NXT Takeover: Vengeance Day

NXT Takeover: Vengeance Day

Capitol Wrestling Center, Orlando, FL - February 2014

CHAMPIONSHIP RUNDOWN: Coming into this show, the NXT Champion is Finn Balor, the North American Champion is Johnny Gargano, the NXT Women's Champion is Io Shirai, and the NXT Tag Team Champion are Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch.

After a short music video entitled "NXT, Will You Be My Valentine?" by Josiah Williams, it was time for Raquel Gonzalez and Dakota Kai to take on Ember Moon and Shotzi Blackheart in the finals of the Women's Dusty Tag Classic. Before the match begun, we learned that Wade Barrett listened or at least knew who My Bloody Valentine was which is neat. Gonzalez started things out for her team and got to show off a few power moves, but definitely looked the "greenest" of any of the competitors involved in this match, including some telegraphed moments. Things got better when Kai came in and Ember Moon got to show off her impressive and stiff offense. The layout of this match was a bit weird - with Kai playing the heel-in-peril for a little while and the babyfaces bending the rules a little bit to prevent her from making a tag. When Gonzalez came back in, she hit a series of fallaway slams on Moon and then one for good measure on Shotzi, a considerable show of strength. Blackheart struck back with some direct-to-the-face slaps, but after an attempt at a hurricanrana, Shotzi got powerbombed into the barrier wall in a great spot. Back in the ring, Ember Moon took a ton more punishment, but caught a break when Gonzalez inadvertently hit Kai with a clothesline. Moon hit her finisher, but Kai distracted the referee before he could make the count. Blackheart came back into the match and hit Gonzalez with a missile dropkick, but Moon still couldn't keep her down for 3. Blackheart then got tagged in and cleaned house but couldn't get the victory. Shotzi attempted a weird reverse something-or-other from the top rope on Gonzalez before taking out Dakota Kai with a much better looking dive through the middle rope (and Moon's legs). Moon and Shotzi hit a series of big offensive moves but still couldn't keep Gonzalez down. They then hit an INSANE Doomsday Crossbody on Kai on the outside that looked like it might've knocked Kai out cold. Moon applied a submission to Gonzalez and it looked like the match might be over - until Kai came in and booted her in the mush! Blackheart and Kai went at it in the ring and Kai hit her Kairopractor move to get another 2 count. Dang. Moon went for a tornado DDT on Gonzalez but got lifted and sent to the ramp in a great bump (followed by another one as Gonzalez shoved Moon off the entranceway). As Gonzalez came back in the ring, though, Blackheart caught her with a nasty strike, but ultimately, Blackheart ended up chokeslammed by Raquel and covered by both women to end it. This match didn't have me hooked at first, but by the end, it was really, really good. A very strong opener, nearly a must-see. (3.5/5)

Next up - Johnny Gargano defending the NXT North American Championship against KUSHIDA. I liked the twist during the opening as Gargano and his Way followers made their way towards the ring only for Austin Theory to seemingly get kidnapped by Dexter Loomis? It was a clever way to explain away Gargano's posse not being at his side for this match (as Candice LeRae and Indi Hartwell went searching for Theory). KUSHIDA and Gargano started things off with some mat wrestling, a style we hadn't seen much of in the opener. From here, we got an outstanding sequence of counters and reversals before Gargano finally put KUSHIDA down by sending him into the steps. Gargano attempted a suplex on the outside, but KUSHIDA countered it with one of his own and then applied an arm bar on the floor. KUSHIDA controlled for a little while, but Gargano cut him off with a nifty reverse neckbreaker in the ropes. Gargano sold the damage to his left arm brilliantly and I loved the fact that he then went after KUSHIDA's arm in retaliation. This led to yet another dazzling sequence of pinfalls and counters, a stretch that I would typically call out for being overly choreographed but here - well, it was a thing of a beauty and actually looked organic somehow. The war raged on and we got a whole slew of awesome moments from KUSHIDA, including a vicious german suplex, a ridiculous arm-behind-your-back suplex, and a nice variation on running a guy shoulder-first into the post on the apron. Gargano wouldn't stay down, though, coming back with his own dazzling offense (including a spinning front superplex and a tornado DDT for a nearfall). KUSHIDA attempted his patented back elbow, but Gargano caught him into the Gargano Lock. KUSHIDA was able to counter out of it, applying the Kimura. We got another series of crazy counters leading a superkick from Gargano, but KUSHIDA came back with a strike ofis own before getting lawn-darted into the corner. Wow. I'm not sure this isn't the best Gargano match since his instant classic with Andrade Almas several years ago. KUSHIDA hit a chickenwing suplex into the corner, though, both guys showing tremendous fatigue. To the top rope they went where KUSHIDA flipped Gargano onto the mat with a belly-to-belly-into-an-armbar! Gargano looked like he might tap, but Gargano somehow managed to get his feet to the ropes - but KUSHIDA won't let go! Gargano rolled out of the ring, but KUSHIDA would not let go until Gargano started ramming him back-first into the apron and the barrier. Gargano rolled onto the entrance ramp, but KUSHIDA came running at him and delivered a ridiculous kick to his left arm! KUSHIDA attempted another submission, but Gargano escaped and hit him with a tornado DDT on the ramp soon after and then another back in the ring to get the 100% clean win. (4/5)

The Men's Dusty Tag Classic Finals followed - The Grizzled Young Veterans (James Drake and Zack Gibson) vs. MSK (Nash Carter and Wes Lee). MSK are relative newcomers to NXT, joining the company after a meteoric rise in Impact Wrestling under the name of The Rascalz. I like that this year's finals are between two actual teams rather than a pairing of singles stars as the NXT tag division used to be strong enough to main event Takeovers and really never recovered after the Authors of Pain and the Revival got called up and #DIY broke up. The GYV are your back-to-basics, cut-the-ring-in-half heel tag team while MSK are young high-flyers and, when you pair two teams that are as good as what they do as these, the results are never going to be less than good. After a respectable face-in-peril stretch, Wes Lee got the hot tag and exploded with strikes, flips, and a huge dive over the ring post. MSK really came across as a team that should've skipped NXT altogether as they have a definite "it" factor and feel like the type of team that add some much needed vitality to either one of the main roster's tag divisions. The GYV rely mostly on technical wrestling and teamwork, but that's not to say they don't have some nifty offense themselves - specifically Drake's 450. As the match wore on, both teams started hitting all sorts of tandem maneuvers and high-flying moves, including a Doomsday Device on the floor that should've led to the finish because of how brutal it was. Instead, the heels ended up being unable to put Nash Carter down and Lee made the save, ultimately leading to a feel good ending. This was a really, really good match, but I didn't love the ending as it felt like the Doomsday Device on the floor should've been a match-ender. (3.5/5)

The NXT Women's Championship was up for grabs next - Io Shirai defending the title against Mercedes Martinez and Toni Storm. This match suffered from a lack of strong personalities or at least personalities that seem strong to me (an admittedly irregular viewer). There was some cool moments in this match - Shirai delivering a ridiculous crossbody from the top of a lightning beam, Mercedes Martinez showing off some power moves - but I couldn't get invested in the plot. As good as Shirai is, I'm still not sure I get much of her personality and getting lost in the shuffle of multi-person matches doesn't help. Ditto for Toni Storm, who seems like a hodge-podge of a bunch of different, more remarkable women on the roster. Martinez is the "new kid on the block," but, if I'm not mistaken, the most experienced woman in NXT and maybe even the whole company. Being a veteran can be used as a core component of one's gimmick, but because the WWE doesn't really acknowledge any companies outside of their own (except when they do - like they did for Asuka and Kairi Sane), Martinez doesn't seem like someone that the division can be built around either. And so, while this was definitely an above-average match, it didn't feel like an important match or one that has me particularly excited about the division. A good match for good matches' sake with good wrestlers who I still couldn't really describe in terms of specific character traits. (3/5)

Main event time - Finn Balor vs. Pete Dunne for Balor's NXT Championship. I like Pete Dunne. I like Finn Balor. I didn't love this match. The action and wrestling was intense, hard-hitting, and well-executed but this one, to me, felt like exactly what goes wrong when you decide to headline a show with what was essentially a heel/heel match. Is Balor a 100% villain? Maybe not as much as he was several months ago...but he's definitely not an underdog that fans want to get behind for his story (like Kyle O'Reilly), he's definetly not the smiley guy who fights for what's right (like Keith Lee), and he's definitely not the fresh, new "dark" hero who also tended to fight for what was right (like Aleister Black). He's a tweener. Pete Dunne, meanwhile, was a really promising babyface for a good stretch, but turned heel when he joined Pat McAfee's lazily-named Kings of NXT group in October and has stayed in that role ever since. Who was I meant to be rooting for in this match? A few months ago, I wanted Balor to lose to O'Reilly. Now I want him to beat Dunne, though? Or am I supposed to cheer for Dunne because he's not gotten his chance to shine despite having lost to Adam Cole cleanly at Survivor Series 2019? In terms of the physicality and the exchanges, this match offered much of what the O'Reilly/Balor match offered months ago, but it forgot that what set that match apart was a clear story built around O'Reilly's emergence as a guy who didn't need the Undisputed Era behind him, who had toiled for years to get his shot, who took the NXT Champion to his limit. That match had heart. This match just didn't. Speaking of O'Reilly, he was arguably the best part of this match and he only had a cameo. While Pete Dunne's clean loss is going to be very, very hard for him to recover him - at least in my eyes - Kyle O'Reilly's respectful treatment of Finn Balor and Adam Cole's incredibly negative reaction to it (a superkick to the chin) was the kind of angle that firmly cemented O'Reilly as not only a still-viable, still-deserving number one contender for Balor's NXT Championship, but a sympathetic babyface who will clearly have to overcome a fairly big obstacle - his former allies in Undisputed Era - to achieve his dream. How Roderick Strong and Bobby Fish play into this is still in the air, though they don't have to get too fancy because O'Reilly has been shining recently and is clearly the brand's best bet to be the next guy on top. This is the kind of match that, come December, people will go gaga over but that I will have likely forgotten about by then because of the lack of emotional resonancy. (3.5/5)

With a Kwang Score of 3.5-out-of-5, NXT Takeover: Vengeance Day was another solid offering from NXT - arguably one of the better shows they've put out in quite awhile - though only the KUSHIDA/Gargano really match was what I would consider a potential Top 10 Match of the Year nomimee (which, for some, would be blasphemy). The weakest match of the night was the Women's Champion Match, but not for lack of effort, while the opening bout exceeded my expectations thanks to strong performances out of Dakota Kai and Ember Moon. I didn't love the main event or the finals of the Male Dusty Classic as much as others around the web - some of whom heaped 4+ stars on those bouts - but I'll readily admit to being a bit cooler on the Grizzled Young Veterans than many and, as I wrote above, not necessarily intrigued by the heel/tweener dynamic between Dunne and Balor. NXT has become a bit of a divisive brand at this point, one that almost guarantees to satisfy fans of workrate-intensive wrestling, will definitely impress non-regular viewers with innovative sequences and stunning execution, but has slowly lost its appeal to me personally as the roster has thinned out, certain performers seem stuck in place, and the shows have become almost uniformly built around having good matches for good matches' sake (instead of developing intriguing stories and characters).

FINAL RATING - Watch It...With Remote In Hand