NXT Takeover Brooklyn III Results and Review The GOAT of WWE Shows Up

Black vs Itami - SRC wwe.com

The WWE is a massive company, and their mainstream offerings on a weekly basis are not exactly always good. I don’t keep up with NXT nearly as much as I will be doing in the future, but I did manage to take a break from my writing to see this show this morning, and well, I’m blown away by a lot of things. The WWE got something right, and it’s interesting to see it, but there are some imperfections here and there.

WWE NXT Takeover Brooklyn III Results and Review

Andrade “CIen” Almas defeated Johnny Gargano

Did someone tell Almas that his job was on the line? He not only seemed a bit more fit, he was taking on Gargano in a serious fashion. The back and forth between the two was accelerating, and quite fascinating to see. However, the quick “no selling” by both men kind of took me for a loop. Some call it “indie”, I call it poor selling. I’m sure that it is warranted now and then, but even Ric Flair’s flurries would end with him falling on his face in fatigue after attacking his opponents sometimes. Almas here got the better of Gargano, but not without cheating, and that is perhaps telling. Gargano gets a DIY shirt thrown at him, and boom, Almas capitalizes. Almas is a great wrestler, if the WWE would let him just explode like he did in Mexico. This was as close as you’re going to see to his original charismatic self, but it took Gargano putting on a clinic for him to reveal it.

Sanity defeated The Authors of Pain for the Tag Team Championships

I love Nikki Cross. She is one hell of a performer, and a beautiful lady if you ask me. But this is about the match, and the Authors of Pain putting on a show with Sanity. Sanity brought out all of their tools, and the two brawled until we started to see the wheels come off. Sanity played the numbers game, and Nikki Cross with Dame’s interference was amazing. The logic of this match was great with that finish. Cross jumps off the top rope on the outside and gets caught by one of the Authors of Pain, then Dame runs straight for them both, tackling them into a table! That leaves one guy open against 2, and that ended the match, before the “indie” darlings showed up. I’m not impressed by those guys yet, but it should be interesting to see what goes down moving forward. Great match, with some solid concepts, and a great finish, and again I love Nikki Cross.

Aleister Black defeated Hideo Itami

Black and Itami put on a strong style showcase and I enjoyed it greatly. Black was not backing down and Itami wasn’t either, breaking Black’s nose at one point. Jim Ross doing commentary was great, but the match itself was hard hitting, and showed the future of WWE in some sense. The counters the two put on, quick thinking, and smart psychology ruled in this match. There was even spots that didn’t take away from one wrestler’s fatigue, but was desperation, like Bret Hart’s reversals sometimes. I loved the way they blended together, and how Itami mocked Black at one point. I don’t like Black’s finisher, but hey, it is what it is. This match was hard hitting, but not with a lot of slow down, though it did appear. Black is great here, but WWE will surely screw him up like they did with Corbin.

Asuka defeated Ember Moon

Ember Moon put on a major show against Asuka. While I did not like this match as much as the Nikki Cross vs Asuka Last Woman Standing match, I did appreciate this for what it was. Moon not being able to put away Asuka. However, the natural conclusion of this match should have been when Moon hit her finisher, dead center of the ring. I don’t know where you go from there. Asuka won after trying to cheat, and eventually made Moon tapped out. I would’ve like Asuka to win by cheating, and develop that side of her character, leading to a match where she couldn’t cheat, but nope. Moon loses, and Asuka’s title reign continues.

Drew McIntyre defeated Bobby Roode for the NXT Championship

This match was hard hitting, and perhaps one of the best I’ve seen from Roode. Roode took on McIntyre’s best here. The bagpipe players from the NYPD were amazing for Drew, and he looked poised to get the big win here. He did it, but not without taking on Roode at every possible configuration of moves. That included the outside, off the top rope, and several DDTs. While there were moments of slow down, it wasn’t so bad that I wanted to stop watching. The two really did well together, and Roode may be poised for other things. Roode seemed to have suffered a nice big bruise on his quad, which looked nasty.

Post-match Adam Cole, Fish, and O’Reilly came out to beat up McIntyre. They are indie darlings from what I hear, and well, I didn’t care, I had already seen 6 or so hours of Summerslam and didn’t want to watch any more.

NXT Takeover Brooklyin III was certainly a great show. After seeing Summerslam, I can say that this was a better showcase of the WWE talent roster. I did not like Summerslam nearly as much. While the lack of fireworks was lame, the live performances were great, and the future looks bright for WWE, assuming they don’t homogenize these guys on the main roster like they have with Corbin, and Nakamura.

WTF Moments: NXT TakeOver: The End

Here you go, humanoids, the WTF MOMENTS from NXT Takeover THE END

WWE NXT Takeover The End Results and Review

My apologies for not posting sooner, I have been working on other things, it happens.

Here is my break down of this special event from a Wednesday night.

WWE NXT Takeover The End Results

Andrade "Cien" Almas def. Tye Dillinger

Andrade definitely put on a showcase of wrestling, and Dillinger worked well with him. There were some nice spots here, and a back and forth match had the crowd fully engulfed. Cien’s finish, wow, double knees, geez. It looks amazing, and done right, it can be a safe finisher for sure. Good opener.

The Revival def. NXT Tag Team Champions American Alpha

A well executed tag team match. It was quite possibly the best match I’ve seen in the tag division on any program put out by any wrestling promotion, ever. Ok, that’s a bit much. But it was definitely good. The Revival wrestled a great match and won big over American Alpha. I really wish WWE would hire Kurt Angle to be the leader of American Alpha, like he did with Team Angle.

Post match, NXT chanting “who are you”, really bugged me. The random beat down by some random idiots was stupid to me, but whatever.

Shinsuke Nakamura def. Austin Aries

Nakamura needs to really work on his English. This is not to say anything racist, but it’s true. His accent needs work and he needs to really master the language, or Vince will tie him with a bad gimmick in the main roster like he always seems to do. It’s not about promo-skills, it’s about communication, and that’s just my two cents. Overall, this match was a little more thought out than most of the Nakamura matches I’ve seen. This was ok overall, but was it great? Not really. There were a lot of slow points, which really caused me to yawn. The slow speeds aside, it was an adequate match with a lot to offer those that are watching NXT. It was fun to watch, but Nakamura walking out as though his knee wasn’t hurt was dumb. Oh well. Good, but not great.

NXT Women's Champion Asuka def. Nia Jax

Something always seems predictable about the women’s division in WWE. NXT is the same. I did not think that Nia Jax would win. She didn’t. The dichotomy of strength versus striking was fascinating at first glance, but overall it wasn’t that great of a showcase, in my view. It was adequate. Not bad, not great, like Sasha Banks versus Bayley, but still good overall.

NXT Champion Samoa Joe def. Finn Bálor (Steel Cage Match)

Not that grand here. It was completely predictable. Balor hit Joe with some stiff shots, including a full fledge kick to the face that would make Bret Hart cringe. Overall, the standard match, no blood, and something I didn’t care about really. Joe won with a second rope muscle buster, which was fun. Balor loses, he can go anywhere else, I don’t think he’s that great on the mic. So we’ll see if he gets a shot at the main roster.

Overall Rating: 5 out of 10

At the end of the day, this was a lot of spots, and finishes that didn’t really gel well with me. I think that the show is good, but it needs to have a larger venue to make it feel more special. This independent feel is good, but I’m not going to give it a huge rating, just didn’t like it THAT much.