Last Time on NXT TakeOver:
NXT borrowed The New Day’s Time Machine to take us back to the 90s, we found out Johnny Gargano has the keys to the place, Adam Cole really wanted us to buy some ICOPRO, a Demon defeated a Priest, the NXT Women’s Division hit each other with ladders, Karrion Kross sent our Daddy to get some cigarettes and never come home, someone filmed a fight outside between HBK’s kid and a Walking Dead cosplayer and Keith Lee reminded everyone that Black Lives Matter.
Tonight: Did Pat McAfee beat the longest reigning NXT Champion of all time? Exactly how dead is Dakota Kai? Did Keith Lee avenge the apparent death of Dominik Dijakovic? Did Grimey make it TOOOOOO DAAAAA MEWWWWWWWN?
POP: CHAOS
Following a cool package about Imperium’s resident tag team (with some nice character building background about Barthel’s Pops being rivals with Aichner’s coach, love me some character building), we got us a #1 Contender’s Triple Threat Tag Team Match for the Tag titles (done the way I prefer which is a triple threat with tags).
Dango launching Wilde out of the ring was a pretty hilarious moment for me because I realized he’s practically a Hoss in NXT. Mendoza hit a flawless Corkscrew backwards Crossbody that reminded me how good he really is. Everyone here put in work for this relatively quick, super chaotic (but in a good way) match. Now we’re set for Beth Phoenix’s Favorite Team vs. Imperium for the Tag Team Championship.
POP: The Promise of a Second City Saint
BOTCH: No Heart, No Soul
I don’t wanna end the column with a sour note, so i’m gonna get what I didn’t like out of the way now. This was the 30th NXT TakeOver. Every TakeOver has had a big night feel and at least 2 or 3 matches where there’s this emotional connection to a match that gives it that extra oomph. Think Bayley vs. Sasha at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn or Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens at NXT TakeOver: Rival or WALTER vs. Tyler Bate at TakeOver: Cardiff or any Johnny Gargano vs Tomasso Ciampa TakeOver match.
For a TakeOver that probably should’ve felt more special than it did (granted, hard to do with no actual fans in the audience), none of the matches for me really came with that personal connection or extra story beat that made the match more important. That element isn’t make or break for me necessarily, but it adds a lot.
Closest we had as Keith Lee vs. Karrion Kross because Kross choked out his BFF and shot him with a fireball, but even then I dunno, it never got taken to that extra level to me, despite the build being good (and excellently made video packages). And speaking of that match…
BOTCH: The Meh Event
Oy, this match. Ok, so it started out hot, with Lee and Kross really laying into each other. It even had a cool little moment when Lee hit the plexiglass so hard it bent over (yeah it’s just plexiglass but visually it looked kinda cool, IMO anyway). But right around the time Lee gets his hand caught between the guardrail and the plexiglass and Kross smashes his arm, is where the match begins to take a turn.
Because for the rest of the match, Kross’ strategy is to target Lee’s arm, which in the match is a smart strategy and makes sense especially for a power wrestler like Lee, but for whatever reason, Kross wasn’t really able to make that look visually stimulating in the match. It was a lot of wearing down of Lee’s arm that just wasn’t super interesting to watch.
Guys like Pete Dunne and Timothy Thatch can really make grinding down a man’s limb look like the most amazing shit in the world, but it just didn’t hit for me with Kross. Plus, for as much time was spent on wearing down Lee’s arm, it didn’t appear to affect his offense much. I even kind thought the fireball to the eyes would factor into the match (especially since Gargano had previously caused damage to Lee’s eyes a month ago) but no. Maybe it’s partially my fault for really kinda expecting a Hoss Battle but the match as a whole just felt kinda slow and plodding, even the end felt kinda abrupt.
Kross hits a Doomsday Saito from Bret’s Rope to beat Lee for the NXT Championship. Which brings an end to Keith Lee’s NXT Championship Reign at a total of 44 days after his second defense (which makes him the second shortest reign after Samoa Joe’s second reign, and he gave up his other title so he’s title-less. Great.). Word around the sheets is that Lee is getting called up soon. *concerned Marge Simpson groan*
Ah well, i’m certain Kross won’t have any pissed off insane, Title obsessed, people of Sicilian descent coming after him and his brand new Title.
Oh dear.
(Small Pop to all of Karrion Kross’ facial expressions.)
BOTCH: Mamma Mia
Look, Corey isn’t a bad announcer by any means, but it just ain’t a NXT TakeOver without the homie Mauro Ranallo being overly excited about EVERYTHING.
POP: Royal Pain
I see you down there moshing to Finn’s theme, Shotzi. What we have here is a classic clashing of total opposites. Here we have Finn Bálor, the flashy, classically handsome WWE/NXT Superstar with the cool entrance with the smoke and bombastic theme and cool leather jacket, so cool. On the opposite side we have Timothy Thatcher, the guy who doesn’t give a shit about looking cool who has a jacked up grill and is simply here to tap people out.
On Wednesday, Thatcher stopped Finn from getting into the ladder match because he was pissed about losing their Triple Threat which is how we got here. This match had that intensity and feeling of urgency that (for me) just wasn’t there in the Main Event. Thatcher forces Finn to wrestle his style for a large part of the match instead of the more flashy, big impact, high flyer-esque offense we’re used to and it works. Don’t sleep on The Prinxe’s grappling ability.
There’s a fun little moment where Finn misses a Coup de Gras and jacks up his leg, and Thatcher realizes he can continue to jack said leg up. The look on his face is priceless.
Match ends with another Coup de Gras followed by a 1916. Great start to the show.
t h a t c h e r
— Pete Dunne (@PeteDunneYxB) August 22, 2020
s o o n.
POP: Date Night
POP: Everybody Dies
Oh man, this was my favorite match of the night. There’s so much that happened in this match I don’t even know where to begin. Highlights include: noted Razor Ramon fanboy Priest with the Bad Guy Homage walking under the ladder in his entrance, Reed’s Bam Bam Bigelow gear (and new proper theme song), Shotzi hollering “THICC BOI” at the top of her lungs, Dream shoving Priest out of the way of the corner which immediately led to a fist to the face and this was all before the damn bell even rang.
Cameron Grimes yelling “WAAAOOOOOO” as Dream tossed him out of the ring was so goddamn funny I had to stop and come back so I could laugh. And it was immediately followed by Grimey pulling out a tiny ladder which killed me again. His unwanted split caused by Dream and Priest.
The continuing build to the sure to be heated rivalry between Damian Priest and Bronson Reed continued in this match as well and both of them showed the fuck out on Saturday. Reed pulling in a ladder and Dream into the ring, pulling off a brutal Senton onto a ladder onto Dream and Gargano, Candace interfering in the match keeping multiple guys from getting the title until she climbs onto Reed’s back, followed by Reed flattening Gargano from the top of the ladder.
A huge Tower of Doom Powerbomb spot, Gargano telling Dream and Grimey to beat up the good guys while he climbs the ladder, Reed sending Dream to the Shadow Realm by tipping the ladder over, moment after moment after moment in this match.
I couldn’t possibly cover every single mind blowing moment in this match, all I can say is check it out for yourself. As far as the actual result, I am more than fine with Priest as North American Champion. Big guys as Champs is pretty rare in NXT and Priest has been low-key killing it ever since joining the roster. This also tells me they plan on more than likely continuing the Reed/Priest rivalry, now with the NA Championship involved.
POP: Now It’s Back To The Grime
Keep your head up, king.
POP: Ok fine, this was great
Why did I doubt that even NXT could make a Celebrity wrestling match work? Maybe the main roster made me cynical, maybe everything about McAfee just made me irritated (which definitely helps with wanting to see Adam Cole kick his ass). Again even before the match McAfee is heeling hard, with his “Cole Sucks” shirts and his “For The Brand” mantra plastered all over his gear and Tron graphics.. It’s clear to me the guy at the very least is a total wrestling fan and probably aware he should be getting booed against Adam Cole (dude even had Final Boss in a Sega Platformer theme music, credit to SHough610 for that one).
McAfee hit all his moves smooth as hell (including an incredibly graceful Swanton to the outside highlighted in the video above, he sold better than some of the guys even on the main roster, did a killer sequence where he lands on his feet after a flip and then hops right to the top rope and hits a superplex. I was stunned). Cole’s kickout after the Punt was so close I hopped out of my seat.
Only issues I had was the finish where it seems like he just kinda literally strolls over to Cole so he can hit the Panama City Sunrise (PAT MCAFEE TOOK A PANAMA CITY SUNRISE AND IT WAS GREAT, THE HELL) and that this match clocked in at about 16 minutes which may have been 10 too many, but this was still a welcome surprise.
WALTER Cometh, Back
POP: Defeater Of The Kai
WOOOOOO boy, this was a big time bout right here. This right here was Dakota Kai’s star making moment for me. This was her best match since coming to NXT. This is the type of match that causes people to begin throwing Kai’s name in the pot of best wrestlers on the roster.
Match started out as it should, with Io sonning Kai (that moment where Io landed on her head following a backflip was scary but she appears to be fine). Till Raquel becomes a factor as a distraction. Kai knows Io has more grit, determination and FIGHTING SPIRIT than she does, so she just needs to wrestle smarter than her by picking her spots and utilizing her insurance policy.
And that isn’t taking anything away from Kai of course. This match (and storyline) shows that the only thing that was keeping Kai (the character) from her true potential as an NXT Superstar was a lack of confidence, a terrible friend, and a lack of a large woman who can cheat for her. But mainly, the confidence. I got scared about possible overbooking when Kai accidentally took out the ref and Raquel hit her finish on Io, but it was fine.
Io, of course, was amazing as usual. I mean she ends the match by hitting a moonsault to Raquel and Kai on the outside, then hitting Kai with another moonsault in the ring. Baller. Afterwards, Raquel attacks Io and Rhea shows up to save her and have a staredown with Raquel so we have that to look forward to as well. Between Raquel, Mercedes and Io, Rhea sure does have a lot on her plate right now.
Well that was NXT TakeOver: XXX. Overall it was a pretty great show with a not so great main event. Felt like this show was used to set up a bunch of storylines for future, better TakeOvers. And hey, sometimes that’s ok.
(Also Welcome Back Dad. Frankly I like my version of his comeback package better.)
