Figured we should get some threads going on here and spice things up. I know @Messiah and @Hanley! watched the latest Takeover last night from the chatbox and may have some thoughts, anyone else?
I thought No Way Jose and Austin Aries was better than expected, Jose I enjoy for what he is, and I like that he has a bit of a street fighter edge to him and isn't just the "dancing guy" all the time. Aries always has solid work and is a pretty damn good heel, although the crowd loved him here anyway. Good to see Hideo Itami back and that GTS brought the house down. With a year on the shelf, hopefully he's better adapted to North America now and can really show what he can do in this feud.
Cien Almas and Bobby Roode was a decent little match. Almas is struggling mightily so far in NXT, the crowd's don't seem into him and here was no different them supporting Roode and his amazing entrance music. I thought Almas had his best outing though, hitting some cool moves and looking comfortable. Roode has a bright future in NXT or on the main roster, although a pump handle slam for a finisher is just awful.
Ember Moon has a solid debut match. I like the look and she has some cool visual offense and her finisher look great. Clearly they're high on her, and with Bayley maybe being gone, her time may be sooner than we think.
The Tag Title match was fantastic, best on the show in my opinion. Ciampa and Gargano have gelled really well as a team and The Revival always deliver in these big matches. The ending 5 minutes or so was great, with some awesome near falls and some serious hard hitting offense. The Dusty Finish was well done and made the loss that much more painful. It looked like they were teasing a Ciampa heel turn afterwards. I'd hold off, the tag divison is thin and they need this team right now I believe.
Bayley vs Asuka was pretty good, if a bit of a letdown for me. Asuka looked really good battering Bayley easily in the early going. Cocky Asuka has been great. Bayley showed good fire, but the story pretty much was that she just isn't quite good enough to beat Asuka really. She has one last burst near the end before going down. The sendoff was really cool, and it certainly looks like she's main roster bound now.
Nakamura vs Joe has the big fight feel, with the cool violin entrance for Shinsuke. These guys pummeled each other as you would expect. I'm happy to see Nakamura win, the guy was the biggest star on the show and he probably deserves a title run in NXT. I hope Joe isn't hurt too badly, looked like he was favouring his jaw after the match. I felt like these two have a higher gear that they never hit in this match and hopefully we'll see it in a rematch.