NXT Takeover was live on the WWE Network
last night; if you did not take advantage of this and take 2 hours out of your
day to glue yourselves to your TV, IPhone or whatever device you used, then you
sure as hell missed out. NXT is the best
thing going in WWE today, and whether you agree or not, watch Takeover and you
will completely understand what exactly I mean and where I am going.
Last night, top to the bottom the card was
STRONG, WWE heavily promoted it in the correct way with matches on Raw/Main
Event and overall it just felt BIG. I was legitimately excited for this as if
it was ‘Mania (that is saying something), especially since the past 2 NXT Specials
have been spectacular.
The card had 5 matches advertised, with one
impromptu match added on the day. Things started big with the defending NXT Tag
Champs, the Ascension putting their titles on the line against Sin Cara and
Kalisto. This match flew by for me, it felt like 5 minutes but maybe that was
because I was enjoying it too much. Overall, it was an exciting match to start
the show with; you would NEVER put these two teams together, there is such a
big clash of styles and well, that’s what makes it must-see and exciting.
Shockingly, The Ascension were defeated after nearly 1 year of their dominating
reign. As much as I wanted The Ascension to lose (so they they can be called up
to the main roster), I was not expecting it, hence, it was a nice surprise.
They NEED to be called up now (check out my previous post for why I believe
they are the ones that need to be called up next).
Next, we had the impromptu match of CJ
Parker Vs. a debuting Baron Corbin (he has previously been on NXT TV, yet, only
briefly). All I can say is, holy crap, Corbin is impressive. I was not
expecting to see him be so dominant and pick up the win within 20 or so
seconds. His finisher is devastating and after yesterday, all I want is to see
more of him. From his look, to his
presence, he is clearly one to watch out for and has one hell of a future imo.
Hair Vs. Hair match got me good as well! I
100% thought Enzo Amore (w/Colin Cassidy) would be getting his head shaved
after losing to Sylvester Lefort (w/Marcus Louis), and once again I was wrong!
Enzo won with the roll up, resulting in a big shuffle, Sylvester running off
and Marcus getting the bucket of shaving foam dumped over his head. Overall, I
was happy with this. Enzo Amore has REALLY grown on me and made me a massive
fan; he entertains me in every aspect every time he is on my screen, he possesses
great presence and the pairing of him alongside Colin Cassidy has just emphasised
this.
Bull Dempsey defeated Mojo Rawley next in a
fairly quick bout; this match was the one that I was least anticipating and in
all honesty actually forgot about but it still entertained me throughout the 2
minutes or so.
Next was the time for the ladies to shine
and prove themselves to the world that women STILL have it, women can wrestle
and to all in all, outshine the main roster of females. They did exactly that. This was the only prediction of mine that
was correct; Charlotte defeated Bayley in a match that went about 10 minutes
(I’m glad they were presented with this much time). They both went out there
and put on a very physical match and made me as a female, proud to be
represented by them. Bayley has grown on me so much over the past few months
and well, Charlotte’s in-ring skills speak for themselves; although, she did
mess up the moonsault a bit and the finish of the match felt flat, I was glad that
they had their time to shine (as women are allowed to do on NXT shows). I see
there being some sort of triple-threat between Charlotte/Bayley/Sasha Banks
down the road but I do also see Charlotte being called up very, very soon.
The Fatal 4 Way main event was finally up; there
are just not enough good things I can say about this match. All 4 men delivered
and had their moment to shine in this match. I believe it went about 25 minutes
and top to bottom it was fantastic. Tyson Kidd has been shining in NXT more
than he ever has on the main roster/Tyler Breeze has grown on me/Adrian
Neville, all I can say about him is wow… when the guy is on your screen, you
watch and Sami Zayn, well he is simply my favourite; he is an all round
incredible wrestler and watching him wrestle/perform just makes me happy (as
weird as that may sound). I genuinely thought Breeze had it…but Neville
retained, amongst the spectacular athleticism and story-telling. There were so
many spots in this match where your mouth was just wide open; every guy had his
moment. Neville pulling the ref out of the ring when Zayn was about to get the
win makes for a very interesting situation. I now see these two going at it in
a 1-1 match; that is going to be must see. Ultimately, you NEED to watch this
for yourself to understand what I mean; just the perfect match.
Besides the matches, I could not wait for
Kenta’s debut. His English was pretty good and he went on to inform everyone of
his name-change, from Kenta to Hideo
Itami. Now, I completely understand why WWE changed his name but man, it
sure is going to take a while to get used to that and I know for a lot of other
fans as well but I’m sure, in time, it will feel right. The Ascension
confronting him had me thinking that Steen or Devitt would make the save but we
just have to wait and see where this goes and also have some patience! I just
have a whole lot of respect for Kenta/Hideo and cannot wait to see him perform;
his actual in ring-debut will be next Thursday, watch out for that.
To put it simply, did NXT Takeover live up
to the hype? It 100% did.
All the guys and girls down in NXT are
hungry; they want to be the best on that roster in order to move up to the main
roster and dominate on shows there, and in turn are making NXT shows 10x better
than the main roster. One thing I am really looking forward to, is when they
get called up one by one and are having matches against guys such as Cesaro,
Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose, Luke Harper etc.
If you are a WWE fan or a wrestling fan in
general and haven’t jumped on the NXT “hype” yet, what are you doing?! It is an
example of the WWE doing things RIGHT, or you could say Triple H doing things
right. The man knows what he is doing and has provided us with a glimpse of the
future. I would recommend everyone to simply spend 2 hours watching this show;
once you view this, you’ll realise that although Raw/SmackDown can be awful,
you always have NXT to turn to who are constantly putting on fresh and exciting
shows.
Greatest Selfie of All Time.
The future is indeed bright and I cannot wait
for them to take it over.
- Zara
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