I was expecting a good show and it ultimately turned out to be far better than I anticipated.
Adam Rose vs. Camacho wasn't an all time classic or anything, but it was pretty decent.
The Ascension vs. El Local & Kalisto was a solid tag team match, though I thought it was a tad too one sided.
Sami Zayn vs. Tyler Breeze was a phenomenal outing, at least 4 stars in my view. Both guys worked their asses off and delivered what the sort of bout people were expecting. There was a bit of a botch at one point in the match, but considering the pace they were working a good deal of the time, it's understandable.
Natalya vs. Charlotte was a very, very pleasant surprise in that it was a great wrestling match and gave a view of what the Divas could be in WWE. There was some very good chain and mat wrestling and Charlotte is in a whole other universe compared to where she was about a year ago. I also very much loved the fact that even though Ric Flair and Bret Hart were at ringside in the girl's corners, the match wasn't focused on them. It wasn't about them at all, hence there were no shenanigans from them. The focus was on the two women wrestling for a title and that's exactly the way it should have been.
Adrian Neville vs. Tyson Kidd was another flat out killer match. Again, both men really worked hard to deliver a physical, hard hitting match with a ton of great near falls. I'm consistently impressed with just how agile Neville is and Tyson Kidd looked better than he's ever looked.
The overall presentation of the show worked extremely well, in my opinion, as it was treated like a serious deal. I think a lot of what we saw at NXT Takeover clearly shows some of the major differences between the booking styles of Vince McMahon and Triple H in that Vince has the notion that the "entertainment" is more important than the "sports" aspect while Triple H comes off, at least to me, as someone who feels that consistently strong booking, matches that are given the hype to come off as important and the wrestlers are trusted to do their work can deliver all the "entertainment" that the fans want.
I also want to compliment the commentary on the show. Again, like a most other aspects of NXT, commentators are hyping and talking about the product in a serious manner. They're talking about the match, they're talking about the wrestlers, they're keeping people focused on the product instead of trying to tell ridiculous jokes right when there's a match going on. It bugs the shit out of me when Cole, JBL & Lawler do that because it only gives the impression to fans that the match they're watching is meaningless.
IF reports are true, then Vince frustrates the crap out of Triple H at times with some of the goings on at Raw & SD!. Vince is known to change his mind at the drop of a hat, sometimes right smack in the middle of things, and wants to insert corny comedy sometimes that not only isn't funny but feels out of place. Take the stuff with El Torito & Hornswoggle, for instance. It's a perfect example of what Vince inserts sometimes, it's got his fingerprints all over it. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that Triple H doesn't insert or won't insert something comedic every once in a while, but Trips strikes me as somebody that's more focused on consistency and the "sports" aspect of "sports entertainment."
RVD, CM Punk, and Chris Jericho.
