That Pre-Show was strange. Pat McAfee is trying to be Bobby “The Brain” Heenan but needs more polish. Like just gobs of it.
Meanwhile, Undisputed Era doing a promo without Adam Cole was the most wonderful collection of questionable WWE contracted talents. Bobby Fish has some weird chops at it, Kyle O’Reilly tries his heart out, and Roderick Strong goes “yeah!” in the background. It… works?
The Million Dollar Video Game Challenge was very weird and very bad, but I support anything that gets more of this kind of very weird and very bad on WWE TV. It beats Charly Caruso stretching for time with Sam Roberts. Graves, Woods, and AJ with the hot mics on the entrance ramp was good stuff – AJ’s “I don’t have any gloves on, but… we’re gonna do this anyway” line killed me. The tutorial popping up was wonderful trainwreck stuff too – “who’s PS4 is this?” The video game challenge winner guy played overt heel and Graves made fun of him and he just squashed AJ in 2k19 until AJ purposely jobbed. Most disappointing win of a million dollars since well a lot of ways people make millions of dollars these days.
1. NXT Tag Team Title: War Raiders [c] vs. Aleister Black & Ricochet
Absolute god damn trip of a match, god damn insane crazy wrestler men, these absolute freaks of nature. Black vs. Rowe and Ricochet vs. Hanson were both money pairings that had a crazy start against each other and then a crazier finish against each other. Hanson going toe-to-toe with Ricochet on the flips was incredible, while Black and Rowe practically had themselves an IWGP Heavyweight Title match finish as the setup to the actual finish. The Hanson somersault plancha was WOW. As was Ricochet catching big boy Hanson and giving him a fallaway slam. And Black and Rowe having a manly-off. And the tossing springboard Doomsday Device followed by the double foot stomp save. If you’re gonna do crazy you lean into crazy, baby. ****3/4
The bows after the match were great – these boys went full Japanese. We’ve gone from You Sold Out to You Deserve It. God Bless.
2. NXT North American Title: Velveteen Dream [c] vs. Matt Riddle
A match that I’m not sure settled on what it wanted to be but a match I loved all the same. First of all, Velveteen Dream has seemingly taken Nakamura’s swag lifeforce and it is a sight to see. The first few minutes of this had an Austin/Rock atmosphere, man. It was one of Riddle’s first opportunities to show his stuff in WWE in a long match and yeah I am pretty sure he is very good. He’s working this fast-paced style with barefoot kicks and sweet suplexes, like if Tazz did backflips here and there. He was working so snug too, throwing knees that’d make Kenny Omega blush, that it got Dream even more over. Dream meanwhile brought the physicality along with the top rope axe handles. So this was like a BattlARTS match with random top rope axe handles. And it was both fun to watch and a dramatic wrestling match, with the crowd hanging on all the unique counters and near falls. That’s usually what you want to happen in your wrestling matches. ****1/4
KUSHIDA is here! It is very exciting!
3. NXT UK Title: Pete Dunne [c] vs. WALTER
The wrestling created anticipation and it delivered on it, providing some kind of modern day European Inoki vs. Vader with more backflips. I like it when the wrestling tells a story outside of “oh this is a wrestling match,” so I was completely in on this from the bell. They used every minute well, pulling off some kind of physical NJPW-paced match if the first 15 minutes actually meant something. For the first 5 minutes Dunne was trying to be all tough and not intimidated, while WALTER easily tossed him to the mat and tried and tried to chop him until he finally did, which resulted in a shotgun blast sell by Dunne and a look on his face that said: “you fucker.”
This was WALTER’s best showcase on the main roster, obviously, and he delivered, from the presence needed to make this an epic match but also weird stuff like running the ropes with fluidity and that boot choke he did on the top turnbuckle that popped the crowd. I like him a lot – there’s points where he comes off as a little awkward, but there’s also points where Dunne does the finger break spot and he looks back at him with a scary menace but also as if he’s a hurt little boy and I am 100% in on it.
Dunne is the dude though. The bulk of this was Dunne on defense, which included him on his ass and doing Inoki kicks like 5 minutes in. Dunne on defense ruled, from the shots of his pained face to WALTER slapping away the finger break spot and just booting him in the fucking face. Dunne’s comeback ruled too, ranging from a running Liger Bomb on big WALTER and the most brutal double foot stomp on the floor that you ever will see. I wasn’t 100% on him going for a triangle choke on the top rope, but that insane top rope TOSSING powerbomb and WALTER’s flying splash was an epic finish. Great story, great physicality, great wrestling. ****3/4
4. Fatal 4-Way Match – NXT Women’s Title: Shayna Baszler [c] vs. Kairi Sane vs. Io Shirai vs. Bianca Belair
This wasn’t some mano-a-mano war like the other matches here but it brought variety to the show and was a good time. If this was some kind of comedown match, it was the best kind there is. Just a buncha spots, great pairings, and a strong showcase for all four. Io’s save timing on the Insane Elbow stood out. So did the Shayna era continuing. ***1/2
5. 2/3 Falls – NXT Title: Johnny Gargano vs. Adam Cole
This was an OK match.
The first fall was condescending bullshit, as if they were either instructed to slow things to a crawl early or Gargano and Cole’s interpretation of what they need to do when going 45 minutes is a hazard of time-wasting wrestling bullshit. I think the issue might be that there just isn’t any credibility to Adam Cole doing counter wrestling. But that might be personal bias due to the fact that I think he is a capable sports entertainer but might just not be a very good wrestler.
Why did Cole do a jumping kick from the floor which caused him to take a rough bump to the floor? He could’ve just punched him. Or he could’ve climbed to the apron, and kicked him from there.
They got it going at the end, because of course they did. The 2/3 falls stipulation never felt necessary though, because the first two falls didn’t feel earned it at all.
This just wasn’t a great match, it was a “great” match, and something that was perfectly wild and fun to watch, but also kind of dumb. I liked the finish with all the odds stacked against Gargano, but this just wasn’t quite my thing. And overall I think the implications of this match being a main event and also heavily praised might be bad. Thanks for reading my blog. ***1/4
TakeOver always rules, and this one had an especially stacked card. My complicated thoughts about the main event aside, everything delivered. Show of the Year. 10/10
