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Showing posts with label Tommaso Ciampa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tommaso Ciampa. Show all posts

NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver - Nights 1 & 2 (April 7 - 8, 2021) -- Results & Afterthoughts




NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver was a professional wrestling television special, pay-per-view, and WWE Network event produced by WWE for their NXT brand division. It took place on April 7 and 8, 2021, and was broadcast from the Capitol Wrestling Center, hosted at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida.

It was the 34th NXT TakeOver event and was the first to take place over the span of two nights. Both nights aired on the WWE Network, thus marking the first WWE in-ring event to air on Peacock's WWE Network channel in the United States following the shutdown of the aforementioned service's standalone American version on April 4. The first night aired in NXT's weekly Wednesday night timeslot on the USA Network, making it the first TakeOver to air on television and the final NXT broadcast on Wednesdays before moving to Tuesdays on April 13. The second night aired on traditional pay-per-view in addition to the WWE Network.

Six matches were contested on Night 1 at the event, including one match on the pre-show. In the main event for Night 1, Raquel González defeated Io Shirai to win the NXT Women's Championship. Other prominent matches included Walter defeating Tommaso Ciampa to retain the NXT United Kingdom Championship and MSK (Wes Lee and Nash Carter) defeated Grizzled Young Veterans (James Drake and Zack Gibson) and Legado Del Fantasma (Raul Mendoza and Joaquin Wilde) to win the vacant NXT Tag Team Championship.

Six matches were also contested on Night 2 of the event, including one match on the pre-show. Two matches were promoted as main event matches for Night 2. In what was the final match on the card, Kyle O'Reilly defeated Adam Cole in an unsanctioned match. In the penultimate match that was promoted as the other main event match, Karrion Kross defeated Finn Bálor to win the NXT Championship. In another prominent match on the undercard which opened the event, Santos Escobar defeated Jordan Devlin in a ladder match to determine the undisputed NXT Cruiserweight Champion.



Night 1 (April 7)


Match Results:



Kick-Off: Singles Match
Zoey Stark def. Toni Storm


While I think the world of Zoey Stark in terms of being an incredible worker and enhancement talent, I didn't think that she should have been beating Toni Storm without any build or storyline. It would have made more sense for her to beat Dakota Kai in this spot, given their last few matches on NXT programming. I have absolutely no idea what they were thinking with this decision. 

Despite that though? This was a fun match, so I can't complain too much about the ladies starting things off hot - in more ways than one. 




Singles Match
Pete Dunne def. Kushida


At this point, I'm convinced that NXT has absolutely no idea what to do with Kushida and I'm sure he has to be regretting his decision to leave New Japan to come to NXT. This company has done nothing but give him numerous start and stop pushes with little to no payoffs. That being said, this match was fine for what it was worth though, so I can't complain about this being a solid opener. 




Six-Man Gauntlet Eliminator match
Bronson Reed def. Isaiah "Swerve" Scott, Cameron Grimes, LA Knight, Dexter Lumis, and Leon Ruff
Winner received an NXT North American Championship match on Night 2


I honestly didn't care about majority of this, but was getting into the final moments between Swerve, Reed, and LA Knight. I was surprised that Dexter Lumis was eliminated though as I had him pegged to face Gargano in Night 2 to pick up where their feud from the last TakeOver event and the ongoing drama and angst within The Way. The MVP of that match was easily Bronson Reed by far. 




Singles Match for the NXT United Kingdom Championship
Walter (c) def. Tommaso Ciampa


This was easily the best match between both nights of TakeOver for WrestleMania week. If you don't watch anything else from Night 1 and 2, go out of your way to watch this match. That's the beauty of Walter's matches though. Only he can do these matches. If everyone else tried to work like this, it would come off fake and boring. With Walter you can buy into anything this MFer does could end a match. 

Excellent psychology in this match from bell to bell. The narrative for this match was that Walter was too reckless early on in his efforts to put Ciampa away and smashed his hand through the commentary table. That became the Achilles' heel that Ciampa sank his teeth into like a rabid animal for the duration of the match that gave the seemingly indestructible Walter a weak link in his armor. It ultimately wasn't enough to keep Walter down for good, but it made for a great recurring weak spot to target that gave Ciampa some convincing near-falls here. Ciampa definitely put up a great fight, but it ended just the way I figured it would. 




Triple Threat Tag Team Match for the vacant NXT Tag Team Championship
MSK (Wes Lee and Nash Carter) defeated Grizzled Young Veterans (James Drake and Zack Gibson) and Legado Del Fantasma (Raul Mendoza and Joaquin Wilde)


I'm so sick and tired of GYV and Legado Del Fantasma's boys that I was pulling for MSK from bell to bell. This was a surprisingly good match - something that this dying tag team division on NXT desperately needed in the wake of its lack of interesting teams, outside of MSK. The right team won too with MSK going over, which was something that should have happened when they won the Dusty Tag Team Classic in the first place. I thought the winners of the Classic got a title shot in previous years or am I getting that mixed up with something else?




Singles Match for the NXT Women's Championship
Raquel González (with Dakota Kai) defeated Io Shirai (c)


Maybe it was just me, but Io Shirai got in far too much offense here and forced Raquel to work from underneath as if she was the babyface in this match, which came off pretty damn odd to me. There were a lot of great spots and moments in this match, but when Raquel finally hit that powerbomb on Io, there was no doubt in my mind that the title was changing hands tonight. 

Raquel was the right one to dethrone Io and at the right time too. Io's had a great run as champion for over 300+ days, but I could easily see her sticking around on NXT for another year to work with the debuting Sarray (who was in the crowd with Stephanie McMahon) and few other noteworthy women in the NXT women's division. As much as I want to see Asuka versus Io Shirai in a WWE ring, I'm willing to wait a bit longer before Vince McMahon gets his hands on her and muddle up her character in the same capacity as so many joshi women before her.




Night 2 (April 8)


Match Results:



Kick-Off: Tag Team Match
Killian Dain and Drake Maverick defeated Breezango (Tyler Breeze and Fandango)
Winner receives a future NXT Tag Team Championship match.


You guys and gals know how I feel about both of these tag teams and I really didn't care about this match at all. I went and did everything else but watch this match while it was airing on the kick-off show. 

As of NXT on April 13, 2021, Dain and Drake got their match against the NXT Tag Team champs and came up short, only to get laid out by Imperium shortly thereafter. I personally think it's beneath Imperium to even entertain the thought of feuding with them, but it's whatever at this point if they want to feed Drake to the slaughterhouse that is Walter next. Now him against Dain could make for decent hoss fight though... 




Ladder Match to determine the undisputed NXT Cruiserweight Champion
Santos Escobar (Interim NXT Cruiserweight Champion) defeated Jordan Devlin (NXT Cruiserweight Champion)


Despite liking Escobar during his days as King Cuerno in Lucha Underground, I can't say that I have been overly thrilled at his run in NXT so far. With the wealth of sexual allegations against him, I'm surprised that Jordan Devlin is even allowed on NXT programming period, especially when the Velveteen Dream has been completely removed off of the brand over the past year. I said it on Twitter during the show and I feel the same after the fact - it was going to be very telling for WWE with all of the media attention on them for WrestleMania week in terms of whether or not they were going to "award" Devlin in this match and continue parading him around as the Cruiserweight Champion. 

For their sakes, they made the wise decision and went with Escobar defeating him to unify the two titles. As for this match itself, they had a lot of wild spots that took me by surprise involving the two ladders and really went above and beyond to punish their bodies in this match. Not all of this was very good and not all of it was all bad either. I was pretty indifferent to majority of this match until they started turning the dial to eleven with crazy bumps.

The finish looked like Escobar killed Devlin off of that bump. Jesus F'N Christ, man. 

EDIT: I'm adding this after watching NXT (April 13, 2021) and I'm shocked that Kushida answered Escobar's open challenge and actually won. What was the point of having him lose on TakeOver then if he was going to get the title a few days later? I thought it would have made more sense that Pete Dunne answered the challenge instead in that case and Kushida got his win back down the road. 





Tag Team Match for the NXT Women's Tag Team Championship
Ember Moon and Shotzi Blackheart (c) def. The Way (Candice LeRae and Indi Hartwell)


I honestly didn't care for anyone in this match save for Indi Hartwell, who was doing well for her TakeOver debut. This match could have EASILY been on a typical NXT episode before or after this event. I don't know why they wasted a spot with this. 

I dare say that the Eclipse Ember Moon did on Candice and Indi for the finish was one of the worst I have ever seen her execute in NXT though. I hate to say it, but the more I see Ember Moon back on NXT, the more I am losing interest in her character. It's a darn shame too because I was initially excited to see her back to the brand when they weren't doing absolutely nothing with her on the main roster before she got injured, only to see her comeback to the NXT brand and just seems to be going through the motions. Where is that fire she had when she was first part of this brand? 





Singles Match for the NXT North American Championship
Johnny Gargano (c) (with Austin Theory) def. Bronson Reed



I'm not going to lie, but I was downright disgusted with this show after Gargano retained here. After all of these start and stop pushes with Bronson Reed and he really had a standout performance on Night 2, you would think that it was going to be a given that he would pick up the win here. Nope, Gargano retains, only to continue hogging air time on the weekly NXT shows with his bland heel gimmick and eye-rolling antics with his faction. God, I hope they split The Way up for we can see less of this fool every week after someone beats the tar out of him and takes that title from him. 

Y'know... Common sense booking would have had Reed win here and have him start a program with LA Knight in the weeks that followed. I'm just sayin'. Knight has lost clean to Reed since his debut and hasn't gotten any retaliation. 





Singles Match for the NXT Championship
Karrion Kross (with Scarlett) def. Finn Bálor (c)


In hindsight, I think this match should have closed out the show. Much like the Walter/Ciampa match on Night 1, this match played out from bell to bell with great psychology and sheer brutality. Balor got his shots in Kross, but Kross wasn't taking that punishment laying down. He dished it back out tenfold and reclaimed the title that he never lost to begin with. This was easily the best match on Night 2 in my eyes. 

I still have my fingers crossed that this loss frees Balor up to challenge Walter next for the NXT UK Championship. C'mon, we've been denied that match for over a year thanks to the pandemic. Everyone else may have forgotten, but I sure as hell haven't. 





Unsanctioned Match
Kyle O'Reilly defeated Adam Cole



As much as I love Kyle O'Reilly's in-ring work and the wars that him and Adam Cole have had outside of this company, it's with a heavy heart that I have to admit to myself that they did a bit too much here. There were some insanely creative spots with the chains and chairs that I won't think I have seen anywhere else (at least not mainstream), but ultimately, the 45+  minute runtime killed this match - along with the crowd too. You could tell the fans live in attendance at the CWC were completely burnt out at this point. By the time they even got to the 20-30 minute mark, I was constantly asking myself when is this going to be over? This is the same issue I had with the Cole vs. Gargano or Gargano vs. Ciampa matches that a lot of people fawn and rave over as the best TakeOver matches in history, they do too much stuff to the point that they are having the entire series of a feud in a single match and by the end of it, I honestly don't care anymore. For the record, I don't want to discredit the pure athleticism and in-ring ability of these two men, but my personal issue with matches like this is that you start doing so much in a single match for an excessive amount of time that you start to desensitize your audience of anything and everything you do before it's all said and done. 




Closing Thoughts


NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver was a fine show, but I didn't think this needed to be stretched out over two nights. Both nights were great, but Night 2 could have shaved off at least 2-3 matches, with a main event that went FAR too long for it's own good. At the same time, I feel that the talents involved all worked hard and didn't embarrass themselves. They put on some WrestleMania weekend worthy matches that I'm sure that will be the talk of the town, even when people start compiling their best matches of 2021 lists. 

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NXT TakeOver: In Your House (June 7, 2020) -- Results & Afterthoughts



NXT TakeOver: In Your House was a professional wrestling show and WWE Network event produced by WWE for their NXT brand division. It took place on June 7, 2020 at Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida, however, the Adam Cole vs. Velveteen Dream Backlot Brawl was pre-recorded on May 28 in the parking lot of Full Sail University. It was the 29th NXT TakeOver event, which mark the 25th anniversary of the first In Your House pay-per-view. It was the first In Your House-branded event since St. Valentine's Day Massacre: In Your House in February 1999. It was the first NXT TakeOver event to be held at Full Sail University since TakeOver: The End.

Six matches were contested at the event. In the main event, Io Shirai defeated Charlotte Flair and Rhea Ripley in a Triple threat match to win the NXT Women's Championship. On the undercard, Karrion Kross defeated Tommaso Ciampa by technical submission, Keith Lee defeated Johnny Gargano to retain the NXT North American Championship, and Adam Cole defeated Velveteen Dream in a Last Chance Backlot Brawl to retain the NXT Championship.




Six-Woman Tag Team Match: Candice LeRae, Dakota Kai and Raquel Gonzalez defeated Mia Yim, Shotzi Blackheart and Tegan Nox by pinfall.


You're going to hear me say this throughout the entirety of this write-up, but I felt that this was a match that should have been on NXT television either last week or this coming week. Candace LeRae and Mia Yim didn't really advance their feud as they merely walked off to the back for Shotzi and Tegan to continue their lackluster feud with Kai and Sonya Deville's big sister, err Raquel Gonzalez.



Shout out to Dakota Kai with the Hana Kimura tribute in her gear tonight though.

I just didn't think this was a great opener at all (especially by TakeOver standards), even though all of the girls tried to make this watchable and I have see FAR worse women's matches than this.



Finn Balor defeated Damian Priest by pinfall.


I was talking about this with a friend on Twitter last night during the show and I couldn't help be bored watching a Finn Balor match. I can't knock both guys either as I knock both of them are capable of knocking it out of the park. I can't put my finger on what it was, but the vast majority of this match I wasn't feeling until the finishing sequence.


There's no way in hell I would have agreed to take that back bump onto the corner of the steel steps. Don't forget that's how HBK almost got permanently put on the shelf from back injuries. You can't take shit like that lightly.

I felt that Priest needed the win here more than Balor did. It just didn't feel right. I get that they are trying to carry Balor's momentum over until travels to and from the UK are allowed again for we can FINALLY get that match between him and WALTER, but I didn't think a loss here to Priest would have hurt him too much, especially when we don't have a date for whenever this global pandemic is going to die out completely. I guess they could have had Imperium come out and cost him the match, allowing Priest to pick up the win but it would have meant more if Priest beat Balor without any outside help/interference.

This one is a tough call period as Balor didn't need the win, but you couldn't give Priest a win from a screw job to Balor either. Either way, they booked themselves into a corner with this one.



Keith Lee defeated Johnny Gargano by pinfall to retain the NXT North American Championship.


Johnny Failure didn't let me down in this least with another losing effort. That being said, the right man won here. Keith Lee should not have lost the title tonight and nor did Gargano deserve to win it at this point of his new heel persona. The onslaught of no selling every big move and spot in this match - which has become a Gargano staple at this point in all of his TakeOver matches - really annoyed me to no end here. My boiling point was with the keys to Lee's eyes and that didn't end it there, only for Lee not to sell that at all, just like Gargano didn't sell the Shoulder Block through the plexiglass.

I'm surprised the match didn't end to both competitors being exposed to outside pathogens and bacteria after this spot. 


For all of Gargano's amazing in-ring talent and ability to tell a narrative with his matches, you would think that after all this time at the PC, he would learn the value of selling. Less can mean a lot more than trying to fit in 30-50 unnecessary spots in one match for cheap pops, dude.



I did laugh at the usage of the door cam when Gargano locked himself out of the "house" setup on the entrance tunnel. That got a good laugh out of me about halfway into this match.


#Respect. #BlackLivesMatter

I found myself rolling my eyes at Candace and Mia showing up a few minutes after that with a costume change.



C'mon now. We're starting to get to Brandi Rhodes level of silly with these mash-up appearances in the show with little to no continuity. Mia and Candace walked out during this match like this was their first time seeing each other tonight and we didn't get any update on their brawl backstage. It was like "welp, moving on..." after the opener stopped.



We did get this gem of a segment backstage afterwards though. Where the hell did they dig up Todd Pettengill from anyway?


Backlot Brawl: Adam Cole defeated Velveteen Dream by pinfall to retain the NXT Championship.

Out of all of the "cinematic matches" that WWE and AEW have put out over the course of the last few months, I have to say that this one ranks as low as the Final Chapter between Ciampa and Gargano from a month or so ago. I just wasn't feeling this at all. I was thoroughly entertained at Dream's Negan attire though, despite the fact that he looked exactly like Ron "The Truth" Killings/R-Truth when he was in TNA/IMPACT Wrestling when he was gunning for the NWA-TNA World Championship.




That was a gnarly gash on Cole's arm from taking that bump onto the windshield of the car from off that ladder. After like two to three camera cuts, it was cleaned up though. That was another issue with this match - all of the unnecessary camera cuts. It made this match feel overproduced and it came the cost of holding my attention. Every time they would get something going, there would be a few camera cuts like they have to show the mock "crowd" of onlookers while everyone re-positions and clearly cooperates to setup the next spot. At this point, you took me completely out of the suspension of belief that this is any sort of a "brawl" or "street fight". Instead, it came across as poorly planned fight choreography.



Karrion Kross defeated Tommaso Ciampa by submission.

THIS looks oddly familiar...
...To THIS.

I know I'm sounding like a broken record at this point, but Kross needs to be REALLY careful about not getting Marc Mero'd by Sable... errr Scarlett in his corner. I can't speak for anyone else, but I was eyeballing that outfit she was wearing more than actually caring about the bulk of this match.



I read that tweet shortly after this match started and I CANNOT unsee that now.

As for this match, there's not much really to talk about. Ciampa talked up a good game, only to get squashed in less than six minutes. Kross definitely needed to win here, so I'm not going to argue that, but I was just a little underwhelmed that they put this match that far up on this card in terms of match order. I almost completely forgot that it was booked for tonight until it came up after the NXT Championship Match. Kross needed to win in a convincing, dominating fashion and I'm not going to argue that decision here in the least. I won't admit that I agreed with the execution though. I will admit that this match had me more interested than the actual build getting to it though.


Triple Threat Match: Io Shirai defeated Charlotte Flair and Rhea Ripley by pinfall to win the NXT Women's Championship.

I'm not going to say that this was the best that I have seen from these women as I think we all can say that we've seen MUCH better outings from all three women involved. It didn't feel like they were telling a story here; instead, it felt like they were checking off the bullet points on the list of big spots that they wanted to hit. I had to laugh at one point when the referee had to stand in Io's way to get her to hit the brakes on offense as the cameras was playing catch up with the replays and what not. 


Io putting the IYH set to good use here.

I'm sure this is a minor gripe for everyone else, but I groaned in disgust watching Rhea and Charlotte roll around the ring to reposition themselves for the best camera angle at that point too. I know WWE loves their dynamic camera angles and shots, but some of these TakeOver matches would benefit with a static/fixed camera angle and only change cameras for ringside action and/or dives. All of this diving and/or rolling out of the ring (watch Rhea do this on several occasions in this match) to hide out of the field of vision on the current camera to setup the next spot is more distracting than anything. Every time that happens in one of these multi-person matches, I'm always asking myself when and where is the other opponent who has been "hiding" going to reappear from "out of nowhere." I like that stuff used sparingly, not in every one of these matches. 


SHIIIIIDDDD. That bump looked it like it sucked royally. How Rhea isn't concussed off of that is a nothing short of a miracle.

Looking at that bump in slow motion, I have to say that both Io and Rhea are at fault there. Io for misjudging the distance and Rhea for sitting up to prep and tense her torso up for the impact far too early. Just yikes... That being said, I'm glad that Io FINALLY won the NXT Women's Championship, but NXT are dirty at how they did this finish. Charlotte Flair won AND lost the title without being pinned or submitted to any of the NXT Women on their current roster. Her reputation is untarnished. She didn't give not a single rub to the women in that division. I still don't understand what was was the point of having Charlotte chop Rhea Ripley's legs off when she was red hot on momentum following 2019. The only way I can see Rhea redeeming herself is going up to the main roster and beating Charlotte on a PPV AFTER Charlotte has won back the Women's Championship from either RAW or SmackDown! There's no reason to take that belt right off of Io after she just won it. I'm still pissed off that Io didn't beat Shayna Baszler for it in that fateful Steel Cage Match that I ranted about last year. Charlotte Flair gets off scotch free from coming back to NXT and putting that women's division through the ringer with not a single woman on that roster besting her while she was there. That's just really fucked up to say that NXT had such a strong outing at Survivor Series last year.

(Shudders) I really hope that she's not going back to take back the RAW Women's Championship from Asuka. Charlotte ending Asuka's winning streak is still another travesty that should not have transpired either. In either case, good riddance to Charlotte on the black and yellow brand. She didn't do a goddamn thing to boost or elevate that women's division while she was parading around on all three shows every week. I won't deny nor undermine Charlotte Flair's abilities in the least, but it's long overdue for her to be giving back to these divisions and helping elevate them instead of ruling with an iron fist. The number of promising potential threats and competitors for her in the coming years is looking smaller and smaller by the day from the way how WWE booking treats almost anyone who is matched up to face The Queen.

I have to wonder though. Who are they going to match up against Io in the meantime?


Overall, I didn't think this wasn't a bad show. Just not a show that holds up to the high standard that the NXT TakeOver specials are known for. That much can't be helped without the raging fans at Full Sail University or any other venue they could have held this show at unfortunately due to the global pandemic.

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NXT TakeOver: Portland (Feb. 16, 2020) -- Results & Afterthoughts



NXT TakeOver: Portland was a professional wrestling show and WWE Network event produced by WWE for their NXT brand. It took place on February 16, 2020 at the Moda Center in Portland, Oregon.

Six matches were contested at the event. In the main event, Adam Cole defeated Tommaso Ciampa to retain the NXT Championship. On the undercard, Rhea Ripley retained the NXT Women's Championship against Bianca Belair, Keith Lee defeated Dominik Dijakovic to retain the NXT North American Championship, and The BroserWeights (Matt Riddle and Pete Dunne) defeated The Undisputed Era (Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly) to win the NXT Tag Team Championship.


NXT North American Championship Match
Kevin Lee (c) def. Donovan Dijakovic


I was shocked and delighted to see this match open the card. At the same time, this proved to be a tough act to follow for the rest of the show. I liked everything about this match, save for the anticlimatic ending where it just seemed like Dijakovic's back gave out (twice for that matter) and Lee just put him out of his misery to end it. It's insane what these two big guys can do in that ring together. Glad that they finally had a chance to do this on one of these TakeOver specials in front of a sizable crowd too.



Street Fight Match
Dakota Kai def. Tegan Nox


I was surprised that Tegan didn't break her tail bone from that nasty landing from the running senton in the corner to Kai. It looked like she was gun shy about using her legs for the Shiniest Wizard at the last second and just didn't commit to it.


What rock was Reina (now Raquel) Gonzales hiding underneath all of this time since the Mae Young Classic?


I'd be shocked if Tegan doesn't have a concussion from that table bump though. #NXTTakeOverPortland pic.twitter.com/owQC3LmMt5— Let's Talk Wrestling (@LetsTalkWrestle) February 17, 2020


If anyone to get as your heavy/bodyguard, I would've gotten that tall ass chick from The Great Khali's school. She wasn't bad at all during her appearance(s) in the Mae Young Classic, but I guess Gonzales is a decent consolation prize in that regard. I wonder who Tegan is going to get into her corner to back her up in the next match in this feud.

(Snaps fingers) Oh wait, it's going to be Candice LeRae... Ugh.

On a side note, I hope Tegan's alright after that table bump. That thing didn't give at all and smacked her on the head after her awkward landing behind it. Even Kai almost broke character for a second with a look of concern during that spot, despite the fact that those two were going all in on the spots here, knowing each of the others' history of injuries as of late.



Singles Match
Finn Balor def. Johnny Gargano


This started off slow and took it's time to build to a crescendo. This was easily two masters of their craft working together here. Lots of back and forth action and near-falls from what we've come to expect from these TakeOver performances from Gargano. At the end of the day, the right man won with Balor going over here. I don't know if this is the last time we're going to see them one-on-one (especially after how the main event ended), but I wouldn't mind seeing them do this again.



NXT Women's Championship Match
Rhea Ripley (c) def. Bianca Belair


From the way that the commentary team were talking up how Bianca's parents were in attendance to watch the match and how WWE loves their token title wins of color for Black History Month, I was convinced at one point that Rhea could potentially lose the title here. I'm glad to say that I was wrong in that prediction. NXT already shot themselves in the foot by getting ahead of themselves with already having Charlotte Flair starting to appear on the show, along with Rhea Ripley throwing down the gauntlet weeks in advance to this match. I felt that was a disservice to Bianca though, as it was essentially what Charlotte said - Rhea was overlooking her to look at the bigger threat to her title in the Queen. What's going to be interesting is where do they go from here. They could do a 1v1 match between Rhea and Charlotte at WrestleMania when they have clearly set the stage for a triple threat now. I'd be surprised if they go that route as it would be two back-to-back WrestleManias where Charlotte would be in one of those in some capacity.

In either case, it's going to make for some interesting television on NXT for the next couple of weeks.

As for this match as a whole, I can't say that this was the best outing for either of these women. As athletically talented that Bianca is, she's got some pretty sloppy looking Military Presses and Tosses going on in her arsenal. I wouldn't say that they are Ultimate Warrior level bad, but it's definitely noticeable.



NXT Tag Team Championship Match
Broserweights (Pete Dunne & Matt Riddle) def. The Undisputed Era (Bobby Fish & Kyle O'Reilly) (c)


In my predictions on Facebook earlier that day, I mentioned that the Broserweights would more likely get the tag titles since their act has been pretty entertaining for the last few weeks. I'm sure people would like to see them stick together for a bit longer. I wouldn't run this in the ground though as reDRagon (Fish & O'Reilly) could easily win the titles back to put over the next big team that climbs up the ranks. As it currently stands, they don't have many teams to work with in that regard unless you lump in the NXT UK folks into that conversation too.

This match wasn't bad at all. It just suffers from the same issue as a lot of modern tag team matches have - too much shit going on with little to no tags to build-up to the drama of the back and forth. It's like everyone has to be in the ring at all times to hit all of their best shit 24/7 in terms of double teams. To be fair, AEW has thrown most of the tag team book out of the window in comparison to NXT who keeps it up for the most part. I just have to point it out here too when I see it.



NXT Championship Match
Adam Cole (c) def. Tomasso Ciampa


This match was roughly 33 minutes total in length. My only complaint is that they could have had just of a great match with half of that time, especially with the run-ins before the finish. Ciampa has to be next level stupid to be taking bumps onto his neck/shoulder area like that, even if it's protected. The guy just came back from God knows how many neck surgeries total in his career. He's on borrowed time as is and he wants to continue playing his luck on that? That being said, Cole's relentless assault on that area added to the drama of the match to their benefit, so in that regard, I give them two thumbs up for psychology here. I just firmly think that they shouldn't make a habit out of it.

As for the finish, that took me completely by surprise that Gargano would screw Ciampa out of reuniting with "Goldy". Okay, they are even now, but we all know this isn't going to be the end of it. We're looking at another set of months of Gargano and Ciampa matches, whereas I was fed up with them doing everything underneath the sun and then some in every match. I personally saw Undisputed Era losing everything by the end of the night, but NXT definitely proved me wrong and that was a good thing. At the end of the day, this was an excellent show. I wouldn't go as far as saying Show Of The Year like Meltzer and so many others are already pegging it as, but it's definitely one worth checking out. At this point though, these TakeOver shows being good is a given, especially with the talents involved. They haven't shit the bed royally like the main roster since starting these events and I doubt they will anytime soon from the wealth of talent they have to showcase on this brand.

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NXT TakeOver: WarGames (Nov. 23, 2019) -- Results & Afterthoughts



NXT TakeOver: WarGames (2019) was a professional wrestling show and WWE Network event produced by WWE for their NXT brand. It took place on November 23, 2019, at the Allstate Arena in the Chicago suburb of Rosemont, Illinois. It was the third event under the WarGames chronology, and the first to have a women's WarGames match, as well as the first to have two WarGames matches on the same night; it was also the second NXT TakeOver event in history in which the NXT Championship was not defended (the first being NXT TakeOver: Respect in 2015), and was the first which saw no title defenses on the card.

Kick-Off: Angel Garza def. Isaiah "Swerve" Scott



Team Rhea (Rhea Ripley and Candice LeRae) def. Team Shayna (Bianca Belair, Io Shirai, NXT UK Women's Champion Kay Lee Ray, and NXT Women's Champion Shayna Baszler)



Mia Yim got taken out in a backstage attack at the end of the kick-off show and was replaced by Dakota Kai on Team Rhea, but if you didn't tune into the show until the main show started you wouldn't have known that at all since the commentary team failed to mention this. When it came for Dakota to enter the match, she snapped and savagely assaulted Tegan Nox to turn heel. Bayley needs to take notes from Dakota here. This is how you own a heel turn. Even though I think most people saw it coming from the moment that she was "buttering up" Mia Yim before her ladder match a few weeks ago after she wasn't picked for Team Rhea. My only problem with it was why go after Tegan? She didn't do anything. Rhea was the one who picked her last like the nerds nobody wanted on their team in gym class.

And it was at that moment, KLR realized she fucked up.

Kay Lee Ray definitely took a beating in this match.
Io Shirai with the dive of the night.


While Rhea was unsung hero in the match while coming across as a wrecking machine, MVP award goes to Io Shirai. I'm surprised Io didn't break her legs after that Moonsault from off the top of the cage as it looked like she tried to land on her feet from the landing but her legs hit the ropes anyway in the impact. There's absolutely no way she wasn't feeling that in the morning. I'm still not too keen on Candice LeRae's bottomless amount of endurance (despite her non-disclosed history to WWE fans that she used to fight men regularly) like her husband. WWE has to be careful about how hard they push her just because she's Johnny Failure Gargano's wife as it will come across forced and there's going to be a fan backlash. NXT UK's own Women's Champion Kay Lee Ray wasn't no slouch either as she took some truly gnarly bumps in this match that she sold like pure death.


Finn Balor def. Matt Riddle


This match was originally set between Johnny Gargano and Finn Balor, but Gargano had to miss this TakeOver event due to an injury - first time that he's missed one of these events since debuting for the brand actually. Fortunately, Matt Riddle was able to fill in for Gargano as an impromptu replacement, but had to bow out as the original 4th man for Team Ciampa in WarGames. For Finn Balor's first TakeOver match back on the NXT brand, he had to win here. It's not like going back to the main roster to lose to the Fiend again was going to do him any favors, especially after his great heel turn a month ago. Riddle put up a good fight but like I said earlier, the right man went over in this contest.


Pete Dunne def. Damien Priest and Killian Dane to earn NXT Championship Match against Adam Cole the next night on Survivor Series


Even though this match was pulled out of their asses at the last possible second mere days before this event, I thought this was a fun match and we finally got a payoff for these feuds that Dunne has found himself in the middle of for the last few weeks. The best thing about this match for me was all of the various combinations these guys were doing on each other to hopefully bulldoze the competition. Pete Dunne (AKA NXT's Roger Klotz)


Team Ciampa (Keith Lee, Donovan Dijakovic, Tommaso Ciampa, and Kevin Owens) def. The Undisputed Era (NXT North American Champion Roderick Strong, NXT Tag Team Champions Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly, and NXT Champion Adam Cole)




The kicker in this match was that everyone was wondering who the mysterious 4th man was going to be to join Team Ciampa since they came to the match without even announcing who they got to their 4th man. I knew they weren't going to rehash the Women's WarGames finish where it was the babyfaces dealing with overwhelming odds as that would have been redundant at this point and I like to think that NXT has better minds in their think tank in terms of booking and mapping out storylines. In the back of my head, I had three possible outcomes for the 4th man - John Morrison, Kevin Owens, and CM Punk. As of this posting (Dec. 4, 2019), John Morrison literally just signed his new contract with WWE, so that wasn't happening at that point. CM Punk would have driven that crowd absolutely bonkers if he was the 4th, but Kevin Owens made a lot of sense, given his ROH history with all of those involved along with the fact that he would have wanted payback for what the Undisputed Era did when they invaded Monday Night RAW.



The match ended with an insane Project Ciampa off the top of the cage through two tables. If that bump wasn't insane enough (especially for Ciampa who just came back from neck surgery and Cole who has been wrestling with a fractured wrist for the last month or two), the cameras got a reaction shot of AEW's own Britt Baker (AKA Adam Cole's girlfriend) watching from the crowd, clearly mortified from what she has seen just transpire.


Yep, that's Britt Baker alright.

I don't blame WWE for doing this either as it was her own stupidity to coming to a rival promotion's PPV and sitting in the crowd. Don't show up at the show if you don't want to be shown on TV. I have to agree with Cornette on his remark about she should have been fired if she didn't clear it with AEW firsthand. Of course, AEW didn't do anything other than parody it on their own programming the following week...

My reaction to AEW and all of their callbacks and cheap knocks to WWE...
My only issue with the events of this TakeOver event was that it didn't affect anything the following night on Survivor Series, which we'll get into in the write-up on that event, but at least we got a proper follow-up on NXT Wednesday night.
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NXT TakeOver: Phoenix (Jan. 26, 2019) -- Results & Afterthoughts



NXT TakeOver: Phoenix was a professional wrestling show produced by WWE for their NXT brand and streamed live on WWE Network. The event took place on January 26, 2019, at the Talking Stick Resort Arena in Phoenix, Arizona. NXT TakeOver: Phoenix was the twenty-third overall show held under the NXT TakeOver banner and the first to be held in 2019.

Five matches were contested at the event. In the main event, Tommaso Ciampa defeated Aleister Black to retain the NXT Championship. In the penultimate match, Shayna Baszler defeated Bianca Belair by technical submission to retain the NXT Women's Championship. Other matches included War Raiders defeating The Undisputed Era to win the NXT Tag Team Championship, and Johnny Gargano defeated Ricochet to win the NXT North American Championship.



NXT Tag Team Championship Match - War Raiders (Hanson & Raymond Rowe) def. The Undisputed Era (c)


A solid opener, but I felt that this was deja vu to a few years ago when these guys where in Ring of Honor. Replace Roderick Strong with Bobby Fish and you couldn't have told the difference between this or any of their previous encounters during their days as War Machine and reDRagon in Ring of Honor for those coveted tag titles. That being said, it wasn't a bad match at all. I say it time and time again, but damn, Hanson's agility surprises me every time. Him and Rowe really play off each others' strengths and it shows brilliantly. Roderick Strong and Kyle O'Reilly were the perfect guys to bump around for them and take that punishment while simultaneously reminding everyone why they have held the NXT Tag Titles for so long.

The title change here was a little jarring since Undisputed Era made that declaration that they would be holding all of the gold in 2019, but I can see them getting it all back come WrestleMania weekend. If I'm perfectly honest, I can't see Undisputed Era collectively staying in NXT past Summerslam/Survivor Series this year. I'm sure that WWE Creative would love to shoehorn them into a Survivor Series elimination match this year. I mean c'mon... they can't be in War Games THREE years in a row. That would be overkill at this point.



Matt Riddle def. Kassius Ohno


This was my least favorite match on this entire card if I'm perfectly honest. After the quick KO (no pun intended...) during the last TakeOver special, I didn't need to see them go at it again, especially in a long, drawn out match like this when they had a similar match on NXT programming a few weeks ago. No offense to the talent involved, but this match did absolutely nothing for me. That's not a knock on the talent either as I've seen both Riddle and Ohno in some stellar bouts. I just felt like this was a slight mismatch of talent - not to mention that Ohno is sitting on a pile of losses here in terms of TakeOver appearances.



NXT Women's Championship Match - Shayna Baszler (c) def. Bianca Belair


After the NXT episode over the past week, I was a little surprised that the Full Sail crowd were actually turning on Bianca a bit after Shayna's "overrated" comment. Outside of her performance in the initial Mae Young Classic, I honestly don't see all of the hype behind Belair and her husband (Montez Ford on the Street Profits) from a lot of podcasters and journalists, touting them as the "future" of the product. Let's be real here... the Street Profits will go down as another failed Cryme Tyme clone, just like the Primetime Players before them. Ford might see some gold in a singles run, same for Bianca down the road, but there's far too many other noteworthy talent that can and will overshadow them in the meantime. Don't forget that NXT, along with the main roster, is STACKED with talent that they've raided from the indies and every other promotion that isn't AEW. It's hard to say that WWE's "homegrown" prospects will be allowed to shine over the more seasoned and more experienced "indie darlings" as how Triple H used to refer to them before he started making a profit off of them.

In relation to this match, I saw it as make it or break it time for Bianca. The first half of this match wasn't bad at all with Bianca enduring everything that Shayna was throwing at her. Then the ref bump happened and this match seemed to fall apart in a sense. Maybe it was nerves, but Bianca hit one of the worst and weakest looking slams on Shayna during this entire show for what was supposed to be the cliched "near-fall" but the ref was still down. Marina Safir and Jessamyn Duke race down to make the save and they took some awful (as in execution) looking bumps to the mat. I'll give Marina a pass as she was wearing a facial protection mask as she must've gotten roughed up training but geez, her and Jessamyn don't seem to be taking to this wrestling thing as well as Shayna and Ronda have.

The match continues a bit longer after the ref bump, only for Bianca's "undefeated" (insert ghetto ass claps for each syllable) streak to end after she passes out in Shayna's hold to retain. I still want to know what was in Bianca's weave whip thingy to make it cut Shayna across the abdomen like that.


As for this post-match comment/rebuttal aimed at Sam Roberts, who apparently went "heel" shooting on Bianca Belair not deserving to be in this match and Shayna having nothing to be afraid of, I can't tell if they trying to get an angle going out of this or what. I tend to tune out a lot of what Sam Roberts says nowadays since he's wired into WWE's bubble, so you can't trust if he's working people or trying to be legitimate anymore. That being said, I didn't think Bianca was ready for a title match either, but at the same time, I'm not going to bury her like he did there, saying that her match belonged on the preshow. Bianca's not ready for that spot now, but that doesn't mean she won't pick up steam down the road. Remember Sasha Banks' rough beginnings on NXT? It wasn't until she refined what "The Boss" character was down there and picked up in stride to get the ball rolling where she was force to be reckoned with on NXT. Just give it time. Baby steps.



NXT North American Championship Match - Johnny Gargano def. Ricochet (c)


When this match started during the introductions, I joked to a friend that I wanted Gargano to lose here just for everyone can say that shit hasn't changed for Johnny Failure. Everyone on social media seems to be raving about the actual ring work in this match, but I was more impressed by the narrative from bell to bell. The story here was that as good as Gargano THOUGHT he was in terms of keeping up move for move, counter for counter with Ricochet, it wasn't enough. All of 2018, Gargano would put his all into these TakeOver performances, earning the moniker of "Johnny TakeOver" as printed on his trunks here tonight, but ultimately, he would fall short of the victory every single time, causing many people - notably Velveteen Dream, to refer to him as Johnny Failure. Johnny Failure wasn't going to chuck up another L in the column tonight as he did what he thought he would never do and crossed the dark side to cement his victory over the One and Only.

While Ricochet did some impressive stuff here in this match, I wasn't losing my mind about it (double goes for Gargano's ring work) when I've seen the guy work in New Japan, Pro Wrestling Guerilla, and Lucha Underground doing similar theatrics. I'm more surprised that they would take the title off Ricochet so soon, but I guess they must have plans for him to capture the NXT Championship sooner more than later. There seems to be talk/rumors floating around about a title for title match to be the finale in the Gargano vs. Ciampa series during the NXT TakeOver special during WrestleMania weekend and I hope that's not the case. I rather see a multi-man match for the title instead of another played out Gargano/Ciampa match.

That being said, this was easily the match of the evening without a shadow of a doubt.



NXT Championship Match - Tommaso Ciampa (c) def. Aleister Black


This match had an interesting narrative about it too, but nowhere as great as the one in the match that proceeded it. Ciampa was at his worst of his villainy here, doing everything in his power to cripple Aleister Black. He targeted his knee and lower calf for the majority of this match. Boy, after tweaking BOTH of my knees/lower calf within the span of a week I couldn't help but sympathize with Black's pain and agony here. Aleister Black did put up a good effort in this match, but ultimately fell short to recapture the NXT Championship. They fooled me for sure with that near-fall (or rather no fall after Ciampa rolled onto his stomach) off that sickening SMACK off that one Black Mask from out of nowhere. I thought that was it for sure. It was a nice touch to have Ciampa troll Black by raising his head off the mat with his foot like how Black did to Gargano at the previous TakeOver special.

I know people are convinced that Aleister Black is pretty much a lock to be moved to the main roster, but I'm not buying into that. He still has unfinished business in NXT. He hasn't repaid both Ciampa and Gargano properly after their unofficial DIY reunion in the steel cage match and I wouldn't mind seeing him get one more crack at the NXT Championship before being called up. I think we deserve an Aleister Black vs. Velveteen Dream rubber match for the NXT Championship before either one of those guys get called up and it would stupid not to book that match sooner more than later.

All in all, I thought this was a solid show, despite a few hiccups with the NXT Women's Championship Match and that Riddle/Ohno bout. As always, I'm anxious to see where they go from here. They got three months of NXT tapings to layout the ground work for the next TakeOver special during WrestleMania weekend, so it should make for some good TV.
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