NXT: Takeover Dallas Highlights WWE WrestleMania Weekend

Hi, I’m Justin Watry. You may remember me from such classic columns as March 2012’s “WWE WrestleMania 28: Sheamus Should Defeat Daniel Bryan in Less Than a Minute” and October 2015’s “WWE NXT: Bobby Roode, You’re Next.”

How’s your NCAA March Madness bracket going?

For those who care, I have #NorthCarolina going all the way… #NCAATOURNAMENT

— Justin Watry (@JustinWatry) March 18, 2016

Reader Feedback

prowriter: I’m making an exception. I clicked on this to thank you all for putting Watry’s name in the title. It’s a public service to let us know. Kind of like a quarantine.

That was my decision actually. Just to make sure my own list was differentiated from the other one.

Cactus: I’m pretty 50/50 on Taker/HBK as well, but I think I would give it to HBK purely for match quality. From WMXIX to WM26, he had the match of the night, and most of them were MOTY candidates. And this was after coming back from a career-sidelining back injury, which was a sad end to his original impressive WM run, whereas Taker’s Wrestlemanias started pretty low and bounced all over the place in terms of quality until 23, where it ramped up continually until the unfortunate happenings at WMXXX (the injured state he was in, not the loss itself). I guess what I’m saying it comes down to for me is that I would pick HBK’s best five WM matches over Taker’s best five, if that makes sense.

Yeah, that makes sense. Can’t go wrong with either. The Streak’s importance and Taker’s longevity won out, but HBK is the greatest wrestling ever…so yeah. Part of me wishes I could go back to last week and reverse the top two selections AGAIN!

Luisho: Taker and HBK are pretty much interchangeable at this point. RVD is a really weird choice to me, but it’s your list

What did you think of Batman vs Superman?

Ha, RVD. Weird indeed. I gave my mini-review of Batman vs. Superman on my @JustinWatry Twitter account (cheap plug!). Thought it was pretty decent. Certainly dragged at two and a half hours though. Definitely recommend seeing it once just to judge for yourself.

Deano: I Didn’t read the column.. Why???

No explanation needed!!!!

Exhibit #45,282 on why you folks use the comment section, and I am in my 8th year writing columns. Thanks Deano.

World’s Schlongest Man: You had the same top 3 as the overall list. Way to go out on a limb.

Who said anything about going out on a limb? My list was done in early February, BEFORE the final 411mania results were known. I don’t get it…

John: I legit laughed when I saw what you did with number 1 and 2….I wonder how many people didn’t read your explanation lol

My brother always says if a comedy makes him laugh at least once, then it was worth seeing. Same applies here. You laughed at the joke, so I consider it to be a job well done on my part.

Backstory

Look, WWE WrestleMania weekend is always hectic for wrestling fans. All week really when you see all the bonus content being added to the WWE Network. For myself, this weekend was just an extra bit hectic. Caught up on all the WWE programming on Friday (Ride Along, NXT from Wednesday, Stone Cold Podcast, and more). Worked Friday night for eight hours, so I couldn’t watch NXT: Takeover Dallas live. Did see it Saturday afternoon (spoiler free). Right after that was the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony. Then had to see my team (North Carolina) advance to the finals, as predicted.

Oh, then came the six hour WrestleMania 32 event on Sunday. Immediately following that at 10pm came work for eight hours, which led to going to the Milwaukee Brewers opening day game at Miller Park Monday morning/afternoon, which led to work (again) for eight hours. All the while, RAW was on Monday night, a show I watch spoiler free every Tuesday afternoon…so yeah, hectic weekend, huh?

Long story short, I couldn’t fit in a column about WrestleMania 32. Therefore, I am writing a fairly short NXT: Takeover Dallas review at 4am Sunday morning for all of you! Thank me in the comment section.

NXT Tag Team Championship – Sometimes the momentum is just too much to ignore. The Revival may be getting all the hype due to their heel tendencies, but this bout belonged to American Alpha. It is just incredible what they pull it of their arsenal on a weekly basis. Jason Jordan has shut me, as someone who doubted his talent last year, and Chad Gable is just impressive to all heck. Easy decision to strike while the iron is hot to crown new champs. Perfect way to kick off the show.

Baron Corbin vs. Austin Aries – Eh, this served its purpose. Baron Corbin is a much better performer than he is given credit for (fans buying into his on screen personality perhaps?), and his heel work continues to improve. Austin Aries wins because it is his big debut, so it makes sense. Nothing to flashy about this. Nice placement on the card too. Aries can now climb the ladder in NXT a bit…

Sami Zayn vs. Shinsuke Nakamura – Your front runner for 2016 Match of the Year. Outstanding and a must-see for any wrestling. I watched this bout three times already, once with a casual WWE fan who had never heard of Nakamura and barely knows who Sami Zayn. He is even more “strictly WWE” than yours truly if you can believe that! Anyways, it took all of two minutes for him to get sucked into the action. The video, the entrances, the fans, the atmosphere, the great commentators, etc. I do NOT do star ratings and won’t start now, but this is about as close to a five star classic as you will find inside a squared circle. Consider myself sold on the new talent from Japan. Loved everything about entire presentation. Top notch win for Nakamura and fitting NXT farewell for Zayn.

NXT Womens Championship – Wow. I doubt anybody would call Asuka winning the title an ‘upset,’ but it certainly felt like that when the crowd audibly gasped at the finish. I was just as stunned, even if I shouldn’t have been. Bayley passing out was really the only way for her to lose the belt, and honestly, I think every NXT fan knew her main roster call up was on the horizon win or lose. Just an inevitability. My prediction was Asuka lost here but won the championship in a (near future) rematch. Even though they did the title change here, I still think we get a rematch – then Bayley heads up north. Very good bout here. Can the WrestleMania 32 triple threat top it? Becky Lynch, Sasha Banks, and Charlotte have a tough act to follow. Will be interesting to see Asuka feuds with first and who FINALLY beats her down the road…

Bobby Roode! – Chalk up another one in my ‘W’ column. Wrote about this last October. Bobby Roode is way too talented to NOT be showcased. Good for him.

NXT Championship – In my preview column, I said the loser of this match would end up on RAW three days ready to make a huge impact. I ended up going with Samoa Joe winning the strap (thinking Finn Balor would head to main roster). However, I was wrong and am fine with that (I did flip flop later before the event but whatever). My prediction remains the same – the loser is going to show up on Raw the night after WM32. Obviously, I am writing this before then, so we shall see what happens. Balor or Joe – one (or both) deserve a fresh start somewhere and could use a change of scenery.

As for the actual bout, I may be in the minority here, but I loved the aspect of the doctors trying to step in only for Joe to keep on pushing. Shoving them out of the way on a path to destroy Balor. That was excellent. Yeah, things stalled a few times, but once the bell rang, the whole mood changed, and a unique dynamic was added. Cool visuals and meant so much more when Balor ended up getting the sneaky victory, infuriating Joe EVEN MORE!

Very entertaining.

Overall: As noted, this is being written before WrestleMania. If NXT gets topped on Sunday, then we just witnessed an all-time great pay-per-view from WWE. If not, then NXT (again) outshines WWE and does so on their biggest weekend of the year. Luckily, I am an optimistic guy and prefer to look at the positives with WWE, rather than the negatives, so here’s to an epic WrestleMania 32 following an epic NXT: Takeover event!

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