NXT Takeover: Unstoppable

Legacy Review

NXT Takeover: Unstoppable

May 20, 2015 from Full Sail University in Winter Park, FL

Commentary: Rich Brennan, Corey Graves and Byron Saxton

Big "we love NXT" hype video to open showing how big and hot NXT was becoming. People say wrestling.

NXT Championship #1 Contender's Match: Finn Balor def Tyler Breeze in 11:04- This was supposed to be a triple threat match with Hideo Itami, but Itami suffered a rotator cuff injury just before the show. They show footage of Itami writhing in pain in the parking lot before the show, presumably after being attacked by person or persons unknown. Kevin Owens walks by and casually says "That's a shame" without ever breaking stride. The man is a legend. This was also the first instance of what would become a recurring NXT gag: the crazy unsafe parking lot that needed more OSHA regulation or something. Breeze gets the first ever super special Takeover entrance with a bunch of (female) models impersonating him. Balor also has some new bits added onto the Demon entrance. The crowd is absolutely insane for him. Basic start with some shoulderblock/quick cover combos and headlocks. They hit the jets and Balor hits a dropkick. He warms up a dive but Breeze sees it and rolls back in. One guy in the crowd tries a "Breeze is gorgeous" chant and gets over half the arena saying "NO HE'S NOT" in response. It does kick off a dueling chant though. The crowd is already way hotter than the last Takeover, which was a strangely sedate Full Sail crowd. Big Balor chop. They have a series of corner/apron counters and Breeze hits the Chris Jericho springboard dropkick off the second rope, sending Balor off the apron to the floor. Back in Breeze counters a backdrop and hits a neckbreaker for 2. Snap mare/legdrop combo. He pulls Balor's tights to keep him in a chinlock. Sunset flip from Breeze. Balor rolls through it and hits a basement dropkick. Flurry from Balor. He hits a leaping basement dropkick. Double stomp off the apron onto Breeze's back! He goes up top but Breeze rolls away. Bloody Sunday setup. Breeze counters and hits a forearm. Slingblade from Balor! But he runs into a Breeze superkick! Cover for 2. Breeze takes a top turnbuckle pad off. The ref pulls him back from attacking aggressively in the corner. Balor ducks a Beauty Shot. Breeze rolls away from a standing double stop and rolls Balor up for 2. Balor ducks in the corner, Breeze slams on the brakes before hitting the exposed buckle, but Balor rolls him up (with some tights) for 2. The kickout sends Balor into the exposed buckle! Beauty Shot! Balor kicks out! Breeze is furious and throws a tantrum while Balor goes out to the floor. The crowd lets the ref know "You're not counting". They're so helpful. Breeze goes after Balor on the floor....and walks into a slingblade on the ramp! Balor climbs up on the stage! Dive off the stage! Gotta say, that was a little underwhelming for a stage dive. Very basic. John WOOOOOO dropkick back in. Coupe de Gracie and it's over. Solid opener, but not a world beater. ***1/4

 

Video package for recent NXT house shows in Philly and Albany, NY, the first outside Florida and not connected to a major main roster PPV. The NXT explosion (NXTplosion? Nah, the T messes it up) is well and truly on.

 

Bayley and Charlotte def Dana Brooke and Emma in 6:51- Brooke was a development project with a background in bodybuilding and fitness competitions and had just made her TV debut about a month prior. She was very much a work in progress. Emma is back in NXT trying to revitalize her career as a heel after an unsuccessful main roster run and high profile incident involving an iPad case and a malfunctioning Walmart self checkout scanner. But let's be honest here, the sole purpose of this match is to get Charlotte and Bayley on the card. Bayley and Brooke start. Brooke unsurprisingly flashes early power. Bayley lifts her up, tags Charlotte, slingshots Brooke and Charlotte does.....something. Brooke escapes and tags Emma. Shoving match with Bayley and Emma bails to the floor, hiding behind Brooke. Bayley with a corner baseball slide into both of them! Bayley goes up to the second rope, Brooke distracts her, and Emma pulls her down. A slow beatdown from Emma follows. She pulls Bayley's ponytail! That's just mean. Quick tags and stomps in the heel corner. "We want Dana" "NO WE DON'T" dueling chant. Emma sandwich for 2. She mocks Bayley's hug, gives her a forearm and plays to the crowd. Bayley exploder suplex! Tags on both sides. Charlotte chops. Brooke's top is trying to come off. Big boot from Charlotte. She tosses Emma out and Brooke hits her from behind. Charlotte cartwheels out of a double team and hits a double DDT. Emma crossbody off the top rope. Charlotte rolls through, hooks on the figure four and bridges into the figure eight. Brooke runs in to try to break it up. Bayley slides under Charlotte's bridge and gives Brooke a Bayley to belly! Bad timing by Brooke there, she had to stop and stand for a bit. Rookie issues. Natural Selection on Emma and it's over. That was a match that existed. **

Recap of Sami Zayn answering John Cena's US Title open challenge on Raw a few weeks back, hurting his shoulder during the match. Or reaggrivating the injury he suffered at Owens' hands, according to Owens. After that is a shot of the PC "Class of 2015", with Peyton Royce & Billie Kay (the Iconics/Iiconics, and Inspiration post-WWE), Alexander Wolfe (an underrated future glue guy for both Sanity and Imperium), Uhaa Nation/Apollo Crews ("Uhaa" chant from the crowd), and a guy in the middle I honestly can't place. Readers? Hold on....my buddy Cody Kahne is letting me know it's King Constantine, AKA Radomic Petkovic. Never appeared on TV other than this according to Cagematch. Thanks Cody.

 

Baron Corbin def Rhyno in 7:13- ECW legend Rhyno made a surprise NXT debut earlier in the year and was a natural fit to go against the rising monster Corbin. Big boi lockup stalemate. Rhyno shoulderblock. He knocks Corbin to the floor a couple of times. Not sure that went how they planned. After a bit of a brawl on the floor Corbin knocks Rhyno off the second rope back to the floor. Rhyno gets whipped around the corners on a tour of the turnbuckles. After a missed corner charge Corbin gets pissed and lays in a ton of kicks and knees in the corner to the point the ref has to drag him out. After a slide to the floor and punch Corbin covers for 2. He hooks on a sort of cobra clutch. Collision and both guys go down. Rhyno is up first with punches and clotheslines. Spinebuster for 2. He sets up for the Gore. Corbin cuts him off with a clothesline! End of Days and good night. Meh. *1/2

Recap of Kevin Owens appearing on Raw the previous week, also to "accept" Cena's US open challenge. "Accept" in KO fashion, as in refuse the match then BEAT UP JOHN CENA (yes I know AJ Styles and Gallows/Anderson hadn't come up with that yet, they weren't even in WWE yet, bear with me). As an exclamation point Owens steps on the US title belt while holding his NXT title high. All in all, a legendary debut. He's already got a match signed with Cena for Elimination Chamber regardless of what happens tonight, which Owens would win and then spend the next two months losing to Cena as payback. Owens cuts a promo in the back where he manages to pump up both his Zayn and Cena matches. See, you don't need a huge video package after that. Owens just took care of all the hype needed.

 

NXT Tag Team Championship: Blake & Murphy (c) def Enzo Amore & Colin Cassidy (w/Carmella) in 8:52- The crowd goes absolutely mad for Enzo and Cass. Very little reaction for the champs....until they see Blake has his hair in pigtails, then they give him a "you look stupid" chant you can hear over the video package. Enzo and Blake's pigtails start. Enzo starts quick with a flash rollup, stiff crossbody (I'd tell him to ease off on that) and dropkick. Blake backs him into the heel corner but Enzo escapes and both sides tag. Cass no sells Murphy chops and tosses him aside on a tornado DDT attempt. Face corner double team. Enzo crossbody off the top for 2. He gets caught on the apron in the wrong part of town and Murphy nails him with a clothesline. Both Blake and Murphy go right to the chinlocks. I guess that's how you get heel heat nowadays. Murphy posts his shoulder after an Enzo dodge but Blake cuts a tag off. He hooks on an abdominal stretch. Enzo works him over into a rollup. Blake grabs Enzo's pants to keep him from tagging. Cass gets punched off the apron and the heels hit a double team vertebraker for 2. Enzo fights off a superplex. He dives off the top rope and DDTs Murphy! Tags! Cass cleans house with big boots for everyone. Sawft elbow on Blake. Murphy breaks the pin up. Cass fights B&M off with a clothesline for one and a side suplex for the other. Then he tags a barely alive Enzo, a questionable decision that commentary isn't sure about. He drags Enzo over to the top rope for their rocket launcher finisher. Alexa Bliss runs in! She takes out Carmella! Bliss knocks Enzo off the top rope! Blake covers for the pin and surprise retention to a chorus of boos that could probably be heard in Orlando. Everyone was expecting a title change here. I certainly was watching it live. Instead, Bliss turns heel and gets paired up with B&M to give their stagnant title run a bit of fresh life. She'd end up being the breakout star of the group after not getting much traction in NXT to date. No one would ever accuse Enzo or Cass of being good wrestlers no matter how popular they were, but they looked super motivated here while B&M were more going through the motions. **1/2

"Total Divas star" Eva Marie is here. She gets a small and polite mixed response. That would quickly change when everyone realized she was about to subject the world to her attempts at wrestling again.

 

NXT Women's Championship: Sasha Banks (c) def Becky Lynch in 15:28- Like the last Takeover very little reaction for Lynch on her entrance. The crowd is pro-Banks despite her being the clear heel. She was quickly becoming popular through sheer wrestling awesomeness no matter how evil her character was. Lynch is debuting her steampunk/goggles/bright orange hair look tonight. Mandatory "Sasha is ratchet/No she's not" chant before the bell. Rough lockup. Lynch grabs a hammerlock. A drop toe hold leads to a dizzying sequence of near fall tradeoffs, Savage/Steamboat style. On a speed run Lynch toe holds Banks down in the middle of a leapfrog! She goes for the armbar and Banks scurries out. Armdrags from Lynch. Banks hits a cheap forearm on a corner break. After another series of counters Banks rams Lynch's arm into the apron. She works the arm and wraps it around the top rope, then mocks Lynch's entrance pose. When she turns around Lynch grabs a flash small package for 2. Banks hooks on a straitjacket. She lifts Lynch up and gives her a vertebraker while still holding onto it, then really cranks it back. Lynch gets up and tries to back Banks into the corner but Banks lets go and Lynch goes into the buckles. Lynch tries to fight but Banks sets her up and drops the double knee stomp right on her arm! Banks pulls back hard on the arm again. We're getting into almost ZSJ Orienteering With Napalm Death territory here. Banks stomps on the arm and pulls back an armbreaker. Lynch tries to fight out, rolls over a couple of times, lifts Banks up by the arm and drops her. European uppercut flurry from Lynch with the good arm. Missile dropkick for 2. Now she goes back to work on Banks' arm. I love the submission focus this match has. There's a fine line between time killing arm holds and clearly working for a submission and they've got it right. Banks walks up the ropes and flips over to get out. High knee in the corner from Banks! Meteora! Cover for 2. Jawing and a slap from Banks. Lynch responds with an uppercut. Backslide try, tiltawhirl, Banks grabs the bad arm again, and Lynch throws her to the floor. Banks' arm is posted. Hammerlock suplex from Lynch back in. Legdrop on the arm. She hyperextends Banks' arm with her feet! German suplex with Banks' arm trapped for 2. She grabs a pumphandle. Banks flips out and tries for a suplex. Lynch blocks it and rolls into the armbar! Banks just gets to the ropes. She tosses a charging Lynch out and holds her hurt arm. Banks tope suicida, while still cradling the bad arm! Lynch catches her! She runs Banks into the stairs. Lynch goes up top. Banks slams her down by the arm! Banks Statement! Lynch taps out! After the match the crowd gives them a well deserved standing ovation. Banks leaves and lets Lynch have a moment with the crowd and they give it to her, showing new respect and singing her music. All four of the 4 Horsewomen have now officially made it. But in a career quirk she'd be the only one that didn't win the NXT Women's title, and this would be her last Takeover appearance before joining the mass women's call up that happens later in the summer. ****1/4

 

NXT Championship: Kevin Owens (c) and Sami Zayn no contest in 13:00ish- Owens comes out wearing Cena's US title shirt! Now that is some A+ trolling. As soon as the bell rings Owens steps out. The crowd responds to the shirt with a "John Cena suuuuuuuuuuuucks" chant. Zayn charges in, leaping off the steps with a forearm! He pummels Owens on the floor. Owens pummels him back in the ring. A Zayn clothesline sends Owens 360 to the floor. Owens grabs Zayn to powerbomb him on the floor! Zayn backdrops out. Owens goes into the steps. Zayn punches him over the guardrail. It's been a total brawl so far. They fight toward the back of the arena. Owens lifts Zayn to powerbomb him! Zayn grabs the stands rail to save his life! Owens charges and Zayn backdrops him back over the barricade to the ringside area. Blue thunder bomb back in for 2. Owens begs off. He tries to back elbow out of a German. Zayn grabs his arm and gives him an exploder suplex instead! Owens counters a tornado DDT with a backbreaker. Zayn dodges the cannonball! Corner exploder! Owens rolls away from the Helluva Kick. Zayn exploder on the floor! He charges, but Owens lifts him up and gives him another pop up powerbomb on the apron! Zayn is motionless on the floor as refs come out to check on him. Owens gives no shits and keeps attacking. Now a trainer is out to check on Zayn as Owens continues to get shots in. He grabs Zayn and drags his lifeless carcass back in the ring. GM William Regal is now out and he's not happy. He gets right in Owens' face with a finger point. Owens backs off.....then steps back in to hit another powerbomb. Regal drags Owens away by the nose! Owens headbutts Regal! Regal is down! Owens yells at JoJo and takes her chair. He lifts it up.....and music hits. What is this? Who is this? IT'S SAMOA F'N JOE! SAMOA JOE IS HERE! He gets in the ring and goes nose to nose with Owens. After a minute Owens walks away to the crowd's disappointment. By the way, the bell never rang to end the match so I guess we'll call it a sportz entertainment finish (as originally coined by Scott Keith). As Joe poses for the crowd Owens comes back out, teases getting back in the ring, and walks away again as the show closes Another Owens/Zayn Takeover match, another unusual finish. It was too short with that finish to hit the upper echelon of matches, but it worked perfectly to show Owens as a heartless bastard and Joe's debut is phenomenal. Zayn would end up taking most of the rest of the year off to heal what was a legit injury. ***1/2

 

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- Thanks to a rough first half this is up there, or down there, with Fatal 4 Way as the weakest Takeover to date, possibly the weakest until the no crowd pandemic era and the end of Black & Gold NXT. It's also the first Takeover with no title changes. The two closing matches and Joe's debut means we still don't have any completely skippable Takeovers though. And plans were already being put together for NXT to take another major step forward with the next Takeover, a very special one....

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C

 

BONUS MATCH REVIEW

 

From The Beast in the East (July 4, 2015 from the Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo)- NXT Championship: Finn Balor def Kevin Owens (c) in 19:25- This is from one of those cool "house show plus" specials the Network used to do from time to time, a 4th of July show in Japan headlined by Brock Lesnar and John Cena but including this important little gem in the middle. It's great to see a WWE show in the Kokugikan, especially with the more casual house show style setup allowing the arena to retain more of its natural flavor. This is ground zero for major league sumo wrestling in Japan, as well as a regular venue for New Japan when the sumo schedule allows. Having a show here has been the closest thing so far to fulfilling my wish of having a televised WWE show from Korakuen Hall. Make it happen, Hunter. A much looser and less produced Michael Cole and Byron Saxton are on the call. Thanks to the looser production they make a big deal of Balor going back to the country where he became a star as Prince Devitt to go for the title, while Owens was furious about being forced to go to Japan. During the build he said he spent two months there years ago and swore he'd never come back to "this dump" again. Hideo Itami is ringside for this match, looking none too pleased to be there. He was still out with an injury. Once again Balor is bringing the Demon. They do the full flower ceremony before the match. Owens tosses the flowers halfway up the aisle! There's also epic ROH style streamers before the match. Are we sure this is a WWE show? The bell rings, and Balor instantly charges and hits the John WOOOO dropkick! He goes up top! Owens rolls to the floor. Balor switches gears and dives to the floor! Back in on a speed run Balor leaps and looks like he was going for either a forearm or a slingblade but Owens wasn't expecting it and just stands there. Ugly collision and miscommunication. They recover quickly as Owens dodges a dropkick and slides to the floor. Balor leaping dropkick in the ring hits Owens on the floor! Leaping dropkick against the barricade! They reset a little with some back and forth in the ring. I'm not used to seeing this many camera cuts in a show from Sumo Hall. Can we get the New Japan camera crew in here? Owens catches a leaping Balor. Balor slides around Owens and tries for a backslide. Owens drops him with a Samoan drop for 2. Some ground and pound follows as Owens slows the match down, beating Balor down and jawing with the crowd. Cole mentions all of Balor's IWGP Junior and Junior Tag Title wins as well as his two Best of the Super Juniors wins. Then Saxton says a lot of those came in the Tokyo Dome. This is how commentary should be. More crowd mocking from Owens. Balor gets some forearms in, hits the ropes, and runs right into an Owens back elbow. After some corner dodges Balor tries a sunset flip off the apron, but Owens punches him in midair and he falls to the floor! Stair shots for Balor. He barely gets back in at 9. Owens senton for 2. He tosses Balor out again and shouts "Everybody count!". Back in Owens sets Balor up, gets a ton of momentum off the ropes.....and stops and puts on a CHINLOCK! Fantastic. "I hate this stupid country and everyone in it". Whip reversal, Owens goes for a sunset flip, Balor does his basement dropkick counter, kicking off a comeback. Clothesline off the second rope for 2. Slugfest. Owens hits a tackle. A second one. Ohhhhh, we know what he's doing. Side slam. YOU CAN'T SEE ME. Five knuckle shuffle! Owens had another match scheduled with Cena for the next PPV. He goes for the Attitude Adjustment! Balor slips out and hits a standing double stomp. Corner shops. Another AA attempt is countered. Pele kick! Owens goes to the floor. Balor tope con hilo! Double stomp off the top to the back of Owens' head! Bloody Sunday! Owens kicks out! He goes up top again. Owens dodges the Coupe de Gracie and hits a German. Cannonball for 2. Package powerbomb for 2. He pushes Balor into the ropes for the pop up powerbomb. Balor grabs the rope to stop and hits the slingblade! He goes up top. Owens headbutts him off. Balor kick from the apron. Up top again. Coupe de Gracie hits! OWENS KICKS OUT! After Balor recovers from that shock he goes into corner beatdown mode. He tries a superplex. Owens tries the fisherman's buster counter. Balor gets out, drops down and high kicks Owens again. He gets back up top. Owens grabs him and hits a rolling senton off the top for 2! Owens up top again with a senton. Balor gets his knees up! A second Bloody Sunday! OWENS KICKS OUT AGAIN! What the hell does Balor have to do? Owens superkick! Sleeper suplex for 2. Owens shouts "You can't beat me" and slaps Balor. Balor slaps back. Owens goes for the pop up powerbomb. Balor clothesline counter! John WOOOOOO! Corner dropkick! COUPE DE GRACIE HITS AGAIN! That gets Balor the pin and the title! What a match. Not too much of a surprise though with Owens doing so much work on the main roster already. Newly minted WWE Hall of Famer Tatsumi Fujinami comes out to celebrate with Balor. Balor offers Owens a handshake and gets blown off. As Balor's leaving there's some definite too sweeting with the crowd happening. ****1/2

Bash at the Beach '94

Legacy Review

Bash at the Beach '94

July 17, 1994 from the Orlando Arena in Orlando, FL

Commentary: Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan

This is another renamed PPV rather than a whole new one, as Beach Blast becomes Bash at the Beach. It still has the same logo, with the wave forming a flexing arm that I love so much. All time favorite PPV logo list for sure. After making his in arena debut at the last Clash, Hulk Hogan wrestles his first WCW match tonight. And they're putting him right in against Flair for the world title.

Before we continue, I have a rant about WCW PPVs I've been wanting to get down for a while, and now is as good a time as any. One of '90s WCW's big issues, in my mind, was that unlike WWF with Wrestlemania they didn't have a single tentpole show they could point to and say with zero doubt "This is our biggest show of the year". During the Jim Crockett years it was clearly Starrcade as that was the original and oldest show, but then in the early '90s under Jim Herd and Bill Watts Starrcade was partially supplanted by Superbrawl (the Roman numerals are a dead giveaway) and Great American Bash. Starrcade itself was also devalued during those years with a run of gimmick based shows (the Iron Man tournament, Lethal Lottery/Battlebowl). Then as we get into the Bischoff years, the argument could definitely be made for Bash at the Beach given the massive events that occurred on some of those shows, while at the same time they were trying to pump Starrcade back up with big shows in '96 and especially '97. That's the problem, it could be any of them. No matter how many PPVs WWF started, they always made sure Wrestlemania was superior to them all. WCW didn't, and I think in the long run that hurt them. Anyway, rant over, back to the show.

 

The raised entrance ramp is once again gone after being back for most of Bischoff's run so far. The stage has a full beach setup. Presentation wise, it's really becoming what would become familiar over the next few years as we get into the Nitro and NWO era. Hogan vs Flair is hyped, pretty fairly, as the match of the century.

WCW World Television Championship: Lord Steven Regal (c) (w/Sir William) def Johnny B Badd in 10:40- This was originally supposed to be Sting challenging but he suffered an eye injury during the final build for Hogan vs Flair. Legit or story, I'm not sure. I mean, this spot is a waste of Sting but as I've said before after Hogan came in Bischoff had no idea what to do with him until Crow Sting. Badd's shooter gets glitter discs all over the ring. Normally it's just the ringside area that's trashed, but tonight it's everywhere. What a mess. Usual Regal disgust before the lockup. Arm wringer tradeoff. Regal maneuvers out into a headlock and we get a clean corner break. Regal grounds Badd with a hair pull and tries for leverage pins, then monkey flips Badd while still holding the knucklelock. They go speed and Badd hits a Japanese armdrag. Regal hides in the corner. He tries for a cravat but ends up with a basic headlock. Another Badd Japanese armdrag. Regal hits forearms. Badd counters a facelock and Regal's shoulder jams on the mat. He rolls out to recover, clearly favoring the arm. Back in Regal hits some European uppercuts but Badd quickly wrestles him down and stays laser focused on the arm. Regal back elbows out of a hammerlock. Badd blocks a suplex. A Regal headbutt rocks Badd. Dropkick from Regal! Didn't see that very often. Badd gets a fireman's carry takedown and goes back to the wounded arm. More forearms from Regal but Badd stays on the arm. Badd dropkick for 2. Flying headscissors. He hits the Tutti Fruiti punch but Regal rolls out. Badd with a plancha! William got taken down in that too. Badd sunset flips back in. Regal tries to use William's brolly as leverage. The ref cuts that off, but Regal then stacks Badd up and that gets the pin. Decent opener. Badd's improvement continues to show. I sure hope the ring gets cleaned out before the next match. **1/2

More Hogan/Flair hype. Mean Gene is in the ring with the visiting Antonio Inoki, who just kicked off his retirement tour in Japan (check out my reviews of the January 4th Tokyo Dome shows from the period for more). Okerlund mentions his House of Counselors election win and presents him with a plaque for his lifetime achievements in professional wrestling. Regal interrupts. He's sick of all these bloody legends, he's already taken one down (Larry Zbyszko) and is willing to do it again. Regal mentions he just did a tour in Japan, beat everyone there and Inoki was "nowhere to be seen". Inoki responds but has trouble finding the mic where Okerlund places it, so he settles for the universal sign of wanting to fight by taking his jacket off. Regal retreats, still complaining about bloody useless legends. This would lead to a match at the next Clash as Inoki checked off "wrestled for WCW" on his retirement tour list.

 

Vader (w/Harley Race) def The Guardian Angel by DQ in 7:58- The ring has been somewhat cleaned out but there's still a huge mess on the floor. Jesse Ventura is in for Heenan. He's got very little to say on camera before the match, looking almost checked out. In fact he'd be gone from WCW soon after this, either fired by Bischoff for falling asleep during a TV taping or leaving because he couldn't work with Hogan again depending on who's telling the story. This is a rematch of Angel's last match as The Boss before he was forced to change gimmicks. Before the bell Angel punches Race and tosses him to the floor. What did Race do to you? Vigilante justice at its worst. Vader uses the opening to attack from behind. Spinning kick from Vader! He fell down doing it but still, that was new. Angel hits a standing back suplex and pulls Vader's mask off. He scoops Vader up, walks him around a bit and slams him. Clothesline from Angel and the fight goes to the floor. Angel gives Race another unprovoked shot and again Vader attacks from behind. I'm noticing a flaw in the strategery there. While Angel is on the floor recovering Race teases getting his own back but takes the high road instead. Corner slugfest back in. Vader tackle. Sunset flip off the second rope. Angel counters with a butt splash. Short clothesline from Vader and he decides to work a little ground submission game on Angel's leg. Tony mentions Vader's extensive Japan experience, including wrestling Inoki. Angel hits some gut shots and uppercuts. Vader counters with a slam. Vader bomb! No cover. Race tells him to go up top. VADERSAULT! There was no discernible counter but both guys are down. Race goes up top. Angel slams him off Flair style, clotheslines Vader 360 to the floor, and tosses Race out. Vader is suplexed back in from the apron. There's a collision and the ref goes down. Race hands Vader a retractable nightstick. Angel gets it off of him before he can use it. The ref gets back up, sees Angel holding the nightstick and Vader down in the corner, and calls for a DQ. Man, that was a quick bell. This ref could never work for New Japan. They were cruising along OK before the weak finish. **

Mike Tenay sighting! The Professor is in the back working the Hotline. We get a recap of the ever expanding Rhodes/Stud Stable feud. After that is some footage of a dark/preshow match that took place featuring some local radio guys, and just from the 30 seconds we get looks like one of the most horrible things that's ever taken place in a wrestling ring. Take that match footage and burn it before it's all unleashed upon the world.

 

Bunkhouse Buck and Terry Funk (w/Col. Robert Parker and Meng) def "The Natural" Dustin Rhodes and Arn Anderson in 11:15- Meng (Haku) had just signed with WCW and is working as the Stud Stable's bodyguard figure. Buck and Arn start. Lockup stalemates. The crowd wants Dustin and Arn obliges. Immediate slugfest. Buck retreats and tags. Dustin knocks Funk to the floor. Funk does a crazy flop off the apron. Back in Funk hits some chops. Slam exchange. Buck runs in and Dustin slams him. Both heels are tossed over the top to the floor. When they get back in Dustin atomic drops both of them. Snap mare and elbow drop on Funk. Funk hits a back suplex and tags. Buck dodges a crossbody and Dustin rolls all the way out to the ramp, looking like he hit the stairs on the way down. Funk follows and gives him some rail shots. Dustin goes face in peril in the ring. Funk neckbreaker for 2. Piledriver. Arn breaks the pin up. Midring collision with another crazy Funk flop sell. He gets the tag to Buck while Dustin didn't even look to be trying for a tag. Dustin gets caught in the heel corner. After a facelock and some war drums to the back Dustin fights out with punches and bionic elbows. Again he doesn't try for a tag, and again he easily takes out both heels for an extended period of time. This match layout is all kinds of weird. Lariat on Funk. Parker takes a shot. Finally Dustin tags Arn, and we immediately see why the match was laid out this way. Arn grabs Dustin and gives him a DDT! He was working for Parker all along! I mean, Dustin should have known what he was getting into asking for help from Arn Anderson. Funk covers for the pin. After the bell the assault continues with Arn taking apart Dustin's arm. Officials run in to chase the heels off and we get a Greg Gagne sighting. They were just killing time before the angle at the end. *1/4

 

WCW United States Heavyweight Championship: "Stunning" Steve Austin (c) def Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat in 20:06- Heenan's back for the rest of the show. Commentary brings up the fact that it was Steamboat that ended Austin's long TV title reign a couple of years ago. Austin's got "Dragon Slayer" on his trunks tonight. Nice. Quick Austin start right at the bell and he goes for Steamboat's knee. Steamboat chops back. Austin gets back on the knee. He goes for a figure four, but Steamboat's push out sends him flying all the way shoulder first into the post. Steamboat knucklelocks Austin and does an Undertaker-style rope walk and ax handle drop. Corner slugfest. Austin hops to the second rope. Steamboat dropkicks him off and Austin dangles upside down off the top rope by his knees! He takes the opportunity to get a few shots in. After Austin gets out Steamboat hits a hook kick and DEEP armdrag, working the arm for a bit. Speed run. Austin "hurts his knee" landing after a leapfrog. He backs into the corner and asks for a time out while Tony says this is an old Hollywood Blondes trick. Well, specifically an old Brian Pillman trick. Steamboat lays back in with a hip toss and dropkick that send Austin to the floor. Well that plan didn't work. Austin drags Steamboat out and they exchange chops. After a chase around and into the ring Steamboat hooks on a sleeper. Austin tries to counter by running Steamboat into the corner, but Steamboat counters the counter by pushing Austin into the corner and rolling him up for 2. Back to the arm. Austin gets up, positions the ref and hits a sneaky style (copyright Rocky Romero) low blow. Short clothesline. Back suplex. More clotheslines but Steamboat won't stay down. Finally he tumbles through the ropes to the floor. Austin suplexes him back in for 2. Steamboat slips out of another back suplex, grabs a two handed choke, slams Austin and cradles him for 2. Another DEEP armdrag and back to the arm. They hit the jets again and have a bad collision. I think Austin was thinking Thesz press but Steamboat was going for something else and they legit ran into each other. Bad miscommunication. Steamboat recovers to do a jackknife cover for 2. Austin hits a hard Alabama slam. That got a nice gasp from the crowd as they start to get into it. Kneedrop off the second rope from Austin and he mocks Steamboat's martial arts pose. Fantastic. Steamboat gets up and wants more. Double leg takedown and Steamboat slingshots Austin into the post and cradles him off the ricochet for 2. Austin pops up with a huge clothesline. Backdrop and swinging neckbreaker. Austin fights for a pin. Steamboat bridges and Austin gets crotched. He catches Austin running and gives him a hot shot. Stun gun, whatever. Slugfest on the apron. Steamboat gets thrown down onto the guardrail. Austin gets posted. Steamboat hits the chop off the top rope back in and does some ground and pound. Chops for 2. Steamboat skins the cat, ducks Austin clotheslines, and hits chops and buckle shots. Austin backdrops him over the top but Steamboat skins the cat again and gets a rolling cradle for 2. Small package for 2. They do a long series of tombstone reversals with Steamboat finally hitting it. He goes up top with the crowd really going nuts now. Austin tries to pull the ref in the way. Steamboat sees and bails out. The ref tries to DQ Austin but Steamboat stops him! Pissed off Steamboat tackle on Austin. He ducks Austin clotheslines, hits a crossbody, but Austin rolls through it, gets his feet on the ropes and gets the pin! Big Austin celebration after the win. That match flew by. It had a couple of hiccups, but overall was two of the best ever doing what they do. Austin's matured and developed a ton since their TV title matches. ****

Mean Gene crashes the Stud Stable's victory party. I think Terry Funk is legit drunk. Arn says that Dustin asked for the old Arn Anderson and got what he asked for. Actually, I think everyone in that room is legit drunk except Arn and Okerlund.

 

WCW World Tag Team Championship: Pretty Wonderful def Cactus Jack and Kevin Sullivan (c) (w/Dave Sullivan) in 20:10- Evad's got a Hulkamania shirt on. Sullivan and Orndorff start. Physique bragging by Orndorff. He gets an armdrag out of the lockup and celebrates. Jack tags in. So does Roma, and of course he has to show how much better he looks than Jack does. Waistlock and leg takedown by Roma. Jack laughs. More Roma outwrestling and bragging. Jack doesn't care. Jack bites Roma! Roma dodges Sullivan but runs into a Jack headbutt. Jack pads the corner for Sullivan on a corner whip. Orndorff tries to do the same for Roma but it doesn't go according to plan. Orndorff forearms knock Jack to the floor. Jack blocks a rail shot and all four guys brawl on the floor. Jack loads up an apron dive but Orndorff moves away. That looked more like Orndorff for real not wanting to do it than a planned counter. Sullivan chops Orndorff down in the corner. Double noggin knocker on the heels. Jack puts on a hammerlock. A wrestling hold from Jack! Heenan's stunned. Sullivan stomps Orndorff's hand. Orndorff counters a Jack backdrop. He hits knees to the gut and tags Roma. Roma lets loose with knees and stomps in the corner. Jack blocks an Orndorff suplex and hits it. Tag to Sullivan. He gives the heels simultaneous buckle shots. Orndorff runs into a Jack back elbow and Sullivan bites him. The crowd starts doing the wave, showing how much they care about this match. Jack and Orndorff kill the match with a facelock while they wait for the crowd to get it out of their system. Orndorff eye rakes Sullivan and tags. Corner slugfest and all four guys are in yet again. Orndorff piledrives Sullivan. Cover but Sullivan gets a foot on the rope. Jawbreaker from Sullivan. Roma slips trying to go up to the top rope, recovers, and hits an elbow for 2. Orndorff hooks on a sleeper. Sullivan backs him into the corner. Roma elbow drop for 2. Sullivan does a horrible armdrag, charges into Orndorff with a running headbutt, but can't tag and ends up in the heel corner. More Sullivan in peril work follows. Roma goes for a splash off the top but Sullivan dodges and tags. Jack works over Orndorff and we have one last DONNYBROOK. Double underhook DDT on Orndorff. The ref is distracted with everything else going on. Evad and Sullivan do....something. I don't know. I don't think they knew. Roma holds Jack's foot down from the floor and Orndorff covers him for the pin and the titles. If they kept this at a 10 minute sprint it might have turned out OK, but this was twice as long as it needed to be. Not a single crazy Foley bump to be seen in the entire 20 minutes either. 3/4*

One last bit of hype from commentary for the main event. Tony calls it....wait for it....you know what's coming.....THE GREATEST MATCH IN THE HISTORY OF OUR SPORT. And really, he's not wrong, but something about the way it was rushed together makes it seem not as HUGE as it should have been. WWF did a warm up feud for Flair with Roddy Piper when he first came over, WCW would have been smart to do the same with Hogan. The Orlando Magic's Shaquille O'Neal is here to present the belt to the winner.

 

WCW World Heavyweight Championship: Hulk Hogan (w/Jimmy Hart and Mr. T) def "Nature Boy" Ric Flair (c) (w/Sensuous Sherri) in 21:54- Unlike Hogan's Clash debut not much wobble room in the crowd tonight, it's pretty pro-Hogan. Michael Buffer goes full Buffer and compares this match to, of all things, the *moon landing*. Never, ever go full Buffer. Both guys are fired up during intros. Cautious start after the bell to let the atmosphere soak a little, followed by jawing and shoving. Flair charges into Hogan and gets knocked down. Hogan tosses him out of a lockup and Flair's frustrated. Flair ducks out of a lockup and struts. The pro-Flair element in the crowd likes that. Now Hogan ducks a lockup and does his own strut! OK, that's good. Flair wrestles Hogan down with a hammerlock takedown, then goes to the good old fashioned hair pulls. Hogan reverses and does his own hair pull. He transitions into an arm wringer in a nice piece of chain wrestling. From Hogan? Did we suddenly go to Japan and not tell anyone? Flair rolls out and hides behind Sherri. Reset lockup. Hogan gets a hammerlock takedown and a little more mat wrestling. Flair gets pissed, charges, Hogan dodges and Flair runs into the corner. Hogan follows with punches. Now this is the Hogan we know. Corner clothesline. Flair begs off. He sees the big boot coming, bails to the floor, and hides behind Sherri again. Flair gets his first chops in. Snap mare. Hogan dodges the kneedrop and pops right back up. Mounted punches (with a bite) and pillar to post beating. Sherri grabs Hogan's boot and Flair gets a knee to the gut. A chop sends Hogan 360 to the floor. Sherri gets a chair. Jimmy Hart runs over and takes it away. Flair gives Hogan a rail shot. Ax handle off the top rope. The kneedrop hits. Corner chops wake Hogan up and he chops back. Flair does a double leg takedown and tries a rope leverage pin but Hogan quickly escapes. Hogan clothesline for 2. Flair snap mare into a chinlock. That he holds for a while. They do the arm drops and Hogan jumps right back up. Shoulderblock. Flair Flip! Hogan cuts him off on the apron with a clothesline and Flair falls to the floor. Hogan ducks a punch and back suplexes Flair on the floor! He then suplexes Flair back in the ring. Hogan calls for the pin. Flair dodges the legdrop! Hogan hurt his hamstring on the landing. Flair goes for the figure four. Hogan small package for 2! Flair tries a couple more times to hook the figure four on but Hogan keeps fighting him off. Delayed suplex from Flair. Mini Hulk Up. 3 punches, big boot, cover. Sherri pulls ref Randy Anderson out! Hart comes over and Sherri takes him out while Flair chop blocks Hogan. Sherri splash off the top on Hogan. Spare ref Nick Patrick runs in to take over. Figure four! Hogan, frankly, doesn't bother selling it much and slowly crawls over to grab a rope. Sherri chokes Hogan with her stocking. Hogan's knee is still wobbly. More Flair chops which Hogan starts to shrug off. Finger point. Hogan corner whip but he runs into a Flair back elbow. Sherri goes up top again in full view of the ref. Hogan dodges another splash from her, then slams Flair off the top. Hogan clotheslines Flair and in the same run slaps Sherri aside. Hogan hooks on a figure four! He never learned how to put that on right. Sherri gets on the apron and he lets go. Mr. T grabs Sherri and drags her away. Flair gets a pair of knucks out and nails Hogan with them. Cover. I think everyone knows what's coming. Hulk Up, 3 punches, big boot, legdrop, good night new champ. Welcome to the new WCW. Big pop for Hogan's win. So. Good? Yes. Great? No. The crowd gave it a pretty epic atmosphere, but the match itself wasn't as epic. Both guys worked their match and they didn't gel that well. If this was any indication of what Wrestlemania 8 was going to be like I'm really glad WWF switched gears and did Flair vs Savage instead, one of my all time favorite matches and feuds. There was also way too much Sherri in this. A match this historically significant needed to be Flair and Hogan straight up one on one without all the shenanigans. ***1/2

Back to commentary and Heenan's devastated. Cameras follow Hogan in the back and we can see Brutus Beefcake and Jim Duggan with him. The Friends of Hogan are coming in to take over, and they won't be the last. Finally Hogan gets to a lounge in the arena where Mean Gene is waiting for him. A long but standard Hogan promo follows. The best part is seeing Brian Pillman in the background with a "I can't believe this shit" look on his face. Back to commentary and Heenan says Hogan started a war with Flair that he's destined to lose, slams his headset down and storms off.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- A bit hit and miss on the whole, but it gets a bump due to its historical significance. The US title match is must see, and Flair vs Hogan for the first time on TV was going to be must see no matter what but WCW does a good job of making it the major match that it was even if they rushed into it too much. There's also a *ton* of dead time on this PPV that really hurts the flow, they really should have had another match or two on the card to beef it up some.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: B-

NXT Takeover: Rival

Legacy Review

NXT Takeover: Rival

February 11, 2015 from Full Sail University in Winter Park, FL

Commentary: Rich Brennan, Corey Graves and Jason "A-Train Lord Tensai Giant Bernard Matt Bloom" Albert

Hideo Itami def Tyler Breeze in 8:15- This is a rematch of the first round of the #1 Contender's tournament, which Itami won. The match, not the tournament. Breeze attacked him in the locker room after Itami lost to Balor in the semis, pissed that Itami took his shot and then lost. A "fan" jumps the rail and jumps on Breeze during his entrance. I'm sure she was a plant but I can't exactly place who it is. This is the debut of Breeze's personalized selfie stick. Also, I feel dirty typing out "selfie stick" completely unironically. Send this Gen X'er some help. Itami charges and Breeze dodges until he can get a shot in. Corner shot trade off. Breeze ducks kicks. Itami gets a knee to the gut and a PK. Breeze rolls out. More kicks with Breeze super selling. Itami sets up the corner dropkick but Breeze rolls away before takeoff. Breeze pulls Itami down from the floor and gives his knee an apron shot. More knee work follows, including posting the knee. Post wraparound figure four! Back in Breeze puts on a modified cloverleaf. Itami gets to the ropes. Breeze hits the ropes. Itami grabs him and lifts him up for the GTS! The crowd instantly goes nuts! Breeze fights free and gets a roll up for 2. And another GTS tease goes nowhere. They really hurt Itami by taking that away from him, they should have just said screw Punk, it's Itami's move, let him do it. Superkick! Itami kicks out! Breeze goes into slow beatdown mode and Itami bushidos up. Rapid fire combo. Chest kicks. Lots and lots of stiff chest kicks. Corner dropkick. Psycho knee! That gets the pin! Itami sells the knee some more after the bell. Decent enough opener, with Itami continuing to get his sea legs after a slow NXT start and Breeze playing his role perfectly. Between this and the next Takeover Itami would win a tournament at Axxess to get a spot in the Andre Battle Royale at Wrestlemania. Unfortunately it was all downhill after that as the injury bug soon hit. ***

 

No DQ Match: Baron Corbin def Bull Dempsey in 4:12- Another tournament first round rematch, where Corbin defeated Dempsey in under two minutes to give him his first loss. These guys have been feuding since their "there's only room for one monster here" staredown at the last Takeover. Corbin charges down the ramp on his entrance and it's on. After a little beating Dempsey gets a reversal on the floor and suplexes Corbin on the ramp, then posts Corbin. Dempsey checks under the ring, but doesn't pull anything out. OK then. There's only one side of the ring that has a ring skirt instead of a video board, kind of hard to get lost. The crowd boos him not getting any weapons. Back in Corbin gets a counter spinebuster for 2. He hits a Cactus Clothesline that Dempsey completely fucks up, taking about 3 tries to get over the top rope. Light "You fucked up" and "Botchamania" chants from Full Sail. They go back in and Dempsey hits the headbutt off the top for 2. Corbin gets thrown into the stairs. Dempsey gets a chair. Corbin grabs Dempsey before he can use it, hits End of Days, and it's over. So much for the no DQ stip. All tease no fulfillment. The match was probably twice as long as it should have been. Corbin was still pretty green, and frankly Dempsey was always crap, as their career trajectories after would show. After this Dempsey would go into an angle where he was always eating junk food backstage, turning face and bringing in the "BullFit" gimmick. I'll let you figure out the pun on that one. After still showing little progress in the ring he was released in early '16, and apart from a short ROH run has pretty much been relegated to working in low level indies. *

Ad for the WWE Network's new "free month" campaign. Oh yeah, I remember that. Went on for years while us day one subscribers got nothing. Guess we were the ones that let them afford free months for the casuals. They also advertise the new PPV Fastlane, the "last stop" before Wrestlemania. That always bugged me. Fastlane is the last stop? If it's the last stop it should be called Roadblock or Rest Stop or something. The tagline should have been something like "the road to Wrestlemania accelerates". Much better.

 

NXT Tag Team Championship: Blake & Murphy (c) def The Lucha Dragons in 7:34- The seemingly thrown together team of Wesley Blake and Buddy Murphy (now Buddy Matthews in AEW and NJPW Strong) upset the Dragons for the titles on weekly TV in January, and this is the Dragons' rematch. They pull off the trampoline entrance with no errors. Sadly we can't say the same about the match. Blake and Murphy's entrance is something else, and it's only about 75% of what it will be later in their reign. They don't have heel Alexa Bliss with them yet, she comes later to give more life to what likely would have been a transitional title run and became the breakout star of the group. Murphy and Cara start. B&M do a double leapfrog and Cara dropkicks them both. Cara springboard back elbow. He goes for a flying headscissors and either screws it up or Blake was supposed to block it. It came off weird. Kalisto blocks a double team. He goes to leap off the second rope and badly slips off, then recovers for a plancha. That's the problem with lucha, you can get some spectacular moves but the odds are also much higher for some spectacular botches. Cara gets a victory roll off the top for 2. There's an awkward pause and both sides tag. Kalisto rolls through some botchless lucha. Dragons double kick and double team wheelbarrow slam for 2. B&M blind tag and hit Cara with a double team lift up neckbreaker. After a minute of peril Cara escapes and tags. Kalisto springboard corkscrew crossbody. He plants Murphy with a headscissors DDT, then sets up for the Salido del Sol. Murphy blocks it. Kalisto turns a suplex into a headscissors for 2 and they roll through some near fall tradeoffs that end with both sides making a save at the same time. Tags. A Cara crossbody is reversed for 2. Cara small package for 2. Cara and Murphy go through their own counter near falls. Cara one arm powerbomb on Murphy for 2. B&M get another blind tag, hit a brainbuster/big splash combo and get the pin. A lot of flash but very little substance. All those near falls tradeoffs the second half of the match were completely flat. I know I'm a broken record, but I promise, the tag division *will* get better. Honestly it's taking longer than I remembered, but it will happen. The Dragons were on their way to the main roster, making their full time debut on the Raw after WM. *3/4

During B&M's celebration the broadcast is hacked with the message "The Takeover Isn't Over" and "Next Week". This had been happening on weekly TV for a bit and led to the debut of Solomon Crowe, AKA Sami Callihan. I'll put him this way- the broadcast hacks were by far the most interesting thing about his NXT run. After that we get some highlights from each match in the #1 Contender's Tournament.

 

NXT Championship #1 Contender's Tournament Final: Finn Balor def Adrian Neville in 13:34- As previously mentioned Balor defeated Itami in the semifinals, while Neville took down Corbin to give Corbin his first official NXT loss. Once again for Takeover Balor brings the Demon, and again the entrance is spectacular. I particularly like how he attacks the cameras as he's crawling down the ramp. Balor charges but Neville grabs a headlock for a bit more of a basic start. Balor hits a shoulderblock and reset. Neville gets a sunset flip. Balor rolls through it and hits a basement dropkick! Neville rolls out. Balor loads up a dive but Neville jumps in and cuts him off. Speed run ending with a Balor dropkick. Neville rolls out again. Another dive attempt is cut off. Neville springboard shotgun dropkick for 2! Neville goes back to the headlock for a bit and does a little choking in the corner as he continues his subtle heelishness. Balor corner dodge and chop. He tries a springboard from the apron but Neville cuts him off in midair with a dropkick! Delayed suplex for 2 and Neville grounds Balor again. Corner whip, reversal, Neville gets a boot up, hops to the second rope, and Balor kicks him down to the floor. The tope con hilo hits this time! Neville retreats through the ring to the other side. Balor stalks him around the ring, then charges with a running shotgun dropkick that sends Neville into the barricade! Back in Balor hits the double stop off the top to the back of a standing Neville's head! Neville kicks out! Balor sets up for Bloody Sunday but Neville gets free. Kicks and chops from Neville. Balor dodges and hits a pele kick. Neville gives him a superkick before going down! Both guys are down. When they get up Neville waistlocks, and after a couple of attempts hits a German suplex. A second one with a bridge for 2. He sets Balor up in the corner, but instead of the Red Arrow he goes to the second rope and hits Balor with a huge corkscrew splash. Balor kicks out! Long 2 count there. Neville charging corner uppercut. Balor slingblade! Huge clothesline with a Neville 360 sell. Bloody Sunday hits! Neville kicks out! Balor drags him to the corner. Neville gets up and grabs Balor's foot. Enzuguri! Neville slams Balor in the target zone. Red Arrow! Balor got his knees up and cradles Neville! Neville JUST kicks out! Man, the crowd went nuts on that one. Really that should have been the finish, but even in NXT WWE loves their finishers. John WOOOOOOOOO dropkick. Coupe de Gracie! That ends it! Fantastic match, with no small amount of NJPW junior style working its way in. They handshake after the bell and there's a small "Thank you Neville" chant. As would become NXT tradition, Neville put over the incoming star before making his move up to the main roster. His debut was on the Raw after WM, already bereft of his first name and now just Neville. He'd float around the midcard for a while with zero traction, win the Cruiserweight title a couple of times after it was brought back in the Cruiserweight Classic, turn heel and become more PAC like during those reigns (within the bounds of TV-PG), then famously walk out of a Raw in October '17 and sit out the rest of his contract before finally being released in August '18. Later in 2019 he'd be one of the very first signees to the new All Elite Wrestling. ****1/4

 

Fatal 4 Horsewomen Match for the NXT Women's Championship: Sasha Banks def Charlotte (c), Bayley and Becky Lynch in 11:54- That's not the actual name of the match, I just couldn't resist. The group wasn't being acknowledged on air yet. This is right in the middle of the 4 Horsewomen's dominance of the NXT women's title scene, and here they all are in one match. It's Lynch's Takeover debut, the last of the four to make it. She turned on Banks a few weeks prior to get included in the match. Zero reaction for Lynch from the crowd. Back then she certainly felt like an add-on to the established feud the other three had. The bell rings and we're right into it four way style. Banks and Lynch put the immediate past aside and work together again. Charlotte gives them a double clothesline. Bayley sneaks in and rolls Charlotte up for 2. "Bayley's gonna hug you!" Banks and Lynch get Charlotte onto the floor and throw her into one of the apron video boards, shorting it out. After that they gang up on Bayley. Bayley gets thrown back into the turnbuckle. Both Banks and Lynch try to pin Bayley at the same time. The ref says that's not how the Force works and there goes that alliance. Lynch attacks Banks, tosses her out and hits a series of legdrops on Bayley. Dragon screw leg whip on Bayley! Lynch hooks in a reverse figure four. Banks breaks it up. Lynch dodges the Banks corner double knee and hits a missile dropkick. Charlotte gets back in and works over both Banks and Lynch with neckbreakers for everyone. Banks/Charlotte slugfest. Banks dodges and Charlotte spears Lynch! Charlotte wheelbarrows Banks, but Bayley comes in and uses it to give Banks a codebreaker! A Charlotte big boot sends Bayley back to the floor. Banks dodges another spear and Charlotte posts her shoulder. She pulls Lynch in, sets her up on the bottom rope underneath Charlotte, and goes right through them both with the corner double knee! Banks covers both for 2 and screams in frustration when she can't get a pin on either. Bayley's back in with a suplex on Charlotte. She corners Charlotte with back elbows. The crowd's starting to get into it. Bayley sets Charlotte on the top rope and gives her a hurricanrana! Bayley to belly! Cover! Lynch pulls Bayley off and drags her all the way to the floor. Bayley baseball slide through the corner on Lynch! Banks plancha on both of them! "Women's wrestling!" chant. Charlotte planchas all three of them! Charlotte and Becky are the first ones back in. Becksploder! Cover for 2. European uppercuts from Lynch. She sets Charlotte up top. Bayley runs in and German suplexes Lynch! SUPER BAYLEY TO BELLY ON CHARLOTTE! The crowd goes crazy! Cover! Banks pulls Bayley off! She covers! Charlotte kicks out! Banks hooks on the Banks Statement! She gets up to kick Lynch and Bayley back to the floor and hooks it on again. Charlotte crawls toward the rope but Banks really cranks her back. She changes gears and wraps Charlotte in a crucifix! That gets the shock pin and the title in what has to be an upset! Charlotte's title reign ends at 258 days. Pretty good pop for the surprise result, plus Banks had a lot of fans in Full Sail despite being the only clear heel of the four. She tries to stay in character but is clearly very emotional. Anyone that's seen behind the scenes footage from this time knows Banks could fall into bawling tears at the drop of a hat. Charlotte offers a handshake. Banks gives her a quick hug, then they shove each other to try to stay in character but aren't fooling anyone. Really nice moment. Another fantastic NXT women's title match, but it didn't quite have enough to hit that next level for me. In her first major performance Lynch looked like she belonged no matter how little the crowd cared about her. ***3/4

Promo for Wrestlemania 31, 46 days away. Hey, maybe now he's in charge Triple H will bring the numbers back to Wrestlemania. I hope so. Taking them away never made any sense to me. "Hey, which Wrestlemania is that?" "Wrestlemania." "Yeah, but which one?" "I don't know, it just says Wrestlemania." After that is the video package for the Owens/Zayn feud. Unlike the women's match, which was a video package for the sake of a video package and could just as well have been done with some prematch promos, this was a great look inside Owens' debut and turn, with a hint of the extensive real life and non-WWE history between the two. To my knowledge this was really the first time any part of WWE had used someone's pre-WWE feud history as part of a current feud, excluding WCW and ECW guys after those companies were bought by WWE.

NXT Championship: Kevin Owens def Sami Zayn (c) in 22:45- Very split crowd for the start of this with a lot of "Fight Owens Fight" chants. Huge big match feel. I remember watching this on the night and thinking how completely surreal it was to see these two guys together in a WWE ring. Not the last time that feeling will occur on a Takeover. Both guys stay in their corners after the bell, soaking in the atmosphere. They take a step toward each other.....and Owens steps out of the ring. Mega stall by Owens. After a couple of minutes Zayn has had enough and flies over the referee with a tope con hilo! Angry Zayn pounds away. Graves: "Zayn isn't angry, Owens made Zayn angry!". OK....what's the difference and your point? That's what bugs me about Graves, so often it sounds like he's arguing just for the sake of arguing, like a lot of those loudmouths on ESPN. While taking shots in the corner Owens lifts Zayn up and drops him face first on the top turnbuckle. Huge Owens corner clotheslines. Corner whip with an amazing super sell from Zayn. Mr. Perfect looked down from above and thought that might have been a bit too over the top. Big chop and cover from Owens for 2. Owens wins a forearm exchange. Basic body slam and Owens looks like he's just toying with Zayn right now. Zayn tries to come back but Owens literally runs him over. Kick wham suplex lift and Owens drops Zayn gut first over the top rope. Zayn fights out of a chinlock but is cut off again with a back suplex. Owens tosses Zayn to the floor and gives him some good old fashioned Ric Flair chops against the guardrail. The floor beatdown continues to a light "Kill Owens Kill" chant. Back in Owens hits a gutbuster and senton. Zayn tries to slap himself back into it. He jawbreakers out of another chinlock but it barely fazes Owens. Commentary starts to compare this match to Brock Lesnar destroying John Cena at the previous year's Summerslam. Oh man, how I loved that match. Watching it live was almost cathartic. Owens continues to play. Zayn gets momentum with some clotheslines! He clotheslines Owens 360 to the floor. Stair shot for Owens. Owens tries to roll Zayn back in the ring, but Zayn rolls right through and charges in with another clothesline. Back in he walks into an Owens back elbow. Zayn ducks a clothesline and hits a blue thunder bomb for 2! Corner charge but Zayn runs right into an Owens superkick. Cannonball! Cover for 2. Pumphandle neckbreaker for 2. Owens goes for a powerbomb, but Zayn adjusts midair and hits him with a dropkick! Half nelson suplex for 2. Owens rolls onto the apron. Zayn gives him a buckle shot. Owens grabs Zayn and gives him a stunner/cutter like move over the top rope! Owens goes up top. Zayn pops up and tries for a superplex. Owens fights him off. Senton off the top! Zayn gets his knees up! Corner exploder! Zayn sets up the Helluva kick but Owens rolls to the floor. Zayn follows. Owens goes for the apron powerbomb again! Zayn lands feet first on the apron! Springboard moonsault! Zayn's head hit the ramp on the way down and he's clearly dazed. He gets up but is very wobblelegged. He manages to stagger to the corner. Owens is set up and he goes for the Helluva kick again, but can't hold his balance. He tries again, and runs into the pop up powerbomb! Cover! Zayn kicks out! That sets Owens off and he goes into full on no ha ha's beatdown mode. Zayn's clearly not right. A ringside doctor comes up to look at him. Owens gives no shits and powerbombs him again. A third powerbomb! Two hand cover. Zayn barely lifts a shoulder off the mat in time! Two trainers get in the ring to check on him. Owens still gives no shits. A fourth powerbomb! A fifth! He goes for another but the ref physically drags him into the corner, and calls for the bell! The crowd is confused. The ref lifts Owens' hand and hands him the belt! Owens wins by ref stoppage, a finish you'll see every once in a while in New Japan but never in WWE. He still gets a pop, but not as big a one as the start of the match. Watching this live I remember how weird I thought this was, and the immediate online reaction was full of confusion as well. Over time this has aged pretty well, but the match likely would have been better served with a "proper" ending. It was smart in one way, in that it got a lot of the crowd that was cheering Owens to turn on him by match's end. ****

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- A rough first half but a great second half with all the big matches delivering. Takeover continues to build its reputation as something special and must see every time out. For some reason the normally boisterous Full Sail crowd really didn't get going until about halfway through the women's match.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: B+

Clash of the Champions XXVII

Legacy Review

Clash of the Champions XXVII

June 23, 1994 from the North Charleston Coliseum in North Charleston, SC

Commentary: Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan

This is it, folks. This is The Night Hulk Hogan Appears, and everything in WCW changed, frankly not a lot of it for the better. They were going along pretty good for the first half of '94 with Flair booking and drawing as a face champion, building several new stars (Austin, Jack, Regal, Badd) and trying out some newfangled hardcore matches in the tag division. But this is WCW, where we could never get nice things for very long, like Flair's other successful booking stint in '89 or the glorious Kip Frey led, Dangerous Alliance fueled run of early-mid '92. On the flip side, Hogan's star power gave them the big push they needed to really put WWF on the ropes over the next few years.

The show intro promotes the long needed world title unification, as well as showing footage from the massive Hogan introductory parade and press conference that was held at Disney MGM Studios in Disney World. Tony also mentions Sensuous Sherri (he starts to say Sensational then stops himself) is going to be picking "her man" tonight.

WCW World Tag Team Championship: Cactus Jack and Kevin Sullivan (c) (w/Dave Sullivan) def The Nasty Boys in 10:35- This is a rematch of the wild all arena brawl at Slamboree where Jack and Sullivan won the titles. Tonight is a regular tag match, but because of the chaotic nature of past matches WCW has assigned TWO referees for this match. That sadly doesn't go anywhere. Dave has a pro-Hogan shirt on, foreshadowing where he'll be going in the coming months. Jack and Sags start. Sags lays in with machine gun rapid fire open hand slaps. Jack reverses in the corner and responds with stiff shots of his own. All four guys are quickly in and the faces clear the ring. Both sides swap. Sullivan and Knobbs start stiffing each other and soon all four guys are in again. Order is restored with Sullivan fighting out of the heel corner. Jack goes up top and Sullivan slams him into both Nastys! As the Nastys recover on the floor again Tony has a very important announcement: Hogan's jet has landed! Knobbs pounds on Jack. Jack gets a boot up in the corner and hits a clothesline, then hits some huge back elbows on Sags. Sags gets a double leg takedown, the closest thing to a wrestling move in the whole match. Jack counters a backdrop and tags. A Sags pin breakup puts Sullivan in mild peril with heel double teams. Sullivan is tossed to the floor. Knobbs hits a double ax handle off the apron. Back in Sullivan dodges a Sags kneedrop and tags. Cactus Clothesline on Knobbs! Sags goes over the top to the floor. Jack leaps off the second rope but the Nastys dodge and Jack crashes into the barricade. The Nastys were already gone before he even took off, that really looked like Foley taking a bump just because he wanted to. Sags back suplexes Jack on the floor. Jack dodges a Knobbs corner dive, double clotheslines with Sags and tags out. Donnybrook! Knobbs and Sags take turns getting into it with Evad on the floor. Sags takes a crutch shot from him while Jack hits Knobbs with the double underhook DDT in the ring, getting the pin. Crazy unhinged brawl that was maybe a little too chaotic for its own good, but it also never stopped moving. This would be the end of this long feud as the tag division would be reshuffled over the coming months, with the Nasty Boys taking a back seat for a bit. **3/4

Sting joins Mean Gene and gives his famous "I'm a great white shark" promo. After that is a vignette on The Guardian Angel, the new gimmick for Ray Traylor, formerly known as The Big Boss Man or The Boss before he crossed Commissioner Nick Bockwinkel and had his identity taken away. Well really, WWF threatened to sue because he was using basically the same gimmick as he had in WWF that they had a copyright on. Traylor trained with the Angels in real life before adopting the gimmick, which would soon run into some legal trouble of its own. More on that when we get there.

 

The Guardian Angel def Tex Slazenger in 1:44- Slazenger gets a jobber entrance, never a good sign. Lockup stalemates. Slazenger punches on a rope break, then hits another punch and elbow. Angel counted those out as three "strikes", apparently a system the real Angels use when dealing with criminals. After the third strike he's allowed to let loose. So is he like Festus now, but instead of needing the bell to be activated he has to get three strikes on his opponent? Or is that from his opponent? Anyway, Angel hits a few shots and the Boss Man Slam or whatever it's going to be called now finishes it. Squashiness. 1/2*

We cut to a live shot of Hogan's limo being police motorcaded to the arena. Heenan: "Oh I already saw that on TV. Oh, it's Hogan!". That's the second OJ Simpson chase joke tonight, which had just happened about a week prior. Hogan's limo pulls into the arena and they do the big limo exit shot. Hart gets booed and Hogan's pop is pretty mild.

 

WCW World Television Championship: Lord Steven Regal (w/Sir William) def "The Living Legend" Larry Zbyszko (c) in 9:25- Jesse Ventura is in for Heenan for the next couple of matches. Zbyszko defeated Regal in a non-title match at Slamboree, then took the title on weekly TV (in a match that was already filmed before Slamboree, the magic of pretaping). Regal wears a powdered wig to the ring and teases wrestling in it before taking it off after much discussion. They tease another stallfest until Regal charges in throwing hammers, totally opposite his usual style. Nice subverting of expectations and it shows how bad Regal wants the title back. Forearm pound down by Regal in the corner. European uppercuts. They exchange slaps and jaw at each other leading into a slugfest. Zbyszko gets his spinning back kick in and takes his turn to pound Regal down in the corner. Regal gets a leg takedown but continues the high impact assault rather than going to his usual mat wrestling. Zbyszko blocks a double underhook suplex, flipping Regal over for a two count. Nice callback to Slamboree, as that's how Zbyszko won that match. Regal's figured out an escape since then. Zbyszko rolls through a suplex, piledriver and swinging neckbreaker, all for near falls. Regal stands up and tells Zbyszko to put his dukes up. He's all kinds of fired up. Both guys show a lot of caution getting back into it. Regal gets distracted by the commoners and Zbyszko hits him from behind. More Regal European uppercuts. He goes to a weardown chinlock and we get the arm drop check. Zbyszko counters into a body scissors that Regal sells the living hell out of. He headbutts out. Zbyszko grabs a bear hug into a Boston crab. Regal flips him over, grabs the top rope for illegal leverage and gets the pin, regaining the title! Zbyszko had his foot on the rope too. After commentary spent half the match saying how important the TV title is and going over its history to prove it Regal gets about a whole half second of celebration before cutting to commercial and moving on. Good match, showing the chemistry these guys had developed over the last few weeks. ***

Arn Anderson agrees to be Dustin Rhodes' partner against the Stud Stable at Bash at the Beach, as long as he can be the ass kicking, name taking no shits given Arn Anderson. Dustin agrees. No way that could possibly be a setup for anything no sir not at all.

 

WCW United States Heavyweight Championship: Johnny B Badd def "Stunning" Steve Austin (c) by DQ in 10:25- Yet another Slamboree rematch. It's like the Raw after a PPV, at least when Vince was still running things. Col. Robert Parker has let Austin fly free to concentrate on the rest of the Stud Stable, believing Austin had gotten good enough to be on his own. Very true. Unfortunately his WCW career is about to go downhill due to the backstage influence of one Hulk Hogan, eventually leading to WWF acquiring the guy that would lead their charge against Hogan-led WCW. Life works in mysterious ways sometimes. Prematch slapping and shoving leads to a good back and forth start with Austin looking more Stone Coldish than ever. They fight to the floor and Austin takes an apron shot. Badd does some arm work and Austin chops. Speed run and Badd hits a dropkick and armdrag. Austin hair pulls out. Badd dropkicks him over the top to the floor. Back in Badd hits a clothesline off the top for 2, followed by a drop toe hold and facelock. After another speed run Badd grabs an Austin kick attempt, spins him around, Austin ducks a clothesline and scurries to the corner on all fours. After a corner whip Austin gets a boot up. Classic Austin elbow and knee drops. Badd counters a knee to the gut with a roll up for 2. More Austin knees. Badd hits a dropkick and both guys are down. Inverted atomic drop and flying headscissors from Badd. DDT. Corner clothesline. He goes up top but Austin catches him. Badd blocks a superplex and drops Austin to the mat. Austin dodges the sunset flip off the top rope with Badd doing a tremendous splat on the mat. Cover for 2. During a struggle in the corner Austin pulls some international knucks out of his tights, punches Badd in the gut with them, and Paul Smackages him for 3. After the bell ref Pee Wee Anderson comes into discuss things with match ref Nick Patrick and Anderson finds the knucks. Badd rolls Austin up, Anderson counts 3, and Badd leaves with the belt while the refs continue to argue. Commentary promises to clear everything up after the break. Badd continues to get incrementally better. **1/2

Commentary does not clear anything up after the break. In fact it's not mentioned again because never mind that shit here comes Mongo Hulk Hogan. According to Cagematch and wiki it's Badd by DQ so we'll go with that. Moving on. American Made sounds so much like Real American I'm really surprised there was never a lawsuit. Hogan gets a good but not great pop when he comes out. During his promo there's some definite boos. Flair interrupts from the tron and gets more of a pop than Hogan did despite the fact he had just turned heel to start setting their feud up. Despite all that there's the palpable sense of a big showdown coming to find out once and for all who the greatest of all time is. WWF decided not to do the match, WCW is not going to miss out.

As this is thankfully the last time for this, one last very quick history lesson on the split titles. Or to quote Inigo Montoya, let me explain....no, there is too much, let me sum up. Flair left for WWF in the summer of '91 as champion and took the Big Gold Belt with him. WCW then made the globe and stars belt as a replacement. In mid '92 WCW got possession of Big Gold back from Flair, and partnered back up with the NWA so Big Gold was made the new NWA World title. After WCW split with the NWA for good in mid '93 Big Gold was made the world title organized and run by the completely fictitious "WCW International" branch. After a year of that, they're finally getting back to one world title, which has been long overdue. Commentary hypes this as the biggest WCW match of all time. Not really, but it's still a big one.

 

Unification Match: WCW World Heavyweight Champion "Nature Boy" Ric Flair def WCW International World Heavyweight Champion Sting in 17:17- Heenan's back for this one. Sherri comes out before the match starts. They've been teasing her decision of who to manage endlessly all night. She lowers her mask and she has Sting face paint on, identical to what he's wearing tonight. Commentary falls for it like a bunch of chumps. Usual Flair/Sting formula to start with Flair getting tossed out of lockups. Dueling yells and Flair struts a little. Flair tries to hair pull out of an armbar and Sting keeps kipping back up. Hammerlock exchange, Flair gets a drop toe hold, another stalemate. Sting shoves and Flair mega sells it, flying all the way across the ring. Flair rolls out to slow things down. Commentary, especially Heenan, really lays it on thick that they think Hogan's in his head. Speed run and Sting hits a couple of press slams. Flair rolls out again and Flair Flops on the floor! He gets into it with the crowd, with Heenan yelling at him to get his focus back. Heenan's going almost full Rumble '92 on commentary and it's great. Sting cranks a knucklelock and Flair gets an eye poke. A chop is no sold. Sting hip toss and clothesline. Flair's out again and takes a long walk. Back in he gets a knee to the gut and more chops are no sold. Sting wants more. Flair dodges a dropkick. He goes for the figure four but Sting small packages him for 2. Flair gets in a shoving match with the ref, causing Heenan to go ballistic and shout at him not to get DQ'd, and takes another walk. After a corner whip Flair dodges the Stinger Splash. He tosses Sting over the top to the floor and lays in some chops down there. Great reaction from a woman sitting at ringside to hearing a Flair chop up close. Kneedrops in the ring and Flair tries for a rope leverage pin. Back suplex. Sting fights off a figure four attempt. Flair hooks on a sleeper. Sting runs Flair face first into the top turnbuckle. Flair Flop 2! Sting slingshots Flair into the turnbuckle again and we get a Super Flair Flop! Sting suplex for 2. Flair Flip and apron clothesline follow up. Sting hits mounted punches, blocks a Flair inverted atomic drop and hits a clothesline. Superplex from Sting! He goes for a splash off the top but Flair dodges. Flair delayed suplex. Sting pops right back up! Another press slam. He clotheslines Flair to the floor. Flair pulls Sherri in the way and she eats a Sting plancha! I mean full on right into her. Sting checks on her and Flair kicks him in the back of the head. Sting gets a backslide for 2. He goes to check Sherri again. Flair rolls him up, grabs a handful of tights and gets the pin! Perfectly solid Flair/Sting match. The globe and stars belt was retired after this and the Big Gold Belt would once again, rightfully, be the belt of the WCW World champion the rest of the company's existence. ***1/2

After the match Flair and Sherri hug. It was a RUSE. Commentary acts shocked but amoeba on Saturn saw that coming. Flair chop blocks Sting and Sheri hits splashes off the top rope. Hogan runs out to make the save. Flair dodges the big boot. Hogan cuts off a Sherri ambush attempt. Sherri slaps him! Flair pulls her out of harm's way and they escape. After commercial Hogan wraps up the show by officially challenging Flair for the title, and says he's bringing Ted Turner himself to TV next week with a contract. In the midst of all this, Sting would fall out of the main event picture for a long while and play second fiddle at best to Hogan for the next couple of years, pretty much forgotten about. Bischoff never seemed to know what to do with Sting while Hogan was around, at least until after Hogan's heel turn and the advent of Crow Sting. Which Bischoff also screwed up in the end, but that's a story for another time.

 

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS: Match quality wise this continues the standard set by the last couple of PPVs. Nothing blowaway great, but nothing below decent either other than an acceptable squash match. Hogan's intro really feels like a huge deal even if the crowd reactions weren't quite what they were hoping for. To be fair (to Flair), they were in Flair country. The rest of '94 will bring a whole lot of change to WCW.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: B+

NXT Takeover: R Evolution

Legacy Review

NXT Takeover: R Evolution

December 11, 2014 from Full Sail University in Winter Park, FL

Commentary: Rich Brennan (damn I'd forgotten all about him, doesn't say much), Alex Riley and Corey Graves in his commentary debut

 

Kevin Owens def CJ Parker in 3:14- Owens is making his big NXT debut tonight. Formerly known as Kevin Steen, he was a major star in Ring of Honor for years and one of the biggest names in indy wrestling, and one of many guys that would come in over the next few years that we never thought we'd see in WWE. And now he's a mainstay. Owens' music gets no reaction as no one knew it was his yet. Huge pop when his tron comes up though. As soon as the bell rings Owens charges Parker with corner clotheslines! Cannonball! Parker rolls to the floor. Owens destroys his sign! TOPE CON HILO FROM OWENS! "Holy shit" chant from Full Sail for that. The ref separates them in the corner, giving Parker an opening for a high kick. After a little Parker offense Owens dodges a senton. Parker hits a palm strike that legit breaks Owens' nose. His face is covered in blood in no time at all. Parker hits jumping knees in the corner but Owens pops straight out with a clothesline. Pumphandle neckbreaker. Pop up powerbomb! Good night Parker. As perfect a squash debut as you can ask for. With Owens' persona getting his nose busted and blood everywhere only made it better. Parker would hang around a few more months before accepting he wasn't going anywhere in NXT, asked for and was granted his release. Later in 2015 he'd move to New Japan as Juice Robinson and revitalize his career. **1/4

I mentioned back in my ArRival review that there was a single signing that turned me into a weekly NXT viewer. Kevin Steen/Owens was that signing. Long one of my favorites from the indy scene, once he was on board, so was I every single week. I even still have the original KO duct tape logo shirt.

Graves announces in the commentary stand up that his wrestling career has been put "on hold" due to concussion issues and he will be on commentary permanently from now on.

 

NXT Tag Team Championship: The Lucha Dragons (c) def The Vaudvillains in 6:40- "Gather 'round, everyone, and witness the debonair devastation of such exquisite sophistication! Aiden English! Simon Gotch! The Vaaaaaaaaaaaauuuuuuuuuuuuuuudvillains!" The Vaudvillains are definitely on the list of NXT gimmicks I absolutely loved even though I knew they'd go nowhere on the main roster. Full Sail also loved them even though they're heels, it's a 50/50 crowd at best for this one. The Dragons do the old Sin Cara trampoline entrance. Without messing it up, unlike the original Sin Cara. Gotch and Cara start. Cara quickly goes into lucha springboard mode. He does a double takedown that sends English to the floor and the Dragons hit a double team wheelbarrow slam on Gotch. Cara dropkick and Michinoku driver for 2. Gotch gets a blind tag on a backslide attempt. English pulls Cara out all the way onto the ramp. "That was manly!" chant. Heel double teams for near falls. "Put your dukes up!" chant from Full Sail. Like I said, they loved the Vaudvillains. Gotch crucifix for 2. Cara hits a back elbow but English cuts the tag off. Cara tries some flippydo but the tag is cut off again. Gotch hits a back suplex. Cara fights out of the heel corner, flips over Gotch and gets the hot tag. Kalisto breaks out the lucha goodness. Cara hits a crossbody off the top and we have a donnybrook. The Dragons double backdrop Gotch over the top rope onto English on the floor. They dial up the double dive. English pushes Gotch out of the way and takes all of it! That's friendship. And good strategery. Gotch grabs Kalisto and throws him back in the ring. He lifts Kalisto up, but Kalisto turns it into the Salido del Sol! That gets the pin to retain. Another underwhelming NXT tag title match. It'll get better soon, I promise. *3/4

 

Baron Corbin def Tye Dillinger in :41- Corbin's original entrance was so cool. I miss that Corbin. Dillinger, AKA Shawn Spears, is completely generic and doesn't have the Perfect 10 gimmick yet. Since his debut at the last Takeover Corbin has been doing the Ultimate Warrior path of winning one short squash match after another, only as a heel. Full Sail, being the glorious mad fans that they are, has taken to counting out the seconds for all of Corbin's matches because they're all so short. Dillinger tries with some token offense. When the crowd's at about 20 Corbin hits him with snake eyes. Big boot. The camera finds Bull Dempsey, another guy getting a monster heel push, at ringside which messes up the crowd's count. End of Days and it's over. After the match Corbin and Dempsey stare down. There's only room for one monster in this here town. NR

Shot of Sami Zayn sitting down and quietly mentally preparing in the locker room. As the camera pans we see his well known real life best friend and in ring bitter rival Kevin Owens staring at him from across the room. I'm sure he's just quietly sending Zayn good vibes, right? Right?

 

Finn Balor and Hideo Itami def The Ascension in 11:38- Balor, the former Prince Devitt, a huge star in New Japan where he was one of the founders and first leader of Bullet Club, signed with NXT back in the spring but didn't make his debut until October due to visa issues. This feud started at the last Takeover when the Ascension attacked Itami during his debut. Balor was added in after to give him a partner. During the build Balor promised that he'd bring something at Takeover the Ascension had never seen before. He wasn't kidding. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the legendary NXT debut of The Demon. With full entrance. I can't stress enough how unique this was at the time, no one had seen anything like this before. He'd used the Demon in New Japan before but this was a whole new level of presentation, and before Kevin Dunn got a hold of it on the main roster and made it a shell of what it was. Social media exploded almost immediately with reaction and clips. The entrance gets a "holy shit" chant from the crowd. The *entrance*! You can't get any more star making than this. After the cool down from the entrance all four guys jump in to brawl before the bell. "That was awesome" chant from the crowd for the Demon entrance. Balor and Itami hit double corner dropkicks. The Ascension powder as Full Sail gives us a "marking out" chant. Reset with Itami and Viktor and now the bell rings. Viktor 360 sells a one foot dropkick. Balor hits running corner chops and a dropkick on Konnor. Itami lets loose until Konnor hits him with a flapjack. Ascension double tackle for 2. Itami slips out of a slam and hits a spin kick, but is cut off from tagging. Crazy rapid fire machine gun stomps from Viktor. Konnor hits the YA stomps in the corner. A few more minutes of face in peril follows with the Ascension's offense not being much more interesting than before, but Itami keeps things moving by constantly fighting every step of the way. Konnor avalanche for 2. Itami gets an armdrag, dives, but still can't get the tag. He dodges a charge and Viktor posts his shoulder. Then Itami dumps Konnor to the floor. But just before he can tag Konnor pulls Balor off the apron. Itami fights out of the corner and dives across the ring again. The Ascension try to distract the ref but he sees the tag to Balor! Forearms. Launch dropkick. Slingblade! Viktor hits a back elbow and jumps to the second rope. Balor kicks him off and down to the floor. Balor tope con hilo! He sets up for the Coupe de Grace but Viktor dodges it. Bloody Sunday hits! Konnor breaks the pin up! Itami tackles Konnor out of the ring! Viktor hits Balor with an uppercut and clothesline. Itami breaks the pin up. He sets up for the GTS and the crowd goes ballistic! Konnor breaks it up and gets booed out of the building. The Ascension set up for Fall of Man. Itami pulls Konnor out of the ring. Balor pele kick. Itami hits Konnor with the psycho knee! Double Coupe de Grace, and that gets the pin! Good basic tag formula leading to a very hot finish, with Balor and Itami dragging the Ascension to a good match. Both Balor and Itami looked great, but it can definitely be argued this was another step in the run of bad luck for Itami in his NXT run as he was completely overshadowed by the huge Demon Balor debut. The Ascension moved to the main roster later the same month, doing absolutely nothing of note before being released in 2019. ***1/2

 

NXT Women's Championship: Charlotte (c) def Sasha Banks in 12:12- Another NXT 4 Horsewomen member makes her Takeover debut. Charlotte flipped back face after her feud with Bayley to take on uberheel Banks. The only Horsewomen member left to not wrestle on a Takeover, Becky Lynch, had been acting as Banks' flunky during this feud but is not in her corner tonight. Banks is wearing Charlotte's t-shirt with some slight alterations to mock her. They're jawing at each other before intros even start. Serious intensity here. More palpable intensity after the bell. Charlotte does a quick ripcord Thesz Press and beatdown! Buckle shot exchange with other shots mixed in. Man, they are laying into each other. This is STIFF. If you've only watched WWE women's wrestling the last few years you'll be surprised how stiff they're working each other. This is something that's been missing from women's matches lately. Chop exchange with Charlotte not surprisingly getting the advantage. They go outside and Charlotte gets run into the stairs. Sasha hits corner shoulderblocks and the corner double knee stomp. Dueling chants from another 50/50 crowd. Banks snap mare and she mocks the Flair strut. Charlotte rolls her up for 2 and hits a jawbreaker. Banks blocks a slam, Charlotte blocks a headscissors, and Banks straitjackets Charlotte's arms. She brings Charlotte down into a vertebraker, the usual setup for the Banks Statement, but instead puts Charlotte in a surfboard type position. Charlotte uses her massive strength advantage to get out. Banks grabs Charlotte hair and yanks her down head first into the mat, then puts on her mocking version of a Charlotte's figure four headlock. She's got her character work down so good. Charlotte lifts Banks up in an electric chair and drops her. Forearms and chops from Charlotte. She tries for a suplex. Banks slips out, but Charlotte counters the counter into a neckbreaker for 2. Charlotte charges. Banks dodges and dumps her to the floor. Banks tope suicida! Mamma mia! Roll in and cover for 2. Slugfest. They both hit the ropes and Charlotte hits a massive misdirection spear! Banks gets a boot up in the corner and drop toe holds Charlotte face first into the middle turnbuckle. Charlotte blocks a Banks Statement attempt. She goes for the figure four but Banks counters with a small package for 2. Banks neckbreaker for 2. Charlotte's kickouts start to frustrate her. Exploder suplex from Charlotte. She goes for the moonsault, Banks rolls, Charlotte lands on her feet and in one step hits Banks with a senton! Banks gets a foot on the rope. Banks runs Charlotte into the middle turnbuckle again. Charlotte blocks a superplex and drops Banks to the mat. Banks gets up again while Charlotte's still on the top rope. Super Natural Selection! No way Banks is getting up from that. What a match. Physical, intense, great character work. Sasha Banks has her breakout moment and Charlotte continued to look amazing. It's wonderful going back and watching the 4 Horsewomen work to make each other stars, and they're just getting started. ****1/4

Video package for the main event, focusing on Sami Zayn's continual failures in big matches. After losing a weekly TV title match against Neville he asks for one more shot, and puts his career on the line to up the ante.

 

Title vs Career Match for the NXT Championship: Sami Zayn def Adrian Neville (c) in 23:18- Full Sail comes absolutely unglued for Zayn on his entrance. I mentioned last Takeover that Full Sail never loved anyone the way they loved Bayley, but Zayn is a very close second. Nothing but boos for Neville, who hasn't been a direct heel but is the guy standing in Zayn's way. That's all it takes. The atmosphere is amazing, easily the best of any NXT title match to date. Zayn gives Neville a cheeky wave while sitting in the corner during Neville's entrance. "Let's go Sami/Neville sucks" chants after the bell followed by a huge OLE chant. Both guys take a minute to soak the atmosphere in and let it breathe before jockeying for position. Waist takedown by Neville followed by a good series of basic mat counters and stalemate. Arm counters go into an almost chickenwing hold from Neville. Zayn works free, Neville flips out, and we stalemate again. After some corner counters they hit the jets. Zayn grabs Neville running and hits a tiltawhirl backbreaker. Neville rolls out to the disgust of the crowd. Zayn hits a springboard moonsault! Neville takes his time getting back in, taking the full count, but when he does Zayn hits him with a heel kick for 2. Neville forearm for 2. Basement dropkick to the back of Zayn's head for 2. Neville grabs a chinlock to slow things down a bit. Zayn armdrags out. Neville hits a European uppercut in the corner for 2. A series of kneedrops is followed by another chinlock. This is one of those instances where it's not stalling or time killing, it's letting the match breathe. Subtle but important difference. Neville missile dropkick off the second rope for 2. He starts kicking and slapping Zayn while Zayn is on his knees in a very arrogant way. Zayn slaps back and hits a clothesline! Dropkick. Neville rolls out again to break the momentum. Zayn loads up a dive. Neville pops back in and headscissors Zayn to the floor. Now Neville goes for a dive. Zayn gets back in and backdrops him down to the floor. Zayn tope con hilo hits! Great sequence there. Zayn crossbody off the top for 2. Neville slips out of a suplex, standing switches, Zayn hits a back elbow, hits the ropes, Neville cartwheels, Zayn catches his legs, lifts him on his shoulders, and turns him around into a blue thunder bomb for 2! Neville jawbreaker and running European uppercut. German suplex for 2. Zayn fights out of a powerbomb attempt, knucklelocks Neville and runs up the ropes, Neville counters with a spin kick and hits the sit out powerbomb for 2! More forearms from Neville. Zayn wants more! Slugfest. Zayn clothesline with a Neville 360 sell. Neville dodges the Helluva Kick. Zayn's down in the target zone. Neville goes up top as the crowd chants "NO!". Red Arrow! ZAYN GETS HIS KNEES UP! He hooks on the Koji Clutch! Neville just gets a foot on the rope! Zayn goes for the corner explo...no, Neville counters into a roll up for 2. Zayn's kickout sent Neville into the ref and the ref is down! Zayn checks on the ref while commentary screams at him for not pressing the advantage. Neville superkick! A poisonrana drops Zayn right on his head! Cover. Zayn kicks out! The crowd is going absolutely inzayn. A forearm exchange staggers both guys. Zayn ducks a kick and hits a German. Rolling Germans! Except the third one is an exploder that flips Neville completey over! Helluva...no, Neville rolls out. Oh the crowd really didn't like that. Zayn runs around and hits the corner dive tornado DDT! Helluva kick! But Neville pulled the ref into it and he's down again! "This ref sucks" chant from the crowd. Neville goes out and gets the belt. Zayn kicks him and cuts him off. Now Zayn looks down at the belt. The ref is still down and working very hard to not be able to see anything. Zayn picks the belt up. Thinks. Loads. Hesitates. No, he won't do it! Neville uses the distraction to roll Zayn up, and the ref is back. Zayn JUST kicks out! Corner exploder! HELLUVA KICK! Zayn wins! Full Sail University is going to need to build a new roof over this arena because the old one just got blown off. Unbelievable match. The best NXT title match to date. ****3/4

After the bell the locker room empties to come out and congratulate Zayn. Kevin Owens leads the charge and has a huge hug for his best friend. After that is a huge celebration reminiscent of Bret Hart's title win celebration at Wrestlemania 10. Pat Patterson is even out there. Neville is back up, and after a brief tense minute he and Zayn hug it out. One last handshake from Owens as the ring clears. Zayn celebrates some more by himself before going to leave. Owens is out again as the copyright graphic comes up and he and Zayn leave together arms over shoulders...............until Owens grabs Zayn's throat and drops him on the entrance ramp! Powerbomb onto the ring apron! Kill Steen Kill! He walks off as GM William Regal runs in looking pissed off. "Get some bloody help!". Zayn is still down as we fade to black. What a finish. So begins the Triple H tradition doing big angles at the end of Takeovers after the copyright graphic has already shown making everyone think the show was over.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS: NXT ends their first year in the spotlight with easily the best Takeover to date, and the template of what Takeover will be in the future. Huge debuts for Owens and Demon Balor, Banks' coming out party, Zayn's emotional win in an incredible main event, and the massive heel turn to close the show. NXT was poised for a huge year of growth in 2015, in large part thanks to this show. On the other side, still works in progress: the tag division and commentary. They'd get there.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: A-