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NXT Takeover: Stand & Deliver - 4/7-8/2021


Dolfan in NYC

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47 minutes ago, Eivion said:

I was noticing this as well. I love it since you never quite know how his matches will end as a result. This is what everyone should be doing instead of relying on just one, maybe two moves and the occasional flash pin.

On that note, I'd like to see Raquel Gonzalez use that lariat she hit Io with as another finish. It's pretty damn solid and there aren't many women using it, if any, besides her.

Edited by southofheavy
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Thought the top 3 matches on the show were awesome. WALTER vs Ciampa was GREAT. Hella stiff of course but also a smartly worked heavyweight title match with tonnes of bombs. On a brand full of Shawn Michaels produced weepy over-acted guff, this was match was MANLY.

Tag title match was a super fun spotfest. Particularly impressed with the Fantasma guys, thought all their big spots were spectacular. Just a balls out go-go-go train of cool stuff, which is what you want from a match like this. MSK feel like a really fresh act on this show and cool to see them continue their momentum and get the belts.

Main event was really good. We are used to seeing the 'big' wrestler dominate the 'small' wrestler in these situations, so it was something different to see the smaller, but more experienced ace use her superior agility to dominate the bigger opponent for most of the match. Gonzales is as good a 'base' for a high flyer as any male wrestler (most women workers are terrible at it) right now and all of the spots looked great. Hell, Gonzales is definitely one of the best female workers in the world right now, and her on top is something very fresh so glad they made the right call here. Just a really good clash of styles and big main event title match, Shirai saved her best defence for last.

Not sure if I will even watch anything from tonight's show, guess I'll wait and see what the reaction is, but Night 1 had 3 hits.

As an aside - someone needs to start a drinking game watching these shows were you do a shot every time there is an attack on a guy's hand. With a Pete Dunne match opening up there must have been about 50 over the course of this show. One of the agents really needs to tell them to mix it up more.

Edited by killsteve
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4 hours ago, The Natural said:

Forgot to say Pete Dunne's new entrance theme is shit.

Wait, they did what?  I mean I get that it was likely done by CFO$ and whatever's up with that but that theme was so goddamn good that they should have just kept it.  That's bullshit.

EDIT:  Okay, so on Discord I thought I saw somebody said they changed WALTER's theme and was about to be annoyed that they changed two awesome themes.  Thankfully his is still intact.

I didn't see the show yet but it sounds like I'll be checking out WALTER/Ciampa and Io/Raquel.  Both sound pretty awesome so even if tonight's show is shit then I'm good to go.

EDIT 2:  It's nice to have what feels like a normal-sounding crowd again but seeing the very beginning I was mortified at how close together everybody was.  I'm sure they all had to get a test beforehand but even though I'm fully vaccinated seeing this cements my belief in not attending a show until we have this pandemic largely behind us.  And that's going to unfortunately still be a long time before that happens.

Edited by NikoBaltimore
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Really solid show. 

- I really don't get Zoey Stark. 

- Kushida vs Dunne was like low-key really, really great. Maybe the best Kushida WWE match. 

- Gauntlet was fine but those matches go on forever and are getting to be about as overdone as ladder matches seemingly. Was hoping Swerve would win. 

- Triple tag match was like a PWG special. All moves but a lot of fun. MSK has really, really overdelivered in a way few others have in NXT. Not many established indie acts can say they left the indies and got markedly better in NXT but they are so much better. 

- WALTER vs Ciampa was great. Hot take: WALTER should wrestle more and be pushed as a key headline superstar act in the company. 

- Women's match was good. Don't know if it was great because it was a little paint-by-numbers but good that they put over Gonzalez so strong. It is a little I guess annoying because we're back to kind of the heel dominant champion, which can get tiresome. Like I'm hoping this doesn't lead to Gonzalez being champ for the next year and cleaning everyone out. Would like a little more variety in the booking of the women's division. It's either dominant joshi or dominant monster. Would like to see a more personality driven champion on top for a bit just as a change of pace. 

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10 minutes ago, Hagan said:

- Women's match was good. Don't know if it was great because it was a little paint-by-numbers but good that they put over Gonzalez so strong. It is a little I guess annoying because we're back to kind of the heel dominant champion, which can get tiresome. Like I'm hoping this doesn't lead to Gonzalez being champ for the next year and cleaning everyone out. Would like a little more variety in the booking of the women's division. It's either dominant joshi or dominant monster. Would like to see a more personality driven champion on top for a bit just as a change of pace. 

Am I the only one that sees this as a "Diesel wins the title, so HBK viciously turns on him in jealousy" angle beginning?  Especially with the lack of top face challengers, I don't see Raquel being  a heel for very long. 

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33 minutes ago, Dolfan in NYC said:

Am I the only one that sees this as a "Diesel wins the title, so HBK viciously turns on him in jealousy" angle beginning?  Especially with the lack of top face challengers, I don't see Raquel being  a heel for very long. 

I think you could be right. I don’t watch regularly so I’m not sure how heel-ish she is generally but, although she was obviously in the dominant heel role, she didn’t do anything too heel-ish during the match.

During her celebration I was thinking she seemed very smiley and genuine looking, which seemed odd for a monster heel. Kai noticeably didn’t come back out to celebrate either.

Dominant ass-kicker, who can work, seems like a fairly easy sell to get over as a face, especially with Ripely now gone from that spot.

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1 hour ago, Hagan said:

- WALTER vs Ciampa was great. Hot take: WALTER should wrestle more and be pushed as a key headline superstar act in the company. 

Isn't part of the deal with WALTER that he really doesn't want to be on the main roster or do a whole lot outside of Europe?

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25 minutes ago, Gonzo said:

Isn't part of the deal with WALTER that he really doesn't want to be on the main roster or do a whole lot outside of Europe?

Basically - though HHH said on the post show conference call that If WALTER wants to work both shows (NXT and NXT UK) they will definitely make it work.

Which side note - is part of the issue with the way this was all set up. Since you know WALTER was winning since he is defending the NXT UK Title vs Rampage Brown on that Prelude show that is airing tomorrow (that was already taped)

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I was high on WALTER vs. Tommaso Ciampa watching it live and I actually enjoyed it more second time around. I'd say it's WALTER's second best WWE match behind only WALTER vs. Tyler Bates at NXT TakeOver: Cardiff 2019, *****.

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I'd take the match with Dragunov over it. I would probably place it at the same level of the tag match with Wolfe vs. Ilja/Dunne. All are great in the end. WALTER really made the most out of the few matches he did this past year.

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I don't know if it has been officially announced yet but during the Battle of the Brands live stream a few hours ago - Tyler Breeze said he was wrestling on the kickoff show.

So expect Breezango in some sort of match

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Am I the only one who noticed a 3.5 count early on in the main event? Shirai forgot to kick out (I rewound three times to make sure that the first count was not just the ref hitting the mat) and the ref reacted quickly by just continuing counting. Also the landing of that dive from the top of the skull must have hurt.

The production of this for the Network (and I suppose Peacock) really pissed me off. Turning off the sound (for a couple of seconds) every time the USA Network goes to and comes back from commercials is amateur hour. Twice they even faded to black.

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30 minutes ago, Robert s said:

The production of this for the Network (and I suppose Peacock) really pissed me off. Turning off the sound (for a couple of seconds) every time the USA Network goes to and comes back from commercials is amateur hour. Twice they even faded to black.

I think the sound cutting off is just standard tv production practices when cutting to commercial.  Avoids any bleed-over when the commercials start running.

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1 hour ago, RIPPA said:

I don't know if it has been officially announced yet but during the Battle of the Brands live stream a few hours ago - Tyler Breeze said he was wrestling on the kickoff show.

So expect Breezango in some sort of match

Here we go

 

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44 minutes ago, nofuture said:

I think the sound cutting off is just standard tv production practices when cutting to commercial.  Avoids any bleed-over when the commercials start running.

Sure, but can't they produce two feeds, one with and one without cutting off the sound?

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Okay, so that last match was too long, but lord almighty, that finish was cringe inducing (and I mean that in the best way imaginable).

 

See you on Monday, Adam.

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Breezango really could have used the rub as I'd rather see them get a title show than Drake and Dain. Speaking of which, Drake should be managing Dain (or someone else) instead of teaming with him. Talk about yet another guy they had a perfectly good role for as a manager/on air personality but put him in the ring instead.

The ladder match was an unneeded stipulation for the CW match. It was still good and I'm glad Escobar won. He and LDF have been fantastic as of late and I hope he gets a more prominent spot going forward.

Women's tag match was fine.

Johnny Gargano working a midcard match meant we didn't get one of his forced epics. Reed looked good and should have won.

I liked Balor/Kross more than I thought I would. Given all the hype surrounding this match I was kind of expecting The Demon to come back.

One of these days Adam Cole will have a match that doesn't go 15 minutes longer than it needs to. Today was not one of them. I liked KORs new music. It reminded me of the soundtrack to a 16 bit beat em up game.

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Skipped the ladder match though I was happy to see Escobar won.

Women's tag titles match was perfectly fine.

Johnny/Reed was solid though it felt weird seeing Johnny control Reed. Reed should have won unless they have a big star waiting to debut and beat Gargano.

Finn/Kross was solid, but the wrong guy won. Kross does damn near nothing for me and Finn had been on fire.

O'Reilly/Cole was mostly background noise though I dug the finish. Holy fuck though was it long, so damn long.

Pretty much what I expected with Night 2 not really being anywhere near as good as night 1. 

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25 minutes ago, Eivion said:

Skipped the ladder match though I was happy to see Escobar won.

Women's tag titles match was perfectly fine.

Johnny/Reed was solid though it felt weird seeing Johnny control Reed. Reed should have won unless they have a big star waiting to debut and beat Gargano.

Finn/Kross was solid, but the wrong guy won. Kross does damn near nothing for me and Finn had been on fire.

O'Reilly/Cole was mostly background noise though I dug the finish. Holy fuck though was it long, so damn long.

Pretty much what I expected with Night 2 not really being anywhere near as good as night 1. 

Karrion Kross beat Finn Balor for the NXT Championship and yes, wrong guy went over. Great second reign by Balor eclipsing his first. More of this Finn as an Ace, please if he's to move back on RAW or Smackdown. Hopefully more underused/under appreciated talent will go to NXT like Finn has.

19 minutes ago, Infinit said:

Imagine how much better Cole/Kyle would've been if they were booked on Wednesday night instead and had to shave 20 minutes off of what they did tonight.

That's one of if not my biggest issue with NXT, match times. More often than not, matches go on way too long with too much in. Cole/Gargano series, Cole/Ciampa and O'Reilly/Cole.

Edited by The Natural
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