NXT

[Degenerate]

Every single match on tonight's Takeover was pretty solid. There was no filler on that card at all. I wish that all WWE pay-per-views were three hours tops, instead of the 7-hour Summerslam marathon that awaits later on. I'm getting the crowd is going to crap all over that show due to how long it's going to go.

I enjoyed the ending of the main event. I think it's going to add another layer on Gargano's character. He's let his anger get the best of him and it's cost him all of his matches against Ciampa three times in a row. That has to play on his character's psyche or something, or at least that's what I'm hoping. If not, I don't know where else this can go.

But there's also an ongoing story that in some post-event conference call or something, Triple H said that the ending of that match got changed on the fly because Gargano legit got hurt on that final shot. I'm not sure if I buy that since the camera shots looked like it was all planned, and the announcers didn't sound off-guard, but looking at it again it did seem like there was a chance of injury, the way Gargano landed. It'll probably all tie in to the upcoming story.

In all, the whole show was just great. The main gripe I had were some of the false finishes after some brutal moves. The Burning Hammer on Kyle O'Reilly in the tag match and Adam Cole's insanely-timed superkick followed by the brainbuster on Ricochet were just too much for me to deal with. Those spots should have been match-ending moves.

[Macho Mourn]

Baszler being free means she's free for the main roster. She should get fast tracked. Rousey having a mean bitch to play off of could get her out of that all smiles faze quick.

Kairi shouldn't have a long run. She may, but this seems like something to bridge to someone else. Who? No clue. A lot of possibilities. For once maybe a home grown talent.

[Oliver]

I'm trying to think of how much money WWE could make by running a Rousey Vs Baszler match and I genuinely can't arrive at a high enough number.

As for the main event ending prematurely, I don't know. There's too much between the Ciampa/Gargano's shots, from the Chicago ending to the Chicago II callback, to this ending...either that shot was meant as a perfect callback again, in camera work and set up, but to continue, or was the ending planned and they're working people.

Quite genuinely, I think you could write a thesis out of the relationship between Gargano's and Ciampa and all their matches together, even back to the CWC one on one bout. They've elevated the main event level of NXT into a storytelling art. It's exactly what the show needed at the top end.

[Josh]

That was for sure the ending and I, for one (and probably in the minority), thought it was a better finish than the finish to their last match.

As I wrote elsewhere, I like that, basically, gravity won Ciampa the match. He didn't stand, he fell and his body was essentially propped up in a half-stand/half-slouch position thanks to the stage and the handcuffs. On the flipside, gravity/law of motion, cost Gargano the match. He put so much force into the knee that he couldn't stop himself and, instead, ended up knocking himself into a stack of equipment and junk. I've read some reviews that say he looks like an idiot for doing it and there is some truth to that - but at least he wasn't outsmarted by Ciampa the way he was in Chicago.

[Team Farrell]

I liked the finish to that match because it does paint Gargano as an idiot. He's become so angry and obsessed and able to be manipulated by Ciampa that he is now hurting himself.

My one problem with that match...just as I anticipated, exposing the boards became a false finish "holy shit" spot after it required Gargano to be stretchered out in Chicago. I hated that. I can appreciate that every one of their matches builds off of the last and makes callbacks to previous ones, but when I see that it immediately turns me off. If I were structuring that match, I probably would have exposed those boards and never paid it off. Ciampa exposes the boards and gets put through the double table. The crowd would have forgiven it given the finish.

That's the one spot that I think should be saved as a death spot. There is no recovery.

[LK3185]

I can see a exposing the boards spot almost becoming as common as tough bumps to the floor or apron bumps..sigh. I mean obviously not as much but a big feud? Expose the boards

[Oliver]

I liked the finish to that match because it does paint Gargano as an idiot. He's become so angry and obsessed and able to be manipulated by Ciampa that he is now hurting himself.

This is what I love, too. Ciampa is so intent on hurting Gargano that he's turned it into Gargano hurting himself. It's like when you were a child and would grab someone by the wrist then make them hit themselves.

You've got to wonder how the fall out of this now goes on NXT TV. There's scope for a fourth match because Ciampa didn't win, Gargano lost. But equally he's now beaten him two on the bounce and, whether Gargano likes it or not, that should be enough.

In a way, I hope Gargano is injured because it gives us a chance to just breathe a little before a fourth match.

As for exposing the boards - I loved it in Chicago, but yeah I do wish they'd avoided doing it in Brooklyn, or at least using the boards offensively.

[Degenerate]

After this week's NXT, I'm unsure what's the direction going to be for Johnny Gargano. It seems the injury thing was a work, given that he will face Velveteen Dream in next week's show (which was already taped - no spoilers, please). There still was that possibility of him being the person who took out Aleister Black, since he skirted around directly answering Regal when asked if he was the one behind the attack. If that plays out, it'll be interesting.

Also, Nikki Cross was back on NXT TV, so it seems like she isn't being called up to the main roster after all. Why was she MIA for so long? Her skit with Regal was hilarious, in any case.

[comfortablynumb]

That Dunne-Riccochet match was awesome last night. Shame they didn't have a proper ending but we all knew we weren't getting one anyway on a normal episode of NXT.

[mizfan]

Checked out the 5 star Mustache/Undisputed match from 7/11 and had some thoughts...

This one has the most hype out of any of matches I've watched recently, but I’ve got to say, while I enjoyed some parts, I had some problems too. There’s no doubt everything involved is talented and they go all out here physically, no doubt, and they even tell a really good story at first. Trent Seven gets his knee busted up, so bad he can hardly stand, and the medic has to check it out at length while Bate tries to valiantly fight on his own. So far, so great. Seven insists on returning to the match and tags himself in, which is fine, but here’s where it gets screwy. Strong and O’Reilly are presented as wrestling geniuses, brilliant strategists who rip guys apart at the joints. And yet, for several minutes it occurs to neither one of them to go after Seven’s crippled knee. They feed generic offense attempts to Seven so he can bounce them around, to the point where I’m yelling at these idiots to grow a brain and attack the knee. Eventually they do, so we’re back on track, right? At one point Seven is on the verge of tapping, so Bate comes in and breaks up the submission, but Seven can’t get the tag out. He gets trapped in another submission, so Bate helps him again… wait, wait, no, he doesn’t. He gives up. He stands there looking at his partner and just throws in the towel. Bate. You just a minute ago jumped in the ring to help your man out. In what world did that stop being a valid option?? I got what they were going for here, but I really feel like they sacrificed basic storytelling and logic in favor of having an “emotional” moment, and it just didn’t connect with me at all. It made Bate look like a moron. As I said the action was very good, but I can’t see why this is held up as such a classic match when it seems to have some enormous holes. But that’s just my opinion, nothing against anyone who thinks this is a top tag match ever. Maybe I was too tough on the match because it had such hype coming in?

[Oliver]

I think there was a point in the match where the ref warned Bate about coming in to the ring, which might have paid off why he had to stay on the apron? I can't recall now. I remember really enjoying that match but pretty much hating the crowd during it. Undisputed Era need their 'super heel' moment, I kind of feel, like when Owens just nerfed the Full Sail crowd in a promo and was immediately booed by everyone.

I've really enjoyed NXT recently, but I think what I've loved most is how they've been using Nikki Cross to interact with the male side of the roster during this 'Who Beat Up Ally Black?' angle. Feels like the blow off to that is coming, and much as someone like Ciampa seems to obvious answer to it I'm kind of hoping it's someone out of the blue.

I'm also really pumped for Dream vs Black.

[mizfan]

Even if that's true, about the ref warning Bate, I still feel like risking DQ to come in the ring makes more sense that just quitting. Would have worked better if Bate was beaten down too badly to fight and had to throw in, or if the officials had stopped instead of Bate. Just my take. Strongly agree the crowd was a bit annoying, UE kind of turned them by mocking the Moustache taunt as hard as possible to break up the initial dueling chant, but Full Sail is never gonna react straight down the line on anything.

I did catch a little bit of the Nikki stuff and I had the same thought, super cool to cross over divisions with a story like that. Still don't fully buy into Black but looks like some great writing is going on there.

[Oliver]

Can someone sell me on Matt Riddle with, say, three matches? At the moment I just feel like he's a Hanson brother that hit the gym hard

[comfortablynumb]

I'd like to see more of his work too. I get he's an MMA fighter but I don't like the MMA fighter look in wrestling matches (at least the one he uses). Looks like he should be swimming the 200 backstroke.

He's a legit badass though who is only wrestling because he smoked himself out of the UFC. I'm looking forward to seeing more.

[mizfan]

Ask and you shall receive! As always with indy wrestlers, there's a bit of a challenge to find the best stuff that's not behind a paywall, but here are some pretty good options:

Riddle vs. Katsuyori Shibata, RevPro 2017

I also really recommend checking out Riddle vs. Minoru Suzuki at Bloodsport earlier this year (their RevPro is a bit disappointing by comparison).

Part of the appeal of Riddle is also getting to know his personality. He's this unbelievably good natured, kind of goofy guy who can also murder everyone in the room if he needs to. It's a weird dichotomy but it can work really well, I'm hoping WWE is able to tap into that with him because I believe he's got real star potential.

I also think he wrestles like an octopus/spider monkey hybrid that escaped from a military experiment somewhere, and I am all about that.