NXT TAKEOVER: London

[Cristobal]

This is an area where the smarkishness of the NXT audience pays off. Die-hards tend not to fall out of love with wrestlers just because of booking. Asuka isn't gonna be less over just because she didn't completely destroy Emma like she did Dana or Cameron. If anything, if they don't feel Asuka's booked strong enough, they'll just cheer louder.

[The Man Known as Dan]

Also, I think a lot of people like Emma too even if they boo her because they are supposed to. Lots of people recognize how good she is and wants her to get her due as well.

[S.K.o.S.]

I know this isn't at all what they were going for, but Finn's entrance with the hat and especially what he had painted on his back reminded me of the Babadook.

[Cristobal]

I had wondered WTF they were doing putting Jack the Ripper imagery in the promos, and then Finn the Ripper comes out and I'm like "Ok, now that makes sense. ... wait, it makes sense, but that's awful. WTF, NXT?"

[Nice Guy Eddie]

oh yeah that's another thing

the finn balor jack the ripper thing

I get that he's a dude who has "a demon" or whatever, but is dressing up like a man that murdered sex workers really that much of a babyface move?

"I'll show you, Joe. See, now I disembowel prostitutes, which means I will wrassle you super good and the people love me"

Murdering prostitues is totally a WWE babyface move, since it's long been established that all WWE faces are assholes.

[NikoBaltimore]

Really fun show.  Was interesting watching it at work, especially with Nia/Bayley where I was super into it.  When she won I really wanted to react in some way and it took some effort to not do that.  

 

Loved Asuka/Emma, Emma looked strong and they had me guessing at the end with the attempted screwy finishes.  I liked the tag title match and they had me going near the end when Enzo/Cass did their finisher.  If only Cass wasn't so in the moment he could have avoided the save.  And the chants for Enzo/Cass had me laughing.  Crews/Corbin did nothing for me, and I like both guys.  In terms of match placement this should have been the buffer match between Bayley/Nia and the main.  A similar deal happened at Brooklyn where after Bayley's match I didn't have as much excitement as I should have had for the main.  Similar situation happened this time around.

 

Regarding Bayley/Nia, I wish Nia was knocked out with that choke and didn't tap, definitely a booking misstep.  But they could totally spin this as Nia knowing she was ill-prepared with her smiling and the song and the cocky pins.  With the legdrops they didn't have the air they normally do in her squash matches.  Why not spin that into her knowing she didn't crush Bayley with it like she normally does.  I'd be happy as can be if Nia goes all "Fuck this", gets super pissed off and the music is more evil.  A better finisher that looks more powerful would be good to.  As for the crowd, I loved the song they did for her when they showed clips from the house shows.  While I liked it for the beginning of this match, they really should have dropped that.

 

Joe/Finn was technically good and I liked what they were doing with the match.  But man did it miss the hate that it should have brought.  If this is Finn's attempt at being pissed off with the demon side, then changes need to be made fast.  The Jack the Ripper thing was what it was, loved the body paint and the back especially.  The aforementioned buffer match of Crews/Corbin would have done wonders to get me into this, but it is what it is.

[Stoychers]

In agreement with most in that I thoroughly enjoyed both Asuka/Emma and Dash/Dawson v Enzo/Cass.

Fancied Corbin to go over, with the assumption that Finn would retain, as there isn't much else for Balor to feed off of heel wise. Would love a short Corbin title run before dropping back to Finn, with Balor/Itami eventually headlining down the pipe.

Struggling to get behind Apollo at all. Everything about him just falls flat with me from the moment his music hits and that bright green display lights up. It all just feel so generic. He appears to be extemely affable and a gifted athlete to boot, so I hope he draws me in over time with some sort of character definition.

I've not really been into Nia Jax since her debut either. I don't quite get the smiling bit with her. It's not like she's Asuka with that eery smile of a psychopathic killer. I don't whether they're perhaps trying to play off her modelling history or not, but it seems terribly out of place.

[steve]

I don't get the disconnect with the smiling. She's good, and she knows it. It's just a little smirk of arrogance. (That she may even drop now that she got beat...)

[Jiji]

I don't get the disconnect with the smiling. She's good, and she knows it. It's just a little smirk of arrogance. (That she may even drop now that she got beat...)

That's how I read it and I totally see her getting "serious" now that she's suffered defeat. I haven't watched the show yet but I wouldn't be surprised to see her have some struggles with a competitive match, as this was her first televised match of that variety. She's green but I see a lot of potential.

[JCM]

I don't know what you guys want from Balor. He tried to double stomp Joe through the steps and got murdered for his trouble. That over aggressiveness cost him a severe disadvantage in the match. He laid in all his strikes and took a proper beating from Joe. I think if there is a problem it's with the paint/demon gimmick itself. Balor has raised his game over the past 6 months, and I don't think he needs to rely on the paint to set himself apart anymore.

 

I don't see any way Asuka looked weak in that match. I'm pretty sure Emma's first advantage came off a distraction, and that's more protection than most faces get. Asuka overcame the fuckery , got a huge pop for the win, and was more over after the match than she was before.

[Niners Fan in CT]

I didn't feel the crowd was all about trying to get themselves over. I felt the chants enhanced the atmosphere rather than took anything away. The chants were designed for specific wrestlers and the chants were aimed at the wrestlers in the ring.

 

I rather have that than the chants I see at Full Sail or the chants I've heard from some other smark city crowds. I think it's also better to have this than dead silence which is what most RAWs are.

[SirSmUgly]

How does the crowd singing "Hey Bayley, I wanna know if you'll be my girl" while Bayley is getting fucking destroyed in the ring enhance the match? At least Full Sail drops the dumb shit and actually gets into the match when it's time to get serious for the most part. These idiots were no-selling a massive beatdown to do a chant that was only faintly clever the first time they did it in the opening of the match. 

[Niners Fan in CT]

She loves the chant and has acknowledged it. So this is their way of showing support to her and telling her to keep fighting and it wasn't just that just they were also chanting let's go Bayley among other things.  I think it's a ridiculous discussion.

[Matt D]

They began to sing more when she was in trouble. It was a way to let her know that she was in their hearts and that she was not alone even when facing the dark hopelessness of a giant, foreboding opponent.

[supremebve]

I don't get the disconnect with the smiling. She's good, and she knows it. It's just a little smirk of arrogance. (That she may even drop now that she got beat...)

It is not so much the smiling as it is her particular smile.  Instead of her looking cocky or sadistic she looks like she is saying, "Hi, nice to meet you."  It isn't that a smile can't work for a heel, it is just her particular smile seems to warm and nice.  It may be that I find her to be extremely good looking, but her smile makes me want to root for her not against her.  With that said, I think the two women's matches were the two best matches on the show.  I think Emma is the most underutilized talent in NXT or the main roster.  She is a great heel and just a really solid worker. 

[cubbymark]

To piggyback off of Matt's point, I'd like to bring up the Euro 2012 Irish fans singing "Fields of Athenry" as their side was about to be eliminated from the tournament by the reigning world champions Spain. Despite the inevitable, the fans were going to cheer their boys on no matter what and were proud of them. It turned out to be one of the most memorable moments of the tournament.

 

 

In much the same way, the NXT London crowd was proud of Bayley and embraced her as their own. And by golly, they were going to sing their asses off to will Bayley to the finish line even if it looked bleak as hell.

[Kyuubi]

...MGFanJay's obsession with posting caps of women's asses is really disturbing.

 

Liked Asuka's match with Emma. Emma was always a worker and she showed it tonight. Asuka got to show off her arsenal a bit more which leading up to that insane leg trap arm bar that she is definitely saving for Bailey.

 

That tag match is infintely better than any tag match on the main roster. I love how Enzo's lack of coordination/skill/whatever plays into his matches. He may be deliberately doing so or he is that way in life. He wrestles like an average joe would if they just stepped in the ring. The way he bumps or has very unsophisticated moves(like he was tagged in from the corner and instead of doing so crazy babyface tag move, he just starts throwing punches). It makes the Enzo and Cass dynamic so much more interesting as it tells a story within the match. Instead of having two equally talented guys as a tag team, it is a tag team with a dynamic that keeps me invested in their matches. Maybe Enzo becomes this crazy good wrestler guy(he is slowly improving with every match), but I have so much fun watching him perform as this typical dude that I sort of don't want him to get better or that he continues method acting that is really that uncoordinated and unskilled. I don't know, but I like this team.

 

I was surprised that Apollo took the L, but Corbin needed the win. Indy guys have been running this show too long and Corbin's beef is about that. Corbin needs to work on his offense a bit because it seemed to me that Crews(who in my opinion bumps too much for a guy that is built like a brick house) was selling so much to cover that. He is getting better and I appreciate that, but it kind of  hampered my enjoyment a bit.

 

Sting/Vader...I mean Bayley and Nia Jax was awesome. Nia Jax, as stated on this thread, needs to learn how to look like a monster. I get that she is gorgeous woman, but she is supposed to be intimidating. She also needs to learn how to sell like a big person because her picking up Bailey with her hands essentially helping her sinch in the guillotine was kind of annoying as she clearly has enough strength to lift with no hands. Bailey was clearly calling shots trying to direct her which was John Cena-esque of Bailey.

 

Finn Balor/Joe was kind of underwhelming in that Finn's big time matches are just missing something. Like every other face champion in NXT had something other than their moveset that set them apart. Finn's demon is his niche, but the demon is no different than normal Finn until it is revealed that he was the one that attacked Hideo and is actually a vicious motherfucker. Sure, I appreciate the nuances that everytime the paint is on,Finn reveals a new move(he did the dreamcast kick in this match) or becomes a little more aggressive than usual, but it isn't distinct enough to pick out. If Demon Finn was this hyper vicious mother fucker that had his own finisher other than typical Finn, I'd appreciate it more.

[The Nature Boy]

To help Nia prepare for her match with Bayley, they should've just given her a ton of Vader/Sting matches and told her to watch everything that Vader does. Nia's smile isn't threatening at all. It's like she wants to warmly greet you and offer you coffee. She needs to learn to be menacing in the ring. Imagine if Vader had started smiling warmly while beating down Sting.

[Kyuubi]

To help Nia prepare for her match with Bayley, they should've just given her a ton of Vader/Sting matches and told her to watch everything that Vader does. Nia's smile isn't threatening at all. It's like she wants to warmly greet you and offer you coffee. She needs to learn to be menacing in the ring. Imagine if Vader had started smiling warmly while beating down Sting.

...That would be scary as fuck.

[The Nature Boy]

 

To help Nia prepare for her match with Bayley, they should've just given her a ton of Vader/Sting matches and told her to watch everything that Vader does. Nia's smile isn't threatening at all. It's like she wants to warmly greet you and offer you coffee. She needs to learn to be menacing in the ring. Imagine if Vader had started smiling warmly while beating down Sting.

...That would be scary as fuck.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm struggling to think of monster heels that are also facially attractive. Vader's smile might be scary but Nia's isn't. 

[Matt D]

I'm generally ok with that too. I think she was a wrestling as a monster who didn't know her own strength. It wasn't that she was arrogant. It was that she was inexperienced and never dealt with opposition before. Everything had come easy due to her size and power and she was fighting her first opponent with heart who could put up a fight. Even then, it came easy. She wasn't smiling because she was homicidal. She was smiling because she was having a good time, having a fun workout with everything going her way, just like it should, just like it always had, with a title about to come her way.

 

And then, there was a moment when she was made to STOP smiling. 

 

And that's part of what made the match work.

[Kyuubi]

 

 

 I'm struggling to think of monster heels that are also facially attractive. Vader's smile might be scary but Nia's isn't. 

 

Beth Phoenix

[DreamBroken]

She's not like most girls.

 

[The Nature Boy]

 

 

 

 I'm struggling to think of monster heels that are also facially attractive. Vader's smile might be scary but Nia's isn't. 

 

Beth Phoenix

 

 

Well, monster male heels. I don't recall Beth smiling too much during matches though. 

 

 

She's not like most girls.

 

 

That's just one step below:

 

[turk128]

Emma deserves a whole lot more credit for carrying her match (Dana helped bunches too).

 

People saying that Emma dominated too much but she wasn't nearly as brutal as she was when she decimated the jobbers. If she and Asuka were allowed to be that brutal to each other, I can easily see the match being a MOTY candidate and not just MOTN candidate that it is now.

Nia Jax's problem is that she's fantastic looking even when she scowls. She needs Scary Sherry level make-up to hide that.