NXT!

WrestleMania weekend has now come and gone.  Top to bottom, it was a really enjoyable show.  The main event left a whole lot to be desired, but there was enough fun stuff throughout the show to cancel out the Triple H main event.  (Are we sure it's not 2003?)  

This was initially going to be a WrestleMania wrap-up blog, but I'm not really feeling that.  I want to write about the thing that has the most buzz.  It was the thing that I was most excited about when I saw the card a few months back (Due to the spoilers of it being a taped show; I'm not complaining though). NXT Takeover: Dallas was the best NXT show yet, and that my friends is saying something.  

Austin Aries came out on a NXT taping the weekend of the Royal Rumble. This was fantastic news for me, and pretty much anyone else who watches NXT.  This was before the rumored NJPW guys came aboard.  So in my mind, even if those rumors were false, Aries is a pretty damn good consolation prize.  Nakamura soon followed, and was instantly put into a match with Zayn at Takeover.  Things were getting real- damn real!

When it was all said and done, the NXT Takeover card was this: 

Asuka vs. Bayley

American Alpha vs. the Revival

Sami Zayn vs. Nakamura

Austin Aries vs. Baron Corbin

Finn Balor vs. Samoa Joe

Was there a more perfect card that they could come up with?  Man I was stoked.  

The show opened with Alpha vs. Revival, which I assumed would be the case due to Alpha being over like rover, and a great way to kick off the show.  The crowd was hot, and these guys went balls out.  Even a little flub during the end didn't do anything to diminish the match.  Best tag match I've seen in WWE/NXT in a long time.  

Next up we had Austin Aries out for retribution against Corbin.  I felt a little bad for Aries in the respect that he was overshadowed by the also debuting Nakamura.  Having "bland as can be" Corbin as an opponent didn't help him having a show-stealing match.  Aries did get the big win, albeit a roll-up, in what was probably Corbin's last NXT match.  Something we didn't know at the time, but more in this momentarily.  This was nothing special, and really not that bad, but it had some serious competition on this loaded card.

Up next was the big one.  Nakamura vs. Sami Zayn.  Holy crap my words could never do it justice.  Just a war.  Nakamura is now the biggest star in NXT.  He even got chants during the WrestleMania main event, which I found to be hilarious.  Again, big props to the crowd here.  They were white-hot for this.  Nakamura is the new stud, but Sami is still "our guy."  This was a great way for Mr. Zayn to leave NXT.  In my opinion, probably the three best NXT matches all have one common denominator: Sami Zayn.  Unless Finn eventually surpasses him, Zayn is the greatest NXT Superstar of all time.  

Fight forever!

That's all you need to say.

Asuka defeated Bayley for the Women's Championship, and is probably the only person in NXT that could beat her and the crowd not mutiny.  Asuka is amazing.  Could you imagine if they do a mixed tag match with Nakamura and Asuka vs. another team?  That would be nuts.  What if it was a mixed six-person tag with those two and Hideo Itami?  I think my mouth just watered a little bit.  Back to the match at hand.  This match was a bit disappointing, but still pretty good.  It had an impossible task to follow the wrestling match of the year.  Was this the passing of the torch?  Is Bayley main roster bound?  More to come my friend.

As we roll to the main event, we had already seen a historic show.  Within seconds of the match starting, Joe was covered in blood.  Holy shit when did that happen?  Eventually we would learn that Joe rammed heads with Finn giving him a knee to the midsection in the opening seconds of the match. This also would be the story of the match for more than one reason.  

The Nakamura vs. Zayn match started off as a dream match exhibition, before evolving into a wrestling war.  Joe vs. Finn started off like a bar room fight.  The crowd was ready for this one, and once they saw the blood gushing from Joe, it just amped up the intensity.  Blood does that to a crowd if used correctly.  Then the match became about medics.  A lot of people were frustrated with the constant attempts to patch Joe up mid-match.  "Fuck PG" and "Let them fight" was heard throughout the match.  I personally didn't feel it did anything to dampen the atmosphere.  In all actuality it seemed to make the anticipation grow, and once they got back to brawling it was electric. This is Finn's best NXT match to date.  The same could be said for Joe, who looked like that crazy killer that he did during his best stretches in TNA.  Finn got the win, which was a surprising to me because I figured it was Joe's time to rule NXT as Finn headed to Raw.  With that being said...

The post-Mania Raw is always an interesting one.  If nothing else because we see some new NXT talent being brought aboard.  This year was the biggest call-up yet.  Apollo Crews, Baron Corbin, Enzo and Cass, and the Vaudevillians.  I must say I wouldn't have guessed those would be the guys. Corbin was fairly obviously only due to his Andre Memorial Battle Royal win. That is a pretty big deal at first glance.  However, it didn't do much for Cesaro (initially) and Big Show.  We'll see.  

Crews is surprising, not because of lack of talent, but because he hadn't done much in the year 2016.  The trend had been that the guys called up were the mainstays in NXT storylines.  Which leads me to believe Crews has the potential to get a decent push because two other guys who were never on NXT TV were Roman Reigns and Braun Strowman.  Now, I'm not saying Crews is the "golden boy" like Reigns; and let's face it Strowman blows at this point. However both were brought into prominence with little to no face-time on NXT programming.  Granted, each were brought into stables upon their debuts, so we'll wait and see.  Regardless I'm happy for him.  

Enzo and Cass and the Vaudevillians (who will debut on Smackdown) are really shockers.  I'm just going to say it: the Vaudevillians are doomed to fail. The fact they are debuting on Smackdown is the nail in the coffin.  No one who is going to amount to anything debuts on Smackdown.  This isn't 1993 Raw, that gimmick won't work.  They also are pretty small guys, which the tide has turned quite a bit, but a crappy gimmick + lack of size = wrestling on Superstars until you are released in 18 months.  

Enzo and Cass I feel could go either way.  They got a great reaction last night, but that crowd is a NXT crowd.  Meaning I don't know if the mainstream audience will "get it."  You know who else I feel won't "get it?"  Vince.  He's got to look at Enzo's hair and say, "What the hell is with his hair?  What the hell is sawft?" I definitely see that working against them.  However, Enzo can talk, there is no doubt about that.  If they can somehow put him in the Road Dogg-esque role maybe they could flourish.  

With all these new talents on the big shows, it does call for a bit of a re-shuffle for NXT.  Which is a good thing.  Nakamura and Austin Aries can now slide right in.  I'm sure there are some house show guys that are now ready for some TV time that can get called upon.  It was surprising that Joe or Finn wasn't on Raw, but one would assume that one, or both, will be on Raw before the year is up.  I didn't even mention that Bobby Roode and Kota Ibushi were both acknowledged at ringside during Takeover.  Which makes me 99.9% we won't be seeing the last of them.  In Ibushi's case, he will at least be on the cruiserweight show.  Whereas Roode will probably be mixing it up with Samoa Joe and his cohorts in the near future.  I also see Aries turning heel in the future.  Let's face it, he's really good at being that douche bag heel.  Aside from Joe, who else is a main event heel on NXT?  It's got to be Aries.  

Also, it's somewhat weird is that Bayley wasn't called up.  You would have thought that was the biggest lock of them all.  Maybe she is going to have her return match at the next Takeover, then make her way up?  The crowd was sure pining for it. Michael Cole even acknowledged the chants by saying, "Bayley isn't here."  Which was quite telling on a night when it was said that "Roman Reigns usually isn't booed."  So we know for a fact that she isn't on the radar yet.   The pessimist in me wonders if again, Vince is unable to grasp her character, and she falls the way of: Tyler Breeze, the Ascension, Bo Dallas, Adam Rose, and soon the Vaudevillians.      

There is a lot good going on in NXT, (and hopefully WWE too, fingers crossed) and this weekend was a shining example of that.  If you haven't, please check out Takeover: Dallas.  It will definitely be in the running for show of the year come this December.