NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn IV 8/18/18

28. Undisputed Era (Roderick Strong/Kyle O'Reilly) vs. Mustache Mountain (Tyler Bate/Trent Seven)

ER: Really bonkers spotfest tag, one of those kitchen sink matches, with a bunch of cool stuff chained together. There were a couple holes, a couple awkward O'Reilly moments, and a really overly hammy section with Seven in agony over whether he should throw in the white flag or not, while Bate butt scooted across the ring to him in a inside heel hook. That moment laid it on a bit thick. The rest of this was a fast paced death wish that ramped up the whole way, in a way that felt like they really understood the pace they wanted this to be. Strong was a real savage here, and a real nut. He took some big bumps to the floor, flipping over the top, getting knocked off the apron when O'Reilly was suplexed into him, flying onto the apron and tumbling down, making MM look real good. But man did he lay it in on a couple of cool timing spots, a flying elbow that looked like Seven got hit with a harpoon, and a wicked leaping knee to set Seven up for the killshot at the end of the match. The British guys were a little overly theatrical throughout, but when most of your shots land hard that can be forgiven pretty easily. And a lot of their shots had some thud. Bate hit some big uppercuts, had a fantastic lariat on the floor (bouncing neck first off the bottom rope and whipping around into a McGuiness-like wide swinging lariat), he also sold his knee impressively after O'Reilly worked it over with an awesome inside heel hook. I did think Bate tagged back in way too early after that big butt scooting moment, but I liked him foolishly limping and dragging his hurt ankle up the ropes. There were so many big spots, some big dives, Bate powerbombing O'Reilly into Strong to break up a submission, some brainbusters, a ridiculously kicked out off Burning Hammer, But we got some good nearfalls, some nice saves, tons of big moves, and a really fine build. Very, very hot opener.

PAS: I really wasn't looking forward to this match, over the years I have has some distaste for British indy guys, Kyle O'Reilly, Roderick Strong and indy spotfest tags. So I really wasn't looking forward to seeing Kyle O'Reilly and Roderick Strong take on some British Indy guys in a spotfest tag. Still I admit this really won me over. Really great performance by Bate and Strong especially, with their tag partners being along for the ride nicely. Bate was great in both fighting for the hot tag and getting the hot tag. I loved both of his peril sections, O'Reilly and Strong are really great and continuously tagging in and out and keeping the heat on, and when Bate evades multiple attacks to finally get the tag it felt like Indiana Jones escaping the cave at the beginning of Raiders. His hot tag after they worked over Seven was dope too, laying waste to everyone, including a great dive and a Niebla fake into a lariat. The second peril section got a little overly emotional which is a real flaw in the NXT house style (who is agenting these matches, Chris Carrabba?), but that heel hook looked great and Bate sold it well. Bate also may have pulled off the only two hit-both-partners-with-moves combos I have ever liked. Strong was a bulldozer in this too, I loved how he kept flying in to obliterate people and all of his classic Strong offense looked great. That kick out on the burning hammer knee combo was a bridge to far for me, but otherwise this was pretty damn good.

Velveteen Dream vs. EC3

ER: Overall good match with a few brief hiccups and a little awkward positioning, made up for by each guy taking the other's offense with gusto. Dream is a guy who comes off totally natural in his gimmick and movement, and EC3 doesn't always. You can see this in the awkward way Carter comes out for his entrance doing weird bunny hops. Dream is a good bumper, although I didn't like the early parts of this where he was just aping a few signature Curt Hennig bumps. Once he unnaturally got himself belly first over the turnbuckles it looks like he had to motion for EC3 to go through the old Hennig/Michaels kick to stomach/fly crotch first onto top rope spot, then moves right into taking Hennig's flip bump in the ropes off of some clotheslines. Now Dream was taking these on his shoulder on the apron, so there was a little twist, and they looked great, but something came off forced. But these two had no problem bouncing their heads and faces off the mat and floor. EC3 took a nasty floatover DDT on the metal ramp, Dream made that silly forward facebuster DDT look great in the ring, and both guys took a lot of fireman's carry slam variations (EC3 uses that a bit much and he's not really great at setting it up). Dream throws really nice right hands and I liked him using those to set up flashier things. And the finish was fantastic, with Dream hitting two Dream Valley Drivers - one in the ring and one on the apron - and then hitting his fabulous elbow drop from the top to the apron to finish it. I thought this delivered what it was going to deliver, but I'm not sure these two are good dance partners. The build was fine, but both guys kind of cancel the other out in a few ways. Their styles are almost more complementary as partners than as opponents, but I also don't need to see them as a team. Still, I liked this.

Ricochet vs. Adam Cole

ER: This match had a few fantastic big moments, and a bunch of those moments that makes me zone out during indy strike exchanges. And a couple of the biggest moments didn't really get the proper gravity that they deserved. The two big moments I loved were Cole going for a leapfrog and eating a dropkick, and Ricochet going for an Asai moonsault and getting superkicked in the face. The superkick spot looked especially match finishing (and it was even followed up by that stupid brainbuster on knee) but moments later we were just running and whipping around into our next sequences. We got a long stretch of that thing where one guy hits a strike, and it spins him a bit into position to do his own strike, which then spins the first guy into a different strike, and then they eventually all fall into a big This Is Awesome heap and breathe heavily like they were in a Godspell curtain call. And so they had these few big moments that landed big and looked great, but they were all just treated the same as the moves that looked decent and okay. A crazy flipping moonsault to the floor that sorta grazes Cole keeps him down for about the same time as Ricochet high jumping the top rope to rana Cole off the apron. A lot of their offense looked good, it just didn't appear to be very important, and there were too many of those autopilot sequences where a guy half asses step 2 of a 3 step memorized sequence, because he's already rushing to step 3 (like Ricochet not really getting height on a apron enziguiri because he's already worrying about the timing for the follow up). I didn't think this was bad, but it felt empty.

Kairi Sane vs. Shayna Baszler

ER: This didn't totally land with me, and mostly because of that awesome achilles stomp spot that Shayna did. Something like that is almost too vicious to happen early in the match, as it's so extreme that your opponent basically has to ignore it just to be able to function. There's ways you can work around it better than what Kairi did, but it's a tough wrench. But aside from that, they didn't really seem like they were having the same match. They both wanted different things, and this felt like a collection of parts from different matches. I could have seen Shayna being more sadistic, or Sane getting a stronger win, but it all felt a little disjointed. They still both do a lot to like, and that stomp to the achilles was one of my favorite things on the entire show. I loved all of Baszler's work around that right leg, bending it in all sorts of great ways, popping that ankle, bowing it out, and then curling the toes up before the big stomp. Shoot I even liked ref Jessika Carr's reactions as it was about to happen. Her face read "I feel really bad for what's about to happen to you but can't technically stop it from happening." Shayna looked like she was occasionally holding up on elbow strikes, and there were an abundance of Sane's strikes that looked like they would barely fluff a pillow. But her lunatic elbowdrops are as much of a sure thing as anything in wrestling, and they crushed Baszler. But it was hard to stay invested in Sane with all that running on that devastated leg, all that bridging, all the holding the standing crab, it was just a bit too much. I don't want people to think this was in your face bad, it wasn't. I'm sure these two have a good match against each other at some point.

PAS: I think this was a pretty great Shayna performance that got all joshied up by Kairi. I loved Shayna's taunting and shit talking. Doing Sane's goofy goosestep while kicking her ass was great. I also really liked Shayna's selling, that collapse from the spinning back fist on the temple was totally killer, as was how she snapped into killer mode any time she had a chance to throw on the rear naked choke. I thought Sane wasn't good though, this was a Manami Toyota match with only 2/3rds of Manami's athleticism. That ankle spot was an all timer, and she was up running around doing dropkicks a minute later, she was also doing a ton of over the top emotive telenovela selling, no subtlety about her reactions, everything was on a ten. I really liked the finish, and Shayna is at the point now where almost everything she does is worth a spot on an MOTY list, but I am sure there is better stuff out there, so I am fine leaving this off.

ER: So the tag match is landing on our 2018 MOTY List, but the main event...well, we disagree strongly on the main event. We'll be posting that match tomorrow, separately, and trying something a little different from how we've done things
.

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NXT TakeOver: New Orleans 4/7/18

EC3 vs. Killian Dain vs. Adam Cole vs. Velveteen Dream vs. Lars Sullivan vs. Ricochet

PAS: I don't really go out of my way to watch car crash ladder matches, this may have been the first one of these I have seen in a couple of years, and I enjoyed it. Great debut for Ricochet who got to show off some of his nutso spots he has such crazy athleticism, and the spot where he moonsaulted off of a ladder as it was falling showed some pretty great timing in a dangerous atmosphere. Really dug Dreams elbow drops, the regular ones got great distance, and the one off the ladder was bonkers. Sullivan was awesome too, it is always great to have a beast in these matches and he was really killing people with throws and clotheslines, he also took some really unnecessary bumps for such a big guy. Cole seems like the least interesting of these six guys, and did the least memorable stuff, so him winning was a letdown, still this was pretty great.

ER: Really fun giant trainwreck ladder match, that went a little long and had some expected problems with slow climbing and guys disappearing. But the highs were high and made this an easy win. I loved having a couple of monsters in there, and Sullivan/Dane each had nice showings, and I loved the atmosphere building to their big Godzilla vs. King Kong moment, and them bealing Ricochet across the ring towards each other like those monsters throwing a tree at a helicopter. But everybody got nice individual showcases and all performed well. Adam Cole isn't my favorite guy but I thought he came off well here, thought the timing on all the superkicks was nice (with Ricochet setting up the big springboard into kick). Dream has nice whipping right hands and just about the most gorgeous top rope elbow ever, tons of hang time, tons of grace, tight compact landing, really a treat to watch him fly as far as he does. Sullivan was really good glue throughout, as he kept being held at bay by big moves, but he was looming there as a presence the entire time. EC3 and Cole wisely team up to take Lars out, and I liked this big ape getting pinned into the corner by having a huge ladder slammed into his guy. The big moments are big and certainly memorable, with Sullivan and Dain both setting up huge slams from the apron through ladders (really amused by Cole getting grabbed by Dain and Dain just butt splashing through a ladder). Ricochet springboards into Sullivan while Lars is climbing a ladder, looks like they were going to attempt Ricochet latching on and scrambling over him, but the ladder tips and both end up in a messy painful tangle. Ricochet hits an insane spot, moonsaulting off a ladder to guys on the floor, while he's being tipped off a ladder, just amazing timing that could have easily seen him slip and die on the ropes. Too much cool stuff to list, also loved Cole hanging on to Dain during a Vader Bomb, and getting whiplashed violently upon landing. The "Everybody Climbing" moment was a bit much and the climbing in general was pretty lousy during this match (a lot of guys - especially Cole - looking up and reaching after they were two rungs off the mat), but you came for crashes and they found a ton of unique ways to crash.

Ember Moon vs. Shayna Bayzler

PAS: I thought this was spectacular, one of the better WWE women's matches I can remember seeing. Loved the story of Moon delivering the receipt by dislocating Bayzler's shoulder, such a nasty move loved how Moon escaped the same attempt early, and the fear on Bayzler's face when Moon was setting it up. Bayzler popping her shoulder back in by slamming her shoulder into the post was nuts, and an awesome bit of character work. You really don't see many matches where heels sell a body part, and it was really well done. Loved the finish with Bayzler countering the Eclipse and all of the fight Moon was putting on. Bayzler grabbing her hair because her shoulder was shot was so neat. I am a Bayzler mark from her early pro-wrestling matches, and this was her putting it all together and knocking out a classic.

ER: Yeah this one easily ranks among the best WWE women's matches of all time. This is far and away the most complete Baszler has looked and the two of them had an awesome clash. Moon has a ton of cool takedowns that could look bad with a klutz taking them, but Baszler goes down with a snap. I love the sliding trips Moon does, logic stuff I could see Finlay using, like log rolling into Baszler's shins to trip her. Baszler doesn't skimp on strikes (my gosh that boot between the shoulder blades, and punting Moon in the top of the head while she hung upside down) and you got this cool battle of flashy offense versus focused striker. The stuff around posting the arm was fantastic, the promo package really made it look like Baszler had been snapping arms in half for months, and the selling from both when they're about to get snapped was great. Moon looked terrified, and Baszler's facials really put over the danger. She's been using this dangerous weapon and now has it turned right back against her. Baszler's selling was so strong down the stretch, really elevated this even more. Ramming her shoulder in the post was a great visual, but her anguished screams were the REAL. Her faces in between shoulder rams were some of the best selling I've seen this year. The finish was great with that Eclipse counter into the rear naked. I love when someone counters a standard headlock takeover by keeping a wide base and refusing to go over, so the visual of Ember doing her awesome flip off the top...only to have Baszler completely block it with her neck muscles, so awesome. Both women's singles matches at Mania were awesome, and this one topped it.

Authors of Pain vs. Roderick Strong/Pete Dunne vs. Adam Cole/Kyle O'Reilly

PAS: This was fine, I like AOP as a pair of taller Hit Squad, and there was some fun spots by everyone in the match. Hadn't seen Strong in forever, but he looked fine. I thought O'Reily had a couple of nice moments, but there was some bad stuff, his little slap fight with Dunne was pretty cringey. I imagine if I had watched more NXT the Strong heel turn would have meant more, but coming in cold it left me cold. Undisputed Era are just so cornball. Not bad, and if it is the worst match on this show it's a hell of a show

Aleister Black vs. Andrade "Cien" Almas

ER: Another absolute banger of a title match from Cien. Almas and Vega are legitimately one of my all time wrestler/manager duos in wrestling history, they make such a perfect team. Almas is so good in this role, playing an opportunistic heel who also goes aggressively after big moves that might backfire. He is currently the best "going in for the kill" wrestler out there. Vega is an all time great at interfering in matches. Her interference is super fast, timed to precision, done so flawlessly that nobody has to stall or keep their eyes averted longer than normal, just a series of quick in & out hits. I don't think there is currently a better big match worker than Almas in the world. I liked Black in this, but this was the Almas/Vega show and Black was competently along for the ride. Big match Almas layouts are so terrific about building to several peaks, sneaking in moments where you're positive something will backfire only to have it play out a way you didn't expect, and the Vega interference always is used perfectly.

Black has great flash to start, cool strike combos that are mixed up so that his opponent never has to look like a guy just standing and eating strikes. Black is also one of the best guys at incorporating moonsaults into a match/ His moonsaults are fast and rotate low, they aren't high and loopy, and it totally works when he chases Almas out of the ring only to scramble to the other side and nail him with a fast low moonsault, and back in locks in a painful octopus variation. So Black establishes early but Almas and Vega are just too good at building to moments. All of the Vega interference lead to something big, her running off the apron and sending Black into the steps with a rana, spiking him with a rana in the ring when Almas is trying to use the title as a weapon, yanking Black's boot on the outside allowing Almas to set up the running double knees on the apron, all her interference is perfect and actually leads to big momentum swings. Almas is really great at missing as big as he hits; he'll wreck you with those double knees, but he'll fly hard into the corner when he misses those knees. We get a cool Almas offense run with a snap German out of the corner and a wild tornillo from the middle rope to the floor, The nearfalls in this are bananas and build so well, first that Vega spike rana, then a scramble leading to Black hitting Black Mass, but some more expert Vega involvement when she gets Almas' foot on the ropes. Her saves and teamwork are so key to the duo, it's really difficult to rate Almas on his own. He'd be great solo, but her involvement adds so much to his big singles matches. The offense keeps ramping up with a huge Almas double stomp to the floor, and we even get a great moment off of a move that basically missed: Black goes for a big flip dive and overshoots, throws Almas back in the ring, but Almas hits the Hammerlock DDT, and I would have bet money on that being the pin. Now, they probably would be doing that spot whether the tope con giro hit or missed, but the fact that it mostly whiffed made this spot so much better, as Black threw Almas back into the ring as if he had the advantage, but Almas capitalized as the move hadn't hurt him much. The actual finish is perfect though, with Vega's interference finally blows up, as she gets desperate and goes for a crossbody, Black ducks, Almas has to catch her, and BOOM Black Mass spin kick. The finish really paid off so many months of Vega interference, and I just loved this whole thing. Someone tell me they have a handheld of any of the Vega/Almas vs. Gargano Familia house show matches?

PAS: Man is Almas putting in a heck of WOTY candidacy for 2018. His timing on spots is totally great, he and Vega always seem to be perfectly in place to capitalize on a wobble or misstep. He is also great at getting stunned and wobbled and selling frustration. His offense isn't fancy, but it is great looking, I think the coolest move of the entire match was Almas catching Black mid spin and dropkicking him right in the back of the head, which Black sold like he was concussed. Timing was perfect, impact looked brutal, selling was on point. Vega is a champ too, her rana's look credible and land violent, and she is a tremendous asset to the match. Finish was great, Vega has been the secret weapon for the entire title reign so it was perfect that she cost Almas the title in that way. Black has really offense and nice selling, but he felt a bit like a passenger. I really want Almas to get the title back and just go on a year long title run, I think a rudo this skilled could really do something awesome with Ricochet, and Almas vs. Velveteen Dream could bang too.

Tomasso Ciampa vs. Johnny Gargano

PAS: Gargano is really great at taking match tropes I dislike and turning them into undeniably great matches. His Almas match was pretty much the apex of near fall 2010s wrestling, this match was the apex of over dramatic WWE Emo main events. You could see the nadir the next night at Wrestlemania with Cedric Alexander and Mustafa Ali yelling "Show me the heart" and "Show me the Soul" during a heatless nonsense Cruiserweight title match. This match had those tropes. Gargano and Ciampa yelling "This is my moment", the whole finish with Gargano hesitating before putting down Ciampa, but this was a two year story they were paying off and both guys are much better facial sellers then your normal wrestler. The look of defeat on Ciampa's swollen face as he looked up at Gargano was really demonstrative, he really looked like a guy staring into the abyss he created. The work in here was really brutal too, both guys ended up with pretty bad facial swelling from those slaps and kicks, Ciampa looked like he was trying to pulp Gargano's skull with those stomps to the back of his head, and both the suplex on the floor and the powerbomb on the floor were nasty and sold like it. I do think this went a bit long, they could have hit all the emotional beats and big spots with five less minutes, but it is hard to argue with the crazy year Gargano is having, and that is coming from a pretty big indy Gargano skeptic.

ER: I loved this, a great violent emotional spectacle that required compelling acting, and the acting was good enough that the ending staredown had me pulled in all of the directions. I wanted them to hug, I wanted them to get coffee, I wanted Gargano to murder Ciampa, I wanted it all, and I love the direction the took it. This show had a crazy violent 6 man ladder car crash that went 30 minutes, and 2 hours later they had to go out and have a violent match at the end of an already long weekend, after everybody in the building saw numerous people go through tables and ladders and fall from great heights. There's a scenario where you could easily see the crowd burnt out for this match, but Gargano and Ciampa did not give anyone a minute to feel burnt out. While I did think things went on a bit too long overall, I thought they filled the time admirably, and it really makes me wonder if I just completely missed on liking Gargano on the indies, or if he's just gotten really, really great in NXT. Because he is, that.

They built to everything so nicely here, and the big moments felt huge. Ciampa was great at showing frustration through rushing, and I thought it played great, things like trying to rip the floor mats up while still standing on it, or ripping all the monitors up and getting somewhat tangled in the cords; he wanted to wreck Gargano and he didn't plan on being patient about it. Both guys laid it in and I liked that there was actual struggle to the stand and trade, with Gargano's punches and elbows looking especially sharp (Ciampa looked like he had battled a swarm of bees by the end of the match). The big spots were big and used well, that suplex off the table sounded bone breaking, and the powerbomb onto concrete sounded like when I dropped a watermelon on my sidewalk when unloading groceries. It should also be noted that we had the only great use EVER of the "You deserve it chant", directed at Ciampa after he got powerbombed. The big Gargano Escape tease was great, truly could have seen Ciampa tapping there once Gargano shoved off the ropes, but you knew we would end bigger, and Ciampa breaking it with a brutal eye rake/nose rip was important. The weapons attacks were all cool, far more interesting than the typical tables and chairs stuff. You knew the crutches were coming into play, but I hadn't considered the leg brace. Everything with the leg brace was savage and looked far meaner than any Singapore cane shot I've seen. The ending was so well done that I didn't know what was about to happen: Was Ciampa genuine? Was Gargano wanting a polite resolution? Were we going to bookend all of this with another lean-in hug on the mat? Ciampa goes for his pistol and Gargano was smart enough to suspect he would, and the final Gargano Escape with the leg brace smothering Ciampa's face was an awesome final visual. Both guys knocked this out of the park.


ER: What more could you want out of a pro wrestling show? I cannot remember a wrestling show that had two matches I loved as much as Almas/Black and Gargano/Ciampa (maybe Royal Rumble 2007?) but throw in an all time great WWE women's match and a great ladder scramble and this show should be viewed as legendary. Four of the five matches are easy adds to our 2018 Ongoing MOTY List, and they all lived up to some potentially hyperbolic hype. If you've somehow not watched this show, I could not imagine recommending something more.

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2016 Ongoing MOTY List: Matt Hardy v. EC3

44. Matt Hardy v. EC3 TNA Impact 7/13 (Aired 7/28/16)

ER: Several years ago Matt Hardy was king of the 8-12 minute TV match, able to craft little stories in a short amount of time. Things happened, life happened, and then for several years he wasn't. But for whatever reason he has been back and creatively rejuvenated, and finally got a chance to show he can still craft a great 10 minute match. They fit a lot into the time and really go go go. Story is tight with Matt unhinged and bite-y but still plenty crafty, and Carter fighting through a leg injury. They fought close almost the entire match, not quite phone booth style but both guys were on each other practically the whole time. All the strikes looked good, Matt still knows how to throw a great punch and really nice elbows, and I loved the various times he would stop a Carter strike with biting. Carter lands funny on a missile dropkick and Matt goes after the leg, and Carter is shockingly adept at selling that leg. His limping and buckling was top notch, and even after hitting a plancha (after an awesome Hardy bump to the floor after Carter kicks him off) he pushes up on the leg and I LOVED the way he stumbled back and lost his balance afterward. Reby Sky gets in the action too with interference, then takes a great bump to the floor (being sure to make it look like she smacks her head on the apron on the way down). This was the most I've ever liked Carter, his selling was the best, his corner lariats looked real good, chops and strikes real nice. A nice tight 8 minute TV match is one of my favorite kinds of match,  and Matt Hardy is basically the modern Bill Dundee when it comes to crafting them. TNA needs to be having him work these every week with every member of the roster.

PAS: I was pretty skeptical when Eric told me to watch this, but it was fun stuff. Hardy is really great at adding a couple of interesting notes to otherwise basic TV matches like this. I loved all of the targeting of the ankle, with Hardy ripping off the boot and biting his instep. I haven't seen much Carter and what I have seen I didn't care for. This however was a nifty performance from him, he has a very 2000s WCWSN offense, but he seemed like a perfectly fine Johnny the Bull here. I enjoyed his clotheslines, punches and did a nice job selling the bad ankle. When Matt Hardy is having wrestling matches rather then outsider cinema he is still pretty great.


2016 ONGOING MOTY LIST

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