NXT Takeover: Dallas

RATING LEVELS: 

Curt Hennig – A “GOAT” show, as Perfect as possible

Watch It – A consistently good show worth watching in its entirety

Watch It…With Remote in Hand – 3 or more above-average ratings 

High Risk Maneuver – Mostly filler, inessential, but 1-2 good matches

DUDleyville – Zero redeeming qualities, chore to watch

NXT Takeover: Dallas - April 2016

AT&T Stadium, Dallas, Texas

CHAMPIONSHIP RUNDOWN: Coming into tonight's show, Finn Balor is the defending NXT Champion, Bayley holds the coveted NXT Women's Championship, and The Revival, Dash Wilder and Scott Dawson, are the NXT Tag Team Champions.

COMMENTATORS: Corey Graves and Tom Phillips

NXT Takeover: Dallas kicked off with the NXT Tag Team Championships on the line, The Revival defending the straps against American Alpha - Jason Jordan and Chad Gable. I'm pretty high on both teams, the Revival being an excellent callback to the glory days of The Brainbusters or the Midnight Express and Jordan and Gable being a pair of "can't-miss" blue chippers with very respectable amateur backgrounds. Fun schtick to open the match up, the crowd fully in support of Gable and Jordan. What really stood out for me in this one was, aside from the very fluid tag work out of both teams, the awesome use of Texas-specific maneuvers out of the heels, specifically throwing in the Gory Special (invented by Gory Guerrero), a slingshot suplex ala Tully Blanchard (born in Canada, but raised in San Antonio), and what I believe was going to be a Freebirds-like spike piledriver before it was botched in one of the show's rare gaffes. Loads of great nearfalls in this one, including a sequence of about five or six before the actual finish. While I won't call this an all-time great match, it was a strong opener and the crowd was very much into things. I don't see how any of the tag matches on Sunday's WrestleMania card will be better than this one. (3.5/5)

Baron Corbin took on the debuting Austin Aries next. There was a huge size difference for Aries to overcome and he did a good job of it by staying on Corbin from the bell. I really liked Aries as a cocky heel in TNA and think he'd be best in that role in the WWE, but by being undersized and having "indie cred," it's obvious why that would be a difficult persona for him to adopt immediately upon entering NXT. Corbin, on the other hand, is practically a lock for Most Improved nominations at the end of the year, coming into his own as a mean-spirited braggart that takes special pride in destroying the "vanilla midgets" of the wrestling world. Excellent "Deep 6" spinning back suplex on the arena floor out of Corbin at one point, but the rest of the match worked because how simply it was worked, Aries getting massacred for extended stretches but Corbin enjoying dishing out punishment so much that he wouldn't go for the cover at opportune times. I'm not sure I adored the ending, especially as Corbin seems like he's ready for a vertical move up the ladder (I can't believe I wrote that), but if it leads to another match like this one, you can't be disappointed. My least favorite match of the night, but still better than average (and maybe even the best Corbin match I've seen). (3/5)

Nakamura made his debut next, taking on "The Heart of NXT," Sami Zayn. Nakamura's entrance and the intensity of the crowd, as well as Zayn's demeanor, gave me goosebumps before they'd even tied up. If the match that followed didn't hit the peaks of that initial 60 seconds, it still would've been a remarkable debut, but Zayn brought his workboots and showed tremendous energy and confidence. Unlike his matches with Owens and Samoa Joe, Zayn didn't wrestle as the underdog suffering from post-concussion syndrome, something out of him I'd been sorely missing in recent months. Instead, he wrestled as a veteran that was not going to be intimidated by the newcomer's flashy entrance or King of Strong Style reputation. I'm not sure Zayn has had a better showing as an all-around performer capable of doing more than just "fighting from underneath" in his entire WWE run. Still, as good as Zayn was, this match was an action-packed, invigorating welcome party for Nakamura, the most "must see" wrestling performer in at least a decade. As cool as CM Punk was, as much of a breath of fresh air Daniel Bryan was, Nakamura is something wholly different than either - something completely new and fresh and bad ass. There were all sorts of great sequences in this match, including a beautifully violent forearm exchange that left Nakamura with a busted nose, some unreal submission reversals, and several tide-changing counters and nearfalls that inspired the fans to, at one point, vocalizing the sentiment of everyone watching in attendance and at home, chant "Fight Forever." The only thing I didn't love about this match was Nakamura's final two strikes, including his somewhat awkward-looking finish that was either captured wrong by the cameraman or didn't really stand out as a match-ending statement. As countless others have already said on social media, this is your early front-runner for WWE Match of the Year. (4.5/5)

Bayley and Asuka were given the unenviable task of having to follow a legitimate Match of the Year contender next, duking it out for Bayley's NXT Women's Championship. What I really enjoyed about this one was how strong Bayley looked throughout the contest, no longer wrestling as the "Who? Me?"/"Aw Shucks" underdog that isn't fully comfortable in her newfound place at the top of the roster but as an ass-kicking division ace, not overly confident but fully aware of her ability to match up with anyone, including the Empress of Tomorrow. Like the previous match, what really worked here was the dizzying array of submissions and counters, Bayley showing that she had scouted Asuka's offense carefully beforehand (I particularly liked one spot where Bayley ducked not one, but two spinning heel kicks in a row). I wasn't a huge fan of the finish and would've preferred something more thrilling, but respect the way the NXT team has established technical knockouts as a legitimate way for wrestling matches to end, something far more rare on the main roster and practically unheard of in the old days. Both Asuka and Bayley showed that they can work beyond the roles that were there bread and butter for the past 6 months, Bayley showing she can be "The Female John Cena" as a fighting, never-say-die champion and Asuka showing a vulnerability that has not yet been explored in her NXT run. I wrote this on Facebook, but it bears repeating - I can't imagine any two wrestlers on the main roster following Nakamura/Zayn better than Asuka and Bayley did here without the benefit of ladders, a cage, or all sorts of other shenanigans. The fact that Asuka/Bayley nearly matched the excellence of the match that came before by just being themselves and telling a story in the ring is a remarkable achievement. (4/5)

Main event time - Finn Balor defending his NXT Championship against Samoa Joe in a rematch from NXT Takeover: London. I gave that match a strong 4-star rating and came into this one expecting just as good of a match. Within the first ten seconds, Joe got busted open above his eye and bled like a stuck pig, forcing multiple ref stoppages over the course of the next 20 minutes of action. I've read some reviewers argue that the stoppages, which led to chants of both "Fuck PG" and "Let Joe Bleed," hurt the match, but I absolutely loved the way that the unforeseen intrusion of the medical staff was weaved into the story of the match, Joe letting his anger show at having to deal with a pesky laceration while Balor, in the kind of unselfishness you won't get out of Triple H's performance on Sunday, sold well enough for long enough that you never got the sense that the match was truly stopped. In fact, as it continued, you were more concerned with Balor than with Joe! It was a masterful piece of improv that would've tripped up two guys with less experience. Once Joe's bleeding stopped (or at least reduced to a trickle), Balor got his offense in and the high impact back-and-forth that we expected was delivered, but I'm not sure anybody would be raving about this match if it weren't the unplanned gash that got opened up literally seconds after the bell rang. The finish was yet another throwback to a classic WrestleMania moment (this time the ending to Hart/Piper from WrestleMania 8) on a show that rewarded die-hard, longtime fans with all sorts of fun homages to pro-wrestling's history. Joe's best showing since debuting in NXT and, while they get the same numerical rating (I don't mess with quarter-stars), I'd put this one above their battle in London. (4/5)

The numbers don't lie - NXT Takeover: Dallas's average score of 3.8-out-of-5 makes it the highest-rated WWE-produced show I have reviewed on this blog. Currently, Spring Stampede 94' and Halloween Havoc 96' edge it out by 0.08 points, but those two shows were 3-hour spectaculars featuring some of the most iconic matches in wrestling history, including, arguably the last great matches we'd ever see out of Ric Flair and Hulk Hogan as well as the first great matches we'd see from Diamond Dallas Page, Rey Mysterio, and Chris Jericho. This show will likely go down in history in a very similar light, as possibly featuring the best work Samoa Joe had left in him, but also providing us a glimpse into the future with American Alpha, Finn Balor, and Nakamura all doing tremendous things. If there is one must-watch wrestling show from 2016, hell from anytime in the past 2-3 years, it is probably this one.  

FINAL RATING - Curt Hennig Level