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NXT TAKEOVER: CHICAGO II - 6/16/2018


Dolfan in NYC

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14 minutes ago, Michael Sweetser said:

Tag title match was fun but Lorcan's nonexistent selling of big bumps took me out of it.  

Bobby Fish should probably be really concerned about his spot, because Strong is a far superior replacement in every way.

I almost wonder if Fish or Roddy becomes the guy that goes after the NA championship while Cole contends for the NXT championship, provided Cole drops the NA title at some point.

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Also, I went over to a friend's to play some Magic. It was just three of us, but I turned on Takeover to watch it while we played. Both of the friends I hung out with are pretty much lapsed fans and haven't watched any wrestling in a long time.

They were really, really blown away by Ricochet, Dream, Black, and the main event. At the end of it they thought it was a lot of fun and way different than what they thought WWE would do.

It makes me think that the NXT model may be better for lapsed or casual fans than trying to pull in celebrities or part timers on the main roster.

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Okay, got up early and watched it again just to better organize my thoughts. 

UA/ Lorcan & Burch. This, my friends is how you open a PPV... Take a team that no one cares about (L & B) and through superior ringwork by all parties draw the viewers in. I'm not as annoyed with Lorcan's occasional no-selling as Mike is as it somewhat fits the character of the guy who is so fired up emotionally that nothing hurts him. On the other hand, I might be giving him far too much credit for nuance. 

Dream / Ricochet was everything that one could possibly want. After these two matches I was seriously worried about how the rest of the card could possibly hold up.  If their smart, they can continue to build on the motif of the Dream only losing through his own hubris; even Mrs. OSJ remarked, "That's too far for him to jump!" Just before his ill-fated miss. Had he not done that and tried some Ricochet-like stunts earlier, he wins. Great match and great storytelling. 

It did so in the only way possible, Shayna and Nikki weren't going to be able to top the wrestling that we'd seen, but they could tell a remarkable story and that's exactly what they did. Both women left strong, Nikki's still crazy and unpredictable and Shayna's still the champ. 

I may like the Dutch Destroyer more than most here, but I thought that even with the botch it was a terrific match and Lars is still a monster even though he lost. Black had to pull out every possible move to beat him. I was pleasantly reminded of Finn/Joe and that's far from a bad thing.  I do wonder what the future plans for Lars are, he's not ready for the main stage quite yet, and I don't see an immediate program with anyone that makes loads of sense. In a way, I sort of wish that Killian Dain had remained in NXT just so we could have had a much-extended hoss feud between the two. 

Now, here's where I'll likely draw some heat... Gargano/Ciampa have had better matches, however, they haven't necessarily told better stories and that counts for a lot. Johnny lost because he turned into what he hated. Sooner or later this feud has to end, but for right now, Ciampa is the most despicable heel in wrestling. The wedding ring spot was a thing of beauty. 

Absolutely great show top to bottom and a solid reminder as to why I no longer bother with the main roster. Y'all can watch the WWE PPV if you want, there's an Into the Badlands marathon on AMC that's going to be far more entertaining. 

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Watched the main (Dailymotion is your friend) and that was a hell of a garbage match. The strikes came off nastier than a lot of the plundah usage (Gargano hit an all-time great Enzuigiri for example) and the big spot of the match was nicely both A. not obvious, and B. was also camouflaged by the wedding ring bit. It also made one forget about the exposed ring, so a lot of nice layering here. 

I'd watch some more but the main made me go over my net time -- go figure. 

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I'm just extremely happy that two guys in a Street Fight actually came to the ring wearing jeans(well, or Ciampa's camo pants). Anything else on top of that is a bonus.

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Another really good show overall. I feel like I got what I wanted out of every match.

The opening tag was exactly the fun workrate match I was looking for. The crowd being way into UE was surprising, but props to Lorcan and Burch for keeping the pace up and not letting that get too out of hand. Even though UE retaining was pretty obvious, they had a lot of good nearfalls (or near "the finish is about to start" spots where the faces still made a good comeback after). That was a neat way to break up the double submission too.

Dream/Ricochet was a fun back and forth match too. Dream definitely held his own, though it was more like Ricochet let Dream keep up with him, rather than Dream keeping up with full-speed Ricochet. Outside of the long distance SSP, Ricochet wasn't using his top-shelf stuff, but it's a testament to both guys that he can dial it down and still have a very compelling match. Dream definitely needs to start winning matches soon, though.

The women's match was exactly what I said it should be right down to the finish, so I appreciate that. The announcers could've done better with the story that Shayna was a much better wrestler, but Nikki was double tough and crazy enough to keep coming right at her. Both women told that story perfectly in the ring.

Black/Lars was solid for having a weak build. I was impressed by Lars working that pace and match length, even if Black is a guy who's gonna make most people look good in that setting. The first whiff on Black Mass was really bad, but at least they had the sense to not sell it for too long and get back to a proper finish. For another match with an obvious winner, I thought both guys came out looking good.

The main event was nuts, right on par with their first match. Ciampa dragging Johnny up the ramp could've been really corny and dragged the match down, but his trash talk and the ring spot made it the dramatic tone it was going for. I was very worried we were gonna see EC3 interference when it became obvious the match was going into clusterfuck territory, but thankfully that didn't happen. I admired Johnny's arm tremor sell of the DDT, but it still felt a little underwhelming given some of the other spots in the match. Don't know how I feel about a 3rd match, since how much more can they realistically do? They really need a loser leaves stip, because NXT really isn't big enough for both of them at this point.

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I absolutely love NXTs usage of foreign objects (also happens on the main shows as a whole): the seemingly season long story arc of a setup. They purposely setup the Mcguffin early on and lull the audience into forgetting it was there the entire match and then only bring it back up at the very last possible second, rewarding the audience for their patience (that they really didn't have in the first place).

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3 hours ago, Go2Sleep said:

The crowd being way into UE was surprising

It's not really though. Whilst they do cheat/doublecross here and there, they win clean plenty, cut fun promos in a signature style,  have cool RATM ripoff music, and look like they're having a ton of fun. I think they're probably going to have to turn them BayBayFace.

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I don't think UE need an official face turn. They're going to get cheered regardless and fans, myself included, are going to chant along with Adam Cole Bay-Bay. I would definitely go the Freebird rule route with the tag titles when Bobby Fish returns. I'm really hopeful we get UE vs. The Mighty (don't kneel) at some point.

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One of my favorite things in wrestling over the past 3 or so years- the roar from the crowd at the start of a Takeover event. I don’t know how to describe it but it helps you get “in” it straight away. 

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21 hours ago, ComingToAmerica said:

It's not really though. Whilst they do cheat/doublecross here and there, they win clean plenty, cut fun promos in a signature style,  have cool RATM ripoff music, and look like they're having a ton of fun. I think they're probably going to have to turn them BayBayFace.

I'd also like to add that Roderick Strong and Kyle O'Reilly wrestled a lot in the Chicago area for ROH and AAW, while Lorcan and Burch really didn't during their indie runs.

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