NXT Takeover Wasn’t a Homerun

Last week, NXT Takeover was almost unanimously praised on the blog and the internet at large. For me, I enjoyed the wrestling just fine. It was fine. With the roster and talent that is typically booked on these NXT shows, it’s hard to put together a show that DOESN’T have very good wrestling. As a snarky internet fan, why DIDN’T I like NXT Takeover XXV as much as everyone else?… The creative was terrible.

Let’ be clear, this isn’t a review of the show in the traditional sense. What really struck me was the lack of good creative decisions and overall staleness of the presentation last week. There is a certain block of tricks and tropes that came across to me as very old and tired to me on last week’s show. I find it curious that so many fans who complain about WWE’s creative direction and storyline are so willing to give NXT Takeovers a pass simply because Johnny Gargano can wrestle very well. Here’s how Triple H and his NXT team have been passing off the same show to us for the last 5 years that no one seems to be noticing.

Step 1: The Hot Opener

Matt Riddle is much better than I thought he was. On the indies, it would be fair to say that I just didn’t “get it” and I still don’t care for the gimmick. One thing is for sure, Matt Riddle can put on some kick-ass matches in a featured role and he has been able to express his natural charisma in NXT in ways that I hadn’t been able to see before. I’m also a big fat Roderick Strong mark and have been going back to the early aughts. It was a good match and the workhorse of the NXT’s main heel stable is beaten clean. On its own, I have very little issue with this. From a broader perspective, it was almost exactly the way these shows have opened so many times before, with a few exceptions going back as far as I care to remember.

We had:
-The Owens debut
-KENTA/Breeze
-The Revival/Vaudvillains
-Liger/Breeze (more on that later)
-Balor and Joe/Revival
-American Alpha/The Revival (THAT MATCH… you know the one)
-Bobby Roode/Tye Dillinger (two Ontario guys opening the show in Ontario for crying out loud)
-Roderick Strong/Eric Young
-Cien Almas/Gargano
-Undisputed/AOP
-the big ladder match for the North American Title
-Undisputed/Burch and Lorcan
-Undisputed/Mustache Mountain (CRAZY… one of the best tag matches I’ve ever seen)
-Riddle’s debut
-War Raiders/Undisputed
-War Raiders/Black and Ricochet in the last good War Raiders match ever.

To be clear, I’m in favor of having the Big, Fat Hot Opener ® segment to set the table for the evening. Under normal circumstances, the show should almost always start as hot as possible without detracting from the main event attraction later in the night. The issue I had with this particular Big, Fat Hot Opener ® was that it was a retread idea on a show littered with bad, tired, and retread ideas. Also, if you pay attention to the participants in many of those segments, it’s been dominated by the Undisputed Era members for the past 2 years. IT has been the same guys in the same spots for 2 years.

Step 2: The Big Car Crash Gimmick Match

THIS was the match I had pegged as the Big, Fat Hot Opener ® but instead was used as the other trope that is now being overused on the recent past of NXT shows. You have to have the big car crash multi-man match every Takeover. As Ladder matches go, there were ALL sorts of issues with what was happening creatively. First, The Profits were clearly winning because they had cool new flashy gear and none of the other teams did. Consciously or sub-consciously, the crowd already knew the finish based on the entrances. Secondly, the match really didn’t highlight Oney Lorcan’s haphazard style and I sat there watching the match for 20 freaking minutes waiting for that moment that highlighted Lorcan’s babyface fire and breakneck style. That moment never came to be.

The big bad heel stable Undisputed goes out there, and the match, some part intentionally and some others not as much so, puts over what a sympathetic babyface Kyle O’Reilly is for getting his ass kicked. This is a version of everything obnoxious about the main roster, WWE-style, 50/50 booking. The Profits won the actual match, but the only person that got over as a babyface was Kyle O’Reilly- who’s supposed to be a slimy heel.

Whoever decided to have Ryker literally stop the match in its tracks with that nonsense belongs in their own special circle of hell. When you’re 1 inch taller than Shawn Michaels and only 20 lbs heavier, you don’t get to be the one-man wrecking machine monster, heel-type guy. It didn’t help that it appeared that he, and everyone else in the match, seemingly all forgot what was next while Gunner stood awkwardly in the middle of an empty ring. This was a bad idea on top of a retread idea that we’ve seen on these shows plenty of times already.

I’m almost tempted to label this match under two separate Takeover Tropes, but I’ll briefly cover it here instead.

Velveteen Dream carved out his own spot on these NXT shows by having these epic, character-driven feuds that culminated with match ups that compared on contrasted the shape of his massive character to his opponent. It was fresh and new when he faced off against Alister Black. It has been said in the worked environment of Pro Wrestling and in the very real combat environment that “styles make fights.” That’s all well and good, but as of right now, that’s all Dream has to offer. Dream comes out, does his act and then we are all supposed to imagine how on earth he’s supposed to have a match with his wildly different opponent of the current Quarter. You can only do that once and, like clockwork, win or lose, Dream wraps up his feud at Takeover and then moves on to the next “hard to imagine” opponent. Question: What happens when Dream makes it to the main roster and faces Alister Black again? Anyway, that’s been a spot on the card for most of Dream’s run in NXT. This is a reused idea, but not nearly as well-worn as…

Step 3: Tyler Breeze Puts Everyone Over

This is perhaps, LITERALLY the oldest NXT trick in the book. Tyler Breeze is very charismatic and can put on some pretty good matches. No matter how many times you beat him, he won’t be any more or less over. Now that Breeze is done putting over the entire WWE Main Roster, he’s finally returned to his original stomping grounds of NXT. The WWE seemed to be very careful to control the narrative of what Tyler Breeze’ role was in NXT when he left to go to the Main Roster. In case you forgot, his role was to always put everyone over on Takeover. Breeze having a good match on TV and losing is exactly the same thing he had always done in NXT and is exactly what he was doing on the Main Roster since he left Developmental. It wasn’t that long ago that Tyler Breeze put over an active NJPW wrestler on a WWE show who wasn’t even under contract to the WWE. That is how clearly defined his role is. He doesn’t even beat visiting wrestlers from other promotions crying out loud! Tyler Breeze has exactly 1 win on an NXT takeover and it was on the first show over 4 years ago. This includes the losses to Liger, Apollo Crews, Everyone in a 4 way, Finn Balor, and KENTA. So, in a masterstroke of creativity, WWE sent Tyler Breeze back down to NXT so that he could make a triumphant return, confront Velveteen Dream for a big Takeover match, and then lose on Takeover. It’s exactly where he left off when he left and it’s another retread idea on this show.

Step 4: Shayna Bazler is dominant and isn’t a very good Pro Wrestler

If you’re wondering why Baszler’s matches all seem to be running together, there is a very good reason for that. Baszler has an undeniable presence, she can cut a pretty decent, believable promo, and she has some sexy, sexy biceps. There are a few things that Baszler doesn’t have and unfortunately, they are all directly related to having good pro wrestling matches on a pro wrestling TV show. Don’t get me wrong, she’s had some watchable and even good matches, but those have been despite her limited ability and not because of it. When it comes to timing, strikes, body control, and ring awareness, Baszler might be the worst of any of the NXT Women’s Champions they’ve ever had. Provided she is working on the ground with some type of translated limb work, Baszler is in her zone and looks as confident as anyone on the planet. Once it is time to do all the “in-between” and “pro wrestling” stuff, she looks like a fish out of water. Unfortunately, she hasn’t improved much in those departments since she debuted a while back. As usual, Baszler came out, looked like a badass, and struggled to get through a pro wrestling style pro wrestling match on the pro wrestling TV show for a period right up to or nearly past her limit.

Then, Io loses and beats up the victorious champion after the match. Just like when Becky Lynch tried to turn heel on Charlotte at SummerSlam 2018. Just like when Charlotte Flair tried to turn heel on Ronda Rousey months later. Not only was this creatively lazy, but, at this point, we already know that this gets a babyface reaction while that never seems to be the intent. It’s the worst of both worlds: retread idea/undesired reaction.

Also, has anyone in the WWE stopped to ask themselves why on earth there are just fucking Kendo Sticks on demand underneath the ring and around ringside all the time? As much shit as HHH gets for the Sledgehammer, I can at least explain to you why tools, chairs and other implements are typically available on demand under the ring. Yes, before you challenge me, I can even give you a kayfabe reason for there to be tables available at ringside and other places throughout the event space as well. However, THERE IS NO REASON FOR ANYONE on ring crew or security staff to need a LITERAL TORTURE DEVICE handy at any point during their day! The segment started with a retread idea and ended with a nonsensical, retreaded idea.

Step 5: The Johnny Wrestling Match

For any of you that have made it this far, I’m warning you now. This is where I shit on everyone’s favorite NXT stalwarts. Johnny Gargano having the ***** match of the night is NOT A NEW IDEA. This show was on autopilot creatively from the second Mauro, Nigel, and Phoenix signed on. Not only was the creative out of whack for this match, but the booking itself made no sense. The match was good. Actually, the match was fantastic. I’m stuck on this one question that won’t leave: Am I the only person that remembers that these two have already had a “2/3 falls, good guy overcomes the whole heel stable and all the odds while single-handedly closing the entire storyline epic blow off” match?! The finish of the last match was Gargano taking out COLE’S ENTIRE HEEL STABLE and then pinning him cleanly in the middle of the ring. That’s it. There’s nowhere good to go after that. The loop is closed. They booked a return match (pointless), with no further stipulations (anti-climactic) and then put over the heel… clean (counter-productive). I said it. The main event of this show was pointless, anti-climactic, and counterproductive.

A) I Don’t have any problem with the heel going over. It shouldn’t have been clean.

B) I don’t have a problem booking a return if there was an issue that escalated the stakes. There wasn’t.

C) I don’t have a problem with a return match that added something to the feud. This match only served as a retcon.

I don’t feel this match was better than the Mania weekend show. I don’t feel the lead into this match was any more intriguing than how we ended up with Gargano as the champ in the first place. I don’t think that anyone was cornered into running this matchup again without anything added to further a storyline or to conclude one.

I’m trying to think of a boring Wrestling show that typically has good wrestling on it somewhere… Oh ya, it’s called Monday Night Raw. There have been worse Takeover events for sure. I just don’t think I have EVER sat and watched an NXT show that struck me as so creatively rote and intellectually boring. Well… Then I sat through Super Showdown yesterday. Even then, at least Goldberg/Undertaker was a shit show that had real-life drama.