SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)…
This was originally advertised as an NXT Live Event and last week, on Twitter, was announced as a TV taping. I am not sure what will be shown on TV and what was for the live crowd only. Building seats around 5,000 and looked about two-thirds full. Hard camera side had many empty seats. Bell time was 7:30 p.m.
(1) Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch defeated The Mighty when Lorcan pinned Nick Miller with a rollup after some great action. After the match, The Mighty attacked Loney and Burch and left them down and out to a chorus of boos.
(2) EC3 beat Marcel Barthel after hitting a TKO. I think he calls it the 1 percenter. Not a long match but also not a squash. After the match EC3 cut a promo calling out Bobby Fish, who had attacked and injured him a few weeks back.
Undisputed Era appeared on the big screen and revealed they will be defending the tag titles vs. War Machine later in the evening.
(3) Mia Yim defeated Vanessa Bourne. Not much here. Crowd liked Mia, as she is from California.
(4) Lars Sullivan beat Keith Lee. Keith Lee came out next to a decent reaction and I was expecting a squash match. Instead Lars Sullivan came out to face Lee. I didn’t realize how big Lee is, as he was just about as big as Lars, height and weight wise. This started as an old school big man match, but as the match went on Lee showed off some fantastic athleticism. He did a spinning plancha to Lars on the floor that got the biggest reaction of the night up to this point. After Lee missed a move off the top rope, Sullivan hit the Freak Accident and earned the pin. After Lars left, the crowd gave Lee a round of applause and then Kona Reeves came out to cut a promo on Lee. Reeves said he wasn’t there to fight as and, as he started to walk away, he attempted to sneak attack Lee, who was expecting it. Lee hit his finisher on Reeves and his music played. The crowd then began chanting “One More Time!” and Lee obliged.
The Velveteen Dream appeared on the screen to a loud reaction and spoke about his match against Johnny Gargano later in the evening.
(5) War Machine defeated Roderick Strong & Kyle O’Reilly (w/Adam Cole) via DQ so Strong & O’Reilly retained the NXT Tag Team Titles. Undisputed Era got the best reaction of the night up to this point. This was a real good tag match that ended by DQ when Bobby Fish ran out and attacked War Machine with a steel chair. War Machine wins by DQ. At this point ERA had a four-on-two advantage and Ricochet’s music hit and he got a huge reaction. He ran out to save the day and helped chase off Undisputed. A flying, spinning plancha to take out all four members of Undisputed on the floor got a very loud reaction. There were loud “Ricochet” chants as War Machine’s music played.
Intermission
“On the Eve of War.” This week Harley R. Pageot, Tom Stoup, and Justin James discuss the final build to TakeOver: War Games II including their full card predictions. Plus thoughts on Bianca Belair, the Kassius Ohno-Matt Riddle feud, the tag team midcard division, possible post-TakeOver matches and stories, and eight listener emails.
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(6) Velveteen Dream beat Johnny Gargano. Gargano came out next to a mixed reaction. I could not have imagined hearing boos for Johnny just a couple months ago. Velveteen Dream came out next to the best reaction of the night. This was a great match as everyone would probably imagine. Dream got the win in the end after the flying elbow drop. A couple notes from this… There was an older man sitting in the front row wearing a Johnny Wrestling shirt, who was really trying too start Johnny Wrestling chants, so Gargano slid out of the ring and gave the man a hug. At this moment a young man dressed in Velveteen Dream gear, who was sitting on another side of the ring in the front row, stood up and Dream slid out of the ring, teased a hug, and then did indeed hug the fan to a loud, positive reaction. At one point in the match a fan yelled out “Why Johnny, why!!!?” Gargano yelled back “Why? Why not?” and then nailed Dream with a very loud chop to a chorus of boos. This match got the 1st “This is awesome” chant of the night. Not a huge fan of this chant anymore but this match was very good . My favorite of the night.
(7) Marina Shafir & Jesamyn Duke (w/Shayna Baszler) beat Kairi Sane & Dakota Kai when Duke pinned Kai after a Shayna distraction. After the match, the Horsewomen were beating down Sane three-on-one while Kai was recovering. Kai eventually made the save and Sane fought back eventually laid out Shayna, hitting her with the flying Insane Elbow. Sane was very over and, for me, it was hard to take my eyes off her. When she was on the apron she was always doing something. She has a ton of charisma and is just so damn likable. This match wasn’t very good as Duke and Shafir are very inexperienced. It was also in a tough spot following Dream vs. Gargano.
(8) Tommaso Ciampa pinned Aleister Black to retain the NXT Title. Black came out first to a very positive reaction, followed by Ciampa who came out to about a 75-25 percent negative reaction. He is starting to get more cheers than I would have imagined a few months ago. I felt at this point the crowd was pretty tired because it was pretty quiet and these are two guys the crowd is invested in. I did think Black wasn’t getting as much fan support as I thought he would. The crowd was more into Ciampa. Lots of “Let’s go Ciampa/Ciampa sucks” chants. The match ended when Ciampa tried to leave thematic, grabbing his title, and walking out. Velveteen Dream’s music hit and he walked out, stopping Ciampa from leaving. Dream grabbed a chair and sat on the ramp. At this point, the referee was in the aisle trying to get Ciampa back in the ring and Johnny Gargano ran through the crowd and hit Black with a superkick and ran off back through the crowd. After that, Ciampa ran back in the ring, hit his finisher on Black, and got the three count for the win. Dream then came to the ring and attacked Ciampa. He hit his spinning DDT on Ciampa, on the title belt, and his music played. After a few seconds, Dream picked up Ciampa and hit the move again to a loud reaction as he posed with the title belt. After a lot of posing and cheering, Dream eventually went to the back and Ciampa finally got up to a chorus of boos. As he walked to the back, clutching his title belt, the crowd chanted “two more days.”
That’s how the show ended as the ring announcer thanked everyone for coming.
FINAL THOUGHTS: Fun show and I’m looking forward to seeing how it plays out on TV. I saw a lot of Undisputed Era shirts in the crowd as well as Adam Cole shirts. They had the most merchandise, by far. Followed by Austin 3:16 shirts (still the best shirt ever) and Bullet Club shirts.
Most Popular
1. Velveteen Dream
2. Undisputed Era
3. Kari Sane
Most Hated
1. Kona Reeves
2. Tomaso Ciampa
3. Johnny Gargano
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