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NXT TAKEOVER: London


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After losing to Asuka? I like that in NXT, you don't become a contender after a loss so wins actually matter, unless I'm forgetting about something.

 

Or they do a battle royal to determine a #1 contender and Emma wins that.

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That's part of why I love NXT. The booking is clear and logical BUT it's not predictable.

Bailey could face any one of Asuka, Nia or Eva and it would all make sense - Asuka is undefeated, Nia asks for (and Bailey grants) a rematch or Eva says that "Corporate" loved their first match and want to see it again.

Amazing how much flexibilty you generate in your booking when you have clear characters with clear motivations.

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Okay. Detailed thoughts.

Asuka vs Emma was amazing. Emma got to show why she was in the finals to crown the first NXT Women's Champ and why her and Paige were the show stealers on Arrival way before the Horsewomen changed the game. Great work coming in around Asuka's game and believably controlling with a bunch of great false finishes. I mentioned the layouts tonight but by dropping multiple credible finishes in here it made the whole thing work super well. Asuka being able to KO kick someone keeps her diverse for finishes and always gives that flash ending possibility. Emma brought her best and it wasn't enough. Asuka is the real unbeatable woman of NXT. Great stuff.

Tag titles were also great. Enzo and Cass brought a fire they hadn't shown before and sold that beef but this was never personal for the Mechanics so they just had to figure out how to work around it. Loved the long face control seg and the great armwork on Enzo. I could care about Cass blowing off the legwork since it was more a transitional control point. They didn't put the work in so it wasn't going to finish. Great false finishes with the leg sub and Air Enzo regardless and the ending was perfect. Awesome match, one of the best tags this year.

Corbin vs. Crews was fine. Wanted more of the beef we got in the brawls to set it up but it was good stuff. Corbin is amazing at cutoffs but his control segments still need work. Match would probably get more love on the main roster but this show is stacked so it looks average in comparison. Still, Corbin only has a couple good matches and Crews has only just started to put it together so it was better than I expected.

Bayley vs. Nia ruled. Bayley didn't really know how to deal with Nia's size and just kept throwing everything out there. Nia didn't have a problem early on but her finishers are weak...enough to finish off the young girls sure, but Bayley is a cut above anyone she's faced so far and doesn't go down like that. Her best chances to win she does loose covers and you just can't beat Bayley that way. Then down the stretch it hits a point where Nia has tried everything she's got and gets lost and nervous...allowing Bayley to persevere and choke her out. Awesome, awesome stuff that still leaves them miles to go in rematches and hopefully gets Nia a better finisher. Also ready for Bayley/Asuka now.

The main event...ugh. It was worked fine I guess but I got sick of the WWE adaptation of indy epics a while ago. I like that they protected finishers and it was well built and everything but aside from maybe the first four minutes I never felt the hate they'd built. The story was Joe being in Finn's head and that never showed. In a vacuum it's probably a pretty good match but with the build it just feels like a disappointment. I also question keeping the title on Finn when all the good top guys in NXT right now are faces.

So yeah, another great Takeover but if the ME delivered it could have been an all timer.

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Didn't like Emma/Asuka as much as others. I thought the match was good, but with how they had been building Asuka Emma controlling so much felt off to me. Still loved the teases for the finish.

 

Loved Corbin's smack talk during the match with Crews. The match was kind of on the average side, I'm pleased Corbin won.

 

Bayley/Nia was really good. Nia is still a work in progress, but I can't wait to see how much more she can develop after watching this. The only problem I have is the finish. I'm fine with Nia losing, but she should have been knocked in stead of tapping. It feels like a bit of her mystique is gone now.

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I thought Emma looked really hot in those Aviators....

 

If Nia went over the Asuke stair down would have made more sense. I don't care if she loses to Asuka now...

 

Main was good. 

 

Bailey taking three of Nias leg drops might have killed that move, but if Bailey has Cena energy i'm ok with it. Also like her submitting the bigger opponent. 

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honestly, pretty disappointed with the show. i'll keep this short because I know it's a minority opinion, but I thought everything that happened after tag match was like watching three balloons slowly deflate, one by one, through the air valve, drawn out as long as possible to make the longest farty noise they can. this was a five match show with four grudge matches, and two of them were kitten soft.

 

Also what happened to nia jax blows. nevermind that I think it was way, way too soon to beat her- if you were gonna tap her out, why did she do like five leg drops? Especially since the leg drop is the best looking move she has. The leg drop's been beating people and ending shows with people unconscious post-One Leg Drop. Like, no one in a match has recieved two or three, let alone five. I just don't understand it.

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honestly, pretty disappointed with the show. i'll keep this short because I know it's a minority opinion, but I thought everything that happened after tag match was like watching three balloons slowly deflate, one by one, through the air valve, drawn out as long as possible to make the longest farty noise they can. this was a five match show with four grudge matches, and two of them were kitten soft.

 

Also what happened to nia jax blows. nevermind that I think it was way, way too soon to beat her- if you were gonna tap her out, why did she do like five leg drops? Especially since the leg drop is the best looking move she has. The leg drop's been beating people and ending shows with people unconscious post-One Leg Drop. Like, no one in a match has recieved two or three, let alone five. I just don't understand it.

I don't necessarily disagree with you but I will say in regards to the leg drops - it was more a matter of her being overconfident and doing showboating type covers which were easier for Bayler to kick out of.

Honestly - I think it would have worked better if they did something like Bayley doing the guillotine over the ropes and getting DQed for not releasing at the same time Nia tapped

Of course - they could have done Nia beating Bayley and getting DQed for excessive violence

I think a lot of us keep waiting for Bayley to get called up and instead they could be making her into NXT Cena and if that's the case we are going to get stuff like tonight

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I thought Joe/Balor was great. Joe deserves a run on the main roster, and not as a fucking jobber. Emma/Askua was my second best of the show, and I enjoyed it about as much as I thought I would. Great showing from both women. The tag title match had a couple of great near falls, but Cass and Enzo suffer the main roster booking.

 

I kind of enjoyed Bayley/Nia being booked like Andre the Giant's fight scene from Princess Bride. Nia should have passed out instead of tapping out. NXT usually gets that stuff right. Oh and could you stop fucking singing when the baby face is fighter for her life FFS? Crews/Corbin exposed Crews pretty bad he brought nothing to that match outside of a few decent high spots. Corbin easily out classed him.

 

They should've had Zayn or Jordan and Gable's match on the main show. They had a chance to make this NXT's Red Wedding if Bayley had lost.

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To Corbin, it's all the same. ROH. Evolve. What the fuck ever, man. 

 

Well let's be honest - I doubt Corbin has heard of ROH in his little world

 

Which means someone fed him the line

 

Which means someone is an idiot... or something thinks Crews is Cheeseburger

 

 

I'm picturing Corbin trying to send people back to the wrong promotions:

 

fark_2vynbz-nphR8czHRswbLpF0wVmw.jpg?t=d

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Back home from the show. It was a very good show. They taped two TV matches before, and one after, and I have never, ever seen a reaction like the one Jordan & Gable got. If it comes across half as good on TV as it did live it will be stunning.

 

Asuka vs Emma was great. Dug the multiple butt butts.

 

Tag titles was a really fun match, and Dash & Dawson are such tidy workers, keeping everything ticking along. Enzo's outfit was, well, yeah. If he wasn't I pro-wrestler I don't know what he'd be, other than maybe a punk from central casting.

 

Corbin vs Crews lulled a bit and the crowd quietened down. Corbin got a lot of sweary chants aimed at him, which I don't know if they made TV. I thought he was good, though. Crews is, well, not connecting?

 

Bayley vs Nia Jax was a weird match, and not necessarily in a bad way. The ending was reminiscent of early UFCs, in that it came across as Jax not particularly being in trouble but not being able to find a way out of Bayley's submission so she may as well tap. The crowd were super hot for this.

 

The main was fine live but I'm not overly convinced by Balor as a top guy, and Joe was carrying him at times it seemed. I really liked the finish, though.

 

Not sure I like being in 11,000 crowds much but I had fun.

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They should do Asuka/Bayley vs Eva/Nia sometime in Feb and build to Asuka vs Bayley before Mania. That title match was a nailbiter, and that crowd deserved to have Bayley win.

 

I thought Dana was good too but it was offputting when she told Emma not to give up when she had Asuka in the full nelson. 

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I don't really want to see Bayley get called up because I don't believe that they have anything for her. Sasha was called up months ago and she hasn't had one single thing. Nothing. If it weren't for Sasha doing cool shit on Twitter she'd be completely invisible.  Becky was called up and thus far she has been the Sting of the division if Sting never won a big match. 

 

I didn't feel Nia Jax was ready and the way the match was booked showed that with the nonchalant covers and getting caught in the guillotine.

 

Also, I don't think a monster needs to be undefeated.  I'd have preferred an undefeated Nia against an undefeated Asuka but I much rather have Bayley as the face of the NXT division than a nobody on the main roster.

 

If NXT was it's own promotion then maybe Nia Jax wins the first encounter and Bayley gets her in the rematch a few months down the road or maybe they don't wrestle again until after Nia/Asuka but their hands are tied with super long term story telling because RAW is there lurking to pluck people out.

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I like how NXT plays with the booking tropes set by the main roster to tease false finishes and toy with the audiences emotions. There were so many twists in the end run of that Asuka/Emma match where either one of them could have won the match in any number of ways based off of years of conditioning us on the way they usually do finishes. So great. Same with Bayley/Nia and Joe/Finn. Honestly shocked that Enzo & Cass did not take the belts here, and surprised that Corbin got a victory.

 

As many have said, this wasn't the best Takeover of them all, but it they way they booked the matches and who won those matches kept it interesting. That's the great thing about NXT. You honestly never know who is going to win any match because anybody at anytime could be getting called up and this match could be their NXT swan song.

 

I love this brand.

 

EDIT: Also, I think the big money match is Asuka/Bayley. They will feed Nia to Asuka next, and Asuka won't have as much trouble as Bayley did beating her. That will lead in to the story on if Bayley can beat Asuka or not. I think that will be one of the big matches at the Mania Takeover, and will be Bayley's end in NXT before getting the call up after Mania.

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Fun show - not the greatest Takeover show, but there was nothing bad on the card. Asuka vs. Emma was the best match on the show overall, and while Joe vs. Balor was technically quite good, it wasn't all that special. If you imagined Joe vs. Balor in your head, this was exactly that match - nothing more. Tag title match was impressive, but JAYSUS was Enzo's whole look bad even by his standards. Super Smashing Machine was a fine finish for this, and I was amazed they didn't give the faces the win. Apollo vs. Baron was okay, but hurt by Apollo's bad striking. Bayley vs. Nia was surprisingly good, but a bit too long. I love Bayley now having a second finisher, and that choke finish was visually impressive too.

 

http://jayreviewsthings.blogspot.com/2015/12/nxt-takeover-london-12-16-15.html

 

Screens - 

283eae452996433.jpg 

 

e4597b452996504.jpg 

 

c8dcfe453010787.jpg 

 

FIGHTING SPIRIT

7cbffd453010813.jpg 

 

I am the terror that flaps in the night

dfa5cd453010841.jpg

 

6ab8d0453010859.jpg 

 

a905fa453010883.jpg

 

http://www.imagebam.com/gallery/h86ku7lu16awluzhr3q7j0b5nxcgnmu4

 

 

 

Not sure how to link WWE.com videos:  Anyway, Asuka/Emma/Dana interaction post match:

 

 

Take them off of youtube

 

 

Asuka showed more star power DOING EMMA'S DANCE than 99% of the Raw acts.

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