tuning in to takeover

Not-so-fresh off of the NXT TakeOver show aptly named "Rival", I guess it's time for a BLOG POST for the minimum amount of people that bother reading it to understand my TRUE thoughts.

I CAPPED THIS BLOODY IMAGE

I didn't bother with the pre-show for the first time ever. I don't know what happened there but I can only imagine an interview or two with someone guest starring on the pre-show panel as the Full Sail fans scream shit and try to be important on screen again? I dunno, just a guess.

Really wish that Enzo & Cass match against the Vaudevillains was actually televised fer fuck sake.

I won't really lie, with the last couple of shows having Itami tease the G2S and him facing Tyler Breeze, who protects his face (or at least, used to before the main event push he got months ago), made me hyped in a way for this match, mostly because I was pretty fucking sure Itami was going to actually finally hit the G2S, I could mark, the audience could finally get their marking over and done with, but it seems the bookers want to continually tease everyone, probably until Itami goes against Balor for the championship in a couple of months... 

The constant cheers and gasping explosions every time Itami lifts someone onto his shoulders isn't something I want to see for weeks on end. Just get it over and done with in a match that makes sense, in other words, THIS FUCKING MATCH.

As for the match itself, it was a step up for Itami. The match was typical but well done, nothing to really flaw, and thankfully Itami's finisher has finally gained some traction and looks a bit damaging, as opposed to the extremely weak barely-hits-the-opponent look it has had since debuting. Also Balor stole his double foot stomp so Itami's in the dark here without the Busaiku or G2S. Not entirely his fault.

Unfortunately I wish I could skip this Corbin/Dempsey match because it was truly a let down, but uhh, I guess I have to comment on it to seem impartial (which I am, I promise).

A let down for sure, but not exactly a horrendous match. People still constantly forget that these two talents are actual developmental talents and not 10 year veterans like the other guys, so it's not exactly expected to pull off something great.

It was bad, but it wasn't horrendous. The few botches and the awful finish, as well as the pointlessness of the no-disqualification stipulation all add to how the match was slow and plodding as well as both guys looking confused as to what to do.

Maybe there's too much attention given to the bigger stars? Maybe these guys don't get the resources they need, the trainers attention, etc, to pull off a decent match? Who knows, but the four-and-a-bit minute length of the match and the awkward ending made me think it was cut short. It's all speculation though.

Can I skip this tag match too? Bloody hell.

None of the spots in this match that went bad were caused by Buddy Murphy or Wesley Blake. Somehow, the veteran and good wrestler Sin Cara kept screwing up even though he has impressed in the past. Maybe he's just phoning it in for a pay check now, knowing he'll never be utilised more. But Kalisto's botches were bad too sadly.

Also the booking was horrible with the constant near-falls not being anywhere near fast enough to warrant the existence in the match. Pretty bad overall, but I blame the Lucha Dragons.

HERE'S WHERE IT GETS GOOD, APPARENTLY.

Finn Balor vs. Adrian Neville

TWO OF THE BIG FIVE FACING OFF, GUYS. :)

Was it a good match? Aye, of course it was. Was it the MOTN? I wouldn't give it that. Why?

Well, for what it's worth, Kofi Kingston is a good wrestler, but a lot of people like to say all he does is jumps and strikes. True that, that's all of his offence. So what if you put two guys who just do jumps and strikes in a match, but the audience loves them? You get a "Match of the Night"!

Honestly, it was a good match and I'd probably give it a healthy 3.5 STARS, because of the performance, logical back and forth and bumping/selling of both guys involved - they know what they're doing - but the combat was too formulaic and at some times it was a little bit nonsensical.

Fighting over the top rope was basically the 'theme' for this match and it's honestly not a good 'theme' at all. You have two guys whipping eachother around in the ring and then trying to finish with a diving move from the corner, I don't get that. It adds nothing to the match when both guys have to take out 10 seconds to actually do their finisher. If this match wasn't revolving around Neville or Balor getting to the top rope to actually do some legitimate damage (in a kayfabe sense) then it'd be a lot better, but unfortunately, the combination of a good number of diving moves, attempts at diving moves and attempts at getting to places FOR diving moves, it's much too spot filled for a singles match.

The outcome was alright though. This match being longer than a championship match makes sense because it's for a shot at the championship and the two guys involved are two of the best booked guys on the roster, Finn being virtually unstoppable, as well as Neville being the most accomplished NXT roster member of all time (in NXT) adds to the length making sense, unlike Itami vs. Breeze taking up more time than a tag championship match, even though the match was made because of a fight backstage.

P.S. That handshake at the end is really overdone. It's so clear that there's going to be another guy turning after a handshake eventually because of how much they do it, but it makes the show look too FRIENDLY, as if the only bad guy in the company is Fat Kassius Ohno.

THE REAL MATCH OF THE NIGHT, FOLKS.

Charlotte (c) vs. Sasha Banks vs. Bayley vs. Becky Lynch in a F-F-FATAL FOUR WAY MATCH!

Was it a good match? Aye! OF COURSE IT WAS. Was it the MOTN? Aye! OF COURSE IT WAS.

In all honesty this match is a bit weaker than the past divas matches at NXT specials, but overall on the night it was the best match. Fatal four way matches are built on a large number of spots in WWE, it's formula and it's how it works, it's how fatal four way matches are booked and they get booked well most of the time because of it. Sadly though it's the match of the night, I'd still not even give it FOUR. I'd give it a slightly-healthier-than-the-last-match-rating 3.75 STARS.

The culmination of all teamwork and friendship coming to an end BEFORE this fatal four way was a unique way to book it, as most of the fatal four ways culminate the friendships ending (or rarely create new alliances) DURING the match, however as this one had everyone break down before the match, it made it more interesting. The spots were fairly decent and they were neither over the top in numbers or in stature like Balor/Neville was,

I don't really know how I feel about the ending though. John Charlotte probably will never tap out at this rate. I hope she goes to the main roster now though, get popular and then bring in Sasha in some months.

THE M-M-MAIN E-EVENT!

Two more of the BIG FIVE FELLAS, and THE BIGGEST OF THE BIG FIVE, FAT KASSIUS OHNO, takes on the great Sami Zayn and inevitably wins "via referee stoppage".

Not really much to say on this considering I already said a fair bit about it, but I suppose I'll probably ramble anyway.

I wasn't really a fan at all. The so-called "story" that made it a "great match" in some peoples' eyes was, to me, rushed, and even if you wrestle 10+ years on the indie scene I don't think you should win a championship even in developmental (especially in developmental, you don't need it!) in the first two months of debuting, and honestly you shouldn't just get a shot at it willy-nilly. Obviously the story was there for that quick opportunity to make sense but it was booked that way.

These two things took the match from something I could have been invested in, to something I didn't like just because of principle. Just like Reigns winning the Royal Rumble because it was both so expected that everyone knew it would happen, and the guy didn't deserve it, Owens comes along and wins a match we 100% expected him to win, and does it so quickly that he doesn't deserve it.

"But he worked so long on the independent scene!"... Does it really matter? If anything this means that he should work a feud not revolving around a championship and leave the championship open for talents that still need the development but are still otherwise decent enough for a title reign. Throwing these indie stars in like that is stupid not just because of aforementioned reasons but also because there's so much hype behind them that they can transcend the championship level, have matches in the middle of the card, and leave the championship matches to actual developmental talent.

On to the match though, after the rambling. It was alright, but the overselling at the beginning by Zayn reminded me somewhat of HBK vs. Hulk Hogan at the SLAM OF THE SUMMER we all know about. Getting clotheslined in the corner and then bouncing and twirling about immediately was so over the top ridiculous, and then he followed it up by getting thrown into the turnbuckle again only to bounce about again. Then he was out of it for what, ten minutes, and all of a sudden had a huge comeback, and Owens sold the assault like he WASN'T dominating for ten or so minutes?

I understand the concept of an adrenaline-based comeback, but that 'comeback' was too quick, too strong, and lasted way too long, and it made the match look ridiculous. This isn't some blind ass hate because I really like Zayn and he is easily among the best sellers WWE has ever seen in history but when you're that good at it, you're bound to go overboard at one point, and this match was overboard, and it made it look way too excessive for the most part.

The selling at the end where Owens sadly actually won the championship (2 months in) was good though, but a good ending doesn't make up for 10+ minutes of stupidity. 3 STARS!

Thanks to Shalashaska

tuning in to not raw but nxt

SPOILER (four weeks in advance): I don't care enough about Raw, so this is about NXT, which I am also late to watching.

The face of 1,000 pains

Tonight's show seemed like a fantastic example of how the NXT booking is better than just 'good', the fans are worse than just 'embarrassing' and the talent are still a mixed bag, but a respectable mixed bag nonetheless.

Starting with Enzo & Cass honestly made me excited for the two seconds before I realised we were getting yet another Carmella match. It's sad really, two of the best talents (and the undeniable best tag team on NXT and possibly on the entire roster right now) taking a back-seat to another talent to get them over without really progressing their own storyline at all.

I'm not against the grouping of Enzo & Cass with Carmella, because they all play their roles very well, but so far it has been months of Enzo getting pushed away by Carmella, and nothing has changed but Carmella's attitude becoming increasingly bitchy and heelish, as it should.

The match was nothing special as expected, but I still think Carmella has shown infinite more promise than Bliss did in her first few matches, though one of them was jobbing and the other is pushed seemingly as a STAR ATTRACTION.

WHAT'S NEXT? A match that was spoilt three or more weeks in advance because people can't keep their fuckern mouths shut - Corbin vs. Neville.

Again, nothing particularly special about the match, but Corbin showed more promise than I honestly expected. There were a lot of little things that Corbin did that I personally, with my enlightening wrestling knowledge, wouldn't think would be 'good' for such a monster character.

We all know Corbin was undefeated up until this match (since his official debut), and knowing that he was going to lose one way or another (yes, by interference) made me keep an eye on what Corbin would do in the match. I noticed a lot of short, fast bursts of speed from Corbin which I don't think are exactly characteristic of him, as he has been at an average if not slow speed for the entirety of his NXT run so far. Not exactly a bad thing, but not good either.

What I thought was more problematic was him going for early covers over Neville and Neville inevitably kicking out, especially after the hard Irish whip to the corner. It was an awkward situation and I really think it made Corbin look weaker than he probably should have in the match.

It was as if he wasn't just having problems putting Neville away, which isn't problematic by itself as Neville is statistically the most dominant NXT star in history, but it was also as if Corbin was both desperate to finish Neville off, and panicking when he couldn't. This could also be attributed strongly to Corbin seeming to be lost in the midst of the match, since he had the upper hand for most of it, and may not have known what to do.

The "PISS BREAK" match! Bayley vs. Becky!

I actually like both of these gals and I hate the idea of calling a women's match a 'piss break' just because I may not be entertained by it. It's an awful meme and isn't even fundamentally funny in any way at all either. Anyway, I digress. The reason I said it was because the crowd was either tired... or just didn't care about Bayley all of a sudden. Maybe they were confused because of what she did to Charlotte a while beforehand? Maybe they HATE Bayley now?! I don't know, but people seemed to be disinterested in the match for some reason (yet hyped as fuck for the main event...).

When it got to the match though, I couldn't blame them. I haven't any doubt about Becky being a capable wrestler overall, but she has yet to really impress me in the ring. Outside of it, sure, but inside of it, she seems awkward, slow, and incapable of working either as a heel or a face in the so-called "WWE style".

Sadly Bayley's knee selling was a little bit inconsistent too. At least it wasn't Charlotte-esque where she magically healed her leg/back injuries to WIN THE TITLE!

And lastly... this BLOODY FUCKING main event. Hideo "most of my fans don't know who I am bar the fact I used Punk's and Bryan's finishers before they were cool" Itami vs. Finn "most of my fans don't know who I am bar the fact I am from NJPW and have fancy fucking body paint" Balor with his goddamn accented 'e'.

If anyone reading this also reads my posts on the www.wrestlingforum.com, which I hope 100% of you do as 100% of the few people that would ever read this should be from there, you'd understand my disdain of the fame and attention these guys get just for being who they are, especially from these pretentious try-hards that populate the full-sail arena primarily on the televised side.

The match itself was a solid attempt at the so-called "WWE style" by two foreign talents who have only started wrestling that "style" in recent months. It's as if someone backstage told them that WWE matches involve rest-holds as a staple so they decided to make a match where about two thirds of the match was actually rest-holds, which kinda sucked in a way because, though I'm no fan of the Puroresu strong style with big ol' kicks, chops, etc, I wanted to see a nice blend of both, but it seemed as if the only strong style influence in the match was just a remnant of their past career and wrestling habits.

My main gripe, as per usual, were the aforementioned pretentious try-hards that populate the full-sail arena. As soon as both of these guys - who combined have been on the NXT roster for less time than a recess break - stepped in the ring, and the music ended, the geeks in the crowd just had to chant "this is awesome". Before probably late 2013, I'd agree with almost every chant of "this is awesome", but since then, I've noticed that the chant is just filler for marks marking for wrestlers they like about three quarters of the time.

But to make matters even fucking worse, these geeks chanted "we're not worthy".

..."we're not worthy".

That was actually a real chant. Sadly, it's not the first time it has been used on NXT.

I understand the concept of having fun, but you really don't need to make the average wrestling fan feel alienated because they're not obsessive creepy nerdy marks like you are. You have to stop this shit. It's like if you're a fan of comic books and you walk into a comic book store just to pick up a new comic book and you have an overwhelming feeling of embarrassment because you realise you're grouped with those four guys in the corner literally circle-jerking over Black Widow or some shit.