Views from the Hawke’s Nest: NXT Takeover – Fatal 4-Way

BONUS Review

Raw
September 10, 2014

Adrian Neville & Sami Zayn vs. Tyler Breeze & Tyson Kidd
The first half of this match was Sami getting worked over. Neville made a lightning fast comeback. Zayn got to wipe out Kidd with a tope con hello. Neville finished Breeze with the British Airways.

The takeaway from this match was that Adrian Neville does a lot of cool stuff. You have to imagine they structured the match that way in order to set him up for a main roster debut. Neville’s offense was what got over the most, and he stood out compared to everyone else. The match itself was not much, but I consider it a success nonetheless.
Match Rating: **

NXT Takeover II

September 11, 2014

Commentators: Tom Phillips, Byron Saxton, & Renee Young

The Ascension (Viktor & Konnor)(c) vs. The Lucha Dragons (Kalisto & Sin Cara) [NXT Tag Team Championships]
The Ascension have been the NXT tag champs for nearly a year. They have not had many decent matches in that time. Cara and Kalisto won a tournament to earn this title shot.

The Ascension quickly cut Cara off. Kalisto hadn’t even entered the match. Cara reversed a Viktor rebound powerbomb attempt into a hurricanrana, but Konnor prevented the tag. Cara finally tagged out to Kalisto who made a wild comeback. Viktor and Kalisto botched a Yoshi Tonic. Cara hit a tope suicida. Kalisto’s pescado failed, but Cara hit another tope suicida. Cara saved Kalisto from the Fall of Man. Viktor then ate the standing Sliced Bread #2 from Kalisto: 1…2…3

I did not find The Ascension’s heat segment Sin Cara compelling in the slightest, but the closing stretch was put together really well. It was not enough to make up for the earlier boredom though.

The Ascension have always bored despite not being awful in the ring. I do not foresee them excelling on the WWE main roster, but I hope I am completely wrong.
Match Rating: **1/2

There was a good Adrian Neville video package. It’s the best promo I’ve ever seen him cut. Bless post-production work.

CJ Parker vs. Baron Corbin
CJ Parker demanded a match at this show, and Corbin answered the challenge. I guess Kevin Steen or Fergal Devitt would have been too much to hope for.

Corbin squashed Parker. I can see that being the last time we ever see CJ Parker on a WWE television screen (but maybe that’s just wishful thinking on my part).

Post-production skills were on display again as Tyson Kidd was featured in good video package.

Sylvester Lefort (w/Marcus Louis) vs. Enzo Amore (w/ Colin Cassady) [Cabellera contra Cabellera]
Neither man should really lose their hair. Enzo’s character could probably survive it more though.

Enzo ran Lefort down before the match. The match was more wrestling heavy than I expected. It’s clearly neither man’s strength, but they were trying hard. Lefort cut him off and worked him over briefly. Enzo fired back with some punches. A Marcus Louis distraction allowed Lefort to get back in the match. Big Cass then took out Louis. Enzo caught Lefort with a roll-up: 1…2…3

Lefort tried to run away. Marcus Louis allowed Lefort to escape. Louis got taken out though and covered in the hair-removing liquid. So, Lefort lost a hair vs. hair match, but they did not pay off the stipulation. Thumbs down.

The match picked up a little at the end, as the crowd woke up after Enzo made a comeback. Overall though, this ended up not being much of a match. The stipulation not being enforced seems out of character for NXT’s booking team.
Match Rating: 1/2*

There was a Tyler Breeze video package. He’s got a great character. They are doing a really strong build for the main event during the show. (As someone who gave up on the NXT show, I appreciate that.)

William Regal came out to introduce KENTA. They showed highlights of Hulk Hogan and Jimmy Hart signing him to a contract in Japan. He came to the ring and cut a promo in Japanese. He announced that he was changing his name to Hideo Itami. I do not have a big problem with that. I would have stuck with KENTA though. The Ascension came out and sent Itami to the floor. Normally in the WWE, that would have been the last we see of Itami in this segment. Instead, Itami made his own save and sent the ex-champs packing. This seemed like a great way to introduce Hideo Itami overall.

Bull Dempsey vs. Mojo Rawley
I believe this is my first time watching Bull Dempsey. His look stands out in the WWE. I’m intrigued.

The match was a very quick brawl. Dempsey quickly body tackled him and then hit a diving headbutt: 1…2…3

Dempsey attacked Rawley after the match.

Bull Dempsey seems like he has a ton of potential based on this match. I’m reading that he’s not well-regarded though. When I was watching NXT, there were reports of Mojo Rawley being groomed to be the next John Cena. I cannot imagine anyone in WWE still feels that way based on how he’s been booked on the two Takeover events.

Big Cass and Enzo Amore were looking for Lefort backstage. They found him, but Lefort ran away. They brought Marcus Louis to the ring and revealed how much hair the cream took from his head. His eyebrows were gone. Enzo and Cass are a fun midcard comedy team, but everything they were involved in on this show did not work for me.

They did a video package for Bayley vs. Charlotte. Bayley is a fantastic babyface. Charlotte has improved a lot in her time at NXT. This could be really good.

Charlotte(c) vs. Bayley [NXT Women’s Championship]
The fans chanted, “Bayley’s gonna hug you!” Fantastic. Bayley did not want to hug Charlotte at all. Bayley took it to Charlotte early, but Charlotte cut her off soon enough. She then worked Bailey over. Bayley briefly fought back, but Charlotte reversed a backslide to cut her off again. At one point, she went for the figure four, but Bayley reversed it into a small package for a nearfall. Charlotte worked her over some more until Bayley fought back and hit a Frankensteiner. Charlotte sent Bayley into a turnbuckle and hit a shitty moonsault (Charlotte landed on her knees and basically missed Bayley completely). The last minute of a match is a bad time to botch something like that. Bayley looked fiery, but Charlotte then hit Natural Selection: 1…2…3

Sasha Banks came out after the match and attacked Bayley. Charlotte pulled her off.

This was a strong match that definitely shows how NXT continues to consistently book women far better than on any other WWE show. I do not think it was quite as interesting as the Charlotte/Natalya match at the first Takeover, but this match succeeded in a different way. I thought Bayley really carried this with her great character. She had the crowd in palm of her pocket, and they stayed with her the whole way. Charlotte is still a little rough around the edges, but her improvement in the last year is absolutely remarkable. She has to be considered a favorite for any Most Improved Wrestler award.
Match Rating: ***1/2

They saved Sami Zayn’s video package for last. That certainly seems to indicate that he is the favorite to win the title.

Adrian Neville(c) vs. Sami Zayn vs. Tyler Breeze vs. Tyson Kidd [NXT Championship]
I was trying to describe my feelings on the impression Tyson Kidd made on me during his entrance. I failed to adequately explain my reaction. Luckily, someone on Tom Blackett described my reaction better than I could.

Tyson Kidd’s gimmick is “man desperately trying to prove he has personality”

— Tom (@TomBlargh) September 12, 2014

The match was a brawl for a while. Breeze and Kidd isolated Zayn and worked him over together in the ring. This match has basically been a Texas Tornado tag team brawl so far. Despite that structure being different for the WWE, I’m not really into so far. Kidd eventually got tired of working with Breeze and kicked him to the floor. Kidd then worked over Zayn by himself. Neville occasionally tried to get into the ring, but his efforts were always thwarted. Tyson Kidd has basically dominated the match the most so far, and he’s my least favorite performer in the match. This match was not working for me at all by this point, but the crowd was still into it. Neville finally made a comeback on Kidd. Zayn then made a comeback on Breeze. Zayn teased a dive, but Neville hit a beautiful Asai Moonsault before Zayn got the chance to attempt it. Zayn and Neville then squared off. They botched something, and Tyson Kidd tried to take over the match again. He almost defeated Zayn with a swinging neckbreaker. Kidd and Zayn did a nifty sequence built around Kidd trying for the sharpshooter. Breeze gave Zayn the Beauty Shot, Kidd a superkick, and Neville a dropkick. Breeze couldn’t get the win though. They did a fucking tower of doom spot. The fans reacted big to it, but I think I grew sick of that spot five years ago (at the latest). Zayn set up for a yakuza kick, but Neville kicked him down. SSP from Neville! Breeze dumped him to the floor though and pinned Zayn: 1…2…NO! Great nearfall. Zayn avoided the Beauty Shot from Breeze, and Tyson Kidd then applied the sharpshooter on Breeze. Neville and Zayn broke it up. Neville actually specifically blocked Breeze from tapping while Zayn broke up the submission. Clever. Zayn sent Neville to the floor. Kidd ate a turnbuckle exploder. He then wiped out Neville with a tope suicida. Breeze ate the tornado DDT through the turnbuckle. Zayn had the match won after a yakuza on Kidd, but Neville pulled the referee out. Zayn looked heartbroken. He went to the floor, and Neville gave him the superkick. British Airways on Kidd: 1…2…3

The story in this match was exceptionally ambitious for the WWE. Each character’s actions made sense throughout the entire match, and the match ended on a swerve that made sense and was genuinely surprising (at least to me). We saw the insecure Tyson Kidd trying to assert himself at all times and being very aggressive. Tyler Breeze was being cautious and picking his spots and avoiding risk. Sami Zayn, striving to finally win the “big one,” was always in the thick of things. He was being beat down the majority of the match, which made his comeback at the end all the more emotional. Adrian Neville, who sees the NXT Championship as validation of his career, was consistently making desperate decisions to save his championship. By the time Sami Zayn finally made the tremendous comeback and had the match won, it made perfect sense that Neville would be willing to act immoral to keep the championship. In theory, the story of the match was as close to flawlessly put together for a WWE match that I’ve seen in some time. The execution was not perfect however.

My big problem with the match is that I found the first half of this twenty plus minute match to be very uninteresting and boring. The brawling at the beginning never grabbed me the way I would have thought it would (Zayn is very under-appreciated as a great brawler). On top of that, Tyson Kidd’s heat segment on Sami Zayn bored me to tears. I just do not find Tyson Kidd to be a very entertaining performer, and his matches obviously suffer because of it. His heat segment on Zayn reminded me of Randy Orton’s extended heat segments in PPV matches (see his 2014 match with Roman Reigns and his 2004 match with Edge as prime examples). Because WWE style primarily emphasizes establishing character and roles in a match, long heat segments
can often be tedious instead of adding anything to a match. For a lot of fans, the payoff to the heat is worth it. To me, I cannot only assess this match based on what happened afterwards and ignore the boredom I felt during the first half of the match. If a match is really unsuccessful half the time, it’s usually not going to be something I consider a great match.

With that in mind, I absolutely need to put over the execution of the match once Neville hit the Asai Moonsault. Pretty much everything after that was great and set the crowd on fire. They were honestly too many great moments in the second half to point out them all. Kudos to all four men for the last ten minutes (or so).

Overall, this was a tremendous effort and a match all four men should be proud (yes, even Kidd I guess). The match even managed to be satisfying in the moment while also clearly being used to set up Adrian Neville vs. Sami Zayn down the road. It is so rare that a middle chapter match of a story achieves that these days. If you have not seen this match, I absolutely recommend that you seek it out. Odds are you will like it more than I did.
Match Rating: ***1/2

The 411: This was another strong live special from NXT. The top two matches are the things to watch from the show. Charlotte’s improvement is absolutely remarkable to witness, and Bayley continues to show why the future could be very bright for her. (I say ‘could’ because WWE is struggling to transition a lot of NXT wrestlers to the main roster. Bayley seems like someone who could have problems getting over under the direction of WWE’s creative team.) The main event was one of the most interesting matches in all of wrestling this year to me. Much like Takeover II overall, the had its flaws, but there were too many good moments to not recommend it for viewing.

While I have zero interest in watching the NXT television program, the Takeover events clearly still feel fresh and important. All three NXT live specials have had their flaws, but they’re still very interesting. I am definitely looking forward to the next one.

If you’re interested in trying something different, watch some NJPW for free!
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Masato Tanaka (G1 Climax)
Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Hirooki Goto (G1 Climax)
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Jun Akiyama (G1 Climax)
Katsuyori Shibata vs. Yuji Nagata (G1 Climax)
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Prince Devitt (G1 Climax)
Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Togi Makabe (Chain Match)
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Hirooki Goto
Hirooki Goto vs. Tomohiro Ishii
Prince Devitt vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi
Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Karl Anderson
Masato Tanaka vs. Tomoaki Honma
Kota Ibushi vs. Ryusuke Taguchi [Fantastic Match]
Prince Devitt vs. Kenny Omega
Sin Cara vs. Averno
Prince Devitt vs. Kota Ibushi (With thoughts from Prince Devitt)
Davey Richards vs. Kota Ibushi
Kota Ibushi vs. KUSHIDA
Kurt Angle vs. Yuji Nagata
ORLANDO JORDAN VS. YUJI NAGATA
Christopher Daniels vs. Tetsuya Naito
Katsuyori Shibata &Wataru Inoue vs. Eddy Guerrero & Black Tiger

Thanks everybody for reading! You can send feedback to my Twitter or to my email address: [email protected]. Also, feel free to check out my own wrestling website, FreeProWrestling.com. Also, check out my Best of Chikara blog and an archive of all my 411 video reviews.