TAKEOVER

May 29, 2014


Sami Zayn . . . doesn’t look so hot without the Swiss Superman to bump him around.

Charlotte . . . continues the proud Flair family tradition of stealing shows and winning titles.

Adrian Neville . . . retains the NXT Title, and does so in such a way that shows he’s still not ready for the main roster.


ADAM ROSE vs. CAMACHO

While there isn’t anything bad here, there isn’t anything particularly good either. Rose is more about the character than the wrestling, so the onus isn’t on him to provide much in the way of good work, and he doesn’t, although his finisher is nice. Camacho is the one who fails to bring anything outstanding to the mix. He adds a couple of good spots, namely the lariat and legdrop, but he spends the bulk of the match sitting in a sleeper to kill time, instead of trying to take the match somewhere. Rose makes the typical babyface comeback and wins. The character is fun to watch, and probably even more fun to experience live, but, there’s just no reason at all to care about this.


KONNOR/VIKTOR © vs. EL LOCAL/KALISTO (NXT Tag Team Titles)

Well, if nothing else, this is an improvement over the Ascension’s match with Too Cool. Konnor and Viktor do a respectable job of working over Kalisto, including a couple of nice double teams. The beating isn’t especially focused, but it’s fun to watch anyway. Kalisto takes the beating just fine, but there isn’t any specific bump that he takes or a moment of selling from him that stands out. El Local is pretty much awful throughout. His movements look clunky and uncoordinated. And, as the hot tag, he’s the one expected to bring the good offense from the babyface side. The hot tag is the beginning of the end, which is blessing with how bad Local looked, and the champs win after The Fall of Man.


TYLER BREEZE vs. SAMI ZAYN (#1 Contender’s Match for the NXT Heavyweight Title)

This is miles away from what Cesaro and Sami did in February. They both show some impressive spots, but it’s everything else that seems to be missing. There’s no theme or storytelling to what they do, Breeze doesn’t show any discernable mean streak, and, as great of an underdog as Zayn is, it doesn’t work here in the same way that it worked in February. The one really nice touch is the finish, with it being unclear as to whether or not Breeze intentionally fouled Sami, or if he really did just put up his hands to block the Heluva kick. But, Sami is fouled and Breeze takes advantage to get his future title shot. It’s great that the fans were so into this, and, again, they both pulled out some nice spots, but, at the end of the day, this is more fun than it is good, and it’s definitely not the show stealer.


NATALYA vs. CHARLOTTE (Decision Match for the vacant NXT Women’s Title)

Matches like this could happen on a regular basis in the WWE, if they took women’s wrestling seriously, Nattie hasn’t had a match like this on TV or PPV. Bringing up the history of the rivalry between the Harts and Flairs is a nice touch to add importance to the match, but it doesn’t have the same impact as the history of the Flair and the Rhodes families would have. Their work isn’t always that great, which isn’t a surprise given that this is NXT, but, they both bring enough intensity to make up for it. And, it’s not like their work is bad. The early matwork is nothing special, but it’s solid for what it is, and the Fujiwara armbar from Charlotte and the juji-gatame from Nattie were an unexpected sight. But, once they start getting angry and the chops and slaps start coming out, this picks up nicely. Some might not like the sequence of them continuously rolling over in the figure four, but, they both put over the effect of the hold really well, and, them both throwing slaps while in the hold made it that much better. The only thing that could have made it better would be seeing a figure four around the post. Charlotte smirking at Bret and then giving Nattie the sharpshooter was another great touch. Charlotte sees that she’s not going to be able to make Nattie submit, but sees that Nattie is in perfect position for her finisher, Nattie bows to the queen, and Charlotte wins the title. There’s definitely room for improvement, but, it’s nice to see matches like this, to show that they’re headed in the right direction.


ADRIAN NEVILLE © vs. TYSON KIDD (NXT Heavyweight Title)

Despite having all the intensity of the women’s match, this is closer to Zayn/Breeze than Charlotte/Natalya. Moments like Kidd tying Neville in the tree of woe and punting him in the back, and Neville returning the favor later, show the intensity, but, for every nice moment like that, they’re just as often to be found flying or tossing out spots. It wouldn’t be so bad if they tried to make them meaningful, but that’s far from the case here. Their selling is fine in the short term, but, nothing seems to have any lasting impact. The two of them pull out spots that could be easy finishers, or at least lay the groundwork for an upcoming finish, but, ultimately, they’re just done and forgotten about. Neville’s huge Lygerbomb ceases to be anything more than a single near fall, and, Kidd is on his feet a minute later to give Neville a Russian legsweep off the ropes. Kidd’s somersault legdrop does start the road to the finish, but the finish is Kidd laying down. If Kidd had missed the legdrop, or gotten hung up somehow, it might have worked. Instead Kidd gets a near fall and climbs back up to the top rope, Neville leaps up to the top and does a rana to take down Kidd, and then hits the Red Arrow to retain. The spottiness was forgivable in the ladder match, but I expected more from them in this setting.


Conclusion: There’s no reason for Charlotte and Nattie to put on better matches than both Neville and Zayn. It’s not a bad show in the least, but, as should be expected with NXT, there is room for improvement.