NXT Takeover: Respect

[Jack-Hammer]

In a little over a week, the next NXT live special takes place and this one has a bit more of a unique feel to it. The card, thus far, looks like this

Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic semi-final - Finn Balor & Samoa Joe vs. The Mechanics

Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic semi-final - Rhyno & Baron Corbin vs. Jason Jordan & Chad Gable

Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic final - Winners of semi-final 1 vs. Winners of semi-final 2

Apollo Crews vs. Tyler Breeze

30 minute Ironwoman match for the NXT Women's Championship - Bayley vs. Sasha Banks

I'm not all that crazy with the idea of Tyler Breeze ultimately being fed to guys at these TakeOver specials. His match against Jushin Thunder Liger wasn't all that great and he lost to boot and he'll almost certainly lose here. Breeze has a ton of talent and I just think he deserves better.

To my knowledge, this will be one of the very, very, very few times in any degree of WWE history in which a women's title match is the main event. Bayley and Sasha completely stole the show at the last TakeOver special and I've no doubt this will be an equally outstanding bout. Even though the outcome is obvious, this is another example of what I hope Vince will eventually copy from the women's division in NXT about building up a title feud.

 

[laodaron]

I absolutely loathe tournament booking, but I think that it's necessary at this point to break up the routine they were getting into with NXT.

Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic semi-final - Finn Balor & Samoa Joe vs. The Mechanics
I guess Finn and Joe will win this, mainly because I don't think that this Mechanics team is very good or has any reason to get pushed right now.

Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic semi-final - Rhyno & Baron Corbin vs. Jason Jordan & Chad Gable

For the same reason as above, I think that Rhyno and Corbin win this, as the other team doesn't have any reason to get a push at the moment.

Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic final - Winners of semi-final 1 vs. Winners of semi-final 2
This is where it gets a little interesting. The teams won't have to go out of their way to put the other team over, and to help polish up the other team.
I think that Rhyno and Corbin win this, and I think that probably the finish sees a break up of Finn and Joe, with some heat, so I imagine that sets up Finn v. Joe at NXT Takeover:London, and I'm HOPING with Finn as the heel. His Bullet Club work, etc. makes him pretty great, and I feel like the WWE would push a heel Samoa Joe as an English speaking Umaga.

Apollo Crews vs. Tyler Breeze
I'm all about this matchup, but mainly because I'm hoping that this is an Apollo Crews squash. I'm not high on Tyler Breeze, and I haven't ever been. I don't just dislike him, I turn off or fastforward the show when he's on. He's a poor man's John Morrison, and he's not very good at the job. Apollo Crews, on the other hand,is a phenom. The WWE should be ashamed that they're just now getting him. Push him, get him over with the WWE crowds, and bring him up to the main roster as soon as possible.


30 minute Ironwoman match for the NXT Women's Championship - Bayley vs. Sasha Banks

This match will speak for itself. Their last match is one of my few candidates for MotY. However, I hope that they don't try and over exert themselves, because Bayley and Sasha barely made it out of their last match after some botched moves at the end. It's important that they maintain their psychology, not just take stupid high spot bumps for quick pops.

 

[TWJC: The Beginning]

I absolutely loathe tournament booking, but I think that it's necessary at this point to break up the routine they were getting into with NXT.

Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic semi-final - Finn Balor & Samoa Joe vs. The Mechanics
I guess Finn and Joe will win this, mainly because I don't think that this Mechanics team is very good or has any reason to get pushed right now.

Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic semi-final - Rhyno & Baron Corbin vs. Jason Jordan & Chad Gable

For the same reason as above, I think that Rhyno and Corbin win this, as the other team doesn't have any reason to get a push at the moment.

Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic final - Winners of semi-final 1 vs. Winners of semi-final 2
This is where it gets a little interesting. The teams won't have to go out of their way to put the other team over, and to help polish up the other team.
I think that Rhyno and Corbin win this, and I think that probably the finish sees a break up of Finn and Joe, with some heat, so I imagine that sets up Finn v. Joe at NXT Takeover:London, and I'm HOPING with Finn as the heel. His Bullet Club work, etc. makes him pretty great, and I feel like the WWE would push a heel Samoa Joe as an English speaking Umaga.

Apollo Crews vs. Tyler Breeze
I'm all about this matchup, but mainly because I'm hoping that this is an Apollo Crews squash. I'm not high on Tyler Breeze, and I haven't ever been. I don't just dislike him, I turn off or fastforward the show when he's on. He's a poor man's John Morrison, and he's not very good at the job. Apollo Crews, on the other hand,is a phenom. The WWE should be ashamed that they're just now getting him. Push him, get him over with the WWE crowds, and bring him up to the main roster as soon as possible.


30 minute Ironwoman match for the NXT Women's Championship - Bayley vs. Sasha Banks

This match will speak for itself. Their last match is one of my few candidates for MotY. However, I hope that they don't try and over exert themselves, because Bayley and Sasha barely made it out of their last match after some botched moves at the end. It's important that they maintain their psychology, not just take stupid high spot bumps for quick pops.

I don't remember the end being all that botchy and I feel like the finish made perfect sense from an in ring storytelling perspective. Bayley's arm was out of commission, she was getting killed, had to hit something out of desperation, hitting the reverse rana gave her a shot of adrenaline needed to execute the Bayley to Bayley ftw. One of the all time greatest finishes to a woman's match because of the emotion. Hits the reverse rana out of nowhere, crowd shits, Bayley screams, tightens the hair knot, plants Banks, 1-2-3. Doesn't really get better.

I'm very excited for this. I also dislike tournament booking usually but like it here.

 

[enviousdominous]

I totally understand why most of us don't recognize Asuka vs Dana Brooke as a significant part of the card, but hear me out.

Established names dominate cards on their own; the performers will surely give 110%, though they could have slacked and most of us wouldn't really notice. I'm hoping that the lack of buzz surrounding Asuka vs Dana Brooke will motivate those two to perform at their highest level yet. I'll be tuning in mainly to see if Asuka has what it takes to be remembered as a Joshi legend, and to see if Dana Brooke intends to shut down her critics with the highest profile match of her career.

I loved Dusty Rhodes, but I'm really not emotionally invested in this tag tournament where pride is the only reward.

Tyler Breeze is fantastic, but Apollo Crews is being marketed as a performer with literally no faults. It'll be a great match, but I don't see Tyler Breeze winning this one.

Bayley vs Sasha will be an awesome, historic match. I expect nothing less than perfection from them, and they will surely deliver on that. I wish that this could have been the shining moment in Bayley's Rocky story, but it's going to be great nonetheless.

 

[laodaron]

I don't remember the end being all that botchy and I feel like the finish made perfect sense from an in ring storytelling perspective. Bayley's arm was out of commission, she was getting killed, had to hit something out of desperation, hitting the reverse rana gave her a shot of adrenaline needed to execute the Bayley to Bayley ftw. One of the all time greatest finishes to a woman's match because of the emotion. Hits the reverse rana out of nowhere, crowd shits, Bayley screams, tightens the hair knot, plants Banks, 1-2-3. Doesn't really get better.

I'm very excited for this. I also dislike tournament booking usually but like it here.

Bayley's botched Supercanrana nearly broke her own neck, and while the poisonrana was pretty awesome looking, it was ALMOST too short, and Sasha took it straight on her head.

But, to be fair, I'm largely against high top rope spots, ladder spots, etc., because the risk of injury is usually too high for the pay off.

Bayley and Sasha are possibly destined for the highest honors in pofessional wrestling, I just don't want them to get caught up in the indy style "all high spots" method of wrestling.

 

[Dagger Dias]

Finn Balor and Samoa Joe VS Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder (Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic Tournament Semi-Final)
A good opener. Balor and Joe winning this particular match was the right call even though I'm surprised we did not get Balor defending the NXT Championship at this show.

Baron Corbin and Rhyno VS Jason Jordan and Chad Gable (Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic Tournament Semi-Final)
The match itself was good.... I just disagree with the result. Jordan and Gable should have won the tournament.

Asuka VS Dana Brooke (with Emma)
Not bad at all. I'm not familiar with Asuka's work in other federations, so I didn't really know what to expect. This match made me a fan of Asuka and I was pleased with the result. Looking forward to seeing where both of them go from here.

Apollo Crews VS Tyler Breeze
Probably my least favorite match of the night, however on a show as good as NXT Takeover Respect, that's not a bad thing. This still exceeded expectations.

Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic Tournament Final
Well, the right team won given who the final two teams ended up being. The whole thing makes me scratch my head though. Was it for a Tag Team Championship contendership or will this trophy end up being about as useless as The Bragging Rights Trophy or that ugly Andre Memorial Battle Royal Trophy? I totally 100% agree with honoring Dusty's legacy so that wasn't the problem. The tournament should have been about something bigger than this and it could have been a much bigger deal.

Bayley VS Sasha Banks (30-minute Iron Man Match for the NXT Women's Championship)
Loved this! I'm genuinely happy for Bayley and Sasha that they got to main event, let alone being given the opportunity to have an Iron Man match. The match was a small step down from their Brooklyn match, although that one would have been nearly impossible to top. For the sake of history, and if you want to see what great wrestling in a female division looks like, then you must check this match out if for whatever reason you missed it.

Overall Thoughts
I would have changed a number of things about this show. Balor should have defended his NXT Championship. The show felt incomplete without that. Joe could have turned on Balor earlier in the tournament to ignite a feud, there was plenty of time to build up a match. Bayley VS Sasha could also still have main evented. I also would have only had the Dusty Tournament Final on the show with the semi-finals airing on a regular NXT episode. They did not need to have half the matches on the show devoted to the tournament, so I would only have had one. This would have freed up time for a Tag Team Championship match (Enzo Amore & Colin Cassady winning the belts from the non-deserving current champions) and Balor VS Joe for the NXT Championship. Gable & Jordan could have beaten Corbin & Rhyno in the finals of the Dusty Classic to get a Tag Team Championship shot. Despite all the changes I would have made, I did really enjoy this show. NXT Brooklyn was better, but like every other NXT Takeover event, this one was highly fun to watch. Go watch Sasha VS Bayley from this event RIGHT NOW if you missed it. You won't regret it.