NXT TakeOver: The End Review
NXT Takeover: The End
June 8, 2016
Andrade Almas vs Tye Dillinger
Well, one came off like a super over megastar while the other was a forgettable geek. Just like his days as La Sombra, Almas continues to be a geek in my eyes. Dillinger completely outclassed Almas in the star feel with his crazy overness. Dillinger even managed to get in the spot of the match with his superkick while Almas was upside down in the corner. Almas’ over the top “Oh my…” reaction to Dillinger kicking out of his double moonsault spot only further made me hate this joke. Almas may have gotten the victory, but the guy didn’t get a big reaction and the match quality wasn’t nearly as high as the more recent TakeOver debuts. It’s nice to see that some things don’t change and in this case, it’s my never ending meh reactions to La Sombra/Almas. ** ¼
A year and a half later, I finally get around to watching the rest of this show.
American Alpha © vs The Revival - NXT Tag Titles
A rematch from TakeOver: Dallas where AA surprised everyone by beating The Revival for the titles. As much as I enjoyed that match (Actually my MOTN for TakeOver: Dallas), I liked this one even more. It seems as if in every match of the Revival that I watch, they do something that is just great tag wrestling. Sometimes it’s something extremely small like getting the advantage on Jordan after grabbing at his knee pad to get him to go in the direction of your corner. Other times it’s something bigger like how the Revival kept trying to keep Gable from getting the hot tag to Jordan. AA are the perfect babyface team with Gable handling the majority of the work while Jordan excels at the hot tag and cleaning house as if he’s Kurt Angle’s son or something. The longer the match went on, the more the fans and myself got emotionally involved in it. Plenty of great nearfalls near the end with either team looking as if they could win at any moment. One great spot involved Gable countering a Doomsday Device, of some sort, into a belly-to-belly suplex as if he’s Rick Steiner. All of this great effort by American Alpha was for nothing though as The Revival managed to hit Shatter Machine on Jordan while Gable is just a moment too late to break up the cover to crown NEW NXT Tag Champions. Considering AA just won the belts on the last TakeOver, this was quite the surprise. Great match and without looking back through all of my TakeOver reviews, I presume this is my new favorite TakeOver Tag Titles match. ****
After the match, two random large men attack American Alpha, laying out the former tag champions. Paul Ellering, not seen on WWE TV since 1998, appears on the entrance ramp, eventually leaving with this new mystery tag team.
Shinsuke Nakamura vs Austin Aries
The biggest thing going against this match was just the expectations. If you listen to the commentaries, literally the only reason for this match is to determine who is the greatest NXT wrestler. Although, logically, wouldn’t the upcoming Finn Balor/Samoa Joe match be deciding that? There’s a Tweet at the bottom of the screen from someone predicting that this will be the MOTY. How are you supposed to live up to those expectations? I really enjoyed this though. Sure, it began fairly slow pace, but it was good stuff with both men battling with neither gaining much of an advantage. As the match went on, it got more and more exciting until the final few minutes was just filled with crazy spots including an Aries DVD on the apron, Aries crashing and burning against the steel railing in a heat seeking missile attempt, and Nak finishing Aries off with a knee to the back of the head, a suplex, and the Kinshasa to get the victory as Aries is flipped inside out. Aries tried everything, but with such moves as the 450 Splash and heat seeking missile failing to connect, he just couldn’t stop the unbeaten Nakamura. Just a tad bit under the Nak/Zayn match in quality. *** ¾
Asuka © vs Nia Jax - NXT Women’s Title
Any doubts I had about this match were quickly squashed after Jax tossed Asuka halfway across the ring, causing me to suddenly get invested into the match. I don’t know why I doubted it. Bayley got a good match out of Jax in London, why can’t Asuka? Just as that London match wasn’t a typical Bayley match, this wasn’t your normal Asuka match. At no time does it feel as if Asuka is dominating Jax or that she’s just playing with her challenger. Jax plays the role of the monster well, besting Asuka often. Asuka tried repeating Bayley’s London strategy, but instead of going back to the same submission hold time after time (In Bayley’s case, it was the guillotine choke), Asuka opted to keep trying various submission holds. If one doesn’t work out, that’s fine, Asuka will attempt another one. Even the Asuka Lock isn’t successful as Jax is just too large to fully apply. Instead, Asuka manages to get lucky and just hits a series of kicks in order to pick up the victory. Frankly, this could have went on for another five minutes and I would have been cool with it. Say what you will about Jax, but when put against the right opponent, she can look great in the ring. I think Bayley/Jax narrowly edges out Asuka/Jax in quality though. *** ½
Samoa Joe © vs Finn Balor - Cage Match - NXT Title
The third and final NXT TakeOver match between Joe and Balor. To recap, I loved their London match, with it being one of my favorite overall TakeOver matches. The rematch in Dallas is my pick for the most frustrating TakeOver match ever with an incredible start ruined with all of the blood stoppages. This third match ends up being right in the middle of the two. In this PG era, they did their best to make this as brutal of a match as they can, despite the limitations of not being able to have blood. Poor Balor was thrown against the cage so many times. Where the match failed to reach its potential was the fact that the match was both pinfall/submission and escape rules. While there were some attempts to escape, they mostly just ignored that, creating laps in logic. Why are they so focused on pinning each other when both men had plenty of opportunities to escape through the door. Considering the fact that Joe won with a huge Muscle Buster from the middle rope, it’s not as if the match needed the escape rules. Still, this was a killer main event that had intensity, a big finish, and plenty of moments where either guy could have won. *** ¾
Overall
When TakeOver: The End was first announced, it created a lot of speculation as to what “The End” meant. Was NXT being shut down?! In reality, the name didn’t bear any significant meaning. Sure, the upcoming WWE Draft would call up several NXT talents, but it’s not as if this would be the first time NXT lost several of their significant acts before. Since this TakeOver was just taking place at Full Sail, I suppose you couldn’t use the name of the city, but come on...it’s the first cage match in NXT history. Surely it couldn’t have been difficult to use the cage as inspiritial for the name.It’s quite a good TakeOver though especially since I watched the opening match when it originally aired and then only just now got around to watching the rest of the show now. So it was easy to forget about the awfulness that is La Sombra (Ugh...is he really NXT Champion now?) and just sit back and enjoy one good to great match after another. Between the great matches and the farewells and debuts, NXT TakeOver: The End was quite the memorable WWE Network special.
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Originally Posted by Steve
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