NXT Takeover: Brooklyn III — Outcast Overview (OO)

OUTCAST F.C.
Aug 24, 2017 · 6 min read

MATCH I — JOHNNY GARGANO vs. ANDRADE ALMAS w/ZELINA VEGA

Great match. I was loving where Almas was headed with his playboy, don’t-care gimmick, and now I love that it’s a powerful lass who’s got him back on track.
What I love just slightly more however, is Gargano’s arc. Not once has he mentioned the name ‘Tomasso Ciampa’.

Powerful.

Mr. Ciampa has not once entered Gargano’s life, but Ms. Vega knew that this would be a distraction no matter what. After a great wrestling match (which was well-performed as well), Vega threw a D.I.Y. shirt at Johnny while he was setting up for his finish. Gargano reacted as if he’d seen a ghost, and that was perfect. Gargano is erasing Ciampa from his life, which is easy while the latter is injured, because he’s not around the locker room, he’s not around his life. But that means that when Ciampa pops back up in whatever form, Gargano relapses, for lack of a better word, and all the hatred and passion bubbles up, leading to, in this instance, a distraction.
The feud is bubbling, and Ciampa isn’t even there. They are not dropping the ball thus far, keep running with it.
It was creative, simple, and effective, which is all it has to take. For an exhibition match, this was layered, and therefore, stellar.

RATING: 6/8

MATCH II — THE AUTHORS OF PAIN w/PAUL ELLERING vs. sAniTy (ERIC YOUNG and ALEXANDER WOLFE) w/sAniTy (KILLIAN DAIN and NIKKI CROSS) — NXT TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIPS

I was close to calling this the worst match of the night, and while that may sound like a bad thing, when there’s competition like there was on this night, there’s no need to hang your head. These guys delivered a hard-hitting match, even if it was disjointed in places. The introduction of Young in the place of Dain was a nice twist, but it also looks like there’ll be no Freebird Rule for sAniTy, which is a shame.
Unarguably, the spot of this match was the Nikki Cross sandwich, as she dived into the hands of Rezar, who caught her, only to be driven through a table by the oncoming Dain, and that brutal melee is enough to gain this match a whole point.
I like that sAniTy are being given a run, they’re a talented stable (with Wolfe showing it most tonight, in spades), and the extra layer of reDRagon being added to the mix, makes for a tasty cocktail, but more on that later…
All in all, an average match, with above-average spots and fine character work that helped this one out. A more heel vs. heel match would’ve been interesting, rather than the by-the-book ‘one team has to be the face’ booking, but, hey, at least they chose the right team.

RATING: 4/8

MATCH III — HIDEO ITAMI vs. ALEISTER BLACK

This is a weird one. I think I enjoyed it, but I’m really not sure… I’m enjoying Itami’s heel turn and after one more match with Black, I think that could be it for him on NXT, see what he has to offer on the main roster.
As for Black, I’m still very much buying into him as a character, and I need more than the brooding satanist to get me buy.
As I said, the match itself was… Good? It was beautifully hard-hitting, something we could have seen more of during, but everything was well executed, I think I just expected more from the talent involved. Though as long as this serves as a stepping stone to a final showdown, it does the job.

RATING 4/8

MATCH IV — ASUKA vs. EMBER MOON — NXT WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP

Match of the night. No doubt about it. I’ve slated the few matches these two have had, perhaps slightly unfairly, but this one was solid gold and the previous encounters fed into it beautifully. Moon was painted as the one competitor that Asuka had to cheat against to beat, and that is true, and the delay of this match, with Moon’s injury, was the best thing for it, prolonging an eventual meet and leaving Moon, and to a degree, Asuka, to stew.
They matched each other all the way through, Asuka’s kicks being responded to by Moon’s strikes, and when not even an Eclipse from Moon (two days before the actual thing) was enough to keep Asuka down, there was something happening…
Asuka evolved. Not even that, she didn’t just evolve, she transcended. When Asuka kicked out of The Eclipse, she proved that there was not a move in the women’s division that could keep her down. This match that looked to be a well-told story of the mighty finally falling to the courageous challenger was dealt a blow because The Empress was not ready to give up her throne; and it doesn’t look like she ever will be.
Asuka is the best thing in NXT, and has had the finest title reign there, hands down (and that’s saying something). Maybe the winner of The Mae Young Classic could have something to say to her…

RATING: 7/8

MATCH V — BOBBY ROODE vs. DREW McINTYRE — NXT CHAMPIONSHIP

Credit to the folk who put together video packages for WWE/NXT; they have made me feel as if Bobby Roode’s title NXT title reign has been way better than I think it is. Roode’s character has been the best part about him, he’s a fine heel and he can hold up a segment or a promo with his abilities, but his slow, throwback style caters to a smaller crowd, and sadly, I’m not part of it. This isn’t me saying Roode is a bad wrestler, as I have been wildly entertained by him in TNA, but in NXT, he hasn’t been doing it for me. His Nakamura feud was lackluster given the talent involved, his Roderick Strong feud is… Developing? But does just seem like something for Roddy to do until the real thing comes along, and his match with Itami, while good, was still the best of a mediocre situation.
Then there’s this feud with Drew McIntyre. I love Drew. I loved him back when, I loved him on the indies, and I love him now. My issue is not with his story arc, the whole former chosen one becoming the chosen one again is grand, but his story with Roode? Roode being ‘the one’ and McIntyre wanting to be the one? Weak sauce. And for a title change? Weaker sauce.
The match was a Roode classic, with a slow pace dictating most of it, then nine or ten finishers at the end concluding the match, but the frootest part was probably the formation of reDRagon coming back into play, followed by the debut of Adam Cole.* An ROH-inspired faction will get the job done nicely down the line, potentially with Roddy joining forces with Drew, as well as…. Who knows? The anticipation is palpable…
*I refuse to say BAYBAY after his name, because that’s still Heath Slater’s thing in my mind.

RATING: 3/8

Overall, solid. But can you ever say anything different about a Takeover? NXT-TV needs to do a better job of selling these shows to me; the commentary is drab at times, and doesn’t hype me like it should, I’m only really sold on the match card alone, not the event. Call me a sucka for enjoying taglines or calling a show ‘The Grand-daddy of them all’, but when Takeover: Brooklyn is called your Wrestlemania, I want hype in spades. At the end of the day though, when wrestling’s off the charts as it was in Brooklyn on Saturday, maybe the card is always enough… Now if only they could find a way to get their Best Kept Secret BUDDY MURPHY on there…

OVERALL RATING: 4.8/8

Keep it streets ahead,

CLR

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