NXT Takeover: Toronto

RATING SCALE: 

Curt Hennig Level – A “GOAT” Show

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

Watch It…With Remote in Hand – Imperfect, but fun, with at least a few great matches

High Risk Maneuver – Mostly filler, salvaged by an awesome match or two, for die-hards only

DUDleyville – Zero redeeming qualities, chore to watch

NXT Takeover: Toronto

Toronto, Canada - November 2016

CHAMPIONSHIP RUNDOWN: Coming into tonight's show, Shinsuke Nakamura holds the NXT Championship, Asuka is the reigning NXT Womens' Champion, and The Revival hold the NXT Tag Team Championships.

COMMENTARY: Tom Phillips and Corey Graves

The latest edition of NXT Takeover starts off with a glorious entrance for Bobby Roode, a full choir singing (or convincingly lip syncing) his theme song. His opponent, Tye Dillinger, doesn't get as special of a welcome, but the crowd is definitely supportive with "10" signs all over the arena. What I enjoy about Roode is how he takes his time, working a methodical style, filling out his matches with purposeful looks and broad gestures to bring the viewer in. I wouldn't call anything he does "subtle," but he's certainly not the type to beat you over the head with innovative offense (which may be why some fans consider him boring). As for Dillinger, he was his reliable self, but I've seen him compared to Tom "Z-Man" Zenk in the past and I think the comparison is rather apt. A solid hand with good size and a haircut that he'll be embarrassed of in 10 years. The match was good but no better than that, making the emotional send-off (if that is what it was) more annoying than cool. When these "special" goodbyes happen to every single call-up, they become less special. Save this sort of theatrics for the characters who really did make a difference on the show (Sasha, Bayley, your NXT Champions), not run-of-the-mill developmental league curtain jerkers. (3/5)

The finals of the second annual Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic followed - The Authors of Pain taking on TM61. A ridiculous senton spot in the early minutes pulled the crowd in and one could tell that the bookers wanted TM61 to come out of this looking strong, but it should've been all about the Authors and their destructive power. As fun as TM61 can be, if you want to establish the Authors as an unbeatable pair of monsters, they should be no selling practically everything the Aussies threw at them. Instead, you had an even match where the big, bad monster heels were taking suplexes from a pair of cruiserweights. There are worse matches out there, but I can't recall many with booking I felt more confused by. (2/5)

During SummerSlam weekend, The Revival and #DIY put on a Match of the Year candidate so I was anxious about their 2-out-of-3 falls match. Could they top it? Was part of the initial match's greatness based on the idea that, prior to it, both teams were still relatively "under the radar"? The pressure on these teams was immense. The first time around, they were expected to put on as good a match as possible, but this time, expectations were for a classic. To their credit, they stuck with the elements that made their first match so excellent - the heels cutting the ring in half, loads of sneaky misdirections, unfair double team advantages, and both teams staying driven with the singular purpose of winning the fall instead of showboating or playing to the crowd. Also like their last match, the MVPs were Johnny Gargano and Scott Dawson. If Dawson isn't the best tag team wrestler in the world, he's got to be the best in North America. Gargano, meanwhile, is such a naturally sympathetic babyface that he should be pegged for a singles run with the Cruiserweight Championship yesterday. I'm not convinced he couldn't salvage that entire sad division. This was an all-out war that managed to achieve some very difficult tasks, including offering three separate, believable finishes and delivering just enough "call backs" without getting too self-referential and aping their first match. Extra quarter-point for color too, as the cut added intensity to a match that was already as intensely competitive as any I've seen this year. Another Match of the Year Contender. (4.5/5)

Asuka vs. Mickie James for Asuka's NXT Womens' Championship was next. Some have criticized this match for giving James "too much" offense and presenting her as a bigger challenge to Asuka than Nia Jax or Bayley. I say you don't bring in a "special attraction" and multi-time Womens' Champion and make her not special by having her jobbed out in 4 minutes. Asuka doesn't need that much of a rub. In fact, having her actually challenged by her opponent and taken aback by the level of competition James brought was what made this match different than any of Asuka's previous bouts on NXT. Now, if James hadn't of brought her work boots, I might've been convinced she deserved to be put in her place, but she looked nearly as good here as she ever did, drawing great reactions and building a story without needlessly hurling her body into dangerous spots and taking mega-stiff strikes (something that shouldn't be lost on some of today's risk-taking performers). The post-match segment was great too, further cementing Asuka's gimmick as a lone, unsentimental wolf who doesn't care about anything except kicking ass and keeping her title. (3.5/5)

Main event time - Shinsuke Nakamura defending the NXT Championship against Samoa Joe in a rematch from the last Takeover special. Again, Nakamura gets an astounding entrance, adding to the match's "big fight" feel, while Joe shot him daggers from the outside of the ring. Easily the best Nakamura match since his debut against Sami Zayn. Samoa Joe looked and worked like he'd turned back the clock 10 years. From the very first minute, both guys brought the goods, but what really set this match apart for me was the way Nakamura earned sympathy, not just through his animated selling but by, at times, looking like he'd just forgotten to do his homework on Joe. All sorts of fun spots throughout too including a picture-perfect kinchasa, outside-of-the-ring action that actually felt dangerous and brutal, and a german suplex/dragon suplex/straightjacket suplex trio that blew my mind. Strong, legitimate finish to cap things off. Great match that has unnecessarily taken a hit by many critics who can't look past who the winner was. On most other shows, this would've been your Match of the Night. (4/5)


Last summer's NXT Takeover: Brooklyn II earned a Kwang Score of 3.42-out-of-5, edging out this edition's strong 3.4-out-of-5 score by a hair. In many ways the show mirrored eachother - both featured a masterpiece tag team match, an intriguing NXT Womens' Championship defense, and a great main event presented in atmospheres where the crowd was obviously passionate about what they were watching. What the Brooklyn show provided that this did not, though, was a look into the future of NXT, presenting a variety of debuting or "fresh" talent (Ember Moon, No Way Jose, Roode) to a broader audience than the typical NXT viewer. This show, on the other hand, was missing that element, trading in "new and exciting" for two rematches from the last Takeover and a one-off appearance by a talent who came up in a time when the WWE's developmental league was still based out of Kentucky. Still, with its easily digestible running time and at least two "must see" matches, NXT Takeover: Toronto is a more than worthy installment of the NXT Network special series.

FINAL RATING - Watch It