WWE NXT TakeOver: Rival: Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn
One-sided matches are right up my alley, but not when the person delivering the beating in them is as boring as Kevin Owens was here. Definitely didn't do it for me with his boring chinlocks. Oh well, at least Zayn's comebacks were awesome as expected, and his selling was terrific - that saves the match a little bit, but KO's performance was dreadful & killed any hopes for the match being good in my eyes. *3/4
WWE NXT TakeOver: Respect: Bayley vs. Sasha Banks
Bayley looks super nervous before the bell rings. Just something that stood out very much. The match still holds up big time; the definite highlight of it was Sasha's AMAZING heat segment of Bayley - loved her just throwing Bayley brutally first into the stairs & then to the LED board. And of course the whole Izzy bit, which is just tremendous. Her smug smile as ref counts Bayley out is terrific. And then those stomps during the Boston Crab, too - nice callback to Brooklyn, and just overall great viciousness. Bayley's big comeback after the fantastic Sasha-show is really great, and the drama kicks up to the 2nd gear there; the last 5-10 minutes are just so superbly built. The finish is also pretty much perfect, with the classic Iron (wo)Man trope of giving up just before the time is up, but they did that really great with Bayley trying to rip Sasha's arm off while stomping her head in. That trope works greatly when the brutality is there, and it certainly was here. ****1/2
WWE NXT TakeOver: London: Finn Bálor vs. Samoa Joe
A real coming out party for Joe in NXT/WWE. He works one helluva heat segment on Bálor; it's pretty slow paced, but Joe is a master at that, and everything he does looks fantastic, so it's great. His submissions looked tight & his striking was on point as always. Bálor was his robotic self for the most part, but I did love the ending with him destroying Joe with those signature dropkicks of his. That FIRE by Joe was a tremendous little moment, and pretty much perfectly done. It's a great match & one of Bálor's best ones. Superb performance by Joe. ****
WWE NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn III: Asuka vs. Ember Moon
This is such a great match. Great character storytelling of focus, cockiness, frustration & desperation. The start is wonderful with Ember rushing to Asuka straight away, and overwhelming her. After a very good shine, Asuka eventually catches her & goes to town on her arm. Asuka's work over the arm is pretty brutal, as she delivers some vicious kicks to it & grinds it with nasty submissions. I like how Ember got out of the arm torture too; Asuka gets a bit too cocky as instead of focusing fully on Ember, she starts bantering w/ Becky Lynch who is at ringside, so that gives Ember an opening & she makes the most out of it. Her selling is superb throughout; most of her offense is based on her athleticism, and she pretty much doesn't do anything w/ her worked over arm. She also brings a nice amount of emotion & passion into her selling; and her frustration when Asuka kicked out of the Eclipse was a great character moment. The nearfalls for Ember are really great too, and goddamn I love the ending. Asuka just kept on & kept on finding openings to do damage to that left arm, and that strategy paid off in the end as she locked in the Asuka Lock. One of the best women's matches of all-time. ****1/2
WWE NXT TakeOver: Charlotte vs. Natalya
This holds up much better than I thought it would. I remember being so blown away watching this show live back in 2014, because we had never seen this kind of wrestling by the women in the WWE before, and now in 2019 when we're used to seeing women compete at the same & sometimes even higher level than the men, it's still a really good match. The matwork is good throughout - everything looks pretty tight & there's a good amount of struggle in almost everything they do. ***3/4
WWE NXT TakeOver: Rival: Bayley vs. Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte vs. Sasha Banks
This is one of the best multi-(wo)man matches ever. Fantastic pace right from the get go that never lets up, and the wrestling in it is none of that super choreographed looking, finisher spam dancing bullshit that oh so many matches of this kind fall into. ****1/4
WWE NXT TakeOver: Dallas: Sami Zayn vs. Shinsuke Nakamura
Still as amazing & goosebumps-giving as it was the first time I watched it. Zayn's ace performance is perfect, and Nakamura brought the badassery that made him a man in Japan. So many standout moments, but my absolute favorites were Nakamura tasting his own blood, spitting it out & then going full bully-murder-mode on Zayn with stomps & kicks + quite possibly THE best forearm trading spot ever - FIGHT FOREVER, indeed. Pure magic. *****
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