NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn

[studcrackers]

Nxt once again outdoes itself

[studcrackers]

Not feeling Bailey at all. She is the equivalent of Eugene from a few years back.

Dude

She is over the top goodie tooshoes. I don't like that stuff. She doesn't have the look nor the wrestling talent the others who got called up do.

I am not really into underdog stories. Give me a champion anyday.

the underdog story is probably the best story in wrestling

[WRau1]

The women's match really should've ended the show. Like others have talked about before, NXT might hit a bit of a down tick soon since all of the call ups, who knows how long it will be before we get another women's match of last night's quality. Emma v Bayley could be a good rivalry.

[Polk377]

Takeover Brooklyn was one of the best wwe live events in a long time. Every match was great and given enough time to succeed.

-It was great to see Thunder Liger perform this late in his career. What that guy can still do at age 50 is amazing and Breeze was the perfect opponent for him.

- The Vaudevillians are quickly becoming my favorite tag team in the company. Even in an era where over the top characters are dead in the water they do it with perfection. Simon Gotch was made for that gimmick and has finally put the move set together for the character. English put on a great performance as well. I am looking forward to seeing what they can do with the titles and how this tag team tournament will unfold.

-Samoa Joe and Corbin had a good match. Corbin is ready to have more extended matches. I was surprised at times with his skill set during the match.

- I am so excited Apollo Crews finally made his debut. This guy is something special and will be a quick climber up the ranks. I am hoping for a Crews-Neville tag team in the future. Could be the most exiting tag team of all time.

-The women stole the show once again with the best match of the night. They did an excellent job of telling a story in the ring and that reverse hurricarana from the top was amazing. It is sad that this was probably the last match the four horsewomen will be involved in on NXT but a great passing of the torch to Bailey who will probably be called up within the next year. I wonder though if they caught any heat backstage for completely breaking character with the curtain call. I know Kayfabe is dead but this seemed wrong from a character prospective

-The ladder match was good but not great in my opinion. Balor and Owens both looked good but its hard to pull off a great ladder match. I have a lot of respect for Owens having that high intensity match last night and going up against Cesaro tonight. They need to pull him from NXT before he overworks himself

Summerslam will have a tough act to follow tonight

[skbucks1985]

Maybe it was expectations but I legitimately think this might've been the best NXT show to date. I think every match either met or exceeded expectations.

Liger-Breeze wasn't the best match of either guys career by any stretch, but it was fine considering one of the guys is 50. I was surprised Liger won, he doesn't usually win when he comes to the US. He hasn't won at any of the War of the Worlds shows. The tag match was better than I expected, primarily because it had a great finish. Unrelated to the match itself, but am I the only one that thinks its weird that Simon Gotch's gimmick is a strongman and his finisher could be done by literally anyone to anyone.

Crews looked like he belonged from the second he came out and that's the only thing I was really looking for, because the match really wasn't for me or anyone that had seen anything he'd done previously. Joe-Corbin was the best match of Corbin's career by a decent margin. His match with Neville all those months back was decent but I thought this was far better. I'm a huge Joe fan but even if I wasn't, I think I'd still be saying him winning is the right move. Corbin is still quite green and is a long way away from being in the NXT Title picture and is a very long way away from the main roster. Joe was main roster ready 10 years ago. And Corbin lost absolutely nothing with the loss.

Bayley and Sasha... what can you say. Maybe I'm being a prisoner of the moment but I think that might've been the best North American match I've seen all year. Owens-Balor was good, really good. But it was put in an impossible spot after Bayley-Sasha. With Owens having a match less than 24 hours later you knew they wouldn't go as full throttle as they might if Owens wasn't on the main roster (I know Sasha is too, but you can work around her more than you can with Owens).

My only critique would be the women's match post-match curtain call. I understand why they did it and it came off like a really cool moment and it'll be in video packages until the end of time. Sasha was so heelish in the contract signing, her entrance and in the match and then after the match the two are having a really genuine moment. If you were going to do it, do it off-air. Have them throw to a video package about Summerslam or something and make it something only the live crowd sees. ROH does that when a guy wins the World Title after the live feed stops rolling the guy who wins the title cuts a promo about winning the title (and other than when Punk won the title) and its always an out-of-character promo.

[Stanford]

Spoiler:

[studcrackers]

random, but does anyone else not like finn's or itami's finishers? i doubt they will, but ive just never dug em at all

[skbucks1985]

Yeah, I think Itami's is terrible but its inevitable that he'll start doing the GTS. I don't love Balor's finisher but I think it has one of the coolest names for a finisher which for me at least makes up for whatever it lacks as a manuever

[Dirkbaka]

Dude

She is over the top goodie tooshoes. I don't like that stuff. She doesn't have the look nor the wrestling talent the others who got called up do.

I am not really into underdog stories. Give me a champion anyday.

the underdog story is probably the best story in wrestling

Not really unless you are into that stuff. The only time the over the top underdog story was done correctly was with Daniel Bryan.

[Stanford]

How was this over the top? It was the natural storyline here

[WRau1]

Dbl post

[WRau1]

Yeah, I think Itami's is terrible but its inevitable that he'll start doing the GTS. I don't love Balor's finisher but I think it has one of the coolest names for a finisher which for me at least makes up for whatever it lacks as a manuever

That's always been my complaint with Devitt/Balor, I don't like his signatures or finishers. Naming them Slingblade and Coup De Grace is pretty awesome, though.

[Marcus]

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

She on the main roster?

[Ruzious]

She is over the top goodie tooshoes. I don't like that stuff. She doesn't have the look nor the wrestling talent the others who got called up do.

I am not really into underdog stories. Give me a champion anyday.

the underdog story is probably the best story in wrestling

Not really unless you are into that stuff. The only time the over the top underdog story was done correctly was with Daniel Bryan.

She just had arguably the best womens match in WWE history - and got the best reaction of the night - over an excellent men's main event. Whatever she's doing - works tremendously well at the NXT level, and I think it'll eventually work at WWE.

[Ruzious]

My only critique would be the women's match post-match curtain call. I understand why they did it and it came off like a really cool moment and it'll be in video packages until the end of time. Sasha was so heelish in the contract signing, her entrance and in the match and then after the match the two are having a really genuine moment. If you were going to do it, do it off-air. Have them throw to a video package about Summerslam or something and make it something only the live crowd sees. ROH does that when a guy wins the World Title after the live feed stops rolling the guy who wins the title cuts a promo about winning the title (and other than when Punk won the title) and its always an out-of-character promo.

I've been "wrestling" with that call. My view is that was a rare exception to the rule, because it's going to go down as an iconic moment - where they got the label as the female version of the 4 Horsemen. And I think it was a thank you to Bailey for staying behind in NXT while the other 3 made the jump to WWE - to show her that she is one of them. I guess the question is - Is it going to be hard for Sasha to remain a heel - because fans are going to cheer her. But I think she's so good and believable in her character that it's not going to hurt.

[skbucks1985]

My only critique would be the women's match post-match curtain call. I understand why they did it and it came off like a really cool moment and it'll be in video packages until the end of time. Sasha was so heelish in the contract signing, her entrance and in the match and then after the match the two are having a really genuine moment. If you were going to do it, do it off-air. Have them throw to a video package about Summerslam or something and make it something only the live crowd sees. ROH does that when a guy wins the World Title after the live feed stops rolling the guy who wins the title cuts a promo about winning the title (and other than when Punk won the title) and its always an out-of-character promo.

I've been "wrestling" with that call. My view is that was a rare exception to the rule, because it's going to go down as an iconic moment - where they got the label as the female version of the 4 Horsemen. And I think it was a thank you to Bailey for staying behind in NXT while the other 3 made the jump to WWE - to show her that she is one of them. I guess the question is - Is it going to be hard for Sasha to remain a heel - because fans are going to cheer her. But I think she's so good and believable in her character that it's not going to hurt.

Becky and Charlotte doing this I have no problem with. This happens a lot with these women's matches, Natalya and Charlotte did it after their match and I think Bayley and Charlotte did as well but that one I didn't have a problem with because that was the beginning of Charlotte's face turn.

My biggest problem is that contract signing on the go-home episode. It was filmed after Sasha debuted on the main roster and they knew she was dropping the title. And in the weeks earlier she'd become a little less heelish, she teamed with Charlotte and they subsequently had a match that ended with an embrace and I didn't have a problem with that because that felt like it made sense. And if they were gong to have this moment Sasha shouldn't have gone so over the top in that contract signing. It made for a better segment and added fire to their match and so it was incredibly effective but it made the final visuals be illogical.

[Dunthreevy]

Just remembered that NXT is on tonight and it's the matches from the "pre-show" to Takeover: Brooklyn. The big 8 man tag with Enzo/Cass v. Mojo/Ryder vs. Wilder/Dawson vs. Jordan/Gable is on tonight. I'm actually looking forward to that match, mainly because it involves 3 pretty damn good tag teams, one of which has quickly become one of my favorite things in NXT (Jordan/Gable).

[skbucks1985]

I'd heard the pop Enzo and Cass got was insane and the people who said that were not lying. In terms of entrance pops that was on par with any main eventer's hometown pop. The match was solid.

Dickish comments aside, I respect Eva Marie's desire to get better. But from WWE's perspective I don't know why they don't just put her with someone as a valet. By WWE women's standards she's pretty old, she's the same age Trish Stratus was when she retired. It would seem like they should strike as soon as possible.

The 4-way women's match was a decent match with clearly a botched ending. I don't know how that match was supposed to end but I'm pretty sure that wasn't it. Emma and the announcers did a good job of covering for it but they were all pretty surprised and you could see Drake say "What happened" as he was raising Emma's arm. And the blame for it has to go on Becky. Unless someone actually kicks out the ref should always count to 3 regardless of whether that's the intended finish or not.

[Ruzious]

I'd heard the pop Enzo and Cass got was insane and the people who said that were not lying. In terms of entrance pops that was on par with any main eventer's hometown pop. The match was solid.

Dickish comments aside, I respect Eva Marie's desire to get better. But from WWE's perspective I don't know why they don't just put her with someone as a valet. By WWE women's standards she's pretty old, she's the same age Trish Stratus was when she retired. It would seem like they should strike as soon as possible.

The 4-way women's match was a decent match with clearly a botched ending. I don't know how that match was supposed to end but I'm pretty sure that wasn't it. Emma and the announcers did a good job of covering for it but they were all pretty surprised and you could see Drake say "What happened" as he was raising Emma's arm. And the blame for it has to go on Becky. Unless someone actually kicks out the ref should always count to 3 regardless of whether that's the intended finish or not.

The person who's value has maybe gone up the most - other than the Bellas - in the divas show might be Brian Kendrick. It seems like he's performed a miracle - turning Eva Marie into an adequate rassler in record time. If he hadn't been so successful with her, I'd agree that WWE wasted their time and should have just gone the valet route. Now all the young divas will want... the Brian Kendrick experience.

That did look like a total botch by Becky. I imagine there will be a punishment for her - maybe she doesn't get an opportunity that she otherwise would have received?

[Marcus]

Spoiler:

this is still funny to me. black guy, red shirt, backwards hat. the look on dude's face is priceless.