NXT Takeover 2 Discussion Thread

[prophet]

NXT Championship Match
Adrian Neville (c) vs. Sami Zayn vs. Tyler Breeze vs. Tyson Kidd

NXT Women’s Championship Match
Charlotte (c) vs. Bayley

NXT Tag Team Championship Match
The Ascension (c) vs. Kalisto & Sin Cara

Hair vs. Hair Match
Enzo Amore vs. Sylvester LeFort

Singles Match
Mojo Rawley vs. Bull Dempsey

- The debut of KENTA
- During a Twitter Q&A earlier today Triple H was asked if another of the new signings would be debuting. He responed 'Yes. Have to watch and see'. So expect to see either Prince Devitt or Kevin Steen

PUMPED FOR THE SHOW. NXT! NXT! NXT!

[axis]

Watching the show, holy shit how good is Enzo and Colin Cassidy! FIrst time watching them and they are gold. This shit would go over big time on the main roster

[KaiserGlider]

First time I've watched NXT since I sorta-watched NXT Arrival way back in like February(?). But despite not knowing much about the wrestlers or keeping track of the stories, I really liked tonight's show.

Tag Team Titles match was a good way to start it off. I really dug Kalisto in particular and "the human pinball machine" is a great name for the guy. It's cool that there was a title change here. The commentators sold it like it was a huge upset. I can't say if that's true or not, but the commentary made it feel like a huge moment. BTW, commentary is better than any other wrestling show.

I forgot what the guy's name was who won the squash match, but I thought it was actually an effective way to showcase the character. He had basically the same stony expression on his face the entire time, squashed the guy, and then just left the ring without celebrating or anything. Made him look like a badass.

The KENTA segment was meh. I don't like his new name, it's really generic and forgettable. What happened to the days of Undertaker, Kane, The Rock, Stone Cold Steve Austin? Memorable names. Looks like Kenta's gonna feud with the Ascension first. I'm interested to see why they attacked him, hopefully they'll cut a promo on the next show explaining that. Could be something as simple as "we wanted to target the biggest dog to get out names out there". Which certainly makes sense.

Great way to hype the main event, with a video package for all four guys.

Enzo and the other guy seem like pretty over midcarders. Its always good when you have characters that can get the crowd involved very easily, which these guys did. OK match. Also a good call to have the heel run away from the barber chair at first, only to lose his hair later in the show. Gives him some heel heat while still giving the fans the conclusion they wanted.

I was really impressed with all the women's stuff on this show. Like I said before, I haven't followed any NXT storylines, yet the video package for this match did a great job explaining why these guys are fighting and what their characters are about. Bayley is a really likable babyface. Before this show I thought her gimmick was really silly and wouldn't amount to much, but after getting invested in this storyline, I take that opinion back. This was the best women's match I've seen in... I honestly don't know how long. And that's saying something, because TNA's knockouts have been doing pretty well lately. Bayley loses but looks great in defeat, even kicking out of Charlotte's moonsault. Both competitors look good coming gout of this one, and Bayley finally winning the title can still be a huge moment somewhere down the line.

What the fuck kind of name is Mojo Rawley? This Bull Dempsey guy is giving me a real Rhino vibe. Another squash, although slightly more competitive than the first one. Not much else to say here I guess, I wanna see where these guys go from here.

The crowd is really good too. They seem to be pumped for everything and everyone.

The Fatal 4 Way for the title was outstanding. A slow start, but really really picked up later on. I think these guys went like 30 minutes, it felt that long at least. I thought the match was going to end multiple times. In fact, I think every guy here had a really convincing near fall at some point in the match, which is quite impressive. I agree with the finish too. The champion looks good in victory, and they can build to a huge Neville vs Zayn match later on which ends with Zayn winning the title.

Really good show which can potentially lead to an even better one. The journeys of Sammy Zayn and Bayley can build towards huge blowoffs at the next NXT Takeover.

[prophet]

Really enjoyed the show as always.

The Ascension dropping the titles made sense - they've held the titles for the best part of a year now and the most credible team they beat was Too Cool. I was getting tired of seeing them dominate matches as the commentary team harped on about how they're 'the most dominant champions in NXT history'. Kalisto and Sin Cara are a brilliant team - they're a lot of fun to watch and compliment each other well. It's nice to see the Sin Cara character finally doing well (they've allowed Hunico to slow his pace down and focus on the moves) and I was happy they got the big win. Lu-cha!

The squash match was really well done. Darin Corbin is a good worker (not fond of the 'Baron' name though) and what made his dominance all the more badass was the fact he got the jobber entrance. I think people expected CJ Parker to get the win seeing as he had an actual entrance but he was manhandled in like, 20 seconds. Looking forward to seeing him in the coming weeks.

I get why they renamed KENTA - so they can own his new name and make money off their own property but I don't like it. It's nice that he's changed his name as a tribute to his hero but I guarantee he'll just get KENTA chants at every single show he appears on for the rest of his career. They've already acknowledged in-depth his history within professional wrestling, why fix what isn't broken?

Looks like Kenta's gonna feud with the Ascension first. I'm interested to see why they attacked him, hopefully they'll cut a promo on the next show explaining that. Could be something as simple as "we wanted to target the biggest dog to get out names out there". Which certainly makes sense.

I'm not so sure. I think The Ascension came out because they were pissed and wanted to demand a tag title rematch from Regal (who was also in the ring), KENTA happened to be in the ring and so he was a victim of circumstance. Unfortunately for the Ascension they were embarrassed by the new boy and the feud (if they indeed feud) will go off that. I think the Ascension will be moving up soon anyway, so they won't be around NXT much longer.

Hair vs Hair was the worst part of the show for me. I'm not a fan of Enzo or Big Cass and whilst I understand why people like them, I'm not one of those people. The match wasn't that good and they really dragged out the actual cutting of hair (that didn't happen to the right person anyway).

The NXT Women's Championship match was actually my favourite match of the show. Both women did really well and put on a great match, they even got the 'this is awesome' chants at one point. Charlotte continues to improve and she's a great champion for the division but my MVP for the night was definitely Bayley. I've seen Bayley wrestle a couple of times and she's definitely been improving every week but last night she really stepped up and impressed me. She's just so likable and looked brilliant in defeat, hopefully she'll get another shot.

Fatal-Four-Way was just as good as I expected it to be. Like Kaiser said, everybody had a moment in the match where it looked as though they were about to win. I think they built towards the chaotic finish really well - Tyson Kidd controlled the bout well in the early going, Sami Zayn was fucking incredible as always and I was rooting for him to win so much. Tyler Breeze was suspiciously less-involved than I wanted/thought he would be but still got some good offence in. The finish was really well done and I didn't see it coming - Neville cements his legacy further as NXT Champ and we have the first hint of a Neville/Zayn feud which is going to be insane.

NXT yet again proving itself to be the best show in wrestling.

[Racing Guy]

It was an epic show. The main event was one of the best matches I've seen this year. Also, what a great women's match. On Raw they don't get enough ring time to even break a sweat but those two went at it.

[Messiah]

I'm still going through to finish the pay-per-view but I have to say, NXT just gets the little things right.

This is how you establish faces and heels. This is how you establish your champions. Sami Zayn is just a likable guy. Zayn's character and story structure has been phenomenal. The slow-burn for his eventual NXT Championship win is the best thing I have seen in years. Cagesides said it best when comparing Sami Zayn to Dusty Rhodes and Tommy Dreamer as a character rolled in one with the wrestling ability of Ricky Steamboat. How can you not root for Zayn right now? He's worked his ass off and puts on the best matches night in and night out and keeps falling short and yet every loss seems to make him stronger. The fans love him more and more despite the fact he has lost at every single live event so far (which is a strategy I appreciate). Meanwhile, Adrian Neville has been built as a dominant champion (if his word is to be true in the first vignette of the show, I wouldn't know for sure, he hasn't even lost a match yet while you see the champions in the WWE routinely losing on free television). Naturally, it has gotten to his head and now it sets up a future battle between bad guy Adrian Neville vs. good guy Sami Zayn. It's brilliant.

Besides Zayn, The Lucha Dragons are just a team you want to cheer for. They make sure everyone knows who is face and heel. They give you a reason to cheer and boo rather than just telling you, "Hey, here is Dolph Ziggler, cheer for him!" KENTA isn't being portrayed as just some international superstar. They established quickly that he is a badass who won't take shit from anyone, not even The Ascension. Charlotte's natural progression as a character showed here. We were given a reason to not only like but love Bayley.

This might not have been a show with the best wrestling (I haven't finished yet, but the tag team match was very solid, especially towards the end). However, I'm emotionally invested into everyone and feel obligated to tune in every week. I'm so stoked to see Sami Zayn finally get what he deserves and that is the NXT Championship. I hope they continue to take it slow with Neville's full-blown heel turn too. Have him just be a bullshitter who thinks the fans are still behind him and that he is a good guy, because if you think about it him pulling out the referee like Prophet said in the chatbox wasn't necessarily heelish. It was his facial expressions and actions after it that cemented that fact.

Other Thoughts:
- Enzo Amore is awesome.
- Sylvester LeFort is awesome.
- However, their match did suck so much and I couldn't wait for it to end.

[Messiah]

Also... when did Tyson Kidd become such a good talker?

[prophet]

Also... when did Tyson Kidd become such a good talker?

Around the time they actually gave him a character!

[Tom]

I thought it was a very good show overall.

The main event started off slow but when it picked up it was incredible. There were some great spots in it and some awesome moments. I agree with Prophet that Tyler Breeze didn't shine as much as I would have expected but it didn't hinder the match either. Sami Zayn does such a great job of getting the fans behind him. He conveys his emotions so well, has great timing with his moveset and just seems like a fun personality overall. When Neville pulled the referee out of the ring you couldn't help but sympathise with Zayn. And the best part of it was that they actually managed to create a good moment; one that was shocking but also made sense. Whether this leads to a heel turn I don't know. The great thing about NXT is that they can try new things and build on that moment without turning Neville heel; something they most likely would do on the main roster if he committed such an action. It'll be interesting to see what direction they take but judging by the post show, it seems that Adrian Neville vs Titus O'Neill maybe on the cards in the future, possibly as a filler feud until the next pay per view when hopefully it will be Neville vs Zayn.

The debut of Kenta was decent but nothing special. Why WWE feels the need to change names I will never know. Kenta had a much better ring to it, and was easier to remember. Fair enough they want to own rights to certain names and obviously couldn't do it with the name Kenta. But if they are going to introduce him as Kenta then they may as well leave him with that name? Maybe I will get use to it but it would have been cool for him to stick with Kenta. Having him beat up the Ascension was a good move; although they have fought limited competition they have been bigged up and are well established with the NXT fanbase. It put Kenta over well in my opinion. I am looking forward to watching his first match next week, it should be interesting.

Charlotte vs Bayley was another example of what happens when you book diva's with a competitive edge as opposed to the norm. The video package before it did a good job of making me care for the match before it begun and the match lived up to my expectations also. The only problem I have with it is that I never got the impression Bayley was gonna pick up the victory at anytime, so it was a little predictable for me. But it was still better than anything WWE have brought to the table in terms of the diva's in quite some time. It wasn't as entertaining for me as the Paige/Emma match though from a couple of pay per views back.

The tag team title match was also a good way to start the show. I was really impressed with Kalisto. With all the talk that Sin Cara was gonna be the replacement for Rey Mysterio through the years, this guy seems to be a much better option. He's fast and his moveset is awesome. He's adapted much better than Hunico (or Mistico for that matter) have in my opinion. In saying that Sin Cara also compliments him well and the "Lu-Cha" chant is pretty awesome. I am glad the Ascension lost, they are a decent team but I question how they will get on on the main roster. I don't think they're better than the likes of the Uso's, the Rhodes, Harper/Rowan etc. So it will be interesting to see if they can make themselves stand out from the pack. I am looking forward to seeing how Kalisto and Sin Cara fair with the titles.

Enzo Amore is a fun character and he has great chemistry with Colin Cassidy. I am looking forward to seeing more from those two in the future. The match itself with Sylvester Lefort was decent but nothing special.

I get a Bill Goldberg vibe from Baron Corbin as well, I can see them taking a similar route when booking him as well. I think they went with the shock factor here, especially by giving him the jobber entrance. Looking forward to seeing more of the character. However, I was a little disappointed that CJ Parker's opponent didn't end up being one of Fergall Devitt or Kevin Steen.

Overall it was a good show, I recommend those who have not seen it yet to give it a watch!