Neville?

[El Dragon]

This overdelivered. A completely unremarkable card was actually one of the best TakeOvers from top to bottom and had the best men's main event since I dunno, Zayn/Neville?

 

Wow, I disagree with almost all of this pretty strongly. I thought this is one of the worst Takeovers ever, even though I liked the 4 Way and Strong/Andrade a good amount, and Roode Nakamura wasn't even close to Joe/Balor from Dallas. It was middling match with a good finish.

[KawadaSmile]

I thought the Joe/Balor feud was pretty damn bad, really, at least from an in-ring perspective. None of their matches really made me feel anything.

[hammerva]

Yeah I remember thinking Strong vs Almas would be the best match on the show giving how weak the rest of the card was. The women's 4 way wasn't great technical but a great story given Billie Kay and Petyon Roice limited skills. Nikki Cross really care off like a superstar I thought. DIY vs Authors of Pain was a lot better than any Authors of Pain match should be. And that was probably the best Bobby Roode match ever.

 

Maybe this is all damning with faint praise given how little I thought about this earlier today but this show was a thumb up for me.

[El Dragon]

It was in every other match other then Dallas, I agree. But the Dallas match was fucking great.

[Coffey]

People on Twitter are going bananas over this show but I thought it was very lackluster with a few disappointing outcomes.

 

Maybe we'll get both Samoa Joe and Shinsuke Nakamura on the main roster soon? Not really a lot of reason left for me to keep tabs on NXT. I certainly don't care about Bobby Roode, Eric Young or Billie Kay. Authors of Pain are... woof.

[Coffey]

Wait, so fans getting really behind someone makes them shitty fans, but the booking has apparently been good in the last 6 months? There has been tons of problems with the booking for a while now.

 

No, the NXT crowds and the recent booking both stink. I'm not saying that the booking is good, I said it says more about the shitty fans than the booking. I'm saying that Bobby Roode is only over because of his theme song. The same way Tye Dillinger is over for that stupid 10 chant and how Blue Pants was over. If that Glorious theme song was on literally anyone else, they would also be over. Regardless of good or bad booking. That crowd is cheering that song. Period.

[KawadaSmile]

It was in every other match other then Dallas, I agree. But the Dallas match was fucking great.

That was the one were Joe bled almost immediatly right? His performance there was very good, but the constant stoppage and bullshit finish with the flash pin were just too much for me. That was the best time for a title change.

[hammerva]

Completely agree with Roode being over only for the entrance and song. Once the bell rings he kind of gets X-Pac heat.

 

While it is mostly the "10" gimmick, I think Tye is over a good deal because the people in Florida know him for such a long time as this "good hand" . He has been doing this gimmick for a long time and it really wasn't until the Almas match that the crowd started accepting him.

[C.S.]

Possibly the worst TakeOver yet? It still had its moments though.

 

Tye Dillinger vs. Eric Young: Took forever to get decent, but the final few minutes were okay. Young's current character is not an act with any legs, but Tye is under-utilized. His charisma and facials seem a bit limited, but he's worked this "Perfect 10" gimmick to the hilt.

 

Andrade Cien Almas vs. Roderick Strong: Strong is the definition of a "vanilla midget." He is someone who has zero chance of succeeding on the main roster, and I think he'll end up fizzling out in NXT before long too, a la Solomon Crowe. Put some paint or a mask on this kid - because he's as bland as can be. I don't care about what he did in the bingo halls and armories of ROH - it means nothing now and doesn't translate at all to NXT/WWE. Almas is slowly growing on me, but his stint so far definitely has to be considered a disappointment considering the hype and positive projections he came in with.

 

Tag Team Title Match: Authors of Pain are still rough and raw, but they have a cool look at least? Was hoping for a #DIY breakup, but maybe we'll get that eventually? The glory days of Revival matches stealing the show seem to be over for now. AoP are far from that level. Maybe #DIY will regain the titles at the next PPV and split down the road? I doubt it though. I think this AoP push is going to last a while.

 

Seth Rollins: A cool idea, I guess, but the execution was lacking. I actually forgot all about it until I read the thread. Having Triple H come out only to leave and unleash nameless security goons was really anticlimactic. It might help if I cared about this feud in the first place, but I don't. This Seth segment should have been much hotter and felt a lot more historical (he was the first NXT Champion), but it kind of fizzled out IMO.

 

Women's Title Match: Match of the night, even though I do recognize it involved a lot of shortcuts and garbage wrestling. Still, it worked. This is the most interesting Asuka has been.

 

Main Event: Roode's character is glorious - his in-ring work is anything but. J.R. would call him "methodical" between the ropes - I just call him boring. Nakamura's "injury" and selling fooled me at the end though, because Nak has been really inconsistent about selling. Not a great match, but a nice finishing stretch.

 

The bloom is really off the rose for NXT, and this thread is proof of it. Previous TakeOver threads have gotten 6, 7, 8, 9 pages. This one barely has 3.

[stro]

What a not good show. NXT has been not interesting for quite a while, but this was for sure in the bottom 2-3 Takeovers. Nothing about it was good, and at absolute best it was "meh".

[Alucard]

Glorious! Didn't expect a title change but Roode is probably my favorite guy in NXT so very cool.

[Exposer]

Tough crowd around here eh? I thought it was a fantastic show & possibly a top 3 TakeOver of all time. Great booking & every match delivered on some level. I thought Nak's selling was phenomenal in the main event & Roode did a perfectly fine job with character work during the match. Also thought AOP looked really good in the tag title match which was excellent. A couple of really great false finishes & a nice, decisive finish for AOP. Dillinger-Young I can see some not enjoying but mostly for Young & his poor worn selling on the mat. Tye & Roode may be really over for their gimmick & entrances but I find them to be charismatic & perfectly good hands in the ring. The Rollins-HHH angle was great too & actually got worked which gives me some hope for that program even if I'm not a fan of either guy. Rumble as a mountain to climb because I thought this show rocked.

[Ricky Jackson]

Yeah I really liked this show too. Not sure what 90% of this thread was watching

[Jimmy Redman]

Y'all are sitting here carrying on like pork chops and excuse me, I'm sorry but SHINSUKE NAKAMURA JUST SAILED A STROBE LIT BOAT TO THE RING.

 

I dead set hate this place after Takeovers.

 

And I mean, not only did he do that but he also dragged Bobby Roode to the greatest match he'll ever have in his entire life. There is always a moment in every Roode match - even after I'm done singing "GLORIOUS" for the seventeenth time - when he takes over and starts stinking up the joint in control where I think to myself "Oh right, this is a Bobby Roode match. I almost forgot." I had that same moment in this match when he took over, but then this magical thing happened where they ended the heat and everything after that point was fucking awesome. There was a point when Shinsuke came back where he was throwing these fucking disgusting, hard, shoot kicks to Roode's head, for no apparent reason other than pure insanity or possibly Roode talking shit about his mother and his sister in the preceding three seconds, we'll never know, but holy shit I was sitting here bursting out laughing in amazement at Shinsuke legit trying to kill this man live on television.

 

And then, just when you think you know where this is going, they make a sharp turn and Shinsuke hurts his knee and we get this insanely dramatic finish that you can't look away from and they drag it out and add those twists and it makes perfect sense that Bobby fucking Roode can pin Nakamura clean for the title but it was still heartbreaking and you still had announcers screaming "NO! NOT LIKE THIS!" in despair over a clean finish and just damn. Every asshole who has been saying "I didn't like how Nakamura dropped off the leg selling.." after every Takeover, this one is for you homie because that was the best sell job of anything on NXT since Hero tried to murder Mr. Regal almost four years ago.

 

The other great thing was that the first 5 minutes of taunting and shit was taken pretty verbatim from the 6-man they worked at the Sydney house show for shits and giggles and it warmed my heart to see it on telly. When I saw that in December I said that it sold me on them having a Takeover match, and I was fucking right.

 

I liked everything about the women's match, from the conception (Asuka copping it from all sides, so she goes up to Mr. Regal and books herself into a Fatal Four Way so she can kill and eat all these bitches at once because she is a BAD. FUCKING. ASS.) to the execution. Positioning Asuka vs Nikki as the money match that kept getting broken up by the heel girls was smart. Taking Nikki out with the big table spot was also smart and cool as hell since girls never get to do that shit unless they're having a designated garbage match. And they somehow found a way for the mean girls to believably get heat on Asuka and then a LEGIT NEARFALL when Peyton Royce hit the BIGGEST WIDOW'S PEAK OF ALL TIME and then Asuka BRIDGES OUT LIKE A FUCKING PSYCHO. And then kills them all. I have literally never seen Nikki Cross before in my life, but I was so into this and the idea that they left those two on the table (pun intended) that I would be perfectly happy if they left Ember for another day and built to a big Asuka vs Nikki Mania Takeover match.

 

I thought DIY vs AOP was really good too, they approached the size difference well and built to the big payoff of Ciampa going on a roll and managing to suplex both guys. It wasn't a Revival match, but few things are, and it was still a great little tag match with good work, cool moves, twists and turns, and a creative yet decisive finish. I was so into this by the end that I was super bummed that the heels took the titles from them. I'm still mad thinking about it now.

 

The worst parts of the show were the times when WWE crept into it - adding an ersatz Byron Saxton for Corey to argue with, when arguing with Byron is the absolute worst part of his announcing and why he's so much worse on Raw than NXT. I have nothing against Percy Watson but he added nothing and cost a lot for how it affected the tone. Also Rollins bringing his shitty heatless angle to NXT and trying to make Hunter a heel on an NXT show was stupid as fuck. Just no.