Jump to content
DVDVR Message Board

NXT TAKEOVER - PHILADELPHIA


Dolfan in NYC

Recommended Posts

Just watched Andrade Almas vs. Johnny Gargano. What a fucking match. It's my MOTY so far. *****

Almas vs. Gargano belongs in the Best NXT Match of all Time debate with Scott Dawson/Dash Wilder vs. Johnny Gargano/Tomassi Ciampa from NXT TakeOver: Toronto, Tyler Bate vs Pete Dunne from NXT TakeOver: Chicago, Adrian Neville vs. Sami Zayn R-Evolution 2014 and Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Sami Zayn NXT TakeOver: Dallas.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

There WAS a little bit of an "End of Face/Off" feel to it where the last chase goes way too long. But, they were telling a battle of attrition story, so it doesn't work UNLESS it goes that long. 

In the end, Almas needed the win to cement himself as a credible champion more than Gargano needed the underdog win. Especially if the Takeover Nawlins endgame is Almas v Black. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I love the way the big MOOVEZ actually had a purpose, instead of just trying to pop the crowd. It felt like All Japan in the 90's, where both guys were determined to beat down and destroy the other guy. The fact that a bunch of their moves missed fed right into the story that they were giving their strongest efforts at bringing the death. 

The fact that the crowd chanted "Thank you, Candice" demonstrated the power of Zelina's presence and character. She only does one or two things the whole match, but the crowd is relieved to get her out of there. Fantastic heelery. 

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 minutes ago, Josh Mann said:

 

In the end, Almas needed the win to cement himself as a credible champion more than Gargano needed the underdog win. Especially if the Takeover Nawlins endgame is Almas v Black. 

You're right about the finish making Almas look like a big deal.  It also starts the next chapter in Gargano's career - his real story isn't chasing after the title but to vanquish his former best friend turned enemy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, The Natural said:

Just watched Andrade Almas vs. Johnny Gargano. What a fucking match. It's my MOTY so far. *****

Almas vs. Gargano belongs in the Best NXT Match of all Time debate with Scott Dawson/Dash Wilder vs. Johnny Gargano/Tomassi Ciampa from NXT TakeOver: Toronto, Tyler Bate vs Pete Dunne from NXT TakeOver: Chicago, Adrian Neville vs. Sami Zayn R-Evolution 2014 and Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Sami Zayn NXT TakeOver: Dallas.

As of right now it's between Dawson/Wilder vs. Gargano/Ciampa and Almas vs. Gargano for my best match in NXT history.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I will preface this by saying I thought the main event was fantastic, but Johnny Gargano's over-the-top selling is not for me and took me out of the match for long stretches seeming as it was entirely based around that. @Charlie M. said way back that Gargano's a Shawn Michaels tribute act or something to that effect and I agree wholeheartedly. Almas was the fucking man throughout though and the drama was great even with my griping in mind. Andrade would've been dead as a believable threat in NXT much less the main roster if he lost when Vega was taken out of the equation, so the booking of the match was perfect. Johnboy gets his big rivalry match where he can ham it up for the cameras the entire time and plan a bunch of convoluted cutesy spots and it'll be great despite that.

Cole/Black was hurt by the match stip. Fucking ages past between spots. Both guys are going to be stars in NXT (doubt either will succeed much on the main roster; Cole for his size and Black for his character not making sense to Vince, plus the CM Punk physique on top of that), but this wasn't their night. Probably best that they didn't have a blow away great match right before that main event though, as the crowd wouldn't have had the same energy for the main event.

Baszler is great. She's different both in the ring and in terms of her personality and that's hugely important. Best of all, she's believable even if she was pretty awful when it came to competing at the highest level in MMA. I enjoyed watching her wrestle in small community centres here in Vancouver and seeing her grow in terms of in-ring ability is a lot of fun. Not really a fan of Ember Moon at this stage. Her wrestling is fine but her character is a bunch of nonsense. Thought the armbreaker stuff went on way too long where it made a move that should be devastating (particularly when you've got Ronda coming in and Shayna's association with Ronda). However, they did a fine job booking themselves out of the corner they were in, as Moon would've been the biggest geek if she lost and they played up Shayna's inexperience well while keeping her strong. Shayna should be winning the belt soonish though, even if she doesn't get an immediate rematch. Storyline-wise it wouldn't make sense because Regal didn't want to give her a "championship opportunity" to begin with.

Dream has the most important stuff down for WWE already and is a natural at character work. His in-ring stuff is mostly hit with a bit of miss in there, but he's still so flipping young and relatively green. Guy is incredible and only going to get better. While I think it would be wise to turn him, it should be a soft turn where he can keep a lot of the antics that make him stand out and not just be a fun lovin' guy who loves to have fun.

Tag match had the wrong dynamic going for it. Crowd was way into ReDragon but had AOP play babyfaces in the match structure. I thought Fish & O'Reilly did just about as good of a job as they possibly could given the circumstances. Their legwork and constant tagging in and out made the size disparity seem less ridiculous. AOP is still rough around the edges but they've come a long way. I don't think they're ready to die on the main roster yet but who knows.

And, yeah, fuck Mauro. Fuck Percy Watson too. And fuck WWE overproducing everything as well. I was so sad to see there weren't any other languages for commentary. 

to5ulCi0SSyIgCGL0ede_tumblr_ls8ssxKhGY1q

"Johnny Gargano, that was some of the finest wrestling I've ever seen."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Johnny Gargano is the most underrated wrestlers of the past 2-3. Unbelievable matches constantly on big NXT shows, yet so many other guys get mentioned over him. Sure a lot of those were tag matches, but he was great in them and was great last night.

His match with Ciampa has potential of being better than this given the backstory tied to it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just want to mention this again because most people skip the preshow

- Having Samoa Joe on the panel instead of random person who clearly doesn't watch NXT was so an improvement. It helps that Joe clearly was comfortable doing it but in that kayfabe sense was able to add so much more because he could reference having worked guys (like Cole, Black and Ohno). And he threatened Sam Roberts a lot.

- They also unintentionally teased Joe vs. Pete Dunne and Joe vs. Almas and I am really angry he is on the main roster now.

- Everyone needs to watch the like last 5 minutes of the show. Zelina Vega and had another star making run on the mic. She shhhsed Sam Roberts which was amazing but pretty much the highlight of the night for me, Joe said Almas name but randomly decided to through in a Spanish accent and Zelina stone cold looked in his face and goes "That's nice. Next time trying rolling your Rs". It was fucking crazy. Another reminder that giving people scripts is fucking infuriating.

 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Can we take a moment to appreciate how much AOP improved in a year and a half? Damn.

Ohno/Dream was really good.  Hero is never gonna get the big push, but he's great at this role. If Dream keeps improving, egads he's gonna be something.

Bazler/Moon was great. The finish was perfect. I thought they'd booked themselves into a corner but they had the perfect way out.

Black/Cole was fine. Good, even. But nothing special.

Johnny Gargano and Zelina Vega are perfect at their roles. This was way better than what these two did in Brooklyn. But then they do stuff like that spinning transition into the submission and I remember how much I can't stand Almas's offense. Vega gets my favorite moment in an Almas match for the second straight TakeOver (the Rana into the steps, which looked fantastic and brutal.) There were two perfect endings for this match: Ciampa costs Johnny the match after Candace ran Vega off, or Johnny wins the belt and then Ciampa sets up the next program. Instead...

Anyway, credit to Almas. He bumped his ass off, he ate all of the turnbuckle on the missed drive by knees, this was easily the best match of his I've ever seen. The knees against the post was a legit holy shit spot. The finish... I don't like the decision but the execution was and layout was spot on. 

It's definitely not the best NXT match I've seen (I'd take Drew/Roode, DIY/Revival 2 out of 3, Roode/Strong I, and both featured Sasha/Bayley matches without question. Probably AOP/DIY/Revival, the Roode/Nak series, and Asuka/Moon II. Maybe Nak/Sami and the Sami/Cesaro matches. But I digress...) but it was damn good and way better than I expected.

Ciampa's dead eye stare was #1 and best.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm going to add because the Main kind of making people forget about it.

 

Adam Cole took the dumbest, most dangerous bump I've ever seen  out of someone not named Mick Foley or Jun Kasai.  I'm legit amazed he can walk after that AA onto the chair backs.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

6 minutes ago, Raziel403 said:

I'm going to add because the Main kind of making people forget about it.

 

Adam Cole took the dumbest, most dangerous bump I've ever seen  out of someone not named Mick Foley or Jun Kasai.  I'm legit amazed he can walk after that AA onto the chair backs.

Yeah that was sick and pretty stupid but didn't he do something similar to Black on the weekly show?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was staying off social media and DVDVR until I finished watching this show as I did not want to be spoiled. This was a really good show.

The opener did a great job of putting over how wily Fish and O'Reilly are, and AOP did a real good job of selling and making their comebacks with their size and power. ***3/4

Velveteen/Ohno wasn't as good as Velveteen/Black from last Takeover, but it was still really good. Dream does so much good character work, his boxer getup was a nice touch for a match against the Knockout Artist. Dream has some work to do with the Purple Rainmaker. Still a better finisher than Okada's shitty clothesline... If Ohno is OK with being the Meng of NXT, so be it if we keep getting matches like this. ***1/4

Baszler/Moon was alright. Shayna's arm work was vicious. Moon doing her damndest to survive, and sneaking a win the way she did shows that Baszler still has work to do in acclimating to pro wrestling, but Moon got lucky. The post-match beatdown was good, although Mauro was a little grating with his self-righteousness. If he keeps mouthing off about Bazsler, I would not be surprised to see her choke out Mauro. ***

Black/Cole was a mixed bag. I liked the idea that Black didn't need weapons to kick Cole's ass, and whenever he won control of a weapon, Cole bailed despite Black not feeling the need to use them. It got a bit too ploddy and deliberate in setting up spots, which killed the flow of things for me. Some of the high school were neat, like the Meteora double knees through the announce table, but something just seemed a bit off. Cole is a crazy SOB for taking the AA onto the two chairs. FUCK! 

At first, I thought Black was going to stack the second table on top of the first, and we would be getting an homage to Tommy Dreamer/Brian Lee "High Incident" but it was not meant to be. Both guys bleeding added some danger to the proceedings. **7/8

Almas/Andrade. Sweet Jeebus. I was so fucking pissed the mariachi band Andrade came out with were so out of tune and out of sync, but when he came out with that mask and the coat, that is YOUR IDOLO, ladies and gentlemen! No piss ass sounding mariachi was going to ruin his moment.

I really liked their Toronto match and if it was as good as Toronto we we're going to have a winner on our hands This started out slow, but that's good given the plunder match before them. Then, it went into overdrive, then it went into Dusty Rhodes/Ric Flair, " I reserved the stratosphere for me and you" and these two fucking killed it. So much athleticism, hard-hitting, and dear lord every near fall was so fucking good and believable. I bit on the modified Hurts Donut from the top. Gargano's got the best facials in the business. Each big haymaker was taking it's toll, but neither man was going to give in to the other. Vega tried interfering, but Gargano was able to overcome it and kick out, and Candice coming out to even the odds was great. Gargano Escapes were great close calls as it took Vega and the ropes, respectively to save the title for Andrade. But due to the sheer beating those two gave each other, Johnny just didn't have enough in the gas tank to get Andrade to submit. The finish with the double knees to the ring post with the hammerlock DDT was finally enough to put Gargano out for the count. The mind is willing but the body (and head) can only take so much. Such a great story and a hell of a match. Easy *****

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Edwin said:

Johnny Gargano is the most underrated wrestlers of the past 2-3. Unbelievable matches constantly on big NXT shows, yet so many other guys get mentioned over him. Sure a lot of those were tag matches, but he was great in them and was great last night.

His match with Ciampa has potential of being better than this given the backstory tied to it.

Dude I got high on Gargano last year when I noticed that a lot f Matches of the year for 2017 and 2016 had his name in them. When he first came to NXT, someone called him and Ciampa vanilla midgets and I agreed. But now? Nope.

Redragon vs AOP was good, and I totally bought the story they are selling which I guess I am naive. The thing is that Kyle O'Reilly started the match kicking at one of the twins legs at least 5 times. So when Akam(I think that is how you spell his name) got hurt, I just figured that his knee buckled from the kicks. And honestly, that is how I figured someone like Kyle O'Reilly was going to get in this match and be effective because from what I've seen of him, he is a submission guy and an MMA guy. Bobby Fish is harder to pin down due to his work in NOAH which he is the Dynamite Kid type of dude which was the standard in indies circa 2005-2010.  I agree that there is nothing amazing about the duo and they don't standout much, however, they are good to great wrestlers on their own. AOP, however, has come a long way. These guys seemed like typical WWE Hosses that are going to be fed to Roman, but to me anyways, they are more exceptional than that. These guys are how monsters should be booked and WWE knows how to book monsters. I grew to like them and can't wait for their inevitable call-up when they fade to obscurity in the main roster.

Velveteen Dream vs Ohno was good. The high point of the match came from the beginning as everyone already stated. I noticed that Clarke was not as crisp as he normally is with his moves and botched a few times. These two needed to work on their chemistry. 

I kind of skipped out on most of Ember Moon and Baszler.

Worst match of the night by far was Cole vs Black. Okay, in hardcore matches, I always hated when guys would acquiense the crowd's bullshit and go out the natural flow of the match to grab something like tables and set that shit up. Leaving the opponent in the middle of the ring for minutes or it feel like minutes. I hate that so much because it is such an easy fix. Just fucking drag your opponent outside the ring and keep beating them while in between grabbing the table and setting it up. This match was full of set up spots like that and it annoyed me. I loved how Lucha Underground Hardcore matches cut that shit short by having shit set up prior to the match so wrestlers did not have to waste time grabbing weapons. I mean the time consumed grabbing weapons spot should be used in matches where weapons are not allowed because it adds to the story. But yeah, did not like the match in spite of the few good spots it had.

The main event. Holy shit the main event. Okay, there are matches where I expect the obvious and tune it out. I knew Almas was going to win because Black won his match and NXT rarely runs champion vs champion main events for squeaky clean babyface champions that Gargano would have been. I have always been high on Almas since he entered NXT. I did not go into his La Sombra days in NJPW and will later, but this dude is so fucking fluid. There were exchanges in this match that came in bursts and Sombra would do like 4 moves in succession. He reminded me of Naito and since the two were in the same faction in CMLL....yeah, I can see why. Rippa kept on pimping this guy to get over and I can see why. Gargano was incredible in this match as well. The story structure was intricate, but also fantastic. Almas was going for these heavy high impact moves in succession. First it was the back with Gargano doing that ringside senton that he always does and Almas dodging it and shit. For like 5 minutes, Almas worked the back, but Gargano fired back with a babyface comeback. Almas then started working the chest after Gargano tried a sunset top rope powerbomb and Almas flipped out of it and ran his knees in his chest. Another ten minutes of high impact moves, and Gargano came back. Vega only did like 3 things in this match, but her effect was felt because each thing she did turned the tide of the match. She is a very subtle heel manager and I hope WWE does not try to separate her from Almas.

I love this match. Easiest MotY canidate and I can't see how anyone is going to top it outside of Gargano again. This was a solid show with presumably 5(have yet to see Moon vs Shayna yet) matches. Good shit.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The 30 second countdown by the fans leading to Dream knocking Kassius out was amazing booking and crowd interaction.

Dream is going to be a gigantic star on the main roster.

And Gargano is everything good about Indy wrestling mixed with everything good about WWE wrestling. I really hope HHH pulls an Asuka and uses political capital to protect him when he's called up.

Also a mini programme where Lesnar messes with the UK guys  until Dunne shows up and beats the shit out of him would be great. I can completely buy Dunne being a threat to Lesnar.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The main was amazing, Def Top 10 NXT match all time,  right up there with the Revival tags, Bate/Dunne, Sasha/Bailey, Ember/Asuka, etc.

But it looks like I'm by some distance the highest person on the opening tag. It's not as stunning in the sober light of day as it was when I watched it drunk after a work party last night (in my brain this morning the Kyle/Razar shootstyle opening was like 3 times longer, haha), but I still really like it. Giving the Authors some more room to breathe and work in their individual talents is proving a very good thing. The random Akam injury storyline is a smart way to do this match, I think, and ReDragon as efficient veterans who can take apart the younger giants when presented an opportunity totally works for me. Also Akam's lariat to Bobby Fish on the apron miiiiiight be my favorite lariat in WWE history? I say that without a lot of thought so I'm sure I'm wrong, but that was Hansen-esque clubberin.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I also loved AOP breaking up the double submission attempts by slamming Fish who was doing a sleeper onto O'Reilly who was working a ground submission.

I forgot I was annoyed by the teased stoppage in the women's match after the Eclipse. Everyone is tending to Ember while Shayna is dead in the middle of ring longer than Booker T jobbing to HHH at WrestleMania.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

36 minutes ago, JonnyLaw said:

I kind of wish they had stopped the Moon/Baszler match due to injury after the eclipse.  It would have been a cool dynamic to set up the rematch, rather than the champ winning cleanly after overcoming an hour’s worth of armbars.

See I like the fact that Baszler is still a rookie of sorts and understimated Moon. She's kinda like how Brock is without Heyman - a monster without the brains.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...