NXT TakeOver: XXV

[sek69]

3 minutes ago, NintendoLogic said:

What would Gargano do on the main roster? He has no ready-made feuds, and all the singles champions are babyfaces. He'd be just another midcard geek lost in the shuffle.

I believe Dave mentioned that when folks get called up, it starts a new three year WWE contract. I wouldn't be surprised to see more seemingly "random" callups happen to make sure the ones seen as particularly valuable are tied up as long as possible.

[SmartMark15]

I've been along for the ride with NXT these past few years but it's kind of jumped the sharked for me with Cole winning. It was inevitable but I dreaded the day.

[C.S.]

Dr. Britt Baker was apparently in the audience (Cole is her BF).

If Cole was in the audience for All Out, how quickly would he be punished by WWE?

[Mad Dog]

5 minutes ago, SmartMark15 said:

I've been along for the ride with NXT these past few years but it's kind of jumped the sharked for me with Cole winning. It was inevitable but I dreaded the day.

I don't hate him but I don't want to see him as champion and the Undisputed Era has been played out for awhile now.

[sek69]

4 minutes ago, C.S. said:

Dr. Britt Baker was apparently in the audience (Cole is her BF).

If Cole was in the audience for All Out, how quickly would he be punished by WWE?

Not only was she there, she was in the shot when they did the stand-up thing with Steph in the front row.  I doubt Steph was sitting there all night, so that had to have been done purposely on their part.

[ColdStone]

ADAM COLE BAY BAY!

Loved him becoming nXt Champion! Second Grand Slam Champion in nXt!

I know some people don't like it but the crowd was hot for him and he is a solid worker through and through. I am kinda bummed Johnny Wrestling dropped the title. I don't know if maybe his "injury" had a play in dropping the belt, but I'm alright with the title change.

I enjoyed every match besides the women's wrestling one. I don't care for women's wrestling. Never have and never will it's nothing against them just don't care for it. Very enjoyable show and Takeover yet again shines brighter than any Main Roster PPV especially this dreadful one coming up next week.

[EricR]

Spent a day at my folks hearing my mom tell the same stories a dozen times with no break for breath, figured I would still try to write up as much of the TakeOver as possible before I zonk out. Pretty hot start with Riddle/Strong:

https://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2019/06/nxt-takeover-xxv-6119.html

[hammerva]

Unless Gargano is moving up to the main roster (may God have mercy on his soul), taking the belt off of him now is just stupid.  Johnny singles run has been this entire cycle

1.  Loses a bunch of times and people call him a failure

2.  Wins a very important match for a title and you think he can turned the corner

3.  Loses that title almost immediately

Did it with the North American title and now with heavyweight.  

[sek69]

Yeah, and in between him and Tomasso get seemingly called up to the main roster as a package deal despite them knowing Ciampa's neck could be turned to dust in a strong breeze.  Despite that completely fucking up a years worth of NXT stories,  they did it anyway and then sent Johnny back after a couple weeks. I still have no idea why that was done, in retrospect it almost seems like it was just Vince fucking with Hunter. 

 

[rovert]

7 hours ago, Coffey said:

This show has sucked. Everyone has felt a step slow & like they're moving in molasses. Also there's been a lot of ugly bumps & what I think, wrong booking decisions. But the live crowd is eating it all up, so maybe I'm just really out of touch. 

How many fucking superkicks has this main event had? Why did Io not win? 

You are out of touch 

[rovert]

7 hours ago, SmartMark15 said:

I've been along for the ride with NXT these past few years but it's kind of jumped the sharked for me with Cole winning. It was inevitable but I dreaded the day.

How? He has some of the best matches in Takeover history and has the crowd eating out his hand?

[SmartMark15]

36 minutes ago, rovert said:

How? He has some of the best matches in Takeover history and has the crowd eating out his hand?

I'm just not a fan of Cole. Not denying that he's over, he clearly is but nothing about him particularly appeals to me. And as for some of the best matches, well, not for me either.

[Coffey]

If you like fucking superkicks though, boy howdy was that match for you!

[Mad Dog]

12 hours ago, sek69 said:

It's like a ROH show, nothing's terrible but it seems like everyone's kind of running in place.

I thought about it more and I think you are dead on with this. That was a big part of the problem. Almost all of the matches were guys just treading water. It didn't really feel like anyone moved up or down the card based on the matches. It felt like a bunch of stuff happened and everyone is still where they were going into the show.

[The Thread Killer]

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.

[Coffey]

23 minutes ago, The Thread Killer said:

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.

When I was watching AEW Double or Nothing, it felt like they were doing a very specific, something for everyone style approach. I'm not the type of fan that a Young Bucks match is going to appeal to. That, to me, is the antithesis of what is good pro-wrestling. However, there's a market for that match style. My preferred match style would be the Cody/Dustin match. The blood match. The old school Southern wrestling feeling heated match with good story-telling. That's the match that was for me. So on Double or Nothing, as a fan, as a viewer, I was happy. I got Cody/Dustin and the other fans got Bucks/Lucha Bros & everyone is happy.

Last night on NXT TakeOver, which match was supposed to be for fans like me? The closest one is probably Shayna/Io & I think the wrong person won. I didn't get a Cody/Dustin match. I got car crashed & false finishes & a ton of moves.

It DEFINITELY wasn't the main event, which was just their version of the Young Bucks modern-day Indie style match. With six-thousand moves that don't mean shit, kicking out of everything & waiting for crowd chants.

Who is NXT trying to cater to? What's the demographic? I've been watching pro-wrestling for thirty years & that show didn't feel like it was for me. And I usually love TakeOver. I've liked I think all but two of them. They're usually above-and-beyond. But last night, I wasn't feeling it. So it's not a case of just being negative for contrarian sake on my part or whatever, there was a real disconnect last night.

[Mad Dog]

Also I still believe the Mania weekend Takeover has an argument of being the greatest wrestling show of all time. So I have liked stuff they have done just as recently as a couple of months ago. This show felt like it was hampered by a lot of bad booking decisions that have accumulated into the results of this show. Why did Cole get a rematch he didn't earn? Why did the Street Profits get jobbed if you were going to give them the belts? Why have you killed an entire division for Shayna?

[El-P]

35 minutes ago, Coffey said:

I got Cody/Dustin and the other fans got Bucks/Lucha Bros & everyone is happy.

And people like me who love both got both. How better than this can you get ?

[Makai Club #1]

Main event was not my cup of tea. Definitely something I should should skip for the foreseeable future as far as Cole (or Gargano) is concerned. But the rest was fun. Really good show, like Takeovers usually are. Everything from start to Baszler/Io was either very good or at least fun in its own way. The show had good pacing, had the matches in the correct spots and didn't feel like a total drag to watch. The crowd was loud in a good way for the most part too. Nothing I'd consider great on this show which is the only downside for the show overall but make no mistake, watch most of these matches. Some of the winners were a bit suspect, such as Baszler vs Shirai but I'm down with another match between the two, as far as it leads to a good pay off. 

[Zoo Enthusiast]

Thought it was definitely a lower-tier Takeover but I really liked Breeze/Dream & Riddle/Strong.

[Boss Rock]

Still haven't seen all of the show, but Riddle-Strong was terrific and the ladder match was every bit the fun spotfest it needed to be. Really worried they were gonna go with Forgotten Sons but they finally did the thing with the Profits. Io-Shayna was really good from what I saw but post-match aside, continuing Shayna's reign as champ is the definition of uninspired. Even if they're building to Shayna-Candice, they're about a year or so too late. Didn't hate the ME but didn't really pay attention to it either. Seemed more excessive than their last match and while that match felt more earned with the kick-outs, this match just felt like they were trying to top themselves for no reason.

As much as Cole doesn't "wow" me as a singles wrestler, he does seem to gel with people well and he's a really good heel, so I'm interested in how this reign goes. But the fact that it comes just a month after Johnny seemed to finally put all his past failures behind him seems kinda dumb.

[sek69]

The biggest difference between the two companies is if you didn't like something on an AEW show, there will probably be something you did since nearly every match is different. If you didn't like something on a WWE/NXT show you probably won't like the whole show since everything is homogenized 

[Mad Dog]

Yeah, NXT has gotten really samey the last year or so. I feel like there used to be a lot more match diversity on their cards a few years ago.

[Zoo Enthusiast]

5 hours ago, Mad Dog said:

Yeah, NXT has gotten really samey the last year or so. I feel like there used to be a lot more match diversity on their cards a few years ago.

Also, every show I get to that point where I see how much time is left for the main event and I see 45-50 minutes and audibly groan.  The shows would be better if they stuck to a tighter 2 hours.  I have also seen enough ladder matches to last a lifetime at this point.