Watry’s NXT Takeover Brooklyn IV & WWE Summerslam 2018 Review

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– 411mania reader

Backstory

Double trouble today. My NXT Takeover Brooklyn IV review and WWE Summerslam 2018 review! Why a two for one special you ask? More on that later.

NXT

– Excellent choice to start with the NXT Tag Team Title match. Hot start to another hot weekend in Brooklyn. The winners were never in much doubt but still, this was excellent. I believe it may have cracked my top five for matches of the year. Ronda Rousey and Kurt Angle vs. Triple H and Stephanie McMahon at WrestleMania 34 is still number one. Right Funaki? That will be a tough mountain (ha!) to climb in the rankings. The Undisputed Era needed another strong night here and got off on the right foot retaining the tag belts. War Games is right around the corner – their event in my mind!

– War Raiders attacked afterwards and wow! Scary looking offense. These guys are not to be messed with. Caught me by surprise for sure. New tag champs?

– EC3 vs. The Velveteen Dream was the bout I was looking forward to the most from NXT. Two great acts. Two great characters. Two studs ready for a main roster call up (Vince) at any time. So much fun to watch, as I had proclaimed in 2017 that Dream would be somebody to follow. While everybody else was laughing and mocking his Prince persona, I knew there was more there. He has taken that and now defeated EC3 on a live Takeover special on the WWE Network. The ending caught me by surprise with the elbow drop but made sense in hindsight. Correct result so let’s not go crazy (ha!). Again, either man could be on RAW or Smackdown LIVE in a week’s time, so no harm no foul…

– Hey, it’s Matt Riddle! One of my first times actually seeing what he looks like. Read a lot about him. Let’s see what all the fuss is about.

– Ricochet vs, Adam Cole for the North American Championship went just as expected. High flying, exciting, fast paced and a loud Brooklyn crowd cheering for both men. I had Cole as the victor due to his stable looking strong (ha!) heading into War Games, but Ricochet winning gold is more than fine. Probably better in the long run. Dude can be a fighting champion and have incredible bouts each week on NXT television. Open challenges and what not. Do the whole thing with him being presented as an absolute beast in the ring taking on all comers. Not being a baby (ha!) and defending the gold once every few months.

– Shayna Baszler defending her NXT Womens Title against Kairi Sane was one of those sleeper matches heading into Saturday. If all went well, amazing things could happen. If there was a miscue or two, watch out. With such a loaded card, this one…sadly, fell short. Mildly disappointing if you ask me. Again, this was a super stacked card, so don’t take this the wrong way. It just never got going. The kick outs down the stretch were insane (ha!), as was the final roll up. Before that though, meh. Big congrats to Sane for winning the title. She won the Mae Young Classic and basically stalled for a year. Nice to see her in her rightful place with WWE Evolution right coming soon. Baszler – main roster or not, she has the heel persona down pat. Love it.

– Main event was a Last Man Standing match for the NXT Championship. Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa going at it. Again. These two (solo or pairing) have main event quite a few Takeovers now, and each one has deserved the top spot. This was no different. Brutal (but safe) stuff from there two friends turned bitter enemies. I figured Ciampa would find a way to squeak by but never expected Gargano to pretty much lose it by his own actions. Blinded by rage I guess. Revenge overcame his emotions and cost him. Shame. I know it is popular to assume in NXT that a loss means a call up but I do wonder how much longer Gargano sticks around. Is the end game his title moment or is the end game him losing a whole bunch more? Time will tell. Killer (ha!) match and great way to end the event. Two thumbs up.

GIRLFRIEND UPDATE!!!

Column coming this week… #NXTTakeover #WWE pic.twitter.com/G1N6gkuTsO

— Justin Watry (@JustinWatry) August 19, 2018

– Another pay-per-view, another chance for a non-fan to chime in with her thoughts. First off, major props to her for putting up with me and WWE programming for approximately 67 hours on Saturday and Sunday. If you think it is tough for an actual fan, imagine not caring about this stuff and STILL watching. If you look at the tweet and zoom in, you will find many great lines. Undisputed Era were “Guys With Dog Tags.” Ricochet was “Fly Guy.” Ciampa was “BooGuy.” War Raiders were apparently Vickings? Whatever that means. Oh, and I was called a dork. There you have it. Now onto Summerslam…

WWE

– Didn’t see the Kickoff Show. Got all the match predictions right but who cares? I will watch at some point.

– WWE is usually very good at picking openers. They dropped the ball with The B-Team last month but picked it right back up here with Seth FREAKIN’ Rollins vs. Dolph Ziggler. Obviously with the returning Dean Ambrose and the stud Drew McIntyre at ringside. IC Title on the line. Good stuff all around. We ask for logical story telling from the company, and that is what we got. Rollins had been screwed around with due to interference, so his buddy helped him out…and boom! Fair and square, new IC Champ. Makes perfect sense and pleased the crowd. Exactly what WWE should be all about. Nice start.

– The Bludgeon Brothers vs. The New Day was the worst thing all weekend. So disappointing that WWE is back on the bandwagon of an act that lost its’ steam well over two years ago. The garbage finish tells me we may actually get new champs out of this entire ordeal. Ugh. As blah as the Bludgeons have been, please no. Please no.

– Despite the usual whining and crying whenever an internet darling gets crushed, I was perfectly happy with Braun Strowman winning so decisively. That has been the whole feud and whole story. There was the payoff. One man is head and shoulders above the other, and that is how the tale should end.

– Carmella vs. Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte shocked me. I knew it would be a good match. I did not know this would end up being a VERY good match. Dang. I was all for Becky/Carmella one on one, and yes, I admit the story of Charlotte getting involved did seem a little too ‘real’ at the time. It truly did feel like Becky’s moment had arrived. After Summerslam though, bravo to WWE. Played it all up to perfection and got the desired response. Becky not only got her match AND moment stolen away from her by her best friend…she also got the title stolen away too! Wow. Nicely done to all. The post-match scene made it a million times better too. So long to Carmella’s dud of a reign. Welcome to the Becky and Charlotte Show. I love it.

– As expected, Samoa Joe vs. AJ Styles for the WWE Title was more story than action. For a long-term feud, that is fine. I did not enjoy yet another funky finish though from the blue brand. Shame on everybody who wrote that and the tag team title match to end the same way, with a cheap DQ. Boo! At Summerslam no less. With this first chapter out of the way and family drama introduced, we should get more personal/intense showdowns.

– Elias tried to play a song but broke his guitar. Okay, that was funny. Dude needs to be doing more though. A lot more.

– The Miz vs. Daniel Bryan had the potential to steal the show and possibly be up there with Match of the Year talk. An eight year build was not hyperbole. That was legitimate folks. This was a long time coming and for one reason or another, it disappointed. Right when Maryse showed up with stroller, it was hard NOT to expect some kind of silly nonsense. Kinda sucks but fits with The Miz character. Now he can brag about beating the fan favorite, and we can sit here and debate Bryan’s contract status for another few weeks. Rematch inside Heck on a Deck perhaps?

– In my preview column, I wrote how I had officially given up hope on The Demon appearing. Welp, he appeared and proceeded to kick Baron Corbin’s butt. Like Braun/Owens, I had no issues with this being a quick match. On a lengthy loaded PPV like Summerslam, you are not going to get a dozen matches that go twenty minutes and wow the fans from start to finish. That isn’t how this works. Never has been, never will be. Balor wins, as he should have.

– Not a lot to Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Jeff Hardy sadly. United States Champion retained. Randy Orton showed up after the bell, did nothing, and we all moved on. The big takeaway was Jeff is still a mad man who needs to be told to tone it down. Whether it is his wife or brother or backstage officials…seriously, enough.

– Arrive. Armbar. Win. Ronda Rousey is just on an entirely different level than the rest of the roster. New RAW Womens Champion. Sorry Alexa Bliss. This was over before it even began. With Evolution on PPV in October, no doubt Rousey and Charlotte will be front and center. Complain all you want. Those are the two I would promote the event around, outside of past legends returning. Interesting to see who gets the first crack at the new champion. Natalya? Bliss again? Stephanie McMahon? Former star?

– He did it. He finally did it. I will come clean; I smiled and clapped for Roman Reigns as Summerslam was going off the air. Scripted or not, his moment was taken away from him so many times during the past three yeaes. Sometimes kayfabe and sometimes not. Toppling Brock Lesnar was his big hurdle that he FINALLY overcame. It was quite the moment and exactly what Raw needed. I loved Brock Lesnar as the special attraction title holder, but even I was ready for a change. Heck, I was ready at WrestleMania 34. The swerve with Braun Strowman at ringside was just that – a way to shut up the Brooklyn idiots who were ready to hijack anything involving Reigns and Lesnar. Point WWE as usual. They won the night…and Roman Reigns won the title. Meanwhile, stock is back up on Monday and the six billion dollar company rolls on. Believe THAT!

SUMMARY: Fans like to ask the – who won the weekend? Judging Takeover Brooklyn and Summerslam on their own merits, both were worth the $9.99 price tag. Comparing, most would give the nod to NXT over WWE. Which is true…however, each show had their moments, so why not just leave it at that? Not everything has to be ‘better’ or ‘worse’ ladies and gentlemen.

Teaser

You see what I just did there? I talked about NXT and WWE, as if they are one in the same. Totally unfair and totally ridiculous. Next week, I will dive deeper…

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