NXT Takeover: Brooklyn

[Dagger Dias]

This show was hyped as the biggest show in NXT history, with an impressive card, taking place the night before Summerslam at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. There were over 15,000 fans in attendance. Let's take a look.


1. Jushin Thunder Liger VS Tyler Breeze in a singles match (08:42)

2. Blake and Murphy with Alexa Bliss VS The Vaudevillains with Blue Pants in a tag team match for the NXT Tag Team Championship (10:16)

3. Apollo Crews VS Tye Dillinger in a singles match (04:43)

4. Baron Corbin VS Samoa Joe in a singles match (10:21)

5. Bayley VS Sasha Banks in a singles match for the NXT Women's Championship (18:22)

6. Finn Bálor VS Kevin Owens in a Ladder match for the NXT Championship (21:45)


Here are a few questions for discussion on this event.

1. What are your thoughts on this show and the matches? Did you like it? Why or why not?

2. Is there anything you would change about this show? If so, what would you change and why?

3. Was this the best NXT Takeover event so far? Why or why not?


I'll go first. The show was very enjoyable (as is expected now of any NXT Takeover) and much better than Summerslam. The main roster had a tough act to follow the next night. With that being said.... I'd change one thing in particular. Enzo and Cass should have gotten the title shot and won the belts, WWE missed a huge opportunity here. Other than that, I really have no complaints. The show delivered and I recommend anyone who has somehow still missed it, to go watch it as soon as you can. It's not the best Takeover event though, that honor for me still belongs to "Takeover R Evolution". That show might never be topped, but with NXT Takeover events you really never know when something even more awesome may happen.

Now it is your turn.
Discuss!

 

[Jack-Hammer]

1. Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Tyler Breeze - I honestly didn't care all that much for this match to be perfectly honest. I wasn't blown away whatsoever by Liger and I kept wondering if maybe age had caught up with him and robbed him of the spring in his step. The match was decent, but there wasn't any sort of wow factor about it. There are rumors that there'll be another match between them, so maybe it'll be more up to what I was hoping for the first time around. **1/4

2. Blake & Murphy vs. The Vaudevillains for the NXT Tag Team Championship - I thought this was the match they should've kicked the show off with: an entertaining, energetic tag bout where the crowd had some real heat for Blake, Murphy and Little Miss Bliss and the hipster aspect of The Vaudevillains. The inclusion of Blue Pants was a nice little surprise, I don't really understand what it is that so many NXT fans have seen in this gal for so long, but I thought she fit in quite nice with The Vaudevillains. While the antics she & Alexa Bliss had going on took just a bit away from the ending, I enjoyed the match and have no problem with The Vaudvillains winning the straps after what felt like a, at least, 15 minute match and I mean that in a good way. ***1/4

3. Apollo Crews vs. Tye Dillinger - A good debut match for Crews and I like the fact that they didn't make Dillinger out to look like some sort of complete chump. Having a debuting wrestler crush his opponent completely works sometimes, but it's also something that I think there's too much of in wrestling. Crews is pretty damn athletic, especially for a guy as thickly muscled as he is. He's a muscular, athletic guy, a big guy, but not so big that "steroids" doesn't enter my mind the first thing when I saw him. He's about 6'0" and about 240 pounds, so he possibly looks heavier than he actually is. Dillinger's Perfect 10 gimmick is entertaining and, again, I'm glad they didn't make him look like a total chump even though Crews went over. **3/4

4. Samoa Joe vs. Baron Corbin - A good, physical match that showed that Corbin has made a LOT of positive strides the past 6 months or so. I wasn't entirely sure how this match would come about, though I admit I was leaning more towards Joe to take the win. Corbin held his own and it's nice to see that he can actually wrestle a good, solid 10.5 minute match without embarrassing himself. ***

5. Sasha Banks vs. Bayley for the NXT Women's Championship - This match was friggin' awesome, there's just no other way to describe it. This match was a perfect storm and, in my opinion, showed just how consistently great the overall product on the main roster could be if Vince allowed Triple H to make the final creative calls and bring in his own creative team. A great antagonist in Sasha, a very likeable babyface that fans are invested in, incredible storytelling, great use of in-ring psychology and a huge crowd on the edge of its seat during the entire 18.5 minutes of the match. Bayley winning here was pretty much a no brainer considering Sasha's on the main roster and that was really the only slightly negative aspect of the match. ****3/4

6. Finn Balor vs. Kevin Owens for the NXT Championship - Owens & Balor had a nigh impossible task of following the women's match, but they pulled out a very strong main event even if, again, the outcome was already written on the wall. A lot of great physicality and some genuinely hard hitting spots featuring the ladder. While pretty much knowing the outcome did take away from the match somewhat, I think fans were content to just enjoy a hard hitting, entertaining match and that's what they got. ***3/4

Final Thoughts - I don't think this was the best of the NXT Takeover specials but, just like all of them so far, it still proved to be highly entertaining. The one letdown of the night really was the opening match; for me, that made it an uphill struggle to compete with some of the other Takeover specials. Everything else was a lot of fun and highly entertaining; Sasha and Bayley completely stole the show and delivered what, in my eyes, is genuinely one of the top matches of 2015. I'm not saying that it was incredibly strong for a women's match, it was an incredibly strong match period whether you're talking about male or female. The main event was a strong finish to an overall strong show, but the foreknowledge of how the top matches were almost guaranteed to end did take away from things a bit for me. It's not just that the outcomes were pretty obvious, but they were even far more obvious than usual because Sasha Banks is on the main roster, so you know she's going to be dropping the NXT Women's Championship, and Owens has been on the main roster all summer, so you know he's not regaining the NXT Championship.

Grade: A-

 

[Messiah]

It was like any of their specials. Very good, but nothing special about it.. I was expecting a bit more since they were in Brooklyn and they were hyping it up so much, but overall it was a good show.. I enjoyed the Owens/Balor match the most, those guys always put on a fantastic match.