TAKEOVER: R-EVOLUTION

December 11, 2014

Kevin Owens . . . has a memorable NXT debut, and then makes sure to be remembered after the main event.

Sasha Banks . . . tries to steal the show like a boss!

Adrian Neville . . . shows just how far he’s willing to go to hold on to the NXT Title.

KEVIN OWENS vs. C.J. PARKER

Well, if nothing else, this was a memorable debut for Steen, even though it’s too short to be much good. He comes at Parker right out of the gate with a big lariat, and debuts the flying cow (a counterpart to Daniel Bryan’s flying goat). There’s even a little blood courtesy of a shotei from Parker. Of course, being in WWE-land means no more package piledriver, although maybe they’ll let him bust it out for a big match or a hot angle. The pop-up powerbomb isn’t the worst idea, although it’d look more impressive from someone taller.

SIN CARA/KALISTO © vs. SIMON GOTCH/AIDEN ENGLISH (NXT Tag Team Titles)

The champions provide the flashy flying spots, and the challengers are the crafty, and carny, bastards, so, it’d be nice to see what they can accomplish with fifteen minutes to work with, instead of half that time. There’s nothing bad at all, but, they have to keep things moving instead of letting any themes or story develop. There’s no real moment during the Vaudevillians control segment where it really felt like Sin Cara was in danger of losing the titles for his team. The best moment of the match is just after the hot tag when the champions do the stereo planchas, but Gotch runs away, and they both take out English. It’s funny, but it also makes perfect sense for Gotch to do. It seems like Gotch’s selfish move is going to pay off. Gotch is fresh and both champions are down, but right after he rolls in Kalisto, he gets planted with the SDS and pinned. It’d have come off so much better if Gotch had been ready to put him away, only for Kalisto to get the SDS as a surprise counter.

BARON CORBIN vs. TYE DILLINGER

Snake Eyes, running boot, and End of Days (a pretty bad ass name, I have to admit). That’s the whole match.

HIDEO ITAMI/FINN BALOR vs. KONNOR/VIKTOR

God bless the fans for being red-hot throughout this, but, this isn't much more than a nice preview of what to expect from the former KENTA and Devitt. It's structured like your typical formula tag team match, but, Konnor and Viktor are far from interesting. They work over Itami with your average, generic, big man offense. A lot of it is aimed at Itami's midsection, but there's nothing from either the heels, or Itami, to suggest that they're actually targeting it. To their credit, Konnor and Viktor's one good idea really gets the crowd riled up. Itami is inching closer to Finn for the hot tag, and then Konnor takes out Finn with a lariat to his legs to knock him off the apron. It's not exactly an original idea, but the crowd goes crazy. Itami gets a bit of revenge when they tease the Fall of Man, only for him to pull Konnor to the floor.

Finn gets the hot tag and shows off his willingness to fly, while the match breaks down in the usual way. Finn gets a nice near fall from the reverse DDT, and the fans go nuts when Itami teases the GTS, although the Busaiku doesn't get much of a reaction. The dual diving stomps make for a nice enough finish. The match accomplished its goal of showcasing what exactly Itami and Finn are capable of, but, they need to work with a team that can do more of the heavy lifting in the middle to build up to the tag.

WWE could be having matches like this for the Diva’s Title every month, if someone decided to actually make the title, and division, seem important. This isn’t perfect by any stretch, but, it still beats the five, or less, minute matches that the main roster features. There a few points where they make the cooperation too obvious, like the moonsault spot (although it’s still not as bad as Ibushi’s version), and Sasha’s flipping bump from the spear. But, they make up for that with their intensity, and fun parts like Sasha’s Flair strut, the straightjacket stretch, and the bump that Charlotte takes into the corner. The finish is a nice breath of fresh air as well. Instead of some long, drawn out, setup that ends with Charlotte hitting her finish off the top, it looks spontaneous. Charlotte stops the superplex and sees Sasha is in position for the move, so she goes with it and wins. I’m not in any great hurry to either of them on the main roster, although I’d like to see more of Sasha, but there isn’t any good reason as to why AJ Lee and Paige couldn’t do something similar on PPV. ***

As great as it was to see Sami finally win the big one, the match itself doesn’t measure up. They have their smart moments, like Sami getting the knees up to block the Red Arrow, and segueing into the Koji clutch. Sami’s own internal conflict about taking advantage of the chance to bend the rules was another nice touch, especially the payoff when he decides to play it straight, and nearly loses because Neville was willing to take advantage. But, this just doesn’t have the epic feeling that it seems like Sami’s big win ought to have. They don’t do anything stupid, like in their PWG match when Sami also got knees up on the Red Arrow, but, at the same time, neither of them really seems to want to cut loose. Neville going full heel, even for only this match, would have gotten the fans that much more behind Sami, especially if he had used the belt when he brought it in. Sami never seems to be in any real danger of losing. The Red Arrow comes far too early, and the only other big spot from Neville was the reverse rana, but, that’s never been a big finisher for him. Sami throws in a few nice touches to show how he’s staying ahead of Neville, besides the Koji clutch, he also catches Neville on a handspring and does an Electric Chair drop into a Blue Thunder driver. The finish is nice enough, with Sami stunning Neville with the suplex into the corner and making sure the ref is clear (Neville had previously pulled the ref into Sami’s path) before he cleans Neville’s clock with the Heluva kick to finally get the title. The work itself may not be outstanding, but, the end result, and the angle afterwards with Owens attacking Sami, is the main thing to take away from this. ***

Conclusion: This was quite the fun show, even with a main event that didn’t quite hit on all cylinders. There wasn’t anything bad, and, while there’s certainly room for improvement (which is expected from the developmental league), there’s plenty to see here that shows they’re going in the right direction.