WWE NXT REvolution Takeover Live Blog

 I am not super familiar with NXT so this review is going to be a bit noviceish.

Kevin Owens v. CJ Parker

Parker is working some sort of trustifarian gimmick, he has that look down. I have never been a huge Steen guy, but this was a good way to debut him. He came off like a beast, that cannonball is nasty as was the dive. Didn't get a sense of Parker although he did bust Owens nose with the palmstrike, which did add something to the atmosphere.

Lucha Dragons v. Vaudvillans

Vaudvillans are working as hipster artesianal cocktail bartenders. Lucha Dragons are Sin Cara and Kalisto (Samuray del Sol). I kind of wanted more old timey wrestling from the Vaudvillans, if you are going to do the gimmick, give me a stump puller or something. Lucha Dragons had some fun highspots, not bad, although I wanted it to be better.

Ty Ellinger v. Barin Corbin

Fun squash, for a version of a flatliner, that was a fine flatliner. Not sure why he did a stare down with Green Lantern Fan. How the hell do they fire Naylor and hire GLF?

Hideo Itami/Finn Balor v. The Acension

Why is Prince Devitt in blackface? Wouldn't a minstrel gimmick work better for the Vaudvillians? Match was good, nice showing for Itami and Balor, and the crowd is really into them. That reaction for the Go to Sleep tease was nuts. Hadn't seen the Ascension before, they were fine guys taking the spots for Balor and Itami, but they looked pretty bush league, really felt like the kind of guys who would be ECWA tag champions in 1999, like they would be a fine Cheetah Master/Ace Darling opponent in the semi main under a Scoot Andrews match.

Charlotte v. Sasha Banks

I kind of enjoyed Banks Bad Girls Club style shit talking. This was very much not bad, but it kind of felt like a touring indy match that Ian Rotten would bring into IWA-MS and then cut a long promo about how these two kids are the future of the business. Some fun spots, big long near falls sections but some awkward stuff, and not good looking in between stuff. Not terrible but I am not eager to see them give the divas 20 min PPV matches.

Sami Zayn v. Adrian Neville

Very good main event match, which for the most part delivered on the build up. I was always a bit of Generico agnostic, but without the mask and the borderline offensive gimmick he has a real connection to the crowd and real charisma. I am not sure if Neville is a great wrestler but has a lot of physical agility and his early mat work looked nice. I did think they slowed it down a little too much at the beginning, I like a slow build, but they went to a chinlock a little earlier then they should have. I also thought the Temptation of the Zayn stuff was a little overdone, which to be fair is a bit of WWE big match trope. Outside of those two things I thought it was pretty great. The crowd was a bit chanty, but you rarely see people into a match this much anymore and it made each near fall fell like a real big deal. Finish was great as they built to that big kick all match. I really liked the post match too, they nicely drew out the big angle at the end, really letting Zayn and Owens do their Beniot/Guerrero hug, doing the Neville thing, signing off and then having the Owens turn kind of come out of nowhere. Wrestling tends to work the same beats over and over again, so when something is worked at a different speed it is really effective.