Takeover: Portland
Date: February 16, 2020
Location: Moda Center, Portland, Oregon
Commentators: Beth Phoenix, Nigel McGuinness, Mauro Ranallo
We’re back with the big show and making the Sunday debut, which hopefully isn’t a trend. This is the first Takeover since November and it’s going to be an interesting one since we are only about six weeks away from the next one. As usual they’ve done a good job with building the card so let’s get to it.
Click on the link below for the full review.
The Untouchable One
With only a couple of exceptions, it was another great TakeOver. My only complaints had to do with the main event. I love a great near fall as much as anyone but it was getting a little ridiculous during Cole vs. Ciampa. I think they stopped it just short of the point of absurdity however. The other thing was the interference. When you've got 3 men coming out to help get their guy out of trouble and win, suspension of disbelief gets suspended a bit. It wouldn't have been so bad and it's generally not in NXT as it doesn't happen all the time, but it does happen all the time on the main roster. At any rate, I thought the main event, while strong overall, was overbooked within the last 5 minutes or so.
NXT North American Championship: Keith Lee vs. Dominick Dijakovic - ****1/4
Street fight: Tegan Nox vs. Dakota Kai - ***3/4
Grudge Match: Johnny Gargano vs. Finn Balor - ****3/4
NXT Women's Championship: Rhea Ripley vs. Bianca Belair - ****
NXT Tag Team Championship: The Undisputed Era vs. The Broserweights - ****1/4
NXT Championship: Adam Cole vs. Tommaso Ciampa - ****
Lee vs. Dijakovic was pure spectacle and it's a helluva novelty seeing guys this size do the stuff they were doing.
Great intensity and psychology from Nox and Kai. Kai getting some muscle on her side in the form of Raquel Gonzalez works for me. She's a big, powerful looking gal and has the look of a good heavy.
Gargano vs. Balor was everything it should have been. Great intensity, great storytelling and Balor has easily done his best work during his current NXT run than he has since his days in Japan. They didn't go overboard with the spots, they didn't go nuts with the false finishes.
The NXT Women's Championship match felt like a clash of alpha females to me. Ripley is a great scrapper while Bianca is an insane athlete. It was a come down match from Balor and Gargano and while the crowd might not have been as hot, they did care about the match more and more as it went on.
The tag title match was the wild sort of hard hitting affair that's made so many classic tag team title matches in NXT. The UE needed to drop the titles here and Riddle & Dunne have this sort of weird chemistry that just works.
The main event was a strong match but, as I said earlier, I think it was a little overbooked with all the interference and the near falls/kick outs after so many mega moves got a little silly. As a result, they took away from the match a bit but, again, still a strong outing.
Gargano turning on Ciampa and costing him the title wasn't "shocking", I'm just hoping that they can pull something fresh out of this program considering how epic if was back in 2018. This might be a long shot, but I'd LOVE to see them put inside HIAC at TakeOver: Tampa Bay as you can just feel these two could deliver a classic Cell match. As for the NXT Championship, my guess Cole drops the title in Tampa Bay to the Velveteen Dream and I think that's the right call. I'm fine with Ciampa not winning as I think it's Dream's time to shine. By the time Tampa Bay comes around, Adam Cole will have been NXT Champion for about 308 days, he'll have the claim as being the longest reigning NXT Champion in history, it'll help further cement him as probably the greatest NXT Champion so far and as good as the UE's work has been in NXT, it's probably time for them to head to Raw or SmackDown. Quality with them will be a roll of the dice with Vince in charge but they've done everything there is to do in NXT in their current roles so it's move them on or have then needlessly spin their wheels.
Grade: A
"What Do I Know Of Cultured Ways, The Gilt, The Craft And The Lie?
I, Who Was Born In A Naked Land And Bred In The Open Sky.
The Subtle Tongue, The Sophist Guile, They Fail When The Broadswords Sing.
Rush In And Die Dogs - I Was A Man Before I Was King."
Conan Of Cimmeria
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