Hawke’s NXT TakeOver: San Antonio Review

January 28, 2017
San Antonio, Texas

Commentator: Tom Phillips, Percy Watson, & Corey Graves

 

Dark Match

Wolfgang vs. Aaron Solo

This was a quick squash for WOLFGANG~! He won after an Alabama Slamma and the BME. What a way to kick off NXT TAKEROVAH, DADDIE~!

 

Main Show

Eric Young (w/ SANITY) vs. Tye Dillinger

Tye Dillinger’s “Perfect 10” deal really makes for a great undercard gimmick for him in NXT. For one of those technically proficient wrestlers who could never break out, he should be proud that he broke through to the degree that he has right now. It’s a totally respectable ceiling for a pro wrestler.

If you’re going to be doing TakeOver programs with Dillinger though, NXT needs to do a hell of a lot better than Eric Young of all people. At least the Bobby Roode match in Toronto featured the insanely (if irrationally) over Roode.

Eric Young is as plain as it gets in terms of proficient in-ring ability (the fact that he apparent had a hand in Dillinger’s training makes ALL the sense). The Sanity stable is so dumb that it HAS to be a rib on indie wrestling stables like Age of the Fall and whatever. This is such an uninspired crew, and their presence really does NXT a disservice on the whole.

The notion that this Sanity act is meant to be taken remotely seriously is just utterly ridiculous. The idea that Eric Young should be winning matches in NXT at all, let alone on TakeOvers, is so absurd that it should not make it past the writer’s table.

This match wasn’t even bad at all. It was perfectly serviceable. You just have to accept too many faulty premises to even get to the match alone, never mind the finish. (**3/4)

 

Roderick Strong vs. Andrade Almas

While the physical effort here certainly was unremarkable (*especially* for these two), you have to question the creative process in NXT that led to babyface Roddy taking on rudo Almas.

Roddy is a fantastic base for high flyers. Almas is an incredible high flyer. How do you not recognize the potential for greatness there and then build accordingly? Life is not that hard.

Anyway, the match was FINE of course. Almas kind of targeted the arm and was just generally in control for a while. Roddy endured and made a quick two-move comeback basically to put Almas away. This was really missing the spark that you would expect these two have though. (**1/2)

 

#DIY (Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa) vs. The Authors Of Pain (Akam & Rezar) (w/Paul Ellering)

This was for #DIY’s NXT Tag Team Championship.

Watching Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa become one of the best tag teams in the world has been a joy. In the past 18 months or so, they’ve gone from a fun novelty team to one of the best teams in the world (based on their NXT work – the less said about their indie work the better).

Having great matches with The Revival is one thing though. Those guys are probably the actual number one unit on the planet. Having a great match with the Authors of Pain, as they did on this night, solidifies them as something beyond the ordinary levels of “great.”

To take such an inexperienced and physically limited team like AoP and to have this kind of match with them was so impressive. The timing was out of this world. The way they executed each segment (shine, heat, comeback) was beyond well done. They did all of that while also telling the classic wrestling story of big men vs. little men made which made it all the better.

The wild environment that they created was impressive. The fact they made a callback to the finish of the Revival/Toronto match felt so earned.  Everything about this was great. GREAT.

It is unlikely that the Authors of Pain will be able to recreate this kind of artistic success with other teams, but they at least won the belts cleanly on a very high note. (****1/4)

 

They did a solid angle with Seth Rollins “Taking Over” the show. He wanted a piece of Triple H. Paul came out but did not give Rollins the pleasure of a physical interaction. Seth was forcibly removed from the arena by security guards.

 

Asuka vs. Billie Kay vs. Nikki Cross vs. Peyton Royce

This was for Asuka’s NXT Women’s Championship.

This match was SO good and such a nice change of pace compared to the expected women’s championship match (even if that expected match is almost always good).

Nikki Storm was running around and being a lunatic. She clearly likes to fall off of high things which is historically one of the greatest gimmicks a professional wrestler can have. Good stuff.

She was tragically thwarted from winning this one though by the NEW GREATEST ACT IN WWE: Peyton Royce and Billie Kay! They are best friends. They make their entrance together! They just love being good friends who help each other! Yes! This genuinely impressive for WWE given that they basically always position women as being incapable of getting along with each other for more than thirty seconds.

Their plan nearly worked, too. They tossed Nikki off the commentation station (shaped like a table) and through a table. From there, they went to finish off Asuka 2 on 1. Asuka made a wild and sudden comeback though and kicked off their heads until she won.

Fun action. Good pace. Great crowd reaction. Everyone looked good. What was not to like about this one? (***1/2)

 

Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Bobby Roode

This was for Nakamura’s NXT Championship.

Despite a very good final couple of minutes, this was mostly a bore as expected.

The stuff with Nakamura’s left knee at the end was very well done. He knew the Boma Ye was his best chance of making up for the fact that he was so far behind in the match. He hit short-range one in the ring, but Roode kicked out.

Nakamura then went for the follow-up one from the middle rope. He ended up needing to do it on the apron though which caused him to crash super hard on his knee. Nakamura could barely stand on it afterwards but managed to KO Roode with one more Boma Ye in the ring.

Nakamura was left practically crippled by that though. Roode sprang into action and hit the impaler DDT for a great nearfall. From there, Roode violently applied a single-leg crab on the bad leg before finishing the champ off with a second impaler DDT.

WHILE THAT WAS SOME EXCEPTIONAL PRO WRESTLING AT THE VERY END, it does not fully compensate for the embarrassingly boring and uninspired match they worked up until that point. If they had only applied the lessons of the final minute to the whole match, they actually may have produced something special. Make your time in the ring actually mean something. (**3/4)

 

7.0

The final score: review Good

The 411

The TakeOvers have been on a cold streak because Joe and Nakamura have been ending every show for over a year. The women and tag divisions have been carrying the load ever since, and they continued to do so tonight. Roode and Nakamura having a hot final couple of minutes made their main event more tolerable than recent ones at least, but NXT desperately needs to rethink who carries the banner for the company. And quickly.