NXT Takeover: Rival Review

Hello! We're here for another Review- and given circumstances preventing me doing an Impact Review while the Football season is still on, lets get reviewing for some wrasslin!

Hideo Itami v Tyler Breeze
This match was a good opening between two really good wrestlers. If they'd given this feud a bit more of a build it could have really been taken to a different level- but given the time constraints on the feud, and on the match it was a really good opening. NXT has started to have an embarrassment of riches with regard to its talent pool- and that means we have to accept that at certain stages people like Itami may have to take a backseat. Although I still think we'll be seeing a slow burn heel turn from Itami- which'll keep Balor busy until the current Zayn/Owens situation resolves itself.

Baron Corbin v Bull Dempsey
For a No DQ Match I thought we'd have gotten a bit more weapons action. In 2015 Wrestling its rare they actually build to the crescendo and hold back in early matches, but I like the fact they did- even if it meant the stipulation for this match was pretty much a moot point. The thing I think some people have to remember is that despite all of the good matches we've seen from NXT- it is still technically a developmental territory, so perhaps the bar has been raised a bit too high for some people who aren't Seasoned Veterans on the Indy's.

The Dubstep Duo v The Lucha Dragons
It was Los del Rio v Skrillex, Maracas v Space Bar, The Macarena v Strobe Lights- and it was pretty average. I don't know if Mistico had came back for a One Night Appearance under the mask- but Sin Cara looked really off last night. Granted its far from ideal from his point of view to be on the road doing RAWs, Smackdowns etc. and then unless I'm mistaken on one of the two days off the Main Roster get to be wrestling in NXT, so hopefully this is the end of Cara's run in NXT purely from a health perspective. Kalisto wasn't much better mind, I don't know if he'd suddenly developed an allergy to Strobes but he seemed a bit off the pace as well. The number of near falls was bordering on ludicrous- and it seemed they wanted to go for quantity rather than quality in this match, and while I haven't seen much of Murphy and the other one I've seen enough to know they're capable of better.

Finn Balor v Adrian Neville
This match stole the show. My new favourite thing to do is probably going to be watching the NXT crowd raising their arms simultaneously in time with Balor. Balor's paint adds a dimension to the match before its even begun. This match was near perfect, it was built perfectly building the pace of the match to its eventual finish- bringing the crowd every step along the way. Everything from the slingshot into the barricade, to the counter to the Red Arrow- to the eventual finish was timed to perfection; and thats what this match was- perfection.

Sasha Banks v Charlotte v Bayley v Becky Lynch
This was the best womens match since- well the Womens match on the last Takeover Special. 4 Ways have the potential to become a cluster pretty quickly- but they worked out the match to give all 4 a spotlight at various intervals in the match. I was pleasantly surprised by Becky, I haven't seen much of her but I was impressed with what I saw last night. Bayley is someone I've liked for a long time- she's just naturally likable, which is pretty hard to come by in Wrestling. Her interchanges with Charlotte were top notch, and I brought it up last night it's mental that Charlotte's first match in NXT was against Bayley when both of them were pretty raw- and seeing how much they've developed since that match. Speaking of development, Sasha Banks has arguably become the best Heel Diva in either NXT or the Main Roster. I can't remember exactly when it was when Summer turned her- but if I had to hazard a guess I'd say roughly 1 and a Half Years ago. I get most people would have only been watching NXT since it came on the Network just under a year ago, but it really is crazy to see how much she's developed firstly in the BFFs and then as the focal point heel. I'd rather have had Bayley win and becoming a fully fledged heel, to start a feud with Charlotte and getting a Becky-Sasha feud to run parallel to it; but its clear they aren't going to go that way with Bayley (yet) so Sasha was the best option. For what its worth I can't see Charlotte debuting this side of Mania, and I would hope Triple H protects her from the evils of McMahon and Dunn once she comes up.

Kevin Owens v Sami Zayn
This match could have been approached from a number of different angles from both angles- both from a viewer point of view, and the two guys in the match. One thing I didn't expect was to have a similar situation to Cena-Lesnar from Summerslam with total domination from Owens, with powerbombs replacing German Suplexes. It creates an interesting dynamic for the rest of the feud now we've had the domination phase- and crucially we won't be having Zayn protected for the rest of the feud like Cena was, which means we'll see a proper aggressiveness out of Zayn for as long as they want to keep this feud going. Personally I'd keep these two like the NXT version of Bret & Shawn, meaning that they can go off and do different things before coming back together and delivering quality every time. The finish left me feeling a bit cold, I would understand the "KO" finish if Zayn was unbeaten- but he's been pinned on numerous occasions so its not like he's been wrapped in Cotton Wool. Although it creates an interesting dynamic for the rest of the feud- if they were going to work an injury angle they might as well have had him be pinned.

This wasn't quite as good as the last Takeover in my opinion, but it was still a million times better than pretty much every single other event we've had under the WWE umbrella since the last Takeover.

Thanks for reading as always, I hope you're still enjoying reading these reviews- because I'm still enjoying writing them. Anyway, these'll be back for RAW on Monday before I get into the Fast Lane (YEEEEAAAAAHHHH) with two blogs coming for the upcoming PPV. So stay tuned for those, and try and get over that horrible pun.