NXT TAKEOVER - Brooklyn III

[Go2Sleep]

Isn't the simple solution for Asuka just stripping her of the title, then she shows up on one of the main rosters unannounced when she's healthy?

Kills my dream of seeing her hold all 3 belts at the same time, but it's pretty practical from a booking perspective.

[RIPPA]

WON

Almas/Gargano - 4 1/4

Tag Titles - 3 3/4

Black/Itami - 4 1/4

Asuka/Ember - 4 1/2

Main - 4 1/4

[JCM]

Pretty generous ratings for Black/Itami, and especially the main event.

[Ace]

Dave's been more generous overall lately.

 

[odessasteps]

2 minutes ago, Ace said:

Dave's been more generous overall lately.

 

Now that there's a 6 star scale, presumably the same rating number is not as good as it was under a 5 star scale.

[RIPPA]

I will post the warning here too

The women's title picture resolution started last night at the tapings and the WWE is reporting it everywhere so it will be talked about freely soon

[The Natural]

I went ****1/2 for Asuka vs. Ember Moon. This match and Sasha Banks vs. Bayley at NXT Takeover: Brooklyn and NXT Takeover: Respect are the three best matches in the history of the company with the Respect match topping the list.

[Pete]

On 8/24/2017 at 7:35 AM, RIPPA said:

WON

Almas/Gargano - 4 1/4

Tag Titles - 3 3/4

Black/Itami - 4 1/4

Asuka/Ember - 4 1/2

Main - 4 1/4

I just want to know who the one joker was that gave the show a thumbs down in Dave's poll. 

[Brian Fowler]

1 hour ago, Pete said:

I just want to know who the one joker was that gave the show a thumbs down in Dave's poll. 

You really have to wonder what that person likes. I mean, Jesus.

[Godfrey]

I had a friend who claimed his favorite show was WCW Sin (or one of those latter day clusterfuck PPVs) because it was "interesting" to watch. He's the kind of guy who would give a thumbs down to a show like this because he didn't think it was "headed in a good direction" or some other dumbness. Anyway, we're not friends anymore.

[MORELOCK]

8 minutes ago, Godfrey said:

I had a friend who claimed his favorite show was WCW Sin (or one of those latter day clusterfuck PPVs) because it was "interesting" to watch. He's the kind of guy who would give a thumbs down to a show like this because he didn't think it was "headed in a good direction" or some other dumbness. Anyway, we're not friends anymore.

Sin actually was a fun show.

[Burgundy LaRue]

On ‎8‎/‎24‎/‎2017 at 4:24 PM, JCM said:

Pretty generous ratings for Black/Itami, and especially the main event.

I didn't care for Itami/Black at all. Nearly everyone seemed to be salivating over it, thinking they'd kill each other (figuratively, natch). All I saw were two guys trade kicks for 15 minutes until the one going over hit his finishing kick.  There was no story told and the match never built toward anything. The main event wasn't all that either, but it did have a crescendo.  Itami/Black had one layer. It was a decent layer, but nothing else.

[Beech27]

It was partially a battle of guys whose style is kick, but I think there was more. Basically, the increasingly abrasive and arrogant Itami tries to get under Black's skin, which no one has done yet. What happens if he loses his calm? Can he fight that way? Will he make mistakes? We haven't seen it yet. Itami couldn't do it though, instead frustrating himself. So, he was the one who made the crucial error, and got KO'd. 

That said, two guys kicking the hell out of each other is a pretty compelling story to me as well. It's pretend fighting; sometimes two guys pretending to fight is enough.

[Brian Fowler]

The only match I didn't like was the opener, but I know, I'm weird, everyone else likes Almas while I'm literally yet to see him in a match that I thought was even particularly decent.

But I also have the main at the top of my WWE/NXT MOTY list, so... Yup, I'm weird.

[The Man Known as Dan]

24 minutes ago, Brian Fowler said:

The only match I didn't like was the opener, but I know, I'm weird, everyone else likes Almas while I'm literally yet to see him in a match that I thought was even particularly decent.

But I also have the main at the top of my WWE/NXT MOTY list, so... Yup, I'm weird.

....?

I mean, no offense, but I thought the Roode/Drew match was the worst match on the card by a decent bit. And I liked it pretty well. But no way I buy it being better then Gargano/Almas.

[Brian Fowler]

Like I said, I'm weird.

But Almas/Gargano... I know, everyone loved it. I just can't figure out why. It was convoluted, over blown, and Almas even fucked up the finish, not letting the camera see what the shirt was before hitting Johnny.  I thought it was tops about **.

As for the main, it was a masterpiece. It played off of Roode's entire title run, with him finally meeting someone that was too much for Booby to turn that one small opening into a victory. It hit hard, built logically, and had an all-time great finishing stretch.

But, as always, it's worth keeping in mind that Booby Roode is currently dominating my WWE/NXT top ten. I'm fully okay with loving his work more than anyone else. He is exactly what I want a top heel to be. Like literally, exactly. He was the only thing that got me too watch TNA for years, and now he's immediately jumped to the top of my favorite WWE guys list.

So yeah, I have a (possibly irrational) hatred of virtually everything Almas does, and a (definitely irrational) love of everything Roode does. So grains of salt, ymmv, etc.

[The Man Known as Dan]

14 minutes ago, Brian Fowler said:

Like I said, I'm weird.

But Almas/Gargano... I know, everyone loved it. I just can't figure out why[/y]. It was convoluted, over blown, and Almas even fucked up the finish, not letting the camera see what the shirt was before hitting Johnny.  I thought it was tops about **.

As for the main, it was a masterpiece. It played off of Roode's entire title run, with him finally meeting someone that was too much for Booby to turn that one small opening into a victory. It hit hard, built logically, and had an all-time great finishing stretch.

But, as always, it's worth keeping in mind that Booby Roode is currently dominating my WWE/NXT top ten. I'm fully okay with loving his work more than anyone else. He is exactly what I want a top heel to be. Like literally, exactly. He was the only thing that got me too watch TNA for years, and now he's immediately jumped to the top of my favorite WWE guys list.

So yeah, I have a (possibly irrational) hatred of virtually everything Almas does, and a (definitely irrational) love of everything Roode does. So grains of salt, ymmv, etc.

Fair enough, I guess. I usually am a big fan of less is more style workers, but the problem with Roode to me is he's a man who lives absolutely nowhere in terms of what his style is. He feels like a guy who has to be opportunistic. He's never at any point felt like he was the "better man" in a match he's been in to me. And I mean that in a kayfabe sense, not a general in ring work sense. Roode's problem with me is simply he feels like he's pushed too strong to be a cowardly "not really as good as the top babyfaces, just a really good cheater" type of heel, but his size, mediocre offense, and general... thereness kinda prevents him from being a convincing dominating controlling heel. The big problem with Drew/Roode was simple: At no point did I buy Roode as being a better wrestler then Drew, once more, in kayfabe. All of Roode's strengths, McIntrye does better. He hits harder, he has more power, he's faster. The only thing Roode had on him is cunning, and he didn't do anything in the match that made him come across as being particularly clever. Therefor, it just felt like a pretty standard WWE style main event. By no means bad, but by every definition I can think of, no means great. It was a good match. It also followed a show were everything before it to me was great, so that hurt.

 

I find the Gargano/Almas "convoluted and over blown" talking point as odd. The point of the match was that these were two very good wrestlers who hadn't had much success in singles competition for different reasons. Almas's focus hasn't been where it's needed to be, Johnny was in tag work and dealing with a betrayal from his best friend. It was a "These are what these two guys can do when they are on" style of match. And Almas looked great as a still arrogant but more focused heel, and Gargano is starting to climb to the Zayn/Bayley level of great babyface in NXT. Also, I'll disagree on the shirt thing, because if that went another 3-5 seconds, it would have been eye roll worthy. The point was, Gargano knew what that shirt was, and anyone who was paying attention to it did too, and the split second advantage it gave was exactly what Almas needed. Worked perfectly for me. And I'm someone who really disliked Gargano before his NXT run, but think he's been a revelation as a sympathetic babyface in NXT.

[Brian Fowler]

He was literally opening the shirt up... It was so obvious Alma's went too early I literally groaned.

But mostly I just thought the match was disjointed, convoluted, and fairly bad. I just don't get it, I guess.

[Burgundy LaRue]

4 hours ago, Beech27 said:

It was partially a battle of guys whose style is kick, but I think there was more. Basically, the increasingly abrasive and arrogant Itami tries to get under Black's skin, which no one has done yet. What happens if he loses his calm? Can he fight that way? Will he make mistakes? We haven't seen it yet. Itami couldn't do it though, instead frustrating himself. So, he was the one who made the crucial error, and got KO'd. 

That said, two guys kicking the hell out of each other is a pretty compelling story to me as well. It's pretend fighting; sometimes two guys pretending to fight is enough.

I see and understand what they're doing with Black.  The eerily calm guy who kicks the daylights out of everyone: who's going to get to him first? I did like the touch of Itami being frightened at the face Black made toward him at one point. However, Black wasn't facing the camera and we didn't get to see that expression was. So the moment was somewhat lost.

The match itself was good. Not **** 1/4 good IMO, but certainly not terrible. The setup for the match, however, was non-existent.  And for a hard-hitting affair, they didn't take things out of first gear. If a match happened for so little on the main roster, folks would rip the lack of storytelling to shreds. And rightfully so.  

Again, I can see where all this helps Black's character for now. But until they add layers to him, it's all sound and no fury.

[OSJ]

Okay, I was late to the party due to deadlines and such and didn't watch this until Monday, re-watched bits and pieces yesterday to help organize my thoughts,  (which I'll try to keep short and to the point). 

WON                                            OSJ

Almas/Gargano - 4 1/4        4 1/2  I wasn't sold on Gargano prior to NXT and considered him the lesser of two men in his tag team role. He won me over big-time in this. Johnny Wrestling may just be the nest great babyface in WWE.

Tag Titles - 3 3/4                     3 (at best) Look, if you're going to spend the money to have Paul Ellering in your show, have him do something besides stalk around the ring looking like he's eaten something that disagreed with him. Part of the LOD mystique was that Ellering is a former wrestler and a dangerous physical threat during a match. He doesn't get involved often because he doesn't need to, but when he does bad shit happens. Other than the misuse of Ellering, I thought this was just a good, solid match, but nothing special, and damn it, I wanted special.

Black/Itami - 4 1/4                4  You kick, I kick, we all kick lalala... Based on Burgundy's remarks I was prepared to hate on this, but I really liked it,  granted, there were no pedals, it was all at one speed but that's okay considering who was involved. A story was told, pretty simplistic, but it was there. Black does a very nice job of portraying a highly skilled and dangerous psycho. Itami, well what can you say about the poor guy's luck since coming to the States? If it were me, I'd have been on a plane back to Japan two years ago. He's stuck it out and I still think we'll see great things from him in NXT. After what's been done to Nak on the main roster I have absolutely no faith in WWE using a Japanese wrestler correctly.

Asuka/Ember - 4 1/2          5 snowlflakes, count 'em: ***** ! Hell's bells, Dave; just what was missing to not give this a full *****? 

Main - 4 1/4                         4 1/2 Funny thing is when I forced myself to watch TNA, it was mainly to see Beer Money, and I always thought James Storm was the superior talent. I was wrong, Bobby is the perfect heel, he does Ric Flair better than Ric Flair in that he harkens back to a time before Ric became a caricature of himself. I could never understand why Drew McIntyre wasn't pushed to the moon wherever he went. That said, I had pretty high expectations for this match and I wasn't disappointed. If it hadn't the misfortune of following an Asuka match, it might have seemed even better.

[Greggulator]

The main event was the one match Bobby Roode has had in NXT that I didn't think was great. It was just sorta there for me. I am not sold on Drew, especially as a face. He is just sorta meandering, does generic promos and has a really forced attempt at connecting to the crowd. I don't hate him but I don't think he is really that good.

Bobby Roode had one of the best NXT runs anyone has had. His run was better than Nak's and Joe's. He was a joy to watch. Evil rich guys are my favorite wrestling archetypes.

He was such a great bastardized and right from the start. His first NXT promo is an all-timer. He plays into the whole "guy from elsewhere IS NOW HERE" thing I hate and flips it by talking about replacing the fans. It is such a great slow burn of a character. I loved his promos against Nak where he was watching his victory and toasting himself. Such great wrestling nonsense with him living in like an 18 BR mansion and shopping for expensive sunglasses and belittling the help.

His matches were so great. They were simple to get -- he has an opening and viciously attacks. Simple is best a lot of times.

[OSJ]

I quite agree that simple is best a lot (if not most) of the time. That's why I liked Roode/McIntyre as much as I did. The back stories are simple and easy to get across, evil privileged rich guy and the one-time "Chosen One" who too much, too soon and has had to work at redemption for nearly a decade. It doesn't get much simpler than that. Drew McIntyre has been booked the way that Roman always should have been. He's a very agile guy for his size and thus can have solid matches with just about anyone. He's not a great promo, and you'd have to think that after this amount of time he's probably as good as he's ever going to get. Fine, not everyone has to go out there and orate like Cicero.  He's perfectly fine getting his talking points across as a no-nonsense ass-kicker. He doesn't need anything more than that. Although, once again... You've got a guy that's not great on the stick and you've got Paul Ellering RIGHT THERE... Why not use all your resources to their fullest advantage? You'd think that in a company whose first glory days were driven by the Three Wise Men, that managers would have greater currency than they do. 

For fuck's sake, why send Nakamura out there week after week to stumble through scripted promos when you could just as easily have a manager do most of the talking and just let Nak hit the key remarks? I guess one thing at a time, ten years ago I never would have suspected that WWE would actually become a leader in promoting womens' wrestling, maybe another decade we'll managers getting utilized again...

[Marty Sugar]

Finally sat down to watch some of this: first half of the show is outright crazy with Almas/Gargano and then the sheer madness of the Tag Titles match. Fun stuff.

[Marty Sugar]

Just finished watching today. What an amazing show, top to bottom.

[Burgundy LaRue]

On ‎8‎/‎30‎/‎2017 at 10:03 AM, OSJ said:

Black/Itami - 4 1/4                4  You kick, I kick, we all kick lalala... Based on Burgundy's remarks I was prepared to hate on this, but I really liked it,  granted, there were no pedals, it was all at one speed but that's okay considering who was involved. A story was told, pretty simplistic, but it was there. Black does a very nice job of portraying a highly skilled and dangerous psycho. Itami, well what can you say about the poor guy's luck since coming to the States? If it were me, I'd have been on a plane back to Japan two years ago. He's stuck it out and I still think we'll see great things from him in NXT. After what's been done to Nak on the main roster I have absolutely no faith in WWE using a Japanese wrestler correctly.

I can completely see why someone would enjoy the match.  It wasn't bad by any means. I'd even say it was overall good.  Maybe it's because I heard so many being excited for this, maybe my expectations were too high.  I was hoping for something bigger, I guess?  I don't know, just that it didn't click for me.  But there was nothing wrong with the match.  Just not my cup of tea.

I agree about Itami, that poor guy. It'll be interesting to see what becomes of him.  The same holds true with Black, based on the recent NXT spoilers.