NXT

[mizfan]

Shayna Baszler and Io Shirai had a match that absolutely killed in Stardom 2 years ago. Hope they can do it again!

[Oliver]

No spoilers, but I love NXT and it is a precious baby rainbow in a cloudy sky.

[T.O.]

No that's me.

[comfortablynumb]

Kyle O’Rielly took a beating in that tag match. Montez Ford has star quality.

[JacobWrestledGod]

this NxT blew AEW out of the water. So much quality.

[Oliver]

Kyle O’Rielly took a beating in that tag match. Montez Ford has star quality.

How weird is it that that match was the first time the Street Profits have been on a Takeover?

No that's me.

This is also true.

[Team Farrell]

this NxT blew AEW out of the water. So much quality.

Really? Wow, I felt completely different. I thought that Dream vs Beeze was one of the worst matches I've seen on a mainstream show in a long time. Baszler vs Shirai was okay but sloppy at points and there was just too much in that main event. They did so much that it stopped being false finishes and became me wondering when this match was going to finally end.

The ladder match and Riddle vs Roddy were really great.

I'm finding a trend with these shows where you can really tell that all these people train together and you're getting everyone doing the same shit. There were a number of repeated sequences, for example enziguris to a guy on the top rope to cut them off. Everyone is wrestling the same.

I think that a part of it is Undisputed Era guys being featured in three of the five matches and they were put together specifically because they were the indy star guys who worked similarly. But my god was everything so similar.

[Oliver]

The ladder match and Riddle vs Roddy were really great.

I liked everything about the ladder match except for bloody Gunner turning up. More than just not being a fan of his, that match was really starting to shift through some gears and then he turned up and pretty much killed the momentum for 5 minutes or so.

[Degenerate]

there was just too much in that main event. They did so much that it stopped being false finishes and became me wondering when this match was going to finally end.

I read a few people joking that the only thing this match was missing was for Cole to pull out a gun, shoot Gargano point blank in the face, pin him, only for Gargano to still kick out at 2. It sure seemed that way. I enjoyed that match but there were way too many insane-looking spots that were kicked out of. It really lessened the impact of everything.

[Team Farrell]

How many times can you kick a guy in the head or drop him on his head and have him kick out?

It's my problem with Takeover shows on the whole. Everyone goes out trying to put on a main event quality match, and all of a sudden nothing is left for the main event but to kick each others heads off over and over, pull up the ringside mat, or other smoke and mirrors.

The shame is that they could have had a truly great encounter. The storytelling of Gargano having one bad leg while at the same time working on Cole's arm was great. And they used it to full advantage a few times. But then at the end it was finisher spam, superkicks, TWO destroyers and the Last Shot. I figured Gargano's worn down leg would play into the finish in some way, but it was just the Last Shot.

After the Destroyer on the floor wasn't the finish, I pretty much checked out of the match.

[Prime Time]

How many times can you kick a guy in the head or drop him on his head and have him kick out?.

Surely the answer to this is once, and even that's pushing it?

This is why kicks used to have to be with the sole of the foot to be legal, and frankly it does make everything that little bit more credible.

[JacobWrestledGod]

I thought that Dream vs Beeze was one of the worst matches I've seen on a mainstream show in a long time.

Why is that so? I don't understand why anyone would hate that match, with its near perfect execution, its strict adherence to not overplaying finishes, the character work of both men, the simple but effective ending, it was a perfect midcard/ upper card match for a championship and it shows. Watching it alongside Cody vs Dustin, I think the execution is better and while Cody vs Dustin has more emotional weight, with the blood and all, it's still an old man struggling at times during the match to keep up. Dream was amazing, and the match cemented both as top competitors of the future. For all the ocmplains about older stars, AEW uses Jericho, Omega and Dustin as their top billings, and that's a finger of shame from me honestly. Look, I love the PPV as much as I can, but Takeover is just too good to ignore.

[Oliver]

On Cole/Gargano - I mean, I think I've said it on here before, but that's kind of what you get with them. I don't think it's a specific Cole/Gargano problem, understand, but I think both of them have done that style throughout their careers where others haven't, and as a result they know how to really work that finisher stuff in and make it work better.

I didn't think the main was as good as everyone else seems to either, but I certainly didn't hate it. I did love Dream/Breeze, though, and think it worked really well.

Hearing that Cole and Baszler are set to get called up soon. Would be a bit weird to see Cole called up without the rest of UE.

[mizfan]

Why is that so? I don't understand why anyone would hate that match, with its near perfect execution, its strict adherence to not overplaying finishes, the character work of both men, the simple but effective ending, it was a perfect midcard/ upper card match for a championship and it shows. Watching it alongside Cody vs Dustin, I think the execution is better and while Cody vs Dustin has more emotional weight, with the blood and all, it's still an old man struggling at times during the match to keep up. Dream was amazing, and the match cemented both as top competitors of the future. For all the ocmplains about older stars, AEW uses Jericho, Omega and Dustin as their top billings, and that's a finger of shame from me honestly. Look, I love the PPV as much as I can, but Takeover is just too good to ignore.

Curious how 35 year old Omega got lumped in with the older guys? And I'd hardly say Dustin is top billing for AEW, if he does much wrestling past the tag match with Cody I'll be surprised. Old man struggling to keep up was really the story he was trying to tell too, and I thought he executed it exactly the way he wanted/needed to. I do get some concern with Jericho but I think the difference is Jericho is legitimately killing it as a character right now and can still go in the ring, as opposed to a lot of the older guys who don't seem to care and/or can't perform too well anymore.

I am surprised someone would call out Dream/Breeze as being particularly bad, I didn't check it out yet but on paper that sounds like it'd be quite fun.

[Team Farrell]

Why is that so? I don't understand why anyone would hate that match, with its near perfect execution, its strict adherence to not overplaying finishes, the character work of both men, the simple but effective ending, it was a perfect midcard/ upper card match for a championship and it shows. Watching it alongside Cody vs Dustin, I think the execution is better and while Cody vs Dustin has more emotional weight, with the blood and all, it's still an old man struggling at times during the match to keep up. Dream was amazing, and the match cemented both as top competitors of the future. For all the ocmplains about older stars, AEW uses Jericho, Omega and Dustin as their top billings, and that's a finger of shame from me honestly. Look, I love the PPV as much as I can, but Takeover is just too good to ignore.

The formula might have been good, but its execution was poor. For a company with a Performance Centre that's got 95 rings in it, I don't expect to turn on a pay per view and see two guys wrestle like they'd never met. Shit, I've seen guys walk into a building a meet an hour before an event and have more chemistry.

There's a fine line in pro wrestling between working together and making it look like you're working together, and everything falling apart because you are clearly not working (well) together, and that match fell firmly into the latter category. And it wasn't just little things, it was major issues. Breeze forgot (I assume) that he had to be down for the Elbow spot and threw a dropkick at nothing in the centre of the ring before Dream jumped. The commentators tried to cover it, but it was literally a dropkick at nothing 10 feet away from his opponent. The two were stumbling over each other for an entirely too long 17 minutes that felt like 45.

Some guys just don't have that physical chemistry together, and I think it's clear that those two don't. They have great matches with other opponents, but just don't seem to gel together.

That Takeover show just wasn't great. I haven't really enjoyed a Takeover card in a long time, and I'm a WWE fan.

There were two awesome matches, one poor match, and alright women's match but as much as Baszler is improving on her fundamentals, she's still too green to be in that position, and they had a main event that got tedious by the end. Maybe Takeover needs to play with the format a little bit and start doing a sixth match. Not ever match needs to be bordering on 20 minutes.

Shit, you could have taken ten minutes from the main event and five from Dream vs Breeze, had another decent length match on the card and saved both of those outings.

I am surprised someone would call out Dream/Breeze as being particularly bad, I didn't check it out yet but on paper that sounds like it'd be quite fun.

Like I said, they just don't seem to have chemistry. That's not to take away from either guy, because I know what they're capable of, but sometimes guys are just physically oil and water.