Hey. I was there. Allstate Arena is no good for viewing lines.
Things taped for next week's NXT show:
Spoiler Below: Highlight text to read
Aleister Black defeated Curt Hawkins in a 4 minute Main Event style match
Veleteen Dream (Patrick Clark) debuted, defeating a local competitor who's billed name I missed (but was actually Freelance Wrestling's Robert Anthony.) Dream is doing the bit where you don't take him seriously because he's effeminate but then he proves he's tough by clubbering you agressively. He's a heel. It's going to be an uphill battle.
Drew Mcintyre beat Wesley Blake in about 8 minutes, the only competitive match of the night, a longer version of the match with Sean Maluta from TV with the same angry headbutt spot.
Nonspoiler: you'll probably be able to skip thru the show in 15 minutes.
TAKEOVER
1: Roderick Strong defeated Eric Young of Sanity. This was ok, a fine enough opener, but the Sanity act and Young as leader is not really working. Neither are as impressive to me as I think they're supposed to be. Young being around to be the veteran guys to work with the less experienced guys on the road makes some sense, but not as much when he's facing a guy just about as experienced as him in Strong. (He needs to be the second guy in this group, but they don't have a first guy.) Strong did well and this seems like a win to keep him in line for a title match, but it wasn't exciting enough to leapfrog him over Black or Mcintyre.
2: Pete Dunne defeated Tyler Bate to win the UK title in the match from the show you have to go out of your way to watch. I was surprised how excited the fans were to see these two guys when the match was previewed, and it only grew as they had a really outstanding match. There's not much I can think to say about it, I'm going to have watch it again because my view wasn't great for a lot of it, but they totally had the crowd and the finish was great.
3: Asuka defeated both Nikki Cross & Ruby Riot to remain NXT Women's Champion. This had the two problems of trying to follow the last match, and no one really believing Asuka's going to get beat. (Ember Moon watching from the tarped off section of the upper deck reenforced that idea.) Still, there kind is the idea that you'd have to be crazy to think you could beat Asuka and both these challengers are crazy so maybe. It was an alright match that seemed a little off at times and the finish was strange (and sounds like it went worse on TV.)
4: Bobby Roode defeated Hideo Itami for the NXT Title - Roode seems like the ideal champion of the people I pay to talk/write about wrestling - he wears suits, he wears fancy robes, he acts like the perfect heel NWA wrestling champion - but he's also kinda totally boring having wrestling matches and this was not much better and I don't have much hope for this title picture at the moment. I'm over the music, though I'm in a very small minority on that one. Itami worked hard and hit harder, trying to project the image of the KENTA that once was, but there was a confidence still missing and which might never return. They did protect him here, having him land the GTS with Roode falling out of the ring instead of being pinned, but I dunno where you go next. Itami seemed to be working his own "I'm going to win the title or else" angle on social media, and "or else" normally means a heel turn, but I wouldn't be shocked to read he's finishing up here either.
5: The Authors of Pain defeated DIY in a ladder match to keep the NXT Tag Team titles. This would've been the best match on many shows. There was the same theoretical problem as the women's title match - there's no tag team watching this match, but AOP clearly aren't losing yet - but Gargano & Ciampa kept surviving and surviving and coming close that it talked you into believing maybe they'll get it back and then do a best of three falls match or something next. The whole story of DIY has been them getting over far more than anyone planned for, so the plans had to keep changing. They probably were supposed to be done as a team many Takeovers ago, but they were doing to well to not keeping going and maybe they'd keep going here too. Alas, we found out why the belts were hung so long (so Ciampa & Gargona could be pulled right off the coat hanger into the finish, which the AOP acted far less damaged than they should've) and that was the end.
I started to get up to go, then realized the red light was still on the camera and it wasn't safe and they weren't safe, and waited for the red light to go off and waited and then Johnny's head went into the set and it was sad times. Their feud should be really good, but I'm going to miss this run.
I was kind of disappointed going into the show - the NXT spoilers revealed I probably wasn't going to see Ohno or Cien, and those were two guys I bought the ticket specifically to see when it went on sale - but being their for the UK title match and the ladder match made it worth it. Just gonna pick better seats next time.
The Ciampa heel turn was a "Holy shit I never saw that coming" moment. The only thing that would've made it perfect if after the beat down on Gargano was over, Kevin Owen walks over to Ciampa and gives him a high-five.
I like SAnitY and I like Eric Young, but that was easily the worst match of the night. It had a real thrown-together feel to it.
I legit think Dunne/Bate is the best match I've seen so far in 2017. Dunne is one of the most pure heels still in wrestling, but nobody could boo that finish. Those guys went all-out, and it was amazing. 100 times better than their UK tournament final match.
And Ciampa's betrayal. Man, they just executed that so well. Everything was set up like this was a curtain call, like DIY was getting sent up, and then at the last minute before the camera was going to cut out. Just shocking. I think I can only really get behind this angle one way, though, because these guys are so, so, so much better as a team than they are individually. I can only get behind this angle if the match ultimately ends with them being friends again. Like, I'd actually like for Gargano to refuse to fight Ciampa, then get baited into an extremely violent match that ends with Ciampa learning a lesson about friendship.
Wrestling is the best when somebody learns a valuable lesson about friendship. That's just a fact.
Dunne-Bate was definitely a MOTY candidate. Nothing's going to beat Kenny Omega/Kazuchika Okada at Tokyo Dome, but that's a solid #2.
The reason Asuka is still in NXT is because what the hell do you do with her in the WWE? They've really painted themselves into a corner with her.
Completely agree that Roode would be wonderful traveling the territories in 1979, and looks like he could probably work the hell out an hour-long time limit draw to keep the title in a Midwest Championship Wrestling house show, but good grief, please put the title on Itami already and ship Roode up to hold down a US title run for a while or something.
Nous ne nous pouvons pas sortir. Phenomenal matches but having heels win every single title match is a bit of a buzzkill.
Having one announcer notice what the finish in the women's match was aiming for and point it out, only for another announcer to trample over was incredibly grating.
Was hoping a frustrated Sanity was going to destroy DIY post match to set up the future, but the DIY split/feud has been inevitable so here we go. Should be fun, though I sort of wish they'd saved it for the main roster.
Upside is that Roode could end up desperately clutching his title as he and it are caught in the middle of Ciampa and Gargano's murder blood feud and that would be gold.
cubs is right, Itami isn't KENTA and the booking isn't helping. Rushing back into a title feud where he can't win does him no favors when there isn't a clear path for him moving forward. Maybe they'll just have him turn heel and trade strong style shots with Ohno for 6 months?
Pete Dunne is my spirit animal. X-Plex powerbomb is the new black.
I am praying for Dunne and Bate to be the odd couple team in the Dusty Classic.
After a lackluster takeover in April this delivered. Liked every match. Loved three of them. Now poor backlash has to fallow it. Does guys like McIntyre and Gallagher get to compete for nxt/cruiserweight and uk titles? I do get if bate/gallagher was for the title.
I'll go far as to say that Bate vs Dunne might be the best match I've ever seen. It was absolutely outstanding from beginning to end. Jim Ross doing commentary for it was a brilliant addition as well. I don't think Ross is at the top of his game anymore, but even at three-quarters quality he still ranks in the top 3 announcers going today.
I enjoyed the Roderick Strong vs Eric Young match more than others seem to. It certainly wasn't anywhere near match-of-the-night, but it didn't try to be, either. If it leads to problems amongst Sanity, it could lead to some interesting things. Personally, I'd like to see Killian Dain acting as a handler for Nikki Cross, except instead of helping her win matches, he keeps her from killing people. Any word on when Sawyer Fulton is due back? I'd much rather see him and Alexander Wolfe backing Young while Dain splits off with Cross, not necessarily breaking up the group, just having them do their own things.
The Women's Triple Threat was adequate as well. I can't help but wonder if the entire thing was designed to move the belt to Ember Moon before she got hurt. That would explain the odd finish.
Not a fan of Bobby Rude retaining clean but I thought the match had a lot of great moments and it was definitely the most interested I've been in Itami since his debut. Not sure if they turn him he'll or just have him ramp things up to where he just starts killing people but hopefully this triggers something in his character.
I wondered why the hell they would put the ladder match on last, above the heavyweight title match. There was a moment, maybe two, in the match where I thought it would be awesome if one of #DIY turned on the other. When there was time left at the end, I thought they were actually going to do it after the match. Then it seemed like they were giving them their graduation sendoff, so the match going on last made sense. I was fully invested in the goodbye accolades until Ciampa actually pulled the trigger and murdered Gargano. My only regret is that Gargano won when they met up during the Cruiserweight Classic last year. While that could easily be used as a storyline point claiming Ciampa was jealous, I'd much rather see it used by him to claim he was the superior of the two. But like cubs said, nobody expected #DIY to get over the way they did, so there's no chance they were planning for their future during the Cruiserweight Classic.
I was begging either team to use the technique that... I think it was Chris Jericho vs Christian... used in which the winner pinned the loser under the bottom rung of the ladder so they couldn't get out to knock them down again.
But yeah, everything else on the card is irrelevant compared to Bate vs Dunne. I might argue that it was better than Okada vs Omega. It was unquestionably a better wrestling match.
The only things I have watched from the weekends shows so far has been the UK match (support your country!), Roodes entrance and the Nakamura match from Backlash.
Dunne and Bates are superb every time they have a match. Hopefully the cruiserweights were watching. Well, Vince really as the cruiserweights could have some great matches if they were allowed as they proved last year. Just put this match on the 205 show and see what reaction there is from people who haven't seen them before.
I got as far as DIY's entrance starting so will watch the match tomorrow and am looking forward to that along with the beatdown after as that sounded great.
I loved everything. Seems to happen with most Takeovers, but this one had a special charm to it. There were flaws, but it was enjoyable.
Loved the opening match. Never really paid any attention to Roderick before, but I was impressed.
The UK championship match was, as we all know, amazing. I hadn't paid attention to any of the UK competitors (haven't even watched the title tournament), but man. What a match.
I enjoyed the womens title as well, but I feel like the Asuka thing should be done. It probably would have been over with Ember last night if not for the injury, but I feel like we are treading water until then. I love Cross and Ruby impressed me. I loved the ring apron spot.
The NXT Championship being in its spot helped as I tend to be worn out and checked out by the time the main event title match comes around. Still not really MY thing, but it was a decent match.
Loved the ladder match, but its hard to not love anything with DIY. Authors of Pain are underrated.
I totally thought Flair was going to retire last night. The whole thing about his family...well, I'm glad he didn't. The 2nd picture his daughter supposedly took was hilarious though. Did you see the look on Vince's face? That was gold.
Thread rated: 5.26
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