NXT Thread *SPOILERS*

ThePott

Wonder where Io goes from here. Still not convinced by Raquel as champion but she has gotten a lot better in the last year. Wait and see.

J. Marston

Raquel getting pushed to the moon. Deserved too, she's what a giant in the women's division should be.

Cotts72

I think that's lo shirai heading to the main brands after Mania. Where they go with Raquel now is the BIG question.. Who have they that they can push? Taya will prob be mid card in the mean time
... Will tessa blanchard sign and be pushed as raquels main competition

Itssoeasy

Watched the opening match live last night so need to watch the rest later and avoid spoilers.

D.Q

Itssoeasy wrote: »

Watched the opening match live last night so need to watch the rest later and avoid spoilers.

Haha what a mental comment. Navigate to an NXT thread on a pro wrestling board in an effort to avoid spoilers.

Great show last night I thought. Looking forward to tonight

Itssoeasy

D.Q wrote: »

Haha what a mental comment. Navigate to an NXT thread on a pro wrestling board in an effort to avoid spoilers.

Great show last night I thought. Looking forward to tonight

What’s mental about it ? I blocked the screen and posted my post. I’m able to post and not spoil an event.

CastorTroy

Poor Leon Ruff. Pretty much eliminated offscreen and don't think they even showed a replay.

Was wondering how long the show would be, but then remembered it still has to fit in the USA schedule. Tonight's can be longer.

Good show.
Though the ending of the Walter/Ciampa match seemed rushed. Don't think Walter has finished with a chop since his earliest NXT UK matches.

D.Q

Itssoeasy wrote: »

What’s mental about it ? I blocked the screen and posted my post. I’m able to post and not spoil an event.

Haha it just seems bizarre to go to the bother of coming to a message board that you need to block the screen to post, just to say you're avoiding spoilers. It'd probably be much easier to just actually avoid the spoilers but you do you.

PTH2009

Even more of a solid card tonight

NXT Cruiserweight Championship: Santos Escobar (c) vs. Jordan Devlin (c) (Ladder Match)

NXT Women's Tag Team Championship: Shotzi Blackheart & Ember Moon (c) vs. The Way

NXT North American Championship: Johnny Gargano (c) vs. Bronson Reed

Adam Cole vs. Kyle O'Reilly (Unsanctioned Match)

NXT Championship: Finn Balor (c) vs. Karrion Kross

CastorTroy

I'd say between last night and tonight, we'll have seen at least 2 farewell matches before being called up.

Sirsok

CastorTroy wrote: »

I'd say between last night and tonight, we'll have seen at least 2 farewell matches before being called up.

Kinda find it hard that they expected to compete with AEW when this practice is in place!

Build a star, lose title, star gone off show, to flounder on the main roster.

They did bring in Balor and Breezango but could of done with alot more

D.Q

CastorTroy wrote: »

I'd say between last night and tonight, we'll have seen at least 2 farewell matches before being called up.

Wish they'd just keep them on NXT. Dreading Walters RAW debut as the funkasaurus 2.0. Somebody call my mama. OHHH MYYY.

LineOfBeauty

Overall I enjoyed the show a lot. It was the weaker of the two Takeover lineups on paper, tonight's should peak higher, but I think it probably overdelivered. I do want to get a few things out of the way early though.

This brand has no faces. Like, I swear everybody is a heel. The top face champion had turned heel, then because of Kross' injury they just kinda pretended that turn didn't happen and that he's still a face and everybody else is a heel in NXT, or at least that's how it feels.

Lots of handwork tonight, I counted it in 3 matches.

The growling NXT ring announcer never fails to pop me. Her introductions for the main event had me in tears.

Even though, by the standards of modern NXT, it was kept to a minimum, there's still just too much melodrama for my liking on this brand. Gonzalez cutting mini mid match promos, the MSK team stopping the tapout spot, the gimmicked table in the Walter match, it's all overkill.

Kushida/Dunne was a real good opener. Lot's of grappling and submission attempts and worked in a real aggressive manner. Anyway, I liked the finish and thought it suited the match which, was done like a shoot grappling match, and so the finish came out of nowhere. ***1/2

The gauntlet match had some real cool spots, fun sequences and showcased Swerve Scott (push that man to the moon) real well. But I came away from this thinking the layout was a mess. Firstly because Ruff being the clear underdog face being eliminated first meant the only faces remaining were Lumis (the opposite of a sympathetic face) and Reed (who, I think is a face but you could not tell during this). Swerve, the smaller guy and first guy to enter the match, battling against the more rested and bigger Reed at the finish didn't make any sense to me. To go a bit further with that, the only 2 people you could clearly tell were faces or heels based on how they emote and came across were Ruff (whose a bit of a joke anyway) and LA Knight as a heel. The others it's not clear what role they're supposed to be in. Anyway the work and the closing stretch was real good. ***1/2

Walter/Ciampa was everything you'd think it would be. Super hard hitting and brutal. Edge would hate this because Walter sells in exactly the manner that Edge apparently doesn't like (no surprise given that Ishii mentored him) but he's the best and most convincing seller in this company without a doubt. I'm not a big Ciampa guy at all, and at times, this was in danger of falling into the worst tendencies of Ciampa, but it never crossed that line and the finish being the big chop at the end was really cool. ****1/4

3 way Tag Title match was an insane collection of spots with GYV being the glue keeping it all together. I'm a mark for a spotfest and that's exactly what this was. MSK looked fantastic and the chemistry they have with GYV needs to be bottled. One dodgy melodramatic submission spot aside I was all in on this. ****

Shirai/Gonzalez I thought was a bit of a mixed bag honestly. When the standard for NXT Takeover main events is very high, and the standard for Women's Title matches on Takeover's has traditionally been very high too I'd say this probably was on the weaker side of both. The match had the big spots to get Shirai over (and the dive off the skull was very cool) but the sequences in ring just did not click for me. Gonzalez's selling either wasn't right against the smaller opponent, or she just didn't sell at all (like off the back of the springboard moonsault near the start of the match). Shirai took the vast majority of the match, which tipped off the winner. I'm probably the low man on Raquel Gonzalez on here because I really do not see it, I think they've had or produced far more impressive female talent. ***1/4.

ThePott

LineOfBeauty wrote: »

This brand has no faces. Like, I swear everybody is a heel. The top face champion had turned heel, then because of Kross' injury they just kinda pretended that turn didn't happen and that he's still a face and everybody else is a heel in NXT, or at least that's how it feels.

Was thinking the exact same recently. While I don't think it's bad as I initially feared, they do have some faces in the mid-card. When it comes to the main eventers it's pretty grim at the moment.

Agree on Raquel as well. I don't see the hype personally but willing to give her a chance. Really looking forward to tonight's show. Last night was definitely the 'lesser' card on paper and managed to exceed my expectations.

Wondering if we're moving towards Io and Finn going up to main roster. Would also not mind a few Main Roster people moving down for a bit.

LineOfBeauty

ThePott wrote: »

Was thinking the exact same recently. While I don't think it's bad as I initially feared, they do have some faces in the mid-card. When it comes to the main eventers it's pretty grim at the moment.

Agree on Raquel as well. I don't see the hype personally but willing to give her a chance. Really looking forward to tonight's show. Last night was definitely the 'lesser' card on paper and managed to exceed my expectations.

Wondering if we're moving towards Io and Finn going up to main roster. Would also not mind a few Main Roster people moving down for a bit.

I really hope they keep Finn in NXT, though for Io it's probably the right time now. I think we can all think of like 10 guys off the top of our head who'd look a million times better in NXT and would freshen it up a bit.

ThePott

I do like Balor in NXT, I think he's having an excellent run but I'd selfishly love to see him take on some of the main roster with his new persona. I just don't want him there forever and I wonder what other feuds are there for him of any interest.

CastorTroy

D.Q wrote: »

Wish they'd just keep them on NXT. Dreading Walters RAW debut as the funkasaurus 2.0. Somebody call my mama. OHHH MYYY.

From what I've read, it seems Walter would leave before that happens. Taking the business seriously is not just a character. That's just from my exposure to him on WWE shows. Don't know any of his stuff before then.
But if I remember correctly, he said he was in no rush to go to the US and would be happy to stay in NXT UK.

Speaking of Walter, I'm not a fan of stating his and Kay Lee's championship reigns as they just feel artificially inflated due to not having competed for a long time during the pandemic.

Necro

Thought the Ciampa/Walter match was unreal. Loved every minute of it.

Main event was grand, Shirai is definitely ready for the main roster and will (hopefully) provide some interesting competition off Mania for one of the brands, I'd personally love her on RAW against Asuka.

I do not get Reed whatsoever, don't see it with him. I'll take it if it means Gargano is dropping the belt and moving up but as a long term prospect I'm failing to see what he has that LA Knight as an eg. doesn't have more of in spades.

Really looking forward to tonight, agreed with LOB that tonight is by far the stronger night and most of the matches carry some interest for me.

Necro

ThePott wrote: »

Was thinking the exact same recently. While I don't think it's bad as I initially feared, they do have some faces in the mid-card. When it comes to the main eventers it's pretty grim at the moment.

Agree on Raquel as well. I don't see the hype personally but willing to give her a chance. Really looking forward to tonight's show. Last night was definitely the 'lesser' card on paper and managed to exceed my expectations.

Wondering if we're moving towards Io and Finn going up to main roster. Would also not mind a few Main Roster people moving down for a bit.

Agreed, I'd love to see some coming down to NXT as well as movement upwards. Even to give guys some sort of exposure rather than drifting along in the midcard or even worse doing nothing whatsoever.

I'm not sure about Finn. I really want him to do well on one of the main two brands but where does he really fit in apart from going back to midcard hell?

Shiminay

A quick take on that night's wrasslin. I loved it. I don't watch NXT regularly - it's just that I don't have as much time as I'd like, but I really need to make it after watching that night's action. With that said, I have very little context for some of the build for these matches.

The opener was fire, would watch those lads go at it again in a heartbeat. The finger manipulation always looks so harsh.

The Gauntlet was grand, some fun spots. I don't know enough about the players involved to say much more than that other than Cameron Grimes and Swerve Scott seem to have fun characters and Dexter Loomis doesn't seem to be taken that seriously for a man whose gimmick seems to be "I'm heavily implying a serial killer."

Champa and Walter was really well played, especially with the announcement desk breaking the way it did. Looked like a match that'd leave both participants very sore (no surprise).

I really enjoyed the tag match. Plenty of strong spots and flippy-doo spots - something for everyone

Sharai and Gonzalez was top notch. It was gonna take a special someone to take Sharai's title after so long, I think Gonzalez certainly looked the part. I like the ref dismissing Kai so that it was a nice clean win. Seems like they're lining Io up for a call-up but I'm afraid she'll just end up like Keith Lee or that they'll be lazy and stick her with Asuka cause they have no imagination and the Sky Pirates was a good match up when Kari Sane was still with the company. Actually, now that I think about it, they might just be a pairing that could "fix" the disgraceful mess that is the Women's Tag division on the main roster...

D.Q

The small crowd was a bonus but the lack of a crowd impacts NXT alot more than raw. Even with a full house RAW may as well not have a crowd. The hot crowd being into everything always pushes takeovers over the top for me.

PTH2009

Rampage Brown does have the size to be a UK champ

Walter retained his title on NXT UK Prelude anyway

ThePott

They acted like Walter had come back from his match with Ciampa which was kinda funny. Thought it was an okay show nothing amazing, was expecting more of a UK Takeover but that was my own fault it was just a stacked episode of NXT UK.

Really seems like Walter and Tyler Bate don't have much else to do on NXT UK or am I wrong? Don't watch it regularly.

Sirsok

Walter is just the Ultimate boss really is. Tbought he would lose but keeping it also makes sense. When a baby face rises and defeats him it will be monumental. Maybe Ilja getting redemption in front of a crowd.

Walter would be wasted on main roster.

Vince would make him try be a stand up comedian thinking he is German or something. The living embodiment of Wolfcastle "That’s the joke" gif.



Makes me thinking how many more uber talented guys did they squander with ****e gimmicks. PCO comes to mind!

CastorTroy

Vince definitely wouldn't like Walter's look.

Preshow on now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkW18ZGRvo4

PTH2009

Sirsok wrote: »

Walter is just the Ultimate boss really is. Tbought he would lose but keeping it also makes sense. When a baby face rises and defeats him it will be monumental. Maybe Ilja getting redemption in front of a crowd.

Walter would be wasted on main roster.

Vince would make him try be a stand up comedian thinking he is German or something. The living embodiment of Wolfcastle "That’s the joke" gif.



Makes me thinking how many more uber talented guys did they squander with ****e gimmicks. PCO comes to mind!

Finn winning it in Dublin if/when that takeover happens

Don't know but have a feeling Bronson Reed will be the next pre mature call up which will lead to nothing

D.Q

That's the one thing that prevents me watching NXT full time. Get invested in characters and then suddenly they're the viking experience haha

CastorTroy

2 Irishmen enter Takeover as champion but will 2 leave as champion?

Noticed last night they pointed out Raquel made history as the first woman to win both the tag titles and NXT title. Makes it seem they were given the tag titles for that reason even though they lost the same night.

PTH2009

Always get a giggle off Breezango and there fashion sense

CastorTroy

I'm a bit behind so just saw the Devlin line about the cruiserweight style being perfected in Ireland.