Because of church, not complaining about church, but because of Wednesday Night Bible Study and going out to eat afterwards, I missed watching NXT Takeover: The End live, but I did watch the replay. Solid wrestling back to back. To me, NXT is making wrestling fun again on the main stream level.
First match was the Tye Dillenger vs the debut of Andrade "Cien" Almas. Great match, and spots. Andrade has a great showing. I think the guy is money. Character may need a little tuning. The whole pimp hat white suspenders thing...besides that, I enjoyed Andrade's work in the ring. Tye Dillenger also had a good showing, showed some new moves. I hear the name Tye Dillenger I think of that old security guy from the WCW days Doug Dellinger. Remember that guy? Am I the only one that thinks that?
Anyway, the NXT Tag-Team title match. Great to see a great tag-team wrestling match without any gimmicks again. The Revival is a great old school, Hart Foundation type, team. I love the work. American Alpha, Team Angle 2 I call them, is a great team as well. I may be looking too into this, but it seemed to be a lot of teases of Kurt Angle making a come back and American Alpha joining him. With the Angle lock and the crowd chanting their names to the Kurt Angle WWE theme...ehh? Revival goes over wins the titles again. American Alpha selling the loss, and then two big dudes come in and attack. Then as the two big dudes are handling business, Paul Ellering makes an appearance. Now the NXT crowd is supposed to be a smark crowd, but even they were chanting, "Who are you?" Seriously? The manager of the Road Warriors. Google, kids. Paul Heyman is not the only Paul that can has managed in wrestling history. Don't call it a comeback...get your money Mr. Ellering.
Shinsuke Nakamura and Austin Aries. Nakamura and Sami Zayn tore the house down at NXT Takeover: Dallas. In my opinion, this match didn't disappoint. Nakamura is the definition of flamboyant. Austin Aries had a strong showing too with his impression of DDP with taped ribs. Great match. The crowd singing the theme song to Nakamura was magical. The chants during this match was loud, which is a good thing. Shinsuke went over.
The Women's Title match. Asuka vs Nia Jax. This could have been bad, but with Asuka being as great as she is and Nia Jax playing the monster in the ring that can sell, we got a pretty solid match. I think Nia Jax needs a manager as a mouth piece. A new finisher would be good too, just my opinion. Great match though. Asuka goes over. Didn't expect a spot fest of a match cause it didn't need it. It was it was supposed to be. I thought Asuka was going over before the show cause she needed to go over to set up the rematch between her and Bayley. Nia is not going anywhere tho. Also a clean finish with no old timer manager interfering? What a concept. If only the main roster allowed...let's hope Vince will take notice.
Now the main event. The first steel cage match in NXT history. Samoa Joe vs Finn Balor. What a show these two wrestlers put on. Some old timers would be mad that no blood was shed, but seriously, it's a new era. Great spots in this match. Some jaw dropping moments as well. That finish was crazy. The muscle buster from the top rope was insane. Loved every minute of this match. Finn Balor may be heading up to the main roster, I don't know. Obviously he should be involved in the Club angle if he is called up. We'll see...
Over all like most of the NXT Takeover shows, this was a 5 star show. From commentary to the matches. Also, I have to mentioned Bobby Roooo. Finally signed with NXT. It's about time. This should be great for this new era of NXT. Samoa Joe and Bobby Roode for the title? YES PLEASE!
~Daniel Richerson
