NXT: Halloween Havoc (Oct. 28, 2020) -- Results & Afterthoughts

 

NXT: Halloween Havoc was a special episode of WWE's weekly television series NXT, broadcast on the USA Network. It took place on October 28, 2020 at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida.

Five matches were contested during the event. In the main event, Io Shirai defeated Candice LeRae in a Tables, Ladders and Scares match to retain the NXT Women's Championship. In other prominent matches, Dexter Lumis defeated Cameron Grimes in a Haunted House of Terror match and Johnny Gargano defeated Damian Priest to win the NXT North American Championship in a Devil's Playground Match in the opening bout. 

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Devil's Playground Match for the NXT North American Championship

Johnny Gargano def. Damian Priest (c)

Gargano defeating Priest with a ledge dive/drop bump that reminded me of something straight out of Lucha Underground. The majority of that match did absolutely nothing for me. I didn't think that they should have beaten Priest this early for the belt, especially not for Gargano's stupid heel gimmick.

After the opening match, Pat McAfee took to the ring with the new NXT Tag Team Champions, Danny Birch and Oney Lorcan, to shoot on the "internet wrestling fans" and the Undisputed Era as any good heel would and should do. This was a piece of good business. I just wasn't a fan of how much time this took. Even Ray Charles saw Pete Dunne's turn on Kyle O'Reilly. Like why the fuck would he align with the Undisputed Era when those guys have been at odds for years now? Not to mention, Roderick Strong was the one who turned on him during the Dusty Tag Team Classic about three agos to put this faction together Overall, I'm not really sold on this mash-up of guys aligned with McAfee. I need a few more weeks to see what they are going to do with them collectively before I'm buying into it completely. So far it just comes across as lumping guys together for the excuse to put UE in WarGames for like 3rd or 4th year in a row. I've seriously lost count at this point.

Singles Match

Santos Escobar def. Jake Atlas

Santos Escobar def. Tony Atlas. As much as I loved Escobar in Lucha Underground as King Cuerno and I like Tony Atlas as a ring talent too, NXT has done nothing to make me care about anyone who faces Escobar's stable. That's just an easy cue to go to the bathroom or the kitchen to make a sandwich in this case - not that this lasted very long anyway. 

Legado del Fantasma dressed for the occasion.

That being said, I did like Escobar's Mysterio Halloween Havok-inspired gear though.

Haunted House of Terror match

Dexter Lumis def. Cameron Grimes by submission

While the "zombies" in the House of Horrors match looked cool with the contortionists, I want them to scrap this whole pseudo/wannabe Undertaker/pseudo Sam Shaw character for Dexter Lumis. It's just not working - AT ALL. Ironic that they have the two ex-TNA/IMPACT Wrestling guys involved in a match like this too... 

Why did they feel like this needed to be split into two parts though? It just made this match feel like it overstayed it's welcome big time. I guess they might have wanted to get all of their investment on those extras they hired to play the zombies in the haunted house. (Shrugs) Who knows? I have to wonder where the hell 

Singles Match

Rhea Ripley def. Raquel González

Rhea Ripley def. Raquel Gonzales in another match that didn't do much for me. Giant vs. Giant matches or Powerhouse vs. Powerhouse matches can be really boring when both people aren't going to bump around like the people lighter than them normally would. It just makes for a lot of bland and stale action. I honestly found myself flipping the channel back and forth to the NWA Women's title match over on AEW over this instead. I had to laugh after Rhea won too as even in victory, this match did nothing for everyone involved.

I remember having to do a double take at first as I thought Shotzi was completely nude here, but quickly realized she was rocking a Bride of Frankenstein get-up for her first costume (of many) during this broadcast.

I will mention that while I thought Shotzi's costumes were cool, I still was disappointed that she didn't rock an Elvira look for one of her multiple costume changes for the night.

Tables, Ladders and Scares match for the NXT Women's Championship

Io Shirai (c) def. Candice LeRae

After the opener, I didn't have any high hopes for the main event between Io and Candice since I was half-expecting Io to drop the title to her for Candice and Gargano to have bragging rights next week. I was surprised to see Poppy (lipsync) sing Io to the ring to what sounded like a garbled mess instead of Io's normal music. The match wasn't really good nor was it god-awful, but I'm surprised that Candice doesn't have a crushed pelvis from how she landed on ladder during the finish. (Sighs) Lemme walk that comment back a bit... I felt the same way about this match as Candice and Io's TakeOver match less than a month ago. Both women gave their all, but I don't have any enthusiasm of seeing Io losing to Candice in any shape nor form in a one-on-one match. If this was a multi-person match, then go nuts with the title change, but just all kinds of no on Candice beating Io clean. 

Reports following this show said that Hartwell wasn't the one under the mask, but was taken off the show tonight as a precaution due to COVID concerns. 

I would bet the farm that the person in the hood/Scream mask is going to be revealed as Indi Hartwell though.  I was happy to see Shotzi run interference for we would be spared from the gloating from the Garganos next week too.

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Afterthoughts: 

This wasn't a bad show, but at the same time, I wouldn't say that it blew me away either. 

I was just glad that they didn't go with the predictable route of making both of the Garganos win their matches here, even though I'm still not too keen on the idea of having Damien Priest lose the North American title to Gargano so soon after winning it. Gargano doesn't need to be a champion to be successful on NXT, but Candice LaRae could use a NXT Women's title win to pad her resume before going up to the main roster. The problem with that is that I wouldn't have Io Shirai losing to her PERIOD, even if there was heel foul play involved with the finish. I heard that there's some talk about the individual wearing the Scream mask tonight being not just one person but two individuals aligned with the Garganos. I could see that being a possibility as well. Austin Theory has been suffering a string of losses on NXT over the last few months before uttering the words that he "quit" not too long ago. Gargano could have taken him under his wing, much like how Candice may have coaxed Indi Hartwell into doing her bidding. Don't forget that Indi handed Candice a pair of brass knuckles a few weeks ago to set up this match, so there's that possibility as well. 

The impromptu creation of Pat McAfee's faction seems to be reaching at the moment, but I'm willing to give them a few weeks to iron out the kinks out on this idea before I give a final verdict on whether I have warmed up to the concept or not. I can't say the same for anything involving Legado del Fantasma though. They have great matches, but I just don't care for them as characters on this show. Double goes for roughly everyone they have been feuding with over the last few months. I really want that to change, especially with Jordan Devlin returning to NXT UK. Hopefully, we'll get to see Escobar Santos and Jordan Devlin clash to see who is the REAL NXT Cruiserweight Champion in the coming months, sooner more than later. 

NXT TakeOver 31 (Oct. 4, 2020) -- Results & Afterthoughts

NXT TakeOver 31 was a professional wrestling pay-per-view and WWE Network event produced by WWE for their NXT brand division. It took place on October 4, 2020 at the remodeled WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida, which housed the new “Capitol Wrestling Center”, NXT’s version of the “ThunderDome” used for Raw and SmackDown at the Amway Center - also in Orlando. As the name implies, it was the 31st NXT TakeOver event.

Five matches were contested at the event. In the main event, Finn Bálor defeated Kyle O'Reilly to retain the NXT Championship. On the undercard, Io Shirai defeated Candice LeRae to retain the NXT Women's Championship and Damian Priest defeated Johnny Gargano to retain the NXT North American Championship.

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Match Results:

Singles match for the NXT North American Championship

Damian Priest (c) def. Johnny Gargano 

I can't speak for anyone else but you will never hear me complain when Johnny Failure shows up to play at these NXT TakeOver specials. Whether he's heel or face, Gargano can bump his ass off, but still can't get the job done. I would love to know what is his win/lose ratio at these NXT TakeOver specials though. 

As for this match as a whole, it was a solid opener, but my biggest knock against this match and this show as a whole is that this is NOT the match I would have started the night off with. I think Kushida and Velveteen Dream should have gone on first being that it's the only non-title match on this entire card. Don't get me wrong either as I don't think this was a bad match, just not one that I would have opened this show off with. This was a solid bout with some great spots, but Priest definitely dodged a bullet on that dive over the ropes and into the trainees/extras standing at ringside to catch him. If Priest was any further off on that landing he would've hit dead on the corner of that barricade or one of his limbs would have done the same as well - either way that would have been ugly. Someone needs to tell Priest that this isn't Ring of Honor anymore and he doesn't need to be diving out of the ring to make an impact. That's a bit much, especially when you're one of the bigger guys. That shit is going to catch up with you sooner more than later. 

It's almost comical at this point. Something has to change.

I'm better than this. We're bigger than this.

— Johnny Gargano (@JohnnyGargano) October 5, 2020

The narrative here was that Gargano pulled every dirty trick in his playbook, only for the "Gargano Way" to be all for nothing as he still walked away with this match with another token loss in the L column of Johnny Failure's laundry list of defeats. This isn't a bad thing either as at this point of his NXT tenure, he should be putting over guys instead of beating people, despite the fact that I was scared going into this show that NXT would do something stupid like the main roster would and have Priest drop the title to Gargano just to give him heel heat and bragging rights for him and Candice (after beating Io later). 

Singles match

Kushida def. Velveteen Dream by submission 

It cannot be said enough about how much I adored that promotional package with Kushida talking about why he's here in NXT and his ongoing struggles to fit in on NXT and American soil, only to express that he's doing this not only for himself but for his family - namely his adorable baby girl. I cringe at the thought of what Vince would do to him on the main roster, but this was excellent for him here. This was the match that should have started off this show, especially after Kushida attacked Dream during his entrance. 

THIS was the Kushida I wanted to see since Day 1 after I heard he was signing with NXT. We've seen glimpses of it here and there but man, I'm glad to see Kushida kick it up a notch like during his New Japan days. I'm sorry, but Dream didn't have jack shit against this dude here. It felt absolutely one-sided at one point to me. The narrative for this match was simple - Kushida was fed up with Dream's bullshit and he was going to pay for it. Simple as that. Kushida systematically wore down and tore down Dream's arm until he forced to submit from the Hoverboard Lock. Kushida didn't stop there as he continued to attack the limb following Dream's submission while the referees rushed in to break it up. This "hardened" edge to Kushida was a much needed and welcome change for me. 

Triple H's comment about Dream's "immaturity" out of the ring was telling too as it seems like he's in the doghouse of sorts for those continued allegations against him, despite Triple H and WWE's claims of running their own investigation(s) on him and Austin Theory. I don't care how talented those guys are in-ring, but if the truth comes out and they are guilty as all sin, then NXT and Triple H need to be held accountable for glamorizing these individuals on their programming. That goes double for Matt Riddle too. 

Singles match for the NXT Cruiserweight Championship

Santos Escobar (c) (with Joaquin Wilde and Raul Mendoza) def. Isaiah "Swerve" Scott 

Even though I know that these two were Killshot and King Cuerno in Lucha Underground, I honestly cannot get into this feud. I thought NXT signing El Hijo del Fantasma was a great pick-up for the NXT brand, much like the signing of Shane Strictland, but this whole thing over the Cruiserweight Championship isn't doing not a damn thing for me. It's sad too because these guys are putting on some solid performances since their initial outing back in the Interim Cruiserweight title tournament, but it feels like that these two have been feuding forever with no ending in sight. The same can be said about Escobar's cohorts in Wilde and Mendoza feuding with the current NXT Tag Team Champions in Breezango, but to be fair, they've ran that program and the one with Imperium into the ground. I like the group - Legado del Fantasma - collectively, but man, NXT have been running these programs against guys who cannot get a break against them for shit for feels like months now. Move onto something else, please. I was hoping that maybe we could have gotten Undisputed Era against Legado del Fantasma for War Games in some capacity, but I doubt that is going to happen with Swerve getting a new ally in the form of Ashantee "Thee" Adonis. I watched this match twice and I didn't have an idea who the flying fuck that dude was until later in this show where they interviewed him backstage. Apparently, he was in Ring of Honor and a few other places before signing with WWE and competing primarily on 205 Live. (Laughs) No wonder I don't know who he is then...

Once again, this wasn't a bad match, even though there were some sloppy missteps upon execution. It didn't bore me to death, so that's a positive. I'm just sick of seeing these guys face off, especially when it seems like Swerve faces this dude to a losing effort at every opportunity for the Cruiserweight title. He's turning into the Apollo Crews of the Cruiserweight division, whereas if he keeps getting shot after shot against Escobar, eventually he's going to get lucky and get the title off of the guy. 

Singles match for the NXT Women's Championship

Io Shirai (c) def. Candice LeRae 

(Laughing) When Johnny Failure shows up to TakeOver, his wife Jenny Failure isn't far behind. I'm sorry, but after this match, I'm done with this current crop of opponents down in NXT's Women's Division for Io Shirai. It's painfully obvious that no one other than Rhea Ripley is a stand out in that division, especially when they aren't going to have Dakota Kai nor Raquel Gonzales beat her for it and Tegan Nox just got sidelined with an injury while anyone else in that division has seen much screen time on weekly TV episodes or if any at all (Ahem... Santana Garrett, who I have absolutely NO idea why they aren't pushing that woman to the moon...). Much like the opener between Gargano and Priest for the North American Championship, I had doubts going into this show that NXT would do some stupid main roster booking and have Candice and Gargano sweep the champions just to say that they are the first and only couple to hold NXT gold at the same time. It was the same thing on the main roster where they couldn't resist to put all of the belts on Sasha Banks and Bayley earlier this year. In my opinion, putting all of your championships on one person does nothing but highlight the fact of how much your division(s) are lacking in credible challengers and the lack of depth in that said division. If we're being honest with ourselves, WWE has a major problem with that across all three brands, including NXT as well. 

It was a saving grace that they ended this match with not one but TWO new challengers making themselves known to the reigning champion - first with the returning Toni Storm (who I'm guessing is able to leave the United Kingdom now that the travel restrictions have eased up a bit) and second with the returning Ember Moon (revealing herself as the mystery former champion in the vignettes from the last few weeks) from the injury that nearly ended her career. 

If you #BOlieve ... anything can happen! https://t.co/NOg71p5UU8

— Ember NXT Moon Palmer (@WWEEmberMoon) October 5, 2020

I tweeted it during the show and I'll say it here too. If I could be selfish, I wish it would have been Ember Moon returning on the main roster to challenge Asuka for the RAW Women's Championship to revisit their old NXT rivalry that never got to be resolved properly, due to Asuka forfeiting the title and leaving the NXT brand following an injury of her own. Monday Night RAW is severely in need of new, strong opponents for Asuka and Ember Moon would be one hell of an opponent for Asuka if they were to play up their history from NXT. Alas, that think tank of chimps writing on the main roster probably didn't think of that, so Triple H got first dibs at Ember Moon making her return to the company on NXT instead. Io Shirai versus Ember Moon would easily be a dream match-up for many, as I'm not sure if they have faced each other in any capacity in the past outside of WWE. Io and Toni Storm on the other hand, have had a lot of encounters outside of WWE, namely for Stardom. That would be a pleasant treat to revisit some of those bouts for future TakeOver specials. Toni and Ember will definitely spice this women's division on NXT for the better, that's for sure. I wouldn't mind seeing Rhea Ripley face those two (again in some cases) as well. They definitely have to rehab her following her lost momentum following the lost to Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania this year. Rhea's momentum fell off a cliff at that point and never came back. That has to be NXT's biggest blunder all year, especially when you look at how her star was on the rise this time a year ago. 

As for this match from bell to bell, it was alright, but I can't say that it was one of my favorite TakeOver outings for Io Shirai. Candice LeRae put up a better performance than I was expecting, but I don't have to see her competing for the NXT Women's Championship anytime soon. It was a bit much to even entertain that thought at this point. I honestly don't know what they should do with Candice really. She was set to be in a program with Tegan Nox until it was confirmed that her torn ACL injury was legitimate over the past week. Tegan Nox can't catch a break with these leg injuries at all. I hate that she has to miss time in the ring and nurse yet another leg injury, I think Tegan might have to consider hanging it up if she keeps getting put down like this. As for Candice LeRae, this heel gimmick with Candice's husband is generally hit or miss, with not just me, but most people watching NXT every week and I didn't think she was a very good babyface either. She's just really bland to me, but she's good worker in the ring though. I guess they could migrate her into a program with Shotzi Blackheart, but it seems like her and Rhea Ripley are still feuding with Dakota Kai and Raquel Gonzales off and on, so who knows. 

I loved the Spanish Fly that Io busted out towards the end here, but I have no idea why Tom Phillips made a point to keep saying that Io is a fan of Rey Mysterio afterwards when he doesn't have a reputation of using that move in his own arsenal. That was a minor gripe here that was quickly forgotten after Gargano's attempts to play the role of the referee backfired and ensured that the "Gargano Way" wasn't the way to victory here. 

Singles match for the NXT Championship

Finn Bálor (c) def. Kyle O'Reilly

This match made me really happy as a long-time Kyle O'Reilly fan, namely for the fact that more people have this chance to see exactly how good he is in the ring. 

Both Balor and O'Reilly suffered some legit injuries from this hard hitting affair. O'Reilly fractured Balor's jaw in two places after being on the receiving end of one of his brutal high knees while O'Reilly lost some teeth by the end of this match. Both of these guys brought it like they were wrestling in the main event in the Tokyo Dome. This is definitely a TakeOver match that shouldn't be missed. As an O'Reilly fan, I'm really happy to see him in this spot. It would have been even better if he won the match, but at the same time, I get why they didn't pull the trigger on that victory quite yet. It's up in the air on whether or not that they want to pull the trigger on splitting up the Undisputed Era too. I wouldn't do that as should be called up to the main roster collectively as an unit. Otherwise, Vince McMahon will just look at each individual member of that group as more "too small" guys to fill up 205 Live's roster. O'Reilly and Bobby Fish (together as reDRagon) are desperately needed to reinvigorate that dying tag team scene on the main roster, but I fear for Fish's long-term ability to avoid injuries when he has been plagued with them for the last few years. Strong will fit in easily as a "good hand" for the mid-card scene at the Intercontinental/United States title level, but I can't see him going beyond that level in WWE's environment. Adam Cole is the total package out of all four members of Undisputed Era, but his size will be the only thing that would have him looked over (by Vince mostly) in favor of bigger, imposing figures in WWE. 

Maybe it's just me, but to me, it looked like Finn Balor completely no sold O'Reilly working his limbs over the entire match just to merely hit the Coup de Grace twice - both standing and diving without showing any signs of the abuse making a difference in the finish. I doubt that was intentional, especially for a seasoned professional like Balor, but damn that didn't sit right with me watching this finish live Sunday night. 

There will be hell to pay for this.#NXTTakeOver #NXTChampionship @KORcombat @AdamColePro @roderickstrong @theBobbyFish @FinnBalor pic.twitter.com/KsqwGnzsEM

— WWE NXT (@WWENXT) October 5, 2020

The post-match with Richard Holland tossing a battered and bruised Adam Cole like a piece of meat at the feet of the members of Undisputed Era at ringside felt a little flat to me. Holland is a monstrosity to behold, but at the same time, I hope they don't fast track this dude to the top at the same manner that they did with Karrion Kross earlier this year or even Brock Lesnar back in 2002. Hell, Holland looks JUST like a young Brock Lesnar and I'm sure that Vince McMahon would lose his mind if he saw that guy right now. I wouldn't even hold that match where Johnny Gargano suffered that scary stinger by being dropped onto his head by Holland against him either. Both of them were to blame in that freak incident where Gargano jumped a little too late and at the same time, Holland didn't spin around with the Powerslam in time before landing on the mat. Accidents happen, but I do think it wouldn't hurt to slow his ascent though. It's not going to kill them to take their time with that guy. They took months with Lars Sullivan when they were building him up as a credible monster. I think most people were expecting the Undisputed Era to fall out following the decision of this match, but I think the long game is to pull the swerve that Cole staged the entire incident and has Holland as his hired muscle. 

FYI here’s the footage of Ridge Holland’s leg injury tonight. Unsure whether it’s the knee or the ankle. @WrestlingInc @RajGiri_303 #wwenxt #wwe pic.twitter.com/GDnXN1ghiE

— Jack. (@nomorewords97) October 8, 2020

As of this posting (10/8/20), Ridge Holland suffered a pretty gnarly knee injury during a match with Danny Burch on WWE NXT last night (10/7/20). I don't know what the full scope of that injury is, but man, that has to suck for Holland as it was abundantly clear that NXT had big plans for that guy. People who saw the match live on social media said that you could literally see his knee explode during the spot in question. It looks like a pretty bad as you just know that your knee and/or ankle isn't supposed to bend that way. I'm hoping for a speedy recovery for the guy. 

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Afterthoughts:

The change in scenery for the Performance Center was needed desperately months ago when this pandemic first started. I thought when WWE started running shows in there full-time that they would spice the venue up a bit, but NXT keep getting more and more boring to watch visually as the weeks played out. Changing the venue to look like a modified version of the Thunderdome set that WWE has been using for RAW and SmackDown! for the past few months was a nice touch, along with the fans and trainees behind the fences/Plexi glass. I hope someone gets a good screenshot online of the side of the venue across from the hard camera where you can clearly see Shotzi Blackheart and several others in attendance not wearing any masks, but Triple H assured everyone on his post-show conference call that all safety and health guidelines were being followed. Yeah, right...

I did think it was in good taste that they formally renamed the WWE Performance Center to the “Capitol Wrestling Center”, as an homage to the Capitol Wrestling Corporation, the predecessor to WWE that was founded by Jess McMahon in 1953. They even adopted the old logo to boot. This new look will definitely made the boring, bland Performance Center stand out more akin to the shady fight club feel that it should have, similar to a blend between Lucha Underground and Ring of Honor's visual presentation. I mention the latter mainly because that is what a lot of NXT storylines and matches are heavily influenced by. My only concern is how long is this layout going to stay fresh until viewers are bored with this visual presentation too? Even AEW are struggling in that regard week-to-week when they were leading the charge on how to present wrestling during this pandemic at first, so only time will tell in the long run. 

This wasn't a bad show at all, but I think it was a far cry from being one of the best TakeOver specials of the year. It's just hard to top the stand out performances from TakeOver XXX a few months prior to this, but the talent here put in their best efforts to try though. There's no doubt about that. The best thing for me was that this show didn't overstay it's welcome either as it was over well before 10PM Eastern Standard Time and didn't try to clock in towards midnight like AEW or the main roster PPVs. 

NXT TakeOver: Toronto (Aug. 10, 2019) -- Results & Afterthoughts

NXT TakeOver: Toronto (2019) was a professional wrestling show and WWE Network event produced by WWE for their NXT brand. It took place on August 10, 2019, at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Seven matches were contested at the event, including two taped for the following week's episode of NXT. In the main event, Adam Cole defeated Johnny Gargano in a two-out-of-three falls match to retain the NXT Championship. The undercard saw NXT Women's Champion Shayna Baszler, NXT North American Champion Velveteen Dream and NXT Tag Team Champion Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford) retain their titles.

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Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford) (c) def. The Undisputed Era (Kyle O'Reilly and Bobby Fish) Tag team match for the NXT Tag Team Championship

This was easily the best match that I have seen the Street Profits compete in their entire NXT careers to date. Going into this show, I was convinced that they were dropping the titles to the Undisputed Era since they have been seen hanging around on the main roster backstage for the last few weeks now. They haven't been wrestling any matches, so I guess WWE figures that they can juggle both roles without any problems for the time being.

Montez Ford might want to look into wearing a singlet for his gear as his "odd" looking nipples are a red flag for possible steroid usage. So yeah, he might want to hide that. He's got that same look going on that Jinder Mahal had a while back. Dude's got a bigger chest than his damn wife (Bianca Belair FYI). That being said, he's easily the star of this act. The Street Profits could split up tomorrow and Ford could be EASILY pushed to the moon as a singles act with his charisma and in-ring ability. Angelo Dawkins isn't bad - it just seems like that dude is moving in slow-mo half of the time. Besides, I would like to see these guys against teams who don't have a record of excellent performances under their belt for I can truly determine whether or not they are that damn good or the former members of reDRagon along with other noteworthy NXT tag teams have been making them look better than they actually are.

There was a brawl between Matt Riddle and Killian Dane at one point of this show, but it didn't result into a full blown match between the two. Riddle got the jump on Dane for once and it ended after Dane jumped off the stage with Riddle still latched on his back with a sleeper hold applied while performing a STO on one of the poor unfortunate security guards in his wake.

Io Shirai def. Candice LeRae by technical submission

Throughout this match, I couldn't buy into the beating that Candice LeRae was on the receiving end for, especially when I have seen her take FAR worse punishment from opponents of the opposite sex. At the same time, I was not ready to see her "hulk up" like Cena or Hogan and turn around to win this thing either. Her husband does enough of that bullshit where he's kicking out of a million and one finishers and getting up for more. I don't want to see them rehash the same thing for her. I'm sure the Full Sail crowd doesn't want to either.

Heel Io going over was the right decision and I'm glad that NXT went that way, even though I thought her turn was stupid to begin with. Too bad Asuka isn't around for we could have seen that feud in NXT.

This was arguably the best match on this entire card to be quite honest.

Velveteen Dream (c) def. Pete Dunne and Roderick Strong Triple threat match for the NXT North American Championship

I popped for that trip down nostalgia lane for The Mountie's theme before this transitioned into a performance by the Toronto Raptors' dance crew to see Velveteen Dream down to the ring. We better enjoy these elaborate entrances for him now because we know that they are going to neuter that the second he gets called up. Just look at what they did to Aleister Black's entrance and Finn Balor's. I can count how many times we have seen the Demon on the main roster on one hand.

This match was a lot of fun, but ultimately, it felt like it was missing something before you could regard it as something truly phenomenal. Without a shadow of a doubt, we all know that these three men are amazing individually, but sue me for expecting a little more here. Plus, they really lost me during the finish where they telegraphed that someone was going to screw the other out of the pinfall. That was my biggest knock against this match.

Shayna Baszler (c) defeated Mia Yim by submission Singles match for the NXT Women's Championship

Without a shadow of a doubt, this was the weakest match on this card. From her tenure in Impact Wrestling as Knockouts Champion and various bouts in the indies, I know that Mia Yim possesses the ability to be a threat for Shayna's NXT Women's Championship, but she hasn't been built up as such in NXT thus far. This whole story seemed hastily put together and this match suffers as a result as Yim is setup as the one with everything to lose here.

To be fair though, I did enjoy the psychology of this match with Yim systematically wearing down Shayna's arms so she couldn't use the Clutch, but Shayna's technical savvy and experience led her to improvise by using her legs to secure the win regardless.

After another successful defense for the Queen of Spades, I pose this question - who is left for Shayna to beat or beat her? She's gone through just about every big name that they have on that roster and then some. They have to be ready to call her up to the main roster at this point. She can remain undefeated too if they want to sweeten the deal.

Adam Cole (c) defeated Johnny Gargano 2–1 Two-out-of-three falls match for the NXT Championship

I feel like a broken record when I bring up my issue with these Johnny Gargano main events on these TakeOver specials. He does FAR too much in his matches. In this case, he and Cole took the cake and then some in that regard. We already seen Adam Cole and Johnny Gargano do a Best of Three Falls match in the past and they are just recycling the same concept with different stipulations for each fall. I have absolutely no idea what they were thinking in the first fall when they blew through most of their big moves and near-falls right off the bat and turned the match into a bunch of nothing until Gargano got himself disqualified like a moron. That played into the next fall being into his favor with it being a Street Fight, but it just came off stupid to me since they kept doing more and more spots and not trying to get any pinfalls off of it. When a babyface gets himself/herself disqualified in multi-fall matches like this, it's to quickly get the next fall and even things up. Nope, that wasn't in the playbook at all here. The match quickly spiraled into doing shit just to do it until FINALLY Gargano got the fall to tie things up.

When I saw the barbwire steel cage, I honestly busted out laughing as they had it decorated like the last round/finale of Impact Wrestling's Lethal Lockdown Match, save for the Hell in a Cell style roof on the top. (Laughs) NXT ran out of early 2000s (and some current) Ring of Honor stuff to rip off and now they are moving onto Impact Wrestling's catalog. Can't say that I blame 'em at this point. Just when you thought this match was going to probably end soon, it didn't. This dragged on for what felt like an eternity as Cole and Gargano scaled the cage walls gingerly to each bring down each of the marquee weapons hanging up on display on the side of the cage walls until Gargano thought it was a wise idea to cut off a piece of barbwire (using the wire cutters that were in a bag that I'm sure the crowd was fooled into thinking had thumbtacks, broken glass, or something vile to use within). For some reason, this scared Cole up onto the platform setup on top of the cage with Gargano in pursuit. The two then shoved each other off the top and through the two tables that were setup below. Unfortunately, they only hit one of the tables (barely at that...) and Cole was the one fortunate enough to roll over onto Gargano to get the pin and retain the title.

(Laughs) I guess Johnny Failure came out to play after all.

I'm sorry, but this whole match from start to finish gets a huge "Meh" from me. After all of that and it ends with essentially a draw to (hopefully) close out this feud? In the post-match video that WWE shared on social media, Regal was raising Gargano's arm and the crowd was cheering as if this is the last time that we would see him on the black and yellow brand. If this match was his swansong, then whatever I guess, but he's got more than enough "good" to "great" performances to hold his head high about on his resume as he heads up to the main roster.