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NXT TakeOver Portland


KawadaSmile

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6 minutes ago, KawadaSmile said:

C.S. why

Because on the 50th anniversary of Howard Cosell's famous call during Frasier vs. Ellis - "Down Goes Ellis! Down Goes Ellis! He is beaten!" - Mauro has scored a knockout punch of his own with his amazing commentary at NXT TakeOver: Portland.

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3 minutes ago, WingedEagle said:

Can't wait for the DIY reunion in 2025 with glowsticks and a feud with Hunter and Shawn.  Too much even for this NXT fanboy.

Next year the build to Wrestlemania will be Candice turning on both of them and she wins a 3 way match.  Maybe Ciampa's wife can start training and that is 2 years from now

 

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I hate Lee vs Dijkovic being called a "hoss fight" all over the web.

Lock-up, armbar, headlock, run ropes, criss-cross, float-over, 'rana, leaping spinning heel kick, DUELLING SHOULDER BLOCKS!, arm-lever-lift, CHOP! (I'm capitalising the hoss-fight parts), leapfrog, discus kick, Fosbury Flop, FOREARM!, pathetic apron "suplex", KICKS! FOREARMS!, PUNCHES!, FOREARMS!, backbreaker, German, cyclone kick, corkscrew moonsault, PUNCH EXCHANGE!, DUELLING CLOTHESLINES! CLOTHESLINE!, top-rope Feast Your Eyes.

At this point, the crowd has had enough of these two getting/staying over, and decide to get/stay over themselves. "This is Awesome" starts proceedings, immediately followed by "We want tables", in effect complaining about this 'awesome' match. DOUBLE SLAP! from Lee is met with "One More Time", superkick, flip-senton, "Holy Shit" sing-along, superkick, chokeslam reversals, no-sold POWERBOMB!, roll-up, POWERBOMB!, "Fight Forever" (just to remind us that Gordy vs Hansen this ain't), top-rope Spanish Fly ffs, BBC (ahem), finish.

Reads like a Rip Rogers tweet more than a "hoss fight". And Dijakovic isn't even a hoss - he's all arms and legs. I'm not saying it was a bad match or they're bad wrestlers, it's the labelling I shake my head at.

Thank-you for your time.

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At this point in Pro Wrestling, any wrestler who is over 6 feet tall and weighs more than 220 pounds is pretty much a "hoss."  Guys the size of Lee and Dijakovic are becoming more and more of a rarity. The old school fan in me is just happy to see somebody who isn't 190 pounds bouncing around the ring like a rubber ball.  When those two flung themselves through or over the ropes last night, it actually looked like something.

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I really enjoyed this show.  While not every match was to my tastes, everybody worked really hard and the level of enthusiasm and energy was great. The hot crowd definitely helped.

- I have enjoyed every Lee/Dijakovic match in NXT so far, and for my money this match was easily the best of their series. Hard hitting, high impact and well laid out, I thought.  I thought it was a tad on the long side with a tendency toward too many near falls and false finishes, but that seemed to be the theme of the night (and is an issue overall for all of NXT, it's what I like to call "The Shawn Michaels Effect.")  But in the bigger picture on a stage like this, I'd rather see two guys overdo it rather than underwhelm.  They managed to reel me in with a bunch of the high impact false finishes too, so at least they did what they were intended to do. Great match and a great way to start the show.

- The video package did an excellent job summarizing the Nox/Kai feud and I actually really enjoyed this fight right up until the finish. I guess it is sexist of me to say this, but I don't like to see women beating the hell out of each other like that, it made me slightly uncomfortable...but that's just my age showing, I guess. A few of the bumps in this match were really effective and cringe-worthy, especially the cannonball against the trash can and the table spot at the end.  To me, the main thing that kept this match from being great was the finish.  I for one had no damn clue who Raquel Gonzalez was when she showed up, and I don't think I was alone in that.  I wish they had done a decisive finish and had Gonzalez show up to attack Nox after the match, but it was what it was.  Still a very good match.

- I didn't really enjoy the Balor/Gargano match all that much, but I think that is mostly on me.  Gargano is one of those guys who I think is technically very good but I don't connect with his character on an emotional level.  I know it's probably just me, but I always feel like he's just running through the paces and isn't capable of convincingly conveying his emotions during his matches.  And that was exacerbated by the fact that while I don't mind Finn Balor, I really don't find him particularly engaging either.  Balor has always just been kind of "there" as far as I'm concerned. He certainly doesn't do anything wrong, but he also has never really done anything that really grabbed me, either.  The only match I ever remember him having that I really liked was against AJ Styles at TLC 2017, or that sprint against Lesnar at the Rumble last year.  Considering how long he's been with WWE and how many high profile matches he's had, that's not a lot of distinguishable work. So the combination of both these guys left me kind of nonplussed, so say the least.  Much like my feelings towards both participants, this match was well executed and technically sound but it didn't really do anything for me.  And it wasn't helped by the fact that it went on WAY too fucking long.  I don't know who is in charge of laying out Gargano's matches, but whoever it is needs to be told that the guy can wrestle a match that is 20 minutes or less, and the world won't come to an end.  Seriously, this match was 27 damn minutes long, and it wasn't a title match or the Main Event.  There were four title matches on this show, and this match went longer than all of them aside from the Main Event. I'm sorry but that's just nuts.

- I thought the Ripley/Belair match was excellent, and for my money they managed to do what Gargano/Balor couldn't, in literally half the damn time.  I can only assume and hope that Bianca Belair is going to be heading to the main roster soon, because these repeated losses in big matches certainly aren't doing anything for her.  Besides, she's amply proved that she's ready for the big stage and I don't see what else she needs to prove or do in NXT.  If the Royal Rumble showed anything, it's that they have confidence in her, so let's get her up on the main roster and mixing with Bailey, Becky, Sasha, etc. I'm only wondering if they might not be planning on making the NXT Women's Championship match a Triple Threat, based on this match. I kind of hope not, I'm really looking forward to Ripley/Flair, even though they have totally botched the buildup so far.

- I thought the Tag Team Title match was pretty damn good.  It wasn't quite an old school southern style tag match that I like, but it wasn't modern chaotic anything goes spot-fu, either.  I would like to say that I really like Pete Dunne a lot, and I'm also a Riddle fan...but these vignettes and comedy bits they've been doing with them as a team are absolutely ridiculous, stupid and totally unnecessary.  The whole deal with them mocking Fish and their stupid t-shirts and golf cart and all that was just made me roll my eyes. But as I said, the match was fun.  Unlike pretty much everybody here at PWO, I really like The Undisputed Era as a stable.  I love Fish and O'Reilly and I don't want to see them get called up because we've seen what happens when good tag teams go to the main roster.  I selfishly want to keep enjoying their matches in NXT.  I know this sounds really dumb, but I assumed Dunne and Riddle were winning when I saw they've gone to the trouble and expense of having custom ring gear made for their team.  That seems to indicate to me that they're going to run with these two for a while before their inevitable split.  But yeah anyhow, I aside from the "comedy" vignettes leading up to this match, I have absolutely nothing bad to say about this match, it was fun.

- I didn't hate the Main Event, at all.  It was a good match. I thought it was overbooked at the end with all the run-ins and the false finishes, and if you're going to go almost 35 minutes in your Main Event then I'd think a clean finish would be nice.  Much like the Balor/Gargano match, to me this match had Shawn Michaels' fingerprints all over it.  Both matches were attempts to recreate the kind of overdone "epics" he became famous for at Wrestlemania against The Undertaker.  I thought they easily could have shaved off 5-10 minutes and it would have been just as effective and good, because in my opinion when you have that many false finishes it diminishes their effectiveness and pretty much kills the believablilty of the participants finishing manoeuvres.  During the last 8-10 minutes of these types of matches, they are pre-conditioning us as fans to not get excited when somebody hits a finish, because based on history, multiple kickouts are inevitable.  At one point, when both guys had kicked out of everything (more than once) I found myself saying "well, obviously there's going to be a run-in" and then sure enough, here comes Strong, Fish and O'Reilly and eventually Gargano.  I don't hate Cole, so I don't have a problem with him retaining.  I also don't have an issue with the Gargano/Ciampa angle at the end.  To be honest, I found both Gargano and Ciampa were at their most interesting and compelling when they were teaming and then feuding with each other, so I have no issue whatsoever with NXT going back to that again, with a new twist.  I'm not entirely convinced Gargano has what it takes to make a convincing heel, just as I find Ciampa to be much more effective as a heel than he is a babyface, but I'm willing to give this angle a shot and see how it plays out.  I will say that I really hope that this isn't paving the way to Cole vs. Balor, because I don't have much interest in seeing that...but time will tell.

Anyhow, as I said earlier...I thought overall this show was excellent.  There was nothing bad on this show, and there was a lot that was very good.  Credit where it's due, I even found that I was able to tune out Mauro Ranallo for most of the night.  He did have a couple of ridiculously labored metaphors which made no sense and were just stupid, but I found he wasn't quite as bad as he normally is at the screaming and bellowing during this show.  During this show, he was mostly just yelling...which for him is almost like being quiet.  I also couldn't help but notice that on several occasions he would actively throw the call to his broadcast partners, as in: "Beth I noticed this" or "Nigel, what did you think of that."  I am convinced that somebody must have said something to him about constantly interrupting Beth and Nigel, because it was noticeable last night when he didn't do it and in fact went out of his way to solicit comments from them.  So that's good.  Don't get me wrong, he still sucks...but last night it seems like he didn't suck quite as bad.

Or maybe I was just in a better mood with him, because this was a really good show.

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15 hours ago, hammerva said:

Next year the build to Wrestlemania will be Candice turning on both of them and she wins a 3 way match.  Maybe Ciampa's wife can start training and that is 2 years from now

 

Funny you mention that, as Ciampas wife has already had training as a cast member way back on Tough Enough 2 (she was the one who left due to a heart condition).

 

 

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9 hours ago, The Thread Killer said:

At this point in Pro Wrestling, any wrestler who is over 6 feet tall and weighs more than 220 pounds is pretty much a "hoss." 

It's like getting the trains to run on time - just change the definition of "on time" (1 minute early to 6 minutes late is now "on time", where I live). Unemployment too high? Change the definition - 1 hour worked in the last 6 months makes you "employed".

Want a hoss fight in 2020? Change the definition of "hoss" and "fight". 

On a side-note, can Lee work any other style than "indyriffic"? I've never seen matwork, striking/kicking doesn't seem his strong suit, it's hard for him to be in peril, it's like he just throws slaps and forearms in between big spotz. Am I wrong (and I'm more than happy to be wrong, I do want the best for him)?

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