[2019-01-26-WWE-NXT Takeover: Phoenix] Ricochet vs Johnny Gargano

[paul sosnowski]

Ricochet defends the NXT North American title.   Talk about it here

[Kadaveri]

I thought this was the worst match on the show. Went on way too long and nothing seemed to have any point to it until they get to Gargano tearing up the floor padding, didn't really need 25 minutes to tell that story. Ricochet's obsession with non-stop flipping is getting really tedious to me now, he can be really good sometimes but he's jumping the shark here. One point he sells a superkick by doing a flying backflip through the air, which if you're gonna do that at least sell it like its the most devastating kick to the head ever, only he's literally lifting Gargano up and giving him a body slam 3 seconds later. There is the odd cool spot in this incoherent mess and the ending had direction to it, but overall: Bad.

*3/4

[Tenese Sarwieh]

I had high expectations hoping that these would live up to the fantastic match they had WM Weekend 2014, well they did that and then some. They had the mindset of we're going to have the best PWG match we can. I know some on the board hated all the flips from Ricochet but he execute them so perfectly, MOTN for me.

[ShittyLittleBoots]

An overly long PWG-style spotfest. Some people like that kind of stuff, but I sure goddamn don't. And the thing about bad PWG spotfests is that they usually never go 2-fuggen'-5 minutes. My least favorite match of 2018 was Gargano's match vs. Black from Takeover, and this was a couple of storytelling!!1 dialogues away from being on the level of that. Not the kind of wrestling that I like to say the least. *

[Makai Club #1]

This was one of those matches that would either deliver a ton or absolutely bomb. And I feel like it was the latter, if I’m honest. This match failed to connect with me. It was just SO dull. So, so dull. None of the action was entertaining, not the flips, not the submission attempts. Nothing. I found Gargano’s heel work really forced and not natural at all which isn’t a total surprise because whilst Gargano is an excellent babyface, he is also a bad heel. It wasn’t just Gargano though. Ricochet added nothing but his aerial moves which looked great but nothing flowed well at all. The set up and execution felt off, somewhat. The structure was so jaaring. Big move, rest, big move, rest. No thanks. The pacing was awful too, everything dragged at a snail's pace and it just made the match even worse. I never experienced this match, I endure it. Sorry but 1/4*

 

[Edwin]

Yeah, I wasn't a fan of this and felt it was the worse match on the show also and as mentioned previoulsy and as I mentioned in the TakeOver thread -- this is as close to a PWG-style match as you'll get in a WWE ring. I could see why those live dug this and can see why those who like the PWG-style would like this, but it's simply not for me.

I felt it they really needed to stop 4-5 nearfalls and big spots before they did. At the end I was convinced Gargano would have pulled up his car and ran Ricochet over with his car and he would have still managed to kick out at 2.99 and given his shocked facial expression that would have received a close up and This is awesome! chant.

[nivvad]

NXT storytelling the past year has been very hit or miss for me in the past year, even if the actual matches are worked really well. The misses in my opinion were the 2nd and 3rd Gargano/Ciampa and the Gargano/Black matches. Fortunately, I can say this didn't go down the melodramatic route and just stayed a straight up athletic contest which is my kind of match. This took a while to get going, but when it eventually did it really reminded me why I really liked Gargano in the first place. Yes there was typical indie spots and sequences like you would expect from a match featuring Ricochet and Gargano, but everything felt perfectly worked here. Nothing felt masturbatory, which is an entirely different NXT problem, and both guys played their roles well. I irked at Gargano almost shitting the bed once again with not using the concrete the first time, but eventually he grew some fucking balls in this weird teenager character development and used the concrete to win. What made that finish even more satisfying is he didn't even have to use his regular finisher to win the match!, ****3/4.