NXT Takeover: Orlando

Legacy Review

NXT Takeover: Orlando

April 1, 2017 from the Amway Center in Orlando, FL

Commentary: Tom Phillips, Nigel McGuinness and Percy Watson

It's Wrestlemania 33 weekend and NXT is taking over (pun intended) the large Raw-sized arena for the first time on the big week. This is also the first Saturday Takeover during a WM weekend, pushing the Hall of Fame ceremony back to Friday. NXT has been in a bit of a holding pattern since the last Takeover with Vince and co waiting to do main roster callups until after WM so there's some similarities to the card for the last Takeover. This is also the night that all of NXT's title belts were replaced with the versions still in use today (more or less), signifying it is indeed the start of a new era. McGuinness is making his Takeover debut in the booth. Along with his Blue Peter badge, always love that he wore that for shows.

Triple H opens the show with a quick mini speech, either pre-record or from the back since he's not in front of the crowd, saying NXT is taking WM week over and NXT has come home. After that the opening video focuses on NXT's history, mostly on events that took place in the promotion's home base of Full Sail University, which is down I-4 in Tampa.

Mixed Tag Team Match: Sanity def Tye Dillinger, Roderick Strong, Ruby Riot and a mystery partner in 12:23- This grew out of the Eric Young/Dillinger match that opened the previous Takeover. No Way Jose was scheduled to be in the match but Sanity took him out at Axxess that afternoon. His surprise replacement is....Kassuis Ohno (Chris Hero)! Ohno returned to NXT for his second stint, mainly as a player/coach, in December '16. The faces line up on the floor, Ohno shrugs, they all charge in and the big brawl is on! The men clear the ring while the two women brawl, and being the last two in the ref rings the bell for the official start. Cross hits a crossbody and does her crazy unhinged attack on Riot. Hair toss. Corner dodges and Riot knees Cross into the middle turnbuckle. Cross tags out to Wolfe. Wolfe does his crazy unhinged dancing, not seeing Ohno tagging in. Ohno floors Wolfe with a straight right hand! Senton for 2. Ohno works Wolfe's arm a bit. Young distracts, allowing Wolfe to nail Ohno with a forearm and tag. Ohno gets stuck in the heel corner. Young yells across to Dillinger that it's "your fault". It's not like Dillinger could really have joined Sanity, they'd already hit their Vince-mandated max of four members. Ohno dodges a Wolfe elbow drop and tags Strong. Strong is instantly all over everyone. Olympic slam. Backbreaker. Wolfe hits him from behind and gives him a German suplex. From the German. Dain tags in for the first time and works Strong over with his big man high impact offense to a "shave your back" chant. Young does his hanging dragon sleeper. Sanity quick tags and keeps Strong in peril. Young hits an elbow off the top rope. Dillinger breaks the pin up to a huge reaction. Young punches Dillinger and Ohno off the apron. Strong tries to fight back. Dodge and Young crashes in the corner. Tag to Dillinger! Flying forearm. 360 clothesline on Young. DDT to Wolfe. Riot cuts Cross off in the ring. Dillinger crossbody off the top rope. Tope suicida! Dain hits him from behind and the bodies pile up all over the floor. Ohno teases a dive, flips over the apron, and gets a punch in before being taken out by Dain. Riot gets a wild hair and looks to dive on the guys but Cross cuts her off and they brawl in and out of the ring again. Dillinger and Young get back in. Dain gets a blind tag. Dillinger superkicks him! Wolfe breaks the pin up. They do the everyone takes everyone else out with one move bit. Strong and Dain stare down. Cross jumps on Strong's back! Riot jumps on Dain's back! Riot and Cross eliminate each other from the equation yet again. Dillinger gets Dain up for the Tyebreaker! Wolfe comes in and breaks it up. Dain hits Ulster Plantation and it's LOL Sanity beats Dillinger again. Solid opener, though I'm not sure if there was much point including the women as they didn't have very much to do. ***

Edge and brand new Hall of Famer Beth Phoenix are ringside. Wonder which one signed with NXT?

 

Aleister Black def Andrade Cien Almas in 9:35- Black (now Malakai Black in AEW) wrestled a special non-tournament match at the UK Championship Tournament in January under his indie name Tommy End, but this is his official NXT debut. Almas seems to have settled into the Tyler Breeze role of putting the new guys over. Black's entrance is really cool. Not quite Demon Finn Balor, but still cool. Lockup! Nice basic start that ends in several dodges and an Almas tranquilo pose. Standing switches and Almas ends up in the ropes with the rope tranquilo pose. Black backdrops Almas to the floor, teases a dive but springboards off the ropes instead and sits in the middle of the ring, telling Almas to bring it. Back in Black outmaneuvers Almas to get kicks in. After some headlock tradeoffs Almas gets Black down in the corner. He teases a meteora but hits the brakes and slaps Black instead. Not sure how smart that was. A suplex fight puts Almas on the apron and he hooks in a rope dangling armbar. Missile dropkick for 2. Almas works on the arm some more. Black kicks his way out and hits a quick strike combo. Almas gets kicked to the floor. Black asai moonsault! Back in they go through some suplex counters and Black gets a cradle for 2. Almas responds with forearms and his own kicks. Black ends up in the ropes and Almas does the rope armbar again. He goes up top for another missile dropkick. Black dodges it, but Almas works over into a Fujiwara armbar. Black takes a rope break. Corner poundown from Almas. Black dodges a meteora and gets a small package for 2. Almas cradle for 2. Simultaneous kicks and both guys are down. Almas does a crazy double foot Pele kick for 2. The meteora hits! Black counters out of the hammerlock DDT. Almas turns around into a straitjacket suplex for 2. He charges but runs into a Black knee. Hard kicks from Black to Almas' head. Black lifts Almas up with his foot. Black Mass! It's over. Good but not blowaway debut for Black. Over the summer Almas would get paired with the newly signed Zelena Vega as his manager and finally start getting some momentum that he had sorely lacked in his NXT run to this point. ***1/4

 

Triple Threat Elimination Match for the NXT Tag Team Championship: The Authors of Pain (c) (w/Paul Ellering) def The Revival and DIY in 23:50- GM William Regal presents the new belts before the match. Not new championships. It's the same championship, just new belts representing it. Another reason I hate the "don't call them belts" rule. Both challenger teams stare down....then turn to face the champs. The bell rings and the brawl is on. Everyone goes to the floor with DIY working on Akam, Revival Rezar. The camera focuses on the DIY side as they drop toe hold Akam into the guardrail. DIY get a table out! Akam fights back but DIY run him into the stairs. The challenger teams get back in the ring and stare down. Revival try to jump first but DIY is ready for them. Dash takes some knees in the corner. The match settles in for the first time with Dash and Gargano legal. Akam blind tags Dash and double clotheslines DIY. Rezar catches Ciampa coming off the second rope. Ciampa slips away and hits a superkick. He goes for a tag in Revival's corner but they both jump off the apron, refusing to tag. Rezar hits Ciampa from behind. Revival sneaks in and Dawson DDTs Rezar. Ciampa covers for 2. Now Revival tag in to work Akam over. Dawson gets in trouble, goes to tag in DIY's corner and they repay the favor by jumping off the apron themselves. Revival low bridge Akam to the floor. Before that Gargano had blind tagged in, and he hits a slingshot spear for 2. DIY take AOP out on the floor. Gargano hits the slingshot DDT on Dawson! Cover for 2. Gargano goes for a plancha but AOP catch him. Ciampa tries a tope suicida and AOP use Gargano as a shield! They toss Gargano into Dash and everyone is down on the floor except AOP. Rezar tags in to beat down Gargano. AOP decapitation device for 2. Akam puts Gargano in a torture rack and cranks. Gargano wiggles free, hits an enzuguri, but the tag is cut off. He pushes Akam into Dawson, and gets the tag to Ciampa. Ciampa takes both AOP out. German on Akam! Open hand strikes, knee and another German! Running knee! Akam kicks out! Ciampa tries a sunset bomb on Rezar. Rezar holds on so Gargano comes over to help. Still no luck. Revival come up, push Rezar, and he goes through the table! All 4 challengers celebrate. Akam is alone in the ring and literally cornered. But Akam, because he's big and strong, fights all four off. Ciampa fights out of a powerbomb. Dawson clips Akam's knee and puts on a reverse figure four! Gargano considers, then adds on a Garga-NoEscape! The other two try to hold Rezar back, but he overpowers them and breaks it all up to huge boos from the crowd. They want a title change tonight bad. Rezar gets worked down. Gargano and DAWSON team up and do DIY's finisher! Revival Shatter Machine on Akam! Both AOP roll out of the ring before they can be covered. The challenger teams once again stand off. Ellering eggs them on and they go at it again! For a moment. Dash and Ciampa team up to tope suicida both AOP! Ciampa goes up top. Dawson joins him. DAWSON SUPERPLEXES CIAMPA DOWN TO THE FLOOR ONTO EVERYONE ELSE! After sufficient recovery time Rezar tags in and clotheslines Dawson. Ciampa is isolated in the ring. Last Chapter! Ciampa is pinned and DIY is eliminated. The crowd is not happy about that, booing and doing a loud "bullshit" chant. AOP beat Dash down. Dash gets Rezar on his shoulders, and Dawson comes off the top with the Steiners super bulldog! European uppercut into a German on Rezar for 2. Rezar chokeslams Dawson. AOP goes for Last Chapter on him but Dash breaks it up. By getting clotheslined. Still worked. Dawson does a Bret Hart-like sleeper trap pin for 2. AOP stereo powerbomb Revival. Now the crowd is chanting "No one likes you" at AOP. Dawson deadweights Akam for some space, then small packages him for 2. Akam buckle bombs Dawson, mostly off camera and probably a good thing because it didn't look pretty. AOP hit the super collider, and get the pin to retain. Once again Revival and DIY did the work to make AOP look like unbeatable monsters, and that's four guys that will always deliver on a stage like this. ****

 

NXT Women's Championship: Asuka (c) def Ember Moon in 12:10- Asuka's hitting exactly one year as champion. This is the first time in a while the title's truly felt in jeopardy, ever since Moon's debut the previous year she's felt like the heir apparent. Asuka's done a quickie heel turn for this match, acting more and more like an arrogant entitled champion. We get the next belt swap after super special intros. Very cautious start. Rough lockup, clean break, and a roll around lockup. They're bringing the intensity for sure. The crowd is split 50/50 with dueling chants while armdrags are traded in the ring. Simo dropkicks and stalemate. Asuka offers a handshake, then pulls away when Moon goes for it. She hits a kick. Moon counters and we get some more counter grappling. Shoulderblock collision! That's what I'm talking about, you almost never see that from the women. Another one! They yell at each other and go for another. Asuka flips the script with a hip attack! Moon pops right back up and hits a dropkick. She hits a series of kicks and Asuka goes to the floor. Asuka dodges a baseball slide. She hip attacks Moon off the apron onto the guardrail. Mocking arrogant kicks from Asuka back in. Spinning backfists! The crowd continues to be nuclear for this match. Moon gets a faceplant on Asuka and pummels her with forearms. Asuka hits another hip attacks and lays in some stiff kicks. Moon blocks a German. Asuka goes for the Asuka Lock. Moon flips out and hits a HUGE forearm. Asuka rolls out again. Moon springboard dive to the floor! She goes up top, probably looking for the Eclipse. Asuka gets out of the drop zone, hits some strikes, and gets a shining wizard for 2. More hard Asuka kicks. She goes for the Asuka Lock again. Moon tries to counter. Asuka mostly gets it on, but not fully. After a long fight Moon drops Asuka backwards. Another hip attack is dodged. Moon superkick! Both women are down. Kick dodges. Moon takes Asuka down and hits a basement dropkick. Backfist and knee from Moon. Fallaway slam and kip up. Corner handspring elbow. Asuka turns and hits a German for 2. Open hand slugfest. Moon hits a forearm, wraps Asuka up, and hits an exploder suplex for a long 2. She goes up top again. Asuka leaps up to join her. Moon pushes her back down and Asuka is right in the drop zone. Asuka pushes the ref into the corner to knock Moon down! Huge kick to the head from Asuka decapitating Moon, and she covers to once again retain. Hell of a match. It was honestly much better than I expected based on what I'd seen from Moon to that point, and very physical and stiff for a women's match. ****1/2

Drew Galloway McIntyre is here! Cool. Well I'm not doing that joke anymore, it's been run into the ground.....what?.....he DID sign with NXT?

 

NXT Championship: Bobby Roode (c) def Shinsuke Nakamura in 28:20- This is a rematch from the last Takeover. Since defeating Nakamura for the title on that show Roode, character wise, has done the best impression of 1980's Ric Flair since, well, 1980's Ric Flair. That alone turned me into a fan, as I've never been a TNA/Impact watcher. No super special entrance for Nakamura tonight. Roode gets a couple of pianos playing him in, and his robe game tonight is an absolute A+. 50/50 dueling chants from the crowd as we get a look at the last of the new title belts. The chants continue after the bell rings. Both guys hit some weak exploratory kicks. Roode dives for the knee Nakamura hurt in the last match. Nakamura rotates around to ride Roode amateur style. He puts on a hammerlock. Roode counters into a headlock. Rope break and Nakamura does the head waggle. Roode can't be bothered, and laughs when Nakamura gives him the "COME ON!". He says "This is my NXT!". "GLORI"....shove kick from Nakamura! Another! Now that's got Roode annoyed. Back and forth basics until Nakamura hits a snap mare and kneedrop. Good vibrations is blocked. Enzuguri from Nakamura. Now he does good vibrations. Nakamura teases suplexing Roode from the apron to the floor. Roode blocks it, dropkicks Nakamura, then charges and knocks him off the apron. Roode beatdown mode, activated. He stomps Nakamura down in the corner and gets a warning from the ref. "GLORIOUS!" Corner chop and corner clothesline. Neckbreaker for 2. He changes things up a little by putting on a Nerve Pinch of Not My Usual Hold +1. A Nakamura comeback is cut off and Roode hits elbow and kneedrops. Now he does a neck crank. He tries a sleeper but Nakamura quickly counters out. Misdirection kick from Nakamura, followed by forearms and more kicks. He hits the corner draping knee. A baseball slide sends Roode to the floor, where Nakamura hits both the running and diving apron knees. Back in Roode counters suplex attempts and hits a HUGE clothesline. Nakamura gets a boot up in the corner and hits a running knee. He sets up. Roode dodges the Kinshasa and clips Nakamura's bad knee! Time to go to school kids! If Flair is the graduate course in knee work, I'd say Roode is...high school. Nothing to be ashamed of. He posts Nakamura's knee and picks it apart. Figure four! Nakamura fights and reverses. Roode quickly grabs a rope. He gets back on the knee. Another figure four attempt is countered into an armbar! Roode tries to block but Nakamura gets it on. Roode rolls and Nakamura puts on a triangle choke. Roode lifts him up. Nakamura counters back into the armbar! Roode fights and slowly gets to the ropes. Nakamura kicks him right in the face. Stiff angry Nakamura kicks and now he gets backed off by the ref. He goes for the draping knee again but Roode gets out and he knees the turnbuckle. Not the smartest idea, going for that. Nakamura fights back by kicking Roode's hurt arm. Roode ducks into a backstabber for 2. Slugfest. Roode kicks the bad knee again and sets up for the Glorious DDT. Nakamura knees his head in midair! Faceplant and short Kinshasa. Roode kicks out! Nakamura sets up for the finish. Roode sees what's coming and flops out of the ring. He snaps Nakamura's bad knee over the rope. Glorious DDT! Slow cover. Nakamura kicks out! Roode has a long think and rolls out. He gets the bell! The ref argues and takes it away. Nakamura kick to Roode's head! Inverted exploder! KINSH....NO, Roode counters into a spinebuster for 2! Slow crawl up and Roode lifts Nakamura. Nakamura backs him into the corner. Roode chops blocks the bad knee! He climbs up to the second rope holding Nakamura. Super Glorious DDT! That gets the pin and Roode retains. Good match, but not as good as San Antonio. ***1/2

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- While not *quite* as good as Dallas, once again NXT steals Wrestlemania weekend. As I mentioned in the open this was mostly a roster transition/hold everything else show for NXT, as signified by there being no title changes. After WM the delayed callups of Dillinger, the Revival and Nakamura finally happened, fully bringing us into another new era of NXT the rest of the year and into the next.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: A-