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| And their next victims...well, assuming they're victims...are... Photo Credit: WWE.com |
Usually when a show is spilling at the brim like this sometimes the message can be easily muddled, or become accidentally victimized by some sort of crazy highlight and/or stellar match that overshadows the rest of the program.
Yet considering the fact it was the go-home show for NXT Takeover: Adrian Neville vs. the World every one of the title matches in addition to the hair/hair Lefort/Amore showdown got their own individual moments to shine; no easy task with a six-match card in addition to several backstage segments.
So let's put the onus the same place Full Sail is putting it when it comes to the third Network Special: the four-way for the Big X. Every single match participant not only got a backstage segment to put themselves over but said sit-down monologues lead directly into matches that were cleanly swept by them all. (A possible missed opportunity by having one of them, perhaps especially Kidd lose before the big match, but c'est la vie and all that.) Tyler Breeze's Beauty Shot Out Of Nowhere showed the flash-bang ability of his finisher to suddenly get him the gold, with the victim being Tye Dillinger in this instance.
Tyson Kidd may've thought in the best pre-match talk that he was clearly his own gift to wrestling by combining the best elements of all his opponents into one body but then backed up the braggadocio by making his short-term rival Adam Rose tap out cleanly to the Sharpshooter mid-ring. Sami Zayn further put over his most beloved man in NXT status by stating he wanted to beat his friend for the belt just so there weren't any complaints or doubts given the match's nature and then barely needed a minute's worth of offense to snap off the signature Complete Shot/Koji Clutch combo that made Marcus Louis tap out. And Adrian Neville, the man who gravity forgot and who's sense possibly left him in setting up this Temple Run From Hell could've microwaved up a Netflix dinner in the amount of time it took for him to ultimately dispatch the (possibly) garbage CJ Parker with his trademark Red Arrow.
Again, this wasn't to set up any sort of spectacular match; after all, that's what the money for the Network is for, as Vincent Kennedy Draper would say if he existed. As an inoffensive series of palate refreshers in lieu of a video set to nu-rock delineating how this has been building since February in all directions, however, it served its purpose to the hilt.
The same could be said of Charlotte making the overmatched Alexa Bliss Bow Down to the Queen in the evening's first match, which was really a moving placeholder to get us to Bayley and Charlotte back in the ring together only this time with the bonus addition of Charlotte getting physical with her #1 contender only to get belly-to-Bayleyed at the soonest possible moment. Yet further development in the program -- physicality where there wasn't any on the previous episode, and in Bayley's character taking on the best character trait of a white hat in being someone who wants to adhere to the Code Of Honor but also recognizes you can't reason with the unreasonable and the uncivil deserve no quarter. As Archie Moore said of the mouthy challenger and Olympic gold medalist that'd just beat him and was moving on to face the indomitable Sonny Liston way back when, one hesitates to say that Bayley could beat Charlotte but you can guarantee that she'd provide her with an exceedingly interesting evening. Hug like a butterfly, suplex like a bee, Bay Bay. Rumble, young woman, rumble.
Let us conclude this report, since at NXTT2: ANvTW KENTA's debuting and as a result of the original Go To Sleeper making his first appearance under the Stamford umbrella the Internet will probably turn into a pool of joyous tears and drooling.
The #1 contenders are in the books, and to the disappointment of cymbal-banging monkeys everywhere it's the bilingual luchadores Sin Cara and Kalisto that'll be getting the shot at the Ascension. They had to get moved into the favorites column when their pre-match interview ended up revealing Devin Taylor kept a better handle on her conversational Spanish than some, and then their offense both tandem and in the case of Kalisto's how-is-this-not-a-finisher basement huracanrana driver set them up for victory after their Sliced Bread Numero Tres/senton bomb combo platter and a brief staredown with the Champions post-match.
The work's all been done, and the card's been set. With a pretty big legacy to follow, NXT Takeover II is seemingly set up to continue that and keep rolling on all cylinders. One can only hope as a longtime NXT fan that another trip to the fireworks factory is in the offering. That's the sort of thing that demands loud noises and all the flashy explosions, after all.
Yet considering the fact it was the go-home show for NXT Takeover: Adrian Neville vs. the World every one of the title matches in addition to the hair/hair Lefort/Amore showdown got their own individual moments to shine; no easy task with a six-match card in addition to several backstage segments.
So let's put the onus the same place Full Sail is putting it when it comes to the third Network Special: the four-way for the Big X. Every single match participant not only got a backstage segment to put themselves over but said sit-down monologues lead directly into matches that were cleanly swept by them all. (A possible missed opportunity by having one of them, perhaps especially Kidd lose before the big match, but c'est la vie and all that.) Tyler Breeze's Beauty Shot Out Of Nowhere showed the flash-bang ability of his finisher to suddenly get him the gold, with the victim being Tye Dillinger in this instance.
Tyson Kidd may've thought in the best pre-match talk that he was clearly his own gift to wrestling by combining the best elements of all his opponents into one body but then backed up the braggadocio by making his short-term rival Adam Rose tap out cleanly to the Sharpshooter mid-ring. Sami Zayn further put over his most beloved man in NXT status by stating he wanted to beat his friend for the belt just so there weren't any complaints or doubts given the match's nature and then barely needed a minute's worth of offense to snap off the signature Complete Shot/Koji Clutch combo that made Marcus Louis tap out. And Adrian Neville, the man who gravity forgot and who's sense possibly left him in setting up this Temple Run From Hell could've microwaved up a Netflix dinner in the amount of time it took for him to ultimately dispatch the (possibly) garbage CJ Parker with his trademark Red Arrow.
Again, this wasn't to set up any sort of spectacular match; after all, that's what the money for the Network is for, as Vincent Kennedy Draper would say if he existed. As an inoffensive series of palate refreshers in lieu of a video set to nu-rock delineating how this has been building since February in all directions, however, it served its purpose to the hilt.
The same could be said of Charlotte making the overmatched Alexa Bliss Bow Down to the Queen in the evening's first match, which was really a moving placeholder to get us to Bayley and Charlotte back in the ring together only this time with the bonus addition of Charlotte getting physical with her #1 contender only to get belly-to-Bayleyed at the soonest possible moment. Yet further development in the program -- physicality where there wasn't any on the previous episode, and in Bayley's character taking on the best character trait of a white hat in being someone who wants to adhere to the Code Of Honor but also recognizes you can't reason with the unreasonable and the uncivil deserve no quarter. As Archie Moore said of the mouthy challenger and Olympic gold medalist that'd just beat him and was moving on to face the indomitable Sonny Liston way back when, one hesitates to say that Bayley could beat Charlotte but you can guarantee that she'd provide her with an exceedingly interesting evening. Hug like a butterfly, suplex like a bee, Bay Bay. Rumble, young woman, rumble.
Let us conclude this report, since at NXTT2: ANvTW KENTA's debuting and as a result of the original Go To Sleeper making his first appearance under the Stamford umbrella the Internet will probably turn into a pool of joyous tears and drooling.
The #1 contenders are in the books, and to the disappointment of cymbal-banging monkeys everywhere it's the bilingual luchadores Sin Cara and Kalisto that'll be getting the shot at the Ascension. They had to get moved into the favorites column when their pre-match interview ended up revealing Devin Taylor kept a better handle on her conversational Spanish than some, and then their offense both tandem and in the case of Kalisto's how-is-this-not-a-finisher basement huracanrana driver set them up for victory after their Sliced Bread Numero Tres/senton bomb combo platter and a brief staredown with the Champions post-match.
The work's all been done, and the card's been set. With a pretty big legacy to follow, NXT Takeover II is seemingly set up to continue that and keep rolling on all cylinders. One can only hope as a longtime NXT fan that another trip to the fireworks factory is in the offering. That's the sort of thing that demands loud noises and all the flashy explosions, after all.