[2019-06-01-WWE-NXT TakeOver: XXV] Johnny Gargano vs Adam Cole

[paul sosnowski]

Johnny Gargano defends the NXT Heavyweight title.  Talk about it here

[MikeCampbell]

I liked this one a lot more than their 2/3 Falls match. There were still things I could have done without, like the finisher stealing and the zillion superkicks. But, they did a good job of using the hurt limbs to get themselves ahead in the match, and also to get themselves out of trouble. After the Destroyer in Young Bucks match in AEW was a totaly throwaway, it was nice to see it used to give Cole a near fall, and then to set up the finish. 

[Makai Club #1]

Didn’t seem never ending although it felt long. And a better match layout. But that’s really all. There was some uninspiring leg work by Cole which is inevitably no sold for much longer than it is sold only to come back in the finish for no real reason. Some more awful 50/50 move for move/no sells that don’t add anything and looked bad. Too many false finishes involving moves that are supposed to be killer moves later in the finish like the Panama surprise on the floor. If they wanted to kill the move, they did that but they clearly didn’t. You know, mostly everything that happened in New York. Just better than that match though. Not a compliment. I would compliment the crowd for being super hot but I found them obnoxious like they usually are in the main events. 

[ShittyLittleBoots]

A BIT better than the 2/3 match, but still awful. The positives are that I liked some of the knee & arm targeting by both guys; the kneework by Cole actually made the set-up for the Panama Sunrise logical & good for once during the finishing stretch, as Gargano sold it dramatically there. Also dug Cole's facecrusher to the knee from the Burning Hammer position. Now what I DIDN'T like was the fact that they had to have around 400 nearfalls once again, the shitty superkicks, the generic indy strike sequencez, especially that one with Cole spamming shitty bicycle kicks, no selling of shitty strikes, finisher stealing because STORYTELLINGZ~! - this kind of stuff just isn't for me. I wasn't expecting anything else from the two, but I watched it with an open mind regardless. *1/4

[Cap]

I actually liked this significantly less than the 2/3 falls match. The 2/3 falls match somehow willed its way to fun and really sucked me in near the end. I think the format and the sort of expectations of a longer match with that stip might have helped, breaking things into three clearer and easy to discern frames was nice. Here - while i really liked how they told the story moving from the 2/3 falls to a traditional match (elevating the stakes and logically progressing while actually taking away a stipulation) - this never really captured me. It was so over-done in my mind. I think both men's worst tendencies (or at least why i personally don't care for) came out much moreso here.

I think this is ultimately a case where its two guys that I am relatively low on having a match featuring all the reasons I am relatively low on them. Sometimes when this happens and they lean hard enough into and the crowd is just right I can get into things. That happened with the first match. It didn't happen here. I totally get why this is some people's cup of tea and I am glad it serves a pretty serious section of fans.