NXT Takeover: Brooklyn III

Legacy Review

NXT Takeover: Brooklyn III

August 19, 2017 from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY

Commentary: Mauro Ranallo, Nigel McGuinness and Percy Watson

Summerslam has found a regular home, for a while, in Brooklyn so we're getting the third annual Takeover from Brooklyn. With the first ever large arena Takeover being in Brooklyn the NXT roster generally considered this their top Wrestlemainia-level show and always made sure to show up as such. We've got more turnover at commentary as Tom Phillips has made his move up to the main roster, and in an absolute coup for Triple H has been replaced by the great Mauro Ranallo. Mauro spent all of 2016 and the first part of '17 as Smackdown's lead commentator, but never meshed well with the main roster style and didn't work well with Vince screaming in his ear all night (and also reportedly had serious issues with JBL). He left WWE a couple of weeks after Wrestlemania, seemingly for good, but agreed to come back for Trips when he called.

With Mauro in the booth I'm introducing something new for Takeover reviews: The Mamma Mia Meter. Nothing complicated, it's simply how many times Mauro shouts "MAMMA MIA" each match and total for the show. I actually had the idea to make this a Twitter account back at the time but never really got it off the ground.

Eschewing the usual intro video, the show opens with a live musical performance. Nothing earth shattering but it's a nice change of pace, and takes up the same amount of time the intro video would have. Also of note: the arenas of Vince's shows are starting to be filled with those Bullet Club shirts.

Andrade Cien Almas (w/Zelina Vega) def Johnny Gargano in 13:13- The long awaited Tommaso Ciampa turn on Gargano finally happened at the last Takeover in Chicago, but unfortunately Ciampa tore his ACL during the match and so the follow up feud had to be put on hold, leaving Gargano to tread water a bit until Ciampa was ready to go. On the other side, Vega had just taken over as Almas' manager and was making it her life's mission to bring some badly needed focus to Almas' career, as he'd been meandering through NXT a little too tranquilo. Huge "Johnny Wrestling" chant from the crowd at the bell. No 50/50 crowd here. They go straight into some nice mat wrestling to start, ending in a stalemate. More basics follow with Almas doing the Los Ingobernables fist pose while holding a headscissors. Gargano escapes, hits a flying headscissors, armdrag, and does a lot of maneuvering into a crucifix cover for 1. That whole opening was a tremendous showcase of crisp technical wrestling. More "Johnny Wrestling" chants after that. An Almas back elbow cranks the intensity up a notch. Gargano hits some chops in the corner. Almas gets Gargano hanging on the ropes, hitting him with a neckbreaker and reverse DDT. Almas then hits his own big chops. Running kick for 2. Gargano tosses Almas into the ropes and he does his tranquilo pose. Instead of waiting Gargano tries to attack him. Almas grabs the rope dangling armbar. After that Almas stays on the arm for a bit. Gargano counters with another armdrag and a drop toe hold into the turnbuckle. Almas lifts for a suplex. Gargano knee strikes out. Double clothesline! After both guys recover we go into a stiff forearms and chops slugfest. Gargano gets the edge with running forearms and hits his rolling kick. Slingshot spear! Cover for 2. Both guys roll through counters and Almas does his rope tranquilo pose again. Gargano superkicks him to the floor! Tope suicida! Gargano hits the slingshot DDT back in for 2. More counters, Gargano goes for the slingshot spear again, Almas catches him and hits a kind of reverse GTR. Tornado inverted DDT from Almas! That gets a long 2 count. Almas sets Gargano up top and chops him. Gargano blocks a superplex, headbutts and chops Almas. He goes for a sunset bomb but Almas flips out of it! Spinning back elbow. He sets up for the meteora. Gargano cuts it off with an enzuguri. Almas hitptosses Gargano upside down in the corner. Gargano dodges the meteora! He spins around into the GargaNo Escape! Center of the ring! After a bit of a fight Almas rolls over, lifts Gargano, and drops him with a buckle bomb! The meteora hits! Gargano kicks out! Almas hits some knees to the face and to Gargano's hurt arm. Gargano superkick! A second! He lawn darts Almas into the middle turnbuckle! He sets up to finish it. Vega throws a shirt at Gargano! We never get a good look at it but from the color it's clearly a DIY shirt. Gargano reacts like he's seen a ghost. Almas dropkicks him! Hammerlock DDT! It's over. After the requisite 30 minutes of replays Gargano continues to stare the DIY shirt down. Fantastic opener, with the ending brilliantly keeping the DIY breakup in everyone's minds as we wait for Ciampa to get healthy. And as great as it was, it's only a preview for the classic they'll have at the Rumble Takeover in Philly the following January. ****   Mamma Mia Meter: 0

Raw and Smackdown GMs Kurt Angle and Daniel Bryan are shown watching the show from a suite, along with some NXT wrestlers not booked at presumably lobbying for callups. Corey Graves gets introduced to guest commentate the next match. Unfortunately no one leaves so unlike last Takeover we do get the AEW-sized 4 man booth.

 

NXT Tag Team Championship: Sanity def The Authors of Pain (c) (w/Paul Ellering) in 12:04- It's Alexander Wolfe and Killian Dain representing Sanity in the match, with Eric Young staying ringside alongside Nikki Cross. AOP charge in during their entrance and the brawl is on! Wolfe gets dumped to the floor and AOP double up on Dain. They get him out and we get a rare heels stand tall moment while the faces recover. But not for long as the brawl quickly continues on the floor. The bell has not rung to start the match yet. Young gets a table out from under the ring while that's going on. Eventually Akam pushes Wolfe back in the ring and the ref rings the bell to officially start. AOP use quick tags and double teams to work Wolfe over. Wolfe dodges in the corner and goes for a tag. Young hops on the apron and wants the tag! Wolfe obliges. Young is in and Dain goes down to join Cross ringside. All part of the mind games plan apparently. They go to the floor again and Akam clotheslines Young over the barricade. Wolfe and Rezar fight in the ring while Young and Akam brawl in the crowd. Once that settles down and everyone gets back in AOP blind tags, with Rezar catching a flipping Young and slamming him. Rezar does some talking after, loosely translated as "You dirt eating piece of slime! You scum sucking pig! You son of a motherless goat!". It loses a bit from the original Albanian. Another double team from AOP gets 2 as their superior teamwork is dominating the match so far. Rezar grounds Young with a kind of anaconda vice. Young fades then fights back up. He dodges in the corner, hits a shoulderblock, and tries to slide back in but Rezar grabs him by the throat, lifts him up and drops him back down the long way. Young dodges an avalanche and gets a tag to Wolfe. Hot tag run. Exploder suplex on Akam! German suplex on Rezar! Wolfe does his crazy dance, which is the best German dance ever seen in a wrestling ring. Alex Wright eat your heart out. Again AOP teams up to get the edge back. Assisted powerbomb on Wolfe for 2. AOP set up for an avalanche powerbomb. Wolfe counters with a hurricanrana! He crawls over and gets the tag to Young. Quick neckbreaker. He goes up top but Rezar catches him. AOP go for a double team superplex. Cross runs over and grabs Young's feet to block it! Akam doesn't see and powerbombs Rezar! Young hits the elbow off the top. Akam pulls Rezar out. Young tope suicida! Wolfe hits a plancha! Cross gets up and into the ring! The crowd loves that. Ellering gets in the ring with her! They argue with the ref in the middle. Ellering gets more ref attention giving Cross and opening to goe up top and dive to the floor! Akam catches her! Dain charges and crossbodys them both through the table! MAMMA MIA! Young rolls Rezar back in. Sanity hit a modified Decapitation Device, with Young doing a neckbreaker. Young covers and gets the pin and the titles for Sanity! Big pop for that, partially for Sanity's win but mostly because the belts are finally off AOP. Very good match that played perfectly to both team's strengths. AOP looked like they had learned a lot during their title run and working with teams like DIY and The Revival. ***1/2   Mamma Mia Meter: match- 1, show- 1

But wait! AOP gets attacked on the floor after the match! It's Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly! reDRagon is here! Fish and KOR had already signed separately with NXT and had their singles TV debuts, but this is the first time they've done anything together in NXT. Mauro mentions that they'd dominated ROH and New Japan as a team, getting a nice name drop in. After jumping AOP they get in the ring, attack the new champs, check the belts out, and leave.

 

Aleister Black def Hideo Itami in 12:24- JR makes his second straight Takeover appearance, joining the booth for this match. Again no one leaves so this is definitely starting to feel like an AEW PPV with the floating 4th man in the booth. It's great having him and Mauro together though, and they work well together. This is frustrated heel Itami, pretty much pulling from his real life frustrations. Black gets a live play-in for his entrance. Both guys want to tear into each other before the bell. The bell rings and both charge in with kicks. Jawing and shoving. Black hits a hard kick to the chest and Itami goes down, then rolls out. Black does his springboard dive tease into the lotus position. He blocks an Itami PK and hits a strike combo for 2. Itami maneuvers in the corner to get a kick in. He drapes Black over the top rope and hits him with a kneedrop off the top. Some ground and pound follows that and Itami shouts to Black, and the crowd, "Show me respect!". He beats Black down some more and cranks Black's neck. Black is bleeding from his nose or mouth. Think it's the nose. Itami PK to the back. Another kick to the back. He asks the crowd "One more?", hits it, asks again, and says screw you, we're chinlocking instead. Snap mare/kneedrop combo and Itami does the arrogant dirt back kick, then sits down an mocks Black's lotus position pose. Black fires up with forearms. Itami pulls his hair into a DDT. And more chinlock. Black snaps Itami's arm to get out. Corner dodges, Black kicks and he gets a combo going. Sweep kick and knee to Itami's head. Black's springboard moonsault barely catches Itami with his feet for a 2 count. Too much height and not enough distance. He calls for the Black Mass and starts to lift Itami up with his foot to end it. Itami grabs a waistlock to counter. Black hits a back elbow and corner kicks. Itami gets on the second rope and hits a tornado neck snap over the top rope. Clothesline off the top for 2. Fisherman's suplex for 2. Black gets staggered with a backfist. Itami goes for the corner dropkick. Black blocks it with a roll up for 2. Big kick to Itami's head. Black goes up top. Itami fights up with him and they slug it out up top. Itami hits an avalanche falcon arrow! That hurt him too and he's slow to cover, giving Black time to kick out. Black pops back up! That was pretty Undertaker like. Slugfest into crazy rapid fire strikes. It's like they're both doing Wolfe's dance. Itami hits a backfist. Black gets a high knee. Itami falcon arrow for 2. The corner dropkick connects with the back of Black's head! The knee pad it off. Itami hoists Black up for the GTS. Black elbows out. Itami hits knees to the gut, another kick, and jaws angrily to the crowd in Japanese. Black ducks a clothesline. Black Mass outta nowhere! That gets the pin! Very good match with the stiff strikes you'd expect from these guys, but the connecting parts weren't quite as good as they could have been. ***3/4   Mamma Mia Meter: match- 0, show-1

This would end up being Itami's final Takeover match. He'd stay in NXT until December when he got his main roster call up, where things didn't go any better for him there than they did in NXT. He asked for his release and it was granted in February '19, ending what Itami later called the most frustrating time of his career. After his release and some time away, he shocked the wrestling world by not returning to Pro Wrestling NOAH, but instead going to New Japan for the first time in his career. He made a shock debut at Dominion '19, back as KENTA, and promptly entered himself in that year's G1 Climax. I was actually at his first New Japan match in person, his G1 opener against Kota Ibushi, because that was the year the opening night of the G1 was in Dallas, the first time official G1 matches had ever been held outside of Japan. No way in hell was I missing that so close to home. It's still one of the best wrestling nights of my life, and not just because of the awesome show, but also because we discovered after the show we were staying in the same hotel as the wrestlers. Those are stories that will not be made public.

 

NXT Women's Championship: Asuka (c) def Ember Moon in 14:50- Asuka's title reign and undefeated streak have reached mythic proportions, almost becoming like the Undertaker's Wrestlemania streak in being a center point of Takeovers. Her title reign is at 504 days, easily the longest for any NXT title, while she'd been undefeated for nearly two years, unofficially topping Goldberg's streak. With all that, I remember going into this show thinking tonight was the night she was finally going to get taken down. I didn't want it to happen, but I thought it would. This is Moon's second one on one shot at Asuka, having lost to her at the Orlando Takeover. She was supposed to be in the Fatal Four Way at Chicago but got injured just before. The crowd seems a little more pro-Asuka on intros, but that could just be the New York crowd booing any mention of Dallas. Typical. Moon charges in and surprises Asuka with a one foot dropkick as soon as the bell rings! After some more kicks and a suplex Asuka rolls out for some space. She dodges a Moon baseball slide and moves around to get a back kick in. Moon kicks Asuka from the apron, goes up to the second rope, and hits a cannonball senton to the floor! Asuka rolls in and rolls right back out another side. Moon follows again and Asuka pulls her into the steps. She strikes Moon up the aisle. Suplex on the ramp! Moon landed on the same arm that had just healed from injury. Back in Asuka targets that arm and attacks it relentlessly. She really cranks a hammerlock, putting Moon's arm into a very ugly looking angle. Moon tries to counter but Asuka drops her back on her arm with an STO. She surfboard stretches Moon's arms out and viciously kicks her in the back. Huge 50/50 dueling "let's go" chants from the crowd. Asuka wraps up a cobra twist with some extra leverage on Moon's arm, then switches to a Fujiwara armbar. Moon lifts Asuka up and drops her. She ducks an Asuka backfist and hits kicks. Enzuguri from Moon for 2. Asuka German suplexes Moon into the bottom turnbuckle! She goes for the Asuka Lock. Moon fights it getting locked in. Asuka switches arms and tries again. Moon blocks it again. Asuka snaps her bad arm! She gets the Lock mostly on and rides Moon's back. Moon drops backward to break it up. Asuka goes for it again. Moon rolls over into a Bret Hart cradle for 2. Basement clothesline from Moon. Both women dodge and Asuka hits a hip attack for 2. Moon blocks a corner hip attack and hits a tornado suplex off the second rope for 2. That was unique. Some smart psychology there as she looked to be going for something else, like a DDT, and had to adjust mid-move because of her hurt arm. Moon hits knees to the gut and a high knee. Asuka responds with open hand strikes and hits a backfist. High knee from Asuka and she pummels Moon with kicks to the face. Moon counters with a side slam for 2. She goes up top and Asuka joins her. Moon slips down. Asuka blocks a powerbomb attempt. Moon kicks her down into the tree of woe and stomps her down for 2. Moon goes up top again with Asuka right in the kill zone. THE ECLIPSE HITS! FULL ON 100%! *ASUKA KICKS OUT!* Good God almighty what a reaction. What a near fall. Moon is shocked and the crowd is going bonkers. She goes up top again. Asuka gets the ref in the way. Moon goes over the ref with a crossbody! Asuka rolls through it, covers Moon, and grabs a handful of tights! The ref sees it just before 3! Asuka and the ref argue. Moon superkick! Cover! ASUKA KICKS OUT AGAIN! The crowd is going mega bonkers now. Moon tries to get Asuka back up. Asuka was playing possum and spins into an armbar! Moon rolls over and cradles Asuka over for 2. Asuka counters into the Asuka Lock! It's fully cinched in! Moon tries to fight....BUT HAS TO TAP OUT! Holy shit I cannot tell you how nuts I went when that happened. Like I said, I really thought Asuka was finally losing this one. But it was not to be. The streak continues. Another amazing match from these two. Going back and watching both their Takeover matches again I'd honestly forgotten how well they worked together. ****3/4   Mamma Mia Meter: match- 0, show- 1

The title reign didn't last much longer however. At some point during this match Asuka hurt her collarbone, necessitating some time off. Never would have guessed it watching the match. It was decided that Asuka would voluntarily relinquish the title on weekly TV, having never been beaten. Her main roster call up took place right after, where she'd quickly be a Survivor Series sole survivor and win the first ever women's Royal Rumble before the undefeated streak finally ended the next Wrestlemania at the hands of Charlotte Flair. To this day Asuka is still undefeated in NXT, and after some rough patches following the first loss has had a main roster career worthy of one of the all time greats, opening the door to WWE for other joshi greats like Kairi Sane, Io Shirai and Meiko Satomura.

 

Before getting into the main event I want to go into some detail on Drew McIntyre's career to this point because it's been a hell of a ride. After spending his early years on the UK indie scene he signed with WWE in 2007. Although he initially got a few matches on Smackdown right after signing, he spent most of his early time there in developmental and is one of the group that was in the system during the transition from OVW to FCW. He made his official main roster debut on Smackdown in the summer of '09, under the heel "Chosen One" gimmick as Mr. McMahon's personal "future world champion" protege. That gimmick saw him quickly win the Intercontinental Title, but before long fizzled out and he was left meandering around in midcard hell. Then came 3MB, looked back on nostalgically now but at the time it was never going to get him or anyone else in it anywhere. McIntyre knew that, asked for his release, and was granted it in June '14. He returned to the indies, working for ICW in his native Scotland as well as EVOLVE and PWG and, most notably, signed with TNA under his real name Drew Galloway. There he found his feet, becoming one of the company's top stars and winning the TNA World Championship. He left the company in early '17, sparking immediate speculation that Triple H's super-indie style NXT might be an opening for him to return to WWE. Sure enough, McIntyre (back under that name) was the "look who's ringside" tease at the Wrestlemania weekend Orlando Takeover, and his NXT signing was made official soon after. He was kept off the May Chicago Takeover as he was still being warmed up, but was quickly put into the #1 contender spot for what was generally considered the biggest Takeover of the year.

 

NXT Championship: Drew McIntyre def Bobby Roode (c) in 22:25- McIntyre gets a super special entrance with the NYPD pipe and drum corps playing him in. Roode gets the same entrance he had at Chicago. They go nose to nose after the bell, showing a pretty decent height difference. Back off, back in and LOCKUP. First of the night. McIntyre gives Roode a quick clean break in the corner. Roode ducks another lockup and hits a chop. Things break down quickly into a brawl. Big shoulderblock from McIntyre and Roode powders. McIntyre is patient and waits him out. Back in Roode hits more chops and goes into stick and move mode. McIntyre quickly escapes a Glorious DDT attempt. Roode says it was that close, waves the arms and...."GLORIOUS!". Then he shouts "This is MY NXT!". On a corner whip Roode tries to vault over in the corner one too many times. McIntyre catches him with a kick and Roode does a crazy flop sell halfway across the ring. Chops from McIntyre. A huge big boot puts Roode down. Deadlift suplex toss and he 360 clotheslines Roode to the floor. This time McIntyre quickly follows with chops and a barricade drop. Roode is selling like a maniac. He gets up and tries for a crossbody off the apron. McIntyre catches him. Roode tries to push him into the post. McIntyre blocks and hits a back elbow. McIntyre tiltawhirl slams Roode on the apron! Hardest Part of the Ring TM. The crowd gets loud 50/50 dueling chants going. McIntyre tries to suplex Roode off the apron to the floor. Roode barely blocks it and spins McIntyre around to neckbreaker him in the ropes. Roode hits a blockbuster off the apron to the floor! He works McIntyre over with elbows coming back in. More chops and a corner clothesline. Neckbreaker for 2. Missile dropkick off the second rope for 2. Roode ground McIntyre with a chinlock, then tries a sleeper. McIntyre backs him into the corner. Snap belly to belly from McIntyre. He drops Roode on the top turnbuckle. Corner running forearm. Clothesline off the top and kip up. Roode hits an inverted atomic drop and kneelift. McIntyre catches another Roode crossbody, lifts him up and hits the celtic cross for 2. Roode snaps McIntyre over the top rope from the apron to try to get some space. Back in both guys fight for leverage on the top rope. McIntyre gets crotched and falls into a tree of woe. Roode sits there and brags. McIntyre pulls himself up and flips Roode off! Of the top rope. To be clear. McIntyre tunes the band up. Roode won't get up. McIntyre goes over and lifts him up. Roode, to the shock of no one, was waiting for that and jackknife covers McIntyre for 2. McIntyre hooks up for the Future Shock DDT. Roode counters into a backstabber for 2. Corner chop/punch beatdown from Roode. The ref makes him back off so Roode hits another corner clothesline. He goes for another neckbreaker. McIntyre counters into a backslide for 2. Future Shock! Roode kicks out! McIntyre lifts Roode up again and climbs the ropes for an avalanche celtic cross. Roode slips out and uses the position to hit a running Ligerbomb style powerbomb for 2. Slugfest as both guys get up that gets more and more intense. Roode switches gears with an enzuguri. McIntyre hits the Claymore! Roode falls against the ropes and McIntyre has to roll him back over. Roode gets a foot on the rope at 2! After McIntyre gets off he falls to the floor. The ref physically stops McIntyre from following so he can count. Don't like that call, McIntyre can't win the title that way. Bad reffing. McIntyre charges and dives with a tope con hilo! MAMMA MIA! He rolls Roode back in and tunes the band up again. Roode counters with a spinebuster! He drags McIntyre up and goes for the Glorious DDT. McIntyre backdrops out. Roode uses that to try to get a sunset flip cradle. McIntyre stacks him up for 2. Roode comes off the ropes. McIntyre tiltawhirls him....but Roode whirls into Glorious DDT position AND HITS IT! McIntyre kicks out! Roode staggers up. Another Glorious DDT! But no cover! Roode wants the double. Glasgow Kiss headbutt from McIntyre! Claymore! McIntyre gets the pin and wins the title! Very good match that had pretty much all the elements, especially Roode's selling and they had good chemistry, but there was just something missing that kept it from hitting that top level. Not an all time great Takeover main event. This would end up being Roode's major NXT finale. He'd get a final sendoff on weekly TV putting Roddy Strong over, then move up to the main roster, where he'd quickly become Just Another Guy because Vince didn't like his song or something silly like that. ***1/2   Mamma Mia Meter: match- 1, show- 2 (This will become much more lively on future Mauro shows)

As McIntyre celebrates with the title the crowd starts going crazy for something that's clearly the opposite direction of the ring. Then we see reDRagon are back and staring McIntyre down from the apron. But they don't move in. Someone jumps McIntyre from behind. IT'S ADAM COLE! ADAM COLE IS IN NXT BAY BAY! And reunited with Fish and O'Reilly. They hold McIntyre for a Cole superkick. Cole gloats over McIntyre, holds the belt up mockingly, then the show closes with Cole, Fish and O'Reilly standing tall. A new era of NXT has arrived. And that, my friends, is undisputed.

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- Simply another great Brooklyn Takeover. Everything delivered, and it ended with one of the best debuts in NXT history for one of the greatest that's ever been in NXT.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: A