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| Blackheart 2, Rebel Heart 1 Photo Credit: WWE.com |
For those who only tune into BCB for the Takeover reviews, I made a format change when I wrote about the house show I went to at the end of last month. I liked it, so I'm going to adopt it full-time going forward with one minor change that you'll see unfold below.
And now, WRESTLING~!
Quelle surprise: every match on Takeover was at least A Good, with multiple Very Goods in play. It began with the tag title rubber match, which I was stunned to find out the length of after the fact as it seemed to fly by in a third of a time while it was underway. Tyler Bate got the spotlight in the beginning with one of his Big Boi feats of strength, executing a duel giant swing and airplane spin so when he fell victim to the Era's double teaming, quick tags, and working over his leg it landed with even more emotional resonance for the loud crowd at Barclays. The best part of the match was the tease of the towel being thrown in in Act III, with Trent quietly but expertly milking the crowd until he flung the towel out into it to a mighty roar. It's still weird given the length of time that Strong and O'Reilly have been together that they don't have a tandem signature finisher, but it did make the ending pop a bit more as the hi/lo is always a believable finisher after a long match.
For their win, they got jumped by the War Raiders who'd promised such a thing in the programming on the weeks leading up to the show. It didn't get wholly beloved, but nor did it come off as a turn, either.
1) the Undisputed Era d. Moustache Mountain to retain the NXT World Tag Team titles (Total Elimination into O'Reilly pinfall Seven)
To the one nontitle match on the show, where Velveteen Dream luxuriated in love and was sporting some Call Me Up Vince on his airbrushed tights. The faithful fired up the first holy shit chant of the evening when Dream hit the turning DDT into the ramp then followed it up by sending him into the post. E sold the neck the rest of the match and it made his final high impact moves (a superplex and a bridging German, respectively) very Pyrrhic. Dream used The Hardest Part Of The Ring! ™ Stanford to augment a signature and his finisher to close out another good match, then in a great character note post-match took the crowd chanting his name as he stood on the logo and faked humility, just enough to be noticed but not so much as to descend into parody.
2) Velveteen Dream d. EC3 (apron Dream Valley Driver into apron Purple Rainmaker into pinfall)
You can tell WWE and NXT have got some serious coin if they persuaded Matt Riddle to wear a suit. When I saw the GIF of him wearing it and stoking the crowd's chants of "Bro" I knew for a fact even before I found out legitimately that he had flip flops on with it. He was the only new signee to get the Faces In The Crowd treatment on the show.
Closing out with three title matches, and the North American one was "the worst" of the lot and still had some of the best character work on the entire show. This was Ricochet's breakout singles match on the blue and yellow brand, as his Human Highlight Reel motif came to light several times over in escalating ways: the handspring backflip feint into the superhero landing, landing on his feet after uncorking a moonsault only to quickly snap off a running SSP and second rope phoenix splash. Cole got in a lungblower off a handspring attempt as well as a sweet superkicking of Ricochet's neck when the Kentuckian went for a quebrada followed by the indie Last Shot that wasn't going to end the match but would've been perfectly logical if it had. They traded bombs late to the point where the crowd fired up NXT and Mamma Mia chants; they should've saved it for the conclusive close in which Ricochet drilled a rewind rana, then got a running start in the ring to huracanrana Cole from the apron to the floor and drill the 630. In a neat inversion of earlier this summer, Cole is now the only active member of the Era to be titleless.
3) Ricochet d. Adam Cole to become the 2nd NXT North American champion (630 splash into pinfall)
A lot of people pointed the finger at the Women's World title match and had it pegged as a show stealer and possible Match of the Night; a lot of people were right about that. There's a nastiness to Baszler's offense that just reeks of spite that few other wrestlers in Stamford employ regardless of gender or brand can bring to the table right now. The crowd was groaning audibly as she worked over Kairi's leg and ankle, then she showed some new offensive tactics with a corner Owenzuigiri and gutwrench superplex. Then Kairi came back with an Interceptor, a mid level Insane Elbow off the middle rope, then a Steamboat press to the floor when Baszler dodged the real thing in the ring only for Shayna to kick out once she was rolled back into the ring and it connected. It looked like after surviving a Clutch attempt that Sane was going to close out with The Elbow, only for Shayna to get the boots up and lock down the Clutch...but Sane reversed into a Bret style pinfall reversal for her first title in NXT, a moment she received with shock and then tears of joy for some time. Baszler's only lost twice since her call up, but they've been the same and they've both happened on Takeovers this year, in an odd bit of trivia. If you only have time to watch one thing from Takeover for some bizarre reason, this should be it.
4) Kairi Sane d. Shayna Baszler to become the 8th NXT Women's World Champion in the Match of the Night (rollup into pinfall)
+10 for Ravenclaw as production let the "Fuck you, Ciampa" chants roll out uncensored before cutting to an adult fan holding a sign near the ring that said Ciampa Is A Meanie.
Wrestling talks all the time about a bad guy trying to get inside the heads of their opponents, but until the last two parts of the DIYplosion I don't think I've seen it manifested via the actual match itself as well as it has here. Gargano cost himself in Chicago, then went flying off the stage going for his former partner's padless Knee Trembler and "dislocating his kneecap" as a result, where the handcuffed Ciampa sluiced to a stand off the stage at 8 or 9 while Johnny couldn't quite get up. The match felt at a higher pitch than their Chicago one, to me, but if I had to distill it to one moment or look I don't feel like I could. Two great spots did happen midway through the match almost on the heels of each other.
1) After landing three straight Project Ciampas, number 14 got the chair he'd used to wear down Johnny and set those up and sat in it counting along with the referee; Johnny got up at nine and superkicked him in the face
2) They both clotheslined each other hard, then did so again, then double clotheslined each other down...only for them both to get up at one. Nigel somehow was the only one to freak out about this, and the fact it set up them having a mid-ring hockey fight meant that cool little moment got pretty much immediately subsumed
Probably the match's best moment was the bridge between the middle and close, where Ciampa dodged a superkick on the floor and some NPC took it. Quickly, he ran Johnny's head into the monitor, then delivered a chair assisted Knee Trembler through the barrier then wildly threw a bunch of things at ringside (the broken barrier, announce chairs, and most hilariously the NPC) on top of Johnny. Like Cole's superkick to counter Ricochet's quebrada earlier, this was not going to end the match but probably wouldn't've drawn a complaint if it had.
As the match cycled through Act III, Johnny kept giving in to his darkness. He sent Ciampa into the entrance set the same way the betrayal had begun, made him tap out, and responded to Ciampa's increasingly desperate pleas and "I'm sorry!"s with increasing vehemence, a loud "YOU DID THIS!", and then hoisted himself on his own petard.
Production may have done their best work post match, as Johnny refused a stretcher and they shot him closest to the camera with the entrance in the background, Ciampa came out twice but didn't re-engage. He heard the crowd cheer for Johnny getting to the ramp but having to sit, so he came back out. Immediately the referee went in his direction, but all he wanted to do was make Gargano look at him while he held the belt up and then left. Gargano's face crumpled like he'd just sipped a rum and bleach.
5) Tomasso Ciampa d. Johnny Gargano to retain the NXT World Championship
Hit My Music: With the Black whodunit hanging over the show, it'll be interesting to see where they take the next part of the Blackheart Reign. He's beaten Johnny shadily but cleanly the past two main events, and it'll be interesting to see what they do with Johnny now that he's fallen behind in the series 2-1.
Similarly, I'm interested to see what happens with the North American title; Cole's owed a rematch, and Ricochet once again upstaged his former rival Dream by winning a title in the biggest win of his NXTenure not half an hour after Dream lodged the biggest win of his NXTenure. The tag title and women's title situations seem to be the most solidly set, but between the overhanging mystery, the new arrivals, and the best heel run with the Big X since KO the men's division seems to be wide open in a way it hasn't been in a while so what ends up shaking out in God's E-Fed for Takeover: WarGames Goes West should be super entertaining.
The same way this show was.
But then again, it's a Takeover. It's what they do.
And now, WRESTLING~!
Quelle surprise: every match on Takeover was at least A Good, with multiple Very Goods in play. It began with the tag title rubber match, which I was stunned to find out the length of after the fact as it seemed to fly by in a third of a time while it was underway. Tyler Bate got the spotlight in the beginning with one of his Big Boi feats of strength, executing a duel giant swing and airplane spin so when he fell victim to the Era's double teaming, quick tags, and working over his leg it landed with even more emotional resonance for the loud crowd at Barclays. The best part of the match was the tease of the towel being thrown in in Act III, with Trent quietly but expertly milking the crowd until he flung the towel out into it to a mighty roar. It's still weird given the length of time that Strong and O'Reilly have been together that they don't have a tandem signature finisher, but it did make the ending pop a bit more as the hi/lo is always a believable finisher after a long match.
For their win, they got jumped by the War Raiders who'd promised such a thing in the programming on the weeks leading up to the show. It didn't get wholly beloved, but nor did it come off as a turn, either.
1) the Undisputed Era d. Moustache Mountain to retain the NXT World Tag Team titles (Total Elimination into O'Reilly pinfall Seven)
To the one nontitle match on the show, where Velveteen Dream luxuriated in love and was sporting some Call Me Up Vince on his airbrushed tights. The faithful fired up the first holy shit chant of the evening when Dream hit the turning DDT into the ramp then followed it up by sending him into the post. E sold the neck the rest of the match and it made his final high impact moves (a superplex and a bridging German, respectively) very Pyrrhic. Dream used The Hardest Part Of The Ring! ™ Stanford to augment a signature and his finisher to close out another good match, then in a great character note post-match took the crowd chanting his name as he stood on the logo and faked humility, just enough to be noticed but not so much as to descend into parody.
2) Velveteen Dream d. EC3 (apron Dream Valley Driver into apron Purple Rainmaker into pinfall)
You can tell WWE and NXT have got some serious coin if they persuaded Matt Riddle to wear a suit. When I saw the GIF of him wearing it and stoking the crowd's chants of "Bro" I knew for a fact even before I found out legitimately that he had flip flops on with it. He was the only new signee to get the Faces In The Crowd treatment on the show.
Closing out with three title matches, and the North American one was "the worst" of the lot and still had some of the best character work on the entire show. This was Ricochet's breakout singles match on the blue and yellow brand, as his Human Highlight Reel motif came to light several times over in escalating ways: the handspring backflip feint into the superhero landing, landing on his feet after uncorking a moonsault only to quickly snap off a running SSP and second rope phoenix splash. Cole got in a lungblower off a handspring attempt as well as a sweet superkicking of Ricochet's neck when the Kentuckian went for a quebrada followed by the indie Last Shot that wasn't going to end the match but would've been perfectly logical if it had. They traded bombs late to the point where the crowd fired up NXT and Mamma Mia chants; they should've saved it for the conclusive close in which Ricochet drilled a rewind rana, then got a running start in the ring to huracanrana Cole from the apron to the floor and drill the 630. In a neat inversion of earlier this summer, Cole is now the only active member of the Era to be titleless.
3) Ricochet d. Adam Cole to become the 2nd NXT North American champion (630 splash into pinfall)
A lot of people pointed the finger at the Women's World title match and had it pegged as a show stealer and possible Match of the Night; a lot of people were right about that. There's a nastiness to Baszler's offense that just reeks of spite that few other wrestlers in Stamford employ regardless of gender or brand can bring to the table right now. The crowd was groaning audibly as she worked over Kairi's leg and ankle, then she showed some new offensive tactics with a corner Owenzuigiri and gutwrench superplex. Then Kairi came back with an Interceptor, a mid level Insane Elbow off the middle rope, then a Steamboat press to the floor when Baszler dodged the real thing in the ring only for Shayna to kick out once she was rolled back into the ring and it connected. It looked like after surviving a Clutch attempt that Sane was going to close out with The Elbow, only for Shayna to get the boots up and lock down the Clutch...but Sane reversed into a Bret style pinfall reversal for her first title in NXT, a moment she received with shock and then tears of joy for some time. Baszler's only lost twice since her call up, but they've been the same and they've both happened on Takeovers this year, in an odd bit of trivia. If you only have time to watch one thing from Takeover for some bizarre reason, this should be it.
4) Kairi Sane d. Shayna Baszler to become the 8th NXT Women's World Champion in the Match of the Night (rollup into pinfall)
+10 for Ravenclaw as production let the "Fuck you, Ciampa" chants roll out uncensored before cutting to an adult fan holding a sign near the ring that said Ciampa Is A Meanie.
Wrestling talks all the time about a bad guy trying to get inside the heads of their opponents, but until the last two parts of the DIYplosion I don't think I've seen it manifested via the actual match itself as well as it has here. Gargano cost himself in Chicago, then went flying off the stage going for his former partner's padless Knee Trembler and "dislocating his kneecap" as a result, where the handcuffed Ciampa sluiced to a stand off the stage at 8 or 9 while Johnny couldn't quite get up. The match felt at a higher pitch than their Chicago one, to me, but if I had to distill it to one moment or look I don't feel like I could. Two great spots did happen midway through the match almost on the heels of each other.
1) After landing three straight Project Ciampas, number 14 got the chair he'd used to wear down Johnny and set those up and sat in it counting along with the referee; Johnny got up at nine and superkicked him in the face
2) They both clotheslined each other hard, then did so again, then double clotheslined each other down...only for them both to get up at one. Nigel somehow was the only one to freak out about this, and the fact it set up them having a mid-ring hockey fight meant that cool little moment got pretty much immediately subsumed
Probably the match's best moment was the bridge between the middle and close, where Ciampa dodged a superkick on the floor and some NPC took it. Quickly, he ran Johnny's head into the monitor, then delivered a chair assisted Knee Trembler through the barrier then wildly threw a bunch of things at ringside (the broken barrier, announce chairs, and most hilariously the NPC) on top of Johnny. Like Cole's superkick to counter Ricochet's quebrada earlier, this was not going to end the match but probably wouldn't've drawn a complaint if it had.
As the match cycled through Act III, Johnny kept giving in to his darkness. He sent Ciampa into the entrance set the same way the betrayal had begun, made him tap out, and responded to Ciampa's increasingly desperate pleas and "I'm sorry!"s with increasing vehemence, a loud "YOU DID THIS!", and then hoisted himself on his own petard.
Production may have done their best work post match, as Johnny refused a stretcher and they shot him closest to the camera with the entrance in the background, Ciampa came out twice but didn't re-engage. He heard the crowd cheer for Johnny getting to the ramp but having to sit, so he came back out. Immediately the referee went in his direction, but all he wanted to do was make Gargano look at him while he held the belt up and then left. Gargano's face crumpled like he'd just sipped a rum and bleach.
5) Tomasso Ciampa d. Johnny Gargano to retain the NXT World Championship
Hit My Music: With the Black whodunit hanging over the show, it'll be interesting to see where they take the next part of the Blackheart Reign. He's beaten Johnny shadily but cleanly the past two main events, and it'll be interesting to see what they do with Johnny now that he's fallen behind in the series 2-1.
Similarly, I'm interested to see what happens with the North American title; Cole's owed a rematch, and Ricochet once again upstaged his former rival Dream by winning a title in the biggest win of his NXTenure not half an hour after Dream lodged the biggest win of his NXTenure. The tag title and women's title situations seem to be the most solidly set, but between the overhanging mystery, the new arrivals, and the best heel run with the Big X since KO the men's division seems to be wide open in a way it hasn't been in a while so what ends up shaking out in God's E-Fed for Takeover: WarGames Goes West should be super entertaining.
The same way this show was.
But then again, it's a Takeover. It's what they do.
