NXT TakeOver Portland

[MoS]

I did not like the main event that much, but I recognise it's a style that has its own fans. I am a hopeless fanboy for him so take it with a grain of salt, but I thought Matt Riddle was the clear star of the night. While I liked him years back when he was a decent-to-good MMA fighter with a weed habit, I never ever thought he would display this kind of charisma. But of all people in wrestling today, he is the one with the most "it" factor imo, and that is including hugely talented prospects like MJF and Keith Lee. Whatever "it" is, Riddle has it in spades. 

[Coffey]

On 2/17/2020 at 6:21 AM, Dav'oh said:

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

I agree with this post. I do still really like Keith Lee, but sometimes you want a big guy to fight like a big guy & not be a big guy that's "deceptively agile for his size!" More One Man Gang, less Mike Awesome doing suicide dives & frog splashes.

Like, yeah, Vader could do a Moonsault but he didn't NEED to do it, ya know?

Totally get where you're coming from. 

One thing that I love about Keith Lee though is that he's incorporated The Pounce into his moveset. He's not the only one. I love how despite having a short run in wrestling, Monty Brown left his mark. I've seen several black wrestlers use it & I love the homage. 

[Al]

I thought that too watching Lee. I remember Bam Bam Bigelow who did all these agile moves and he never really broke through with it. Not to say Lee shouldn't do that stuff but he should be aware about putting extra stress on his joints for minimal return. I love though where Lee will block a hold by grabbing the person's wrist and powering out.

[Robert S]

I watched the first two matches and the women's title match. Even ignoring that the WWE Network currently tries to fuck with me (or rather the PS4 app that gets more and more broken as time goes on), I have no desire to watch the rest.

The Nox vs. Kai match was by far my favorite. For most of the match they at least tried to do a heel vs. face streetfight instead of just going for big spots and getting pops. As someone has already posted here: why do they continue trying to do table spots with these 140 lbs women? These have at best a breakage rate of 50%, and if they do not break, the spots end up looking shitty and (2) they end up in very dangerous situations.

The opening match had lot of what I hate about current wrestling. A couple of years ago I listened to a WALTER interview where he complained about small guys doing power spots and big guys doing flying spots, as it means that in the end everybody is the same. If you are 300 pounds and want to do flying spots, do one or two per match, but not 20. Doing lots of those spots (1) make them in total look less impressive while it (2) puts way more stress on your body.

[Dale Wolfe]

What i am really beginning to dislike about nxt after watching nxt-uk a lot lately is the constant state of near frenzy in the commentating. I noticed a lot on this card- as soon as most of the matches went up even the slightest gear everything is a state of near mania. Sometimes you can just have a conversation. It needs to be a lot more casual. 

Keith Lee & Riddle the clear stars of the show I think. Riddle could really do something 

[Blehschmidt]

12 hours ago, Dale Wolfe said:

What i am really beginning to dislike about nxt after watching nxt-uk a lot lately is the constant state of near frenzy in the commentating. I noticed a lot on this card- as soon as most of the matches went up even the slightest gear everything is a state of near mania. Sometimes you can just have a conversation. It needs to be a lot more casual. 

Keith Lee & Riddle the clear stars of the show I think. Riddle could really do something 

I used to really enjoy NXT, but you are absolutely right, it seems like the commentators are constantly yelling. As much as I dislike Mauro, it's not just him either. I miss the days of Gorilla Monsoon slightly raising his voice to say "Oh He Nearly Got Him With That One" being the loudest the commentary got. It's overbearing as hell now.

[Log]

NXT in general has that issue.  Not just the commentary.  You always see the criticism of indies that dudes are kicking out of top-rope tombstones and stuff in the opening match.  That's going on in NXT now.  Every match is too much.  There's no variety.  Everyone wrestles the same go-go-go style.  It's exhausting to me.  I can watch bits here and there and enjoy it, but it's too much to sit through.

AEW can sometimes have the same issue, but at least they have a couple guys/gals that mix it up a little bit.  NXT has just gotten too homogenized for my taste.

[Dale Wolfe]

Yeah Beth Phoenix is just as bad as Mauro for it, if not worse. 

I haven't been watching the TV much so maybe it's just time away from it, but yeah the card was stressful to listen to sometimes.

[KawadaSmile]

NXT has few dudes who may have a good shot of breaking this main event mold that has been dominant the past few years.

Dream seems more focused on character work than most, and Riddle can work in sprints and make lots of moves feel like credible finishers. Lee should work like a monster face or heel, which would make dynamics different. Other than those, we're stuck with the same Cole/Gargano/Ciampa style.

That kinda sucks. 

[rovert]

I thought Keith Lee did extraordinarily well on WWE Backstage.

 

[sek69]

7 hours ago, Dale Wolfe said:

Yeah Beth Phoenix is just as bad as Mauro for it, if not worse. 

I haven't been watching the TV much so maybe it's just time away from it, but yeah the card was stressful to listen to sometimes.

 

At least Mauro's been doing this long enough that his yelling as a flow to it, as ear splitting as it can be at times. Beth comes off as someone doing their impression of Will Ferrell as Harry Carey just yelling random things.

1 hour ago, rovert said:

I thought Keith Lee did extraordinarily well on WWE Backstage.

Indeed,  it was cool to see Mark giving him the rub as the next scarily awesome big guy.

[DMJ]

I know everyone's going to focus on Lee's moveset, but I think the dude has a very rare thing that you don't see much - the Hulk Hoganesque ability to be a huge dude but still naturally vulnerable and likable. 

Yes, his comebacks and the moveset can be a bit "indyriffic" (as someone else described it above), but, man, when he "fires up," part of me wants to see him point the finger, hit the big boot, and then flatten a dude with a senton (instead of a legdrop) for 3. Simple, effective, classic babyface stuff. Also Hoganesque is the "Bask In His Glory" poses. Is there anything more narcissistic than Hogan's posedowns? Like, he was just showing off that whole time, right? But as a kid, I loved it and would pose along with him and CHEER for this guy who was literally just showing off how ripped he was like a total asshole. Lee exhumes that same weird thing where his arrogance/cockiness comes across as *fun* and something I wanna do with him rather than something he's doing to brag or make himself seem better than the fans (as compared to, say, Orton, whose poses, even when he's been more face than heel, have always come off as 100% smug and entitled).

I'll have my full review over at the blog eventually, but I really, really disliked the Gargano turn. Why are they steering into the same creative dead-end street they had to spend months backing out of not too long ago? Gargano was never as over as he was before the last heel turn and this one is not going to go any better. Meanwhile, Ciampa being a badass babyface is fine - except he's much better as a badass heel. Hamster wheel booking and not even good hamster wheel booking.

 

[FMKK]

I saw Keith Lee Vs Timothy Thatcher at an OTT show once and Lee actually did the Hogan comeback routine in the match. It was incredible.

[KawadaSmile]

Shit, Lee could start using the Leg Drop as his finisher tomorrow and I would buy it.

[EricR]

Beth really doesn't have a chance to be good on commentary, since Mauro calls every single physical action in the ring in real time, and most of the inaction, she's pretty much left with about 2 seconds of space to ever fit anything in. Thus, she ends up sounding like a Lawler soundbite from an early 2000s WWE game. I don't know if she has a shot of actually being good, but she comes off like someone shouting random things because that's literally all she has room to do.