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NXT Takeover XXV - Bridgeport, CT - 6/1/2019


Dolfan in NYC

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8 minutes ago, Niners Fan in CT said:

I don't know Brian,  I don't see anything out of Cole that would want me to place him up there with Andrade.  I think Cien's offense looks so much better and I think he works drama better as well. 

I think Cole is really good. Not one of the best in the world, but really good.

Andrade... I just don't get it. He's had a few good matches with Gargano and Rey where they both were putting in incredible work, but mostly he's just terrible. I continue to just fully not understand what people like about him. That fucking overly contrived back elbow he does now drives me fucking insane. His hammerlock ddt looks like a joke on anybody taller than about 5'9". His signature missed moonsault/standing moonsault spot... God I just don't get it.

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Cole/Gargano looked and felt very artificial and fake to me.

At no point did I believe these two were not two actors who were very self-aware that they were trying to put on a seven star match that Dave Meltzer would like, as opposed to two guys who hate each other and want to win a legitimate fight.

It was full of bad acting, forced drama, incredibly dumb kickouts and I just thought the whole thing was lousy. 

And I say this as someone who is usually a fan of the overproduced WWE epic. This thing was bullshit. And may god have mercy on their souls if they have a rubber match.

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Meltzer's giving that main event at least 5 stars.... I agree with whomever said I was liking it up until the Canadian Destroyer on the floor... If there was anything EVER that should be treated like a Tombstone piledriver in Mexico, that would be it. Gargano should have done a stretcher job for that.

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The Panama Sunrise is just the absolute worst. Asking me to buy into the internal logic of a Canadian Destroyer is one thing; asking me to THEN believe that hopping down from the middle rope first makes it more devastating is beyond the pale. 

Glad to see Street Profits finally win the tag belts though.

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13 minutes ago, w. josh said:

The Panama Sunrise is just the absolute worst. Asking me to buy into the internal logic of a Canadian Destroyer is one thing; asking me to THEN believe that hopping down from the middle rope first makes it more devastating is beyond the pale. 

Yeah, it's easily the worst thing about Cole.

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Not a fan of that finish or variations of it either lol. Main event wasnt the worst but they didnt sell me on this encounter. 

Shayna and Io was good. Shayna as a dominating champion is fun. The reality is as a character she needs that title more than anyone else and I'm ok with the idea of her stacking up a list of contenders. Io snapping after the match was cool. Loved the chair moonsault. Go away Candice. 

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17 hours ago, clintthecrippler said:

Internet wrestling fans: no one is emotionally invested anymore. Nothing feels important.

NXT Takeover Live Crowd last night: 13,000 wrestling fans emotionally invested from bell-to-bell and reacting viscerally to every nearfall during Gargano vs Cole.

Internet wrestling fans: NO, NOT LIKE THAT!

I cannot stress to you how over Adam Cole was in that building. From the parking garage to the opening bell, I heard the Adam Cole Bay Bay thing at least 100 times. It was the hottest crowd I've ever seen in that city, for anyone, period

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Guest Edwin

I'm in a pro-wrestling disinterest slump and regardless of all the criticism here, I will say I enjoyed this card. Riddle/Strong was fantastic and reminded me of how great Strong has been this year.

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Riddle/Strong was great, but this should surprise no one. Riddle is the best wrestler in NXT, Roddy is probably number 2 or 3, and they were in the opener so the time constraints reduced the overkill. This type of match should be the main event style.

The ladder match didn't stand out to me at all. 20 years of these multi-way ladder tags, and the only 3 worth a damn all happened before 2007 (2 of them by April 2001). A tag team turmoil with two other teams would've been way better here.

Dream/Breeze was easily the most impressed I've been with Dream during his push. It's one thing to follow the lead of Black, Ciampa, or Riddle in their type of match, but having a good match with a less athletically-gifted opponent who has been ground to heatless dust under the boot of WWE writing for several years is something. Dream really worked like he was several ranks above Breeze (which he absolutely is) and his tweener character looked all the better for it. Unlike the match where he gave 90% of the offense to Buddy Murphy, this showcase works really well to balance his gritty underdog performance against Riddle in terms of rounding out his character.

Women's match was fine, but even as much as I like Shayna, her reign is starting to feel less like Asuka, and more like Brock Lesnar.

The main event was better than their first match I thought. Yeah, it was even more overkill-y, but the execution was cleaner in a lot of spots now that they've had more practice together. I also liked that the dueling arm and leg work played into the finishing stretch. I know the superkicks and Canadian destroyers won't be everyone's cup of tea, but the match did have some internal logic to it. Hopefully Gargano is done with NXT, I think he's really done as much as he can here. Riddle taking the title of Cole at the Summer Slam weekend show leading to the UE blow-up is fine by me.

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The reaction to the show is a bit more negative than I expected but I generally liked the show.  Riddle/Strong was easily MOTN and I liked the ladder match overall.  Kyle killed himself for our amusement and I got a chuckle out of Ryker getting pummeled repeatedly like he's some Kaiju that won't stay down.  And say what you will about Mauro but I liked his King Ghidorah reference.  Dream/Breeze needed more build before their match but if they wanted both on the card there weren't many options aside from their match.  Hopefully a rematch with more build ends up better for them.  Io looked like a geek with giving her back for the Clutch but I did her snapping post-match.

As for the main event I'll focus on the positives.  Josiah Williams rapping during Cole's entrance was exceptional and I wish he was able to add more videos to his Youtube channel.  Given he works for NXT somehow I guess he's busy with other stuff.  And I'm paging @The Natural on this but I think this was the first time a wrestler cosplayed as a female superhero on a big show.  Either way Gargano sporting Captain Marvel-like gear was wonderful and it's an overall great color scheme for him.  The match itself did tell a story about one with a bad arm and the other a bad knee.  They did a decent job telling that though the endless killer moves and kickout hurt the match a lot.  Even if it's too late was glad to see Cole and Street Profits win their respective matches.

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1 hour ago, NikoBaltimore said:

The reaction to the show is a bit more negative than I expected but I generally liked the show.  Riddle/Strong was easily MOTN and I liked the ladder match overall.  Kyle killed himself for our amusement and I got a chuckle out of Ryker getting pummeled repeatedly like he's some Kaiju that won't stay down.  And say what you will about Mauro but I liked his King Ghidorah reference.  Dream/Breeze needed more build before their match but if they wanted both on the card there weren't many options aside from their match.  Hopefully a rematch with more build ends up better for them.  Io looked like a geek with giving her back for the Clutch but I did her snapping post-match.

As for the main event I'll focus on the positives.  Josiah Williams rapping during Cole's entrance was exceptional and I wish he was able to add more videos to his Youtube channel.  Given he works for NXT somehow I guess he's busy with other stuff.  And I'm paging @The Natural on this but I think this was the first time a wrestler cosplayed as a female superhero on a big show.  Either way Gargano sporting Captain Marvel-like gear was wonderful and it's an overall great color scheme for him.  The match itself did tell a story about one with a bad arm and the other a bad knee.  They did a decent job telling that though the endless killer moves and kickout hurt the match a lot.  Even if it's too late was glad to see Cole and Street Profits win their respective matches.

I really loved the show and can't find much, if anything to complain about. I did wonder who would be the first to wear Captain Marvel inspired gear and I thought it would be Seth. It did wind up looking really cool on Johnny though. 

Riddle vs Roddy was definitely the match of the night for me and it was probably the most violent as far as wrestling moves go. The ladder match didn't even seem that insane. I thought the ladder match at MitB was better, but this ladder match had my current favorite team in NXT and maybe in WWE winning the tag titles. The women's match was ok, but damn, it's time for Shayna to move on. I thought for sure she'd be dropping the title to Io here. I'd rather see Io win it here, see Shayna lose trying to regain it, and then see her move up to the main roster. Really dug the main event too. I understand the criticisms for the Panama Sunrise on the floor and even I'm a little tired of seeing Johnny sell shit by looking brain dead before he busts out a desperation move, but despite all of that, it was an exciting match and Adam Cole is finally the NXT champion.

Edited by Craig H
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On 6/2/2019 at 11:52 AM, clintthecrippler said:

Internet wrestling fans: no one is emotionally invested anymore. Nothing feels important.

NXT Takeover Live Crowd last night: 13,000 wrestling fans emotionally invested from bell-to-bell and reacting viscerally to every nearfall during Gargano vs Cole.

Internet wrestling fans: NO, NOT LIKE THAT!

Personally, I realize that my inability to get into a Gargano match is on me and not the performers. FFS, I had the same issue with Misawa.

 

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9 hours ago, NikoBaltimore said:

The reaction to the show is a bit more negative than I expected but I generally liked the show.  Riddle/Strong was easily MOTN and I liked the ladder match overall.  Kyle killed himself for our amusement and I got a chuckle out of Ryker getting pummeled repeatedly like he's some Kaiju that won't stay down.  And say what you will about Mauro but I liked his King Ghidorah reference.  Dream/Breeze needed more build before their match but if they wanted both on the card there weren't many options aside from their match.  Hopefully a rematch with more build ends up better for them.  Io looked like a geek with giving her back for the Clutch but I did her snapping post-match.

As for the main event I'll focus on the positives.  Josiah Williams rapping during Cole's entrance was exceptional and I wish he was able to add more videos to his Youtube channel.  Given he works for NXT somehow I guess he's busy with other stuff.  And I'm paging @The Natural on this but I think this was the first time a wrestler cosplayed as a female superhero on a big show.  Either way Gargano sporting Captain Marvel-like gear was wonderful and it's an overall great color scheme for him.  The match itself did tell a story about one with a bad arm and the other a bad knee.  They did a decent job telling that though the endless killer moves and kickout hurt the match a lot.  Even if it's too late was glad to see Cole and Street Profits win their respective matches.

Liking the pager reference, @NikoBaltimore. Cheers for the tag. I also think that's the first time.

Johnny Gargano comic book inspired attires:

Thor: Ragnarok.

Captain America. 

Venom. 

The Punisher. 

Dark Phoenix. 

Iron Man.

Captain Marvel.

Edited by The Natural
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I feel like Shayna is hanging out to give Dukes and Shafir more time to develop so they can come up at the same time and not look completely green.

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6 minutes ago, Goodear said:

I feel like Shayna is hanging out to give Dukes and Shafir more time to develop so they can come up at the same time and not look completely green.

Has anyone seen a match of theirs recently? I can't remember the last time I saw them work on NXT tv but neither of them have looked all that good in anything I've seen so far.

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6 hours ago, Burgundy LaRue said:

Cedric Alexander and his wife Ariel Monroe reverse cosplayed as Harley Quinn and The Joker when she was in last year's Mae Young Classic.

Shit, I forgot about that. I can't recall what show he wore it on but definitely remember it now. And I believe Ariel wore it during MMC. Thanks for that. 

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