NXT

[comfortablynumb]

Oliver asked what you're looking forward to for Wrestlemania, so I'll ask what are you looking forward to at Takeover?

The easy answer would be everything but Walter/Dunn I think are going to steal the show. I still haven't seen a ton of Walter matches so I'm excited to see a proper match with Dunn.

Dream-Riddle is a very interesting match too. Does Riddle take the title and Dream goes after the NXT Title? It's hard to see Riddle losing here but I want Dream to keep winning as well.

The women's match is the one I'm least interested but it still has a good possibility of being highly entertaining.

[Oliver]

WALTER vs Dunne very much has the potential to be the match of the weekend, if not the WWE year so far.

Broadly I agree with you, numb - the women's match could be a mess but could also be excellent given who's in there. Dream-Riddle, to be honest I'd go with Riddle taking a loss because I want to see Dream grow that title a little more, and I think Riddle could be excellent in the main event picture down the line, and probably far more so than Dream immediately after Takeover.

Gargano vs Cole, if nothing goes wrong in the execution, probably has a minimum level of 4.5/5 in terms of just enjoyment of excellent wrestling. Somebody I read regularly on NXT has seen them have half an hour at a house show and says it was incredible. Also, NXT does 2/3 falls matches tremendously well, as a rule.

[mizfan]

I really like the whole card, aside from Gargano/Cole, and I'm sure I'm in the minority there. I just can't get into Cole.

I also can't unsee that someone posted on Twitter than Gargano and all 4 UE guys look like the exact same person with 5 different haircuts/beards.

[Oliver]

You know that I'm in the same boat as you on Cole, Mizfan, but he (like Gargano) has one hundred percent benefited by being in the WWE system.

I wouldn't have said either could even be in consideration for my favourite current wrestler pre-NXT, and while neither is there now either because i) they still have some stylistic issues, ii) they both tend to slightly overwork the problem, and iii) Pentagon Jr and Tomohiro Ishii still exist, I would certainly say they are much better wrestlers now than they were before.

EDIT: OK, so watching NXT this week and, like...who the hell looked at Gunner in TNA and thought 'that's our dude'? And who keeps doing it? I didn't think it was possible for anybody to have a bad match with Oney Lorcan, but Jaxon Ryker's gone out there and done it.

[LifeLostInRewind]

Been a pretty good show thus far. Surprised that Dream retained over Riddle and ended his undefeated streak, tbh.

[TheLAW]

That main event is everything that bugs me about modern pro wrestling. False finishes are the worst trope in the book. Overused and they don't heighten the story at all. They just make finishes look weak as fuck. A 199 pound man just kicked out of 7 moves that should have killed most wrestlers including a FUCKING Canadian Destroyer and a double team. Fucking stupid.

[Heisenberg]

Hallelujah!!! Exactly what I’ve been saying on twitter and yet I’m trolling? Gargano has entered the realms of Taker, Cena, Roman and become Super Gargano. The 2/3 falls match type is a shit match in general cause it’s hard to book. But for ALL the thing he kicked out of in his matches with Ciampa he loses the first fall after Cole’s knee to the back of the head after basically no other big moves? It’s ridiculous. Not to mention what Law said above. I get it’s a 2/3 falls match and the last fall should be the most exciting, which as I said is why they are hard to book and why I loathe them, but he loses fall 1 that easily but is then kicking out of O’Reilly and Fish’s double team move immediately followed by a superkick, superkick to the back of the head and then immediately Cole’s knee to the back of the head? It’s just head shaking. How can Gargano ever lose a match on the main roster with everything he kicks out of?

[TheLAW]

They're actually not that hard to book. Problem is they don't utilize the old 3 stages of hell idea. Even without that though. First fall goes ten minutes and ends with a lucky win, not a finish. Second fall should be almost the same but with your typical shenanigans. Knocked out ref, interference. Etc. Goes to a tie. Third fall has one.... Maybe... But ONE false finish but it should be by the heel if you're gonna use it at all. But, signature moves, submissions and title belts are all fair game this round. Side note: if you use the belt shot, the victim doesn't reverse the following finish like WWE 2K19 LOL.

[mizfan]

I'm just happy that other people now know about WALTER.

[Oliver]

I actually disagree with the above on the main, I think they did everything right in terms of bell to bell execution, and having the interference and ref bump in the final fall was spot on. That last fall was absolutely molten for that reason, and it really worked well as a result.

I get that they went overboard a little bit on the near falls - I said above that both Cole and Gargano overwork the problem and that's basically what I'm saying. That said, the issue isn't just them, it's the fact that people don't develop any secondary moves as potential finishers. Like, other than the Last Shot, has Cole got a win with anything else in NXT? Because if not does anybody buy any other move than the Last Shot as getting a fall? And if that's the case - is the crowd going to engage with near falls from anything else?

They're kind of between the devil and the deep blue sea on it, in a way. For what it's worth, I completely bought into the entire thing, bell to bell. The only thing I didn't really like in the whole match was immediately after the first fall, from the Last Shot, Cole hit a second one and Gargano kicked out. That seemed a bit jarring

[comfortablynumb]

I was sucked in to the main event too. I do think they could tone down all the kicks to the head, but at the same time what’s wrong with accepting that athletes can elevate their game and take more punishment on a grand stage? Happens all the time in athletic competition.

I liked the story of the Dream-Riddle match. Dream took a beating but escaped with the gold.

And WALTER is a fucking beast.

[LifeLostInRewind]

I don't have a problem with false finishes. It adds drama, besides if 1 finisher was all that was required to win, then it would be anticlimactic.

[Oliver]

I liked the story of the Dream-Riddle match. Dream took a beating but escaped with the gold.

I loved that match. Like, the whole unspoken character thing is that Dream and Riddle are almost one and the same, but channel that energy in different ways. Like, they're both basically just idiots with differing levels of self-awareness - Riddle has no self-awareness, Dream has all the self-awareness.

I love that Dream, in a world full of ever evolving complexity, diving tiger twisting crossbodies and complex mat wrestling nonsense, is the most simplistic 1980s wrestler ever. Back rakes, double axe handles, elbow drops...there's nothing difficult about his wrestling.

He's going to be a main eventer in the future, and it's going to absolutely rule.

[Prime Time]

Anyone checked out Kushida's debut yet?

[Oliver]

^ Two weeks on and I still haven't got to it.

The Takeover at the start of June looks like it could be really good.

Johnny Gargano vs Adam Cole for the NXT Championship
Velveteen Dream vs Tyler Breeze(!!!) for the North American Championship
Shayna Baszler vs Io Shirai for the NXT Women's Championship
The Undisputed Era vs The Forgotten Sons vs Oney and Twoey vs The Street Profits in a ladder match for the NXT Tag Titles

I'm not completely sure why they're going back to Cole vs Gargano (I get the storyline reasons for it, just don't think it's a match that's needed again, especially after going 2/3 falls on Mania weekend) but it should be a good match again and hey, Davey Meltface gave it 5.5 stars last time so I'm sure he's happy to watch it again.

Otherwise, that card is looking ace. I'm really hyped to see what Montez Ford can do in a ladder match.