Some quick thoughts on NXT TAKEOVER:
Some quick thoughts on NXT TAKEOVER:
1) I didn’t think I could love the Vaudevillains more, but now I do. They have clearly leveled up their in-ring work, and I rather like how they play as faces, I wasn’t expecting that. The Blue Pants bit was also a nice touch, I like her more than I should. 🙂
2) The final main event of Finn Balor vs. Kevin Owens was very good. It was a solid ladder match, with some good back and forth action, and a nice exciting finish. But it wasn’t great. It lacked a certain intangible factor, a certain level of storytelling. I enjoyed the hell out of it, but this is not a match that we’ll be talking about again years from now.
3) On the other hand, the other main event of Bayley vs. Sasha Banks was AWESOME. There was a story being told, the in-ring action was damn good, we got invested in Bayley’s struggle, and the payoff was magnificent, with an absolutely brutal finishing sequence and a heartwarming post-match celebration. My only quibble is that Bayley sometimes forgot to sell the “broken hand”, which did stretch the suspension of disbelief a bit, and that I worry that Sasha wasn’t made to look strong enough here. But that’s hairsplitting.
As has been said, SummerSlam has a tough act to follow.