Daaaaaad! Posted March 29, 2020 Share Posted March 29, 2020 Go on, I'm in if you'll have me! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members gmoney Posted March 30, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted March 30, 2020 Are we waiting until every event has been assigned, or can we post them whenever? Mine's basically done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Fatty Facesitter Posted March 30, 2020 Author Paid Members Share Posted March 30, 2020 11 minutes ago, gmoney said: Are we waiting until every event has been assigned, or can we post them whenever? Mine's basically done. Go ahead sir. Same goes for all - if your reviews are ready then go ahead and post. We’ll assign the rest at a later date. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members gmoney Posted March 30, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted March 30, 2020 Takeover Philadelphia January 27, 2018 Percy Watson is in for Nigel McGuinness. Oh great. AOP with Paul Ellering vs Undisputed Era (Kyle O Riley and Bobby Fish) (C) for the NXT Tag Team Championship This feels like an age ago. No mention of Roderick Strong, so this is pre Fish injury and him joining them. AOP clobber them to start and they look hard as fuck. O Riley tries to use his speed and kicking ability, but gets banged for his trouble. He tries some MMA submission attempts while on the ground, but he can’t get anything on the big lads. Fish comes in and gets caught early, so the heels decide fuck this off and try to walk off, but they don’t even get to the aisle before they get banged again. Money Inc used to at least get near the curtain. Fish gets a wheelbarrow into the guardrail. A knee from the top rope sees Akam land awkwardly and injure his leg. Fish smells blood and takes him out from the apron. UE take over with their kicks and strikes. One legged Akam fights valiantly, but they keep the heat. O Riley’s submissions now have some bite, and Akam has to fight to the rope, rather than power out like before. The highlight from the heat; a schoolyard ‘kneel behind the guy/push onto arse’ straight into a leg lock. Fish hits Rezar on the apron, but eats a body drop for hot tag, Rezar goes wild. He does a fall-away slam to O’Riley with Fish on his back, which gets a 2. However, Akam is still out so it’s 1 on 2, and O Riley manages to get the upper hand on Rezar this time. Doesn’t last long thought and one legged Akam is back. Suddenly though he’s caught in a leg lock and Fish is on the back of the other one, it doesn’t look good for them until he flips Fish onto the pair of them to break it up. More kicks but Akam hulks up and overhead suplexes O Riley, and punches Fish very very hard off of the apron. Vader would have been proud of that one. The go for the Super collider, but Akam’s knee gives out and he gets a hurrucarana for his weakness. He takes it the way you only would if you were setting something up, i.e. he doesn’t flip he goes straight forward like a bull and crashes into his partner, then he gets rolled up for the 3. Good story, good action. O Riley hasn’t quite become the arch dickhead that I love yet, but some flashes of twatishness. Asking Alexandria are doing the official theme tune. It’s absolutely dreadful. War Machine are in the crowd. This really feels like a lot longer ago than 2 years. Kassius Ohno vs Velveteen Dream VD has guaranteed a 30 second knock out for this bout. He’s beautifully dressed as boxer. He’s got a lady with him, who I don’t think we ever see again. A massive bloke has a mouthguard on a cushion for him. Ohno comes out and looks abysmal. He’s in a shirt and pants so you can see his cottage cheese arse, everything about him looks naff and grim. Compared to VD he’s like slimy cat shit. Dream goes in swinging immediately, flooring him as promised, however instead of a pin he wants a ten count, which you usually don’t get in wrestling. I’ve have seen it though. He gives KO a chance to recover from the KO, and gets a crack to the jaw himself. Mouthguard goes and everything. He gets back in control though, because Ohno is shit, and beats him down for a while, while KO gurns unpleasantly. Dream is playing heel, but the people love him. How can you not? We end up with a slugfest and Kassius uses his mass for an advantage. Backpocket DDT looks a bit fucked up, and a death valley driver also looks a bit fucked up. Rolling death valley driver looks a bit fucked up. I’m tempted to blame the guy who is an out of shape mess here. Dream gets the win with his elbow drop. If you had asked me to remember what happened in this match before I watched it again, I would have said “Dream knocked him out in 30 seconds and won.” I wish that was what they did do, instead we saw far too much of Ohno. We see the Liberty Bell, that Muhammad Ali put a crack in, according to the theme tune of his cartoon. Shayna Baszler vs Ember Moon (C) for the NXT Women's Championship It seems to be the thing to do to slag off Baszler these days, but I thought she was fantastic from the get go in NXT. Natural heel and carried herself like someone from day one. I remember liking Ember as well, but her mic skills leave a lot to be desired in the pre-match promo. Presumably that was the best stuff of the feud as well. Ember has baby blue contacts. Who talked her into that? Sure sign she’s dropping this belt. Lots of heat for Shayna as smacks fuck out of Ember. She makes a comeback with a ring dive, lots of impact there. Didn’t do much though as Shayna goes back to kicking the shit out of her and standing on her fingers. She does the arm breaker spot and puts her in an arm lock, wrenching it about and driving her knee into it. More arm and joint manipulation. People used to pay a lot for videos like this in the back of Bizarre. The champ fights back with one arm, but can’t put Baszler away. She hits the Eclipse with one arm, but her arm is so bollixed that she can’t get a pin. Medical crew come down which draws boos because the crowd think this is going to get called off. She’s back in the fight though, but gets caught in an armbar. It’s tense, but she gets to the rope. She’s dragged away and gets caught in it again. Lots of near tapping, rolling around and it seems like they are just delaying the inevitable, but Moon rolls Shayna onto her shoulders and gets the pin! The baby blues were a red herring! No memory of this finish either, in my mind Shayna was undefeated until she dropped the title. Celebrations are short lived though as on her way out Moon is blindsided and gets put in the Gary Fuji clutch. I enjoyed this. Ricochet is shown the crowd. Nice suit. Aleister Black vs Adam Cole Extreme Rules match I think this match as the spot that made me appreciate that Adam Cole was more than just an indyriffic spot monkey, which is ironic as this is a bit of a weapons based spo-fest if I remember rightly. They battle for a while, and Black does his chilled out hardman routine, getting a chair off of Cole and taking the opportunity to sit on it, rather than his usual cross legged bit. Good spot. They get some plunder from under the ring, they both end up with Kendo sticks. Black decides he can get the upper hand without one though, causing Cole to call him stupid, before Black avoids his swings and kicks shit out of him. He goes for a rope-assisted moonsault, but gets caught in the fucking belly with a big swing of a stick. Looked brutal. Stick assisted backstabber gets a 2. Cole sets up a table outside and tries to suplex Black from the inside onto it, but doesn’t get it. Blood is coming from somewhere, I think Cole’s hand. Maybe from setting the table. Black sets up another table next to the other one. This is a bit fucking silly, as he’s clearly setting up a set piece for later. A ladder comes into the mix. Cole now looks like he’s dipped his hand in ketchup. Black lobs AC arse first into the ladder and the medics take this opportunity to try and clean his hand up a bit with tape. They continue to battle, and Black wants to Pillmanize his head, which would kill Cole, but gets a chair assisted superkick instead, and falls into the tables he luckily had prepared earlier. Here it comes. Cole gets the notion to set up two chairs in the middle of the ring, so he can slam Aleister onto them. He gives the chairs a look and smiles at them, happy with his diabolical plan. He looks at the prone Black, and then slowly back at the chairs, another thought forming in his mind. He rotates the chairs so the backs are together, forming a terrible spike. So delighted is he with this extra evil twist, he grins to himself and evilly strokes the steel. However, before he can finish the job, and break his opponent in two, Black recovers, hoists him on his shoulders and FU’s him onto the backs of the chairs. Now, that is a fucking stupid spot, and I’m amazed Cole isn’t crippled. However, that build up was 24 carat gold. That turned me on this guy. Here come Fish and O Reilly though, and they take out Black and drag him by the legs to the announcers table. Sanity make a save though. Sanity? I guess this was near a War Games or something. Fat lad Killian Dane wipes the run in boys with a dive to the outside. Cole attempts to suplex black through the desk, but ends up taking a double knee drop through it. That looked fantastic. Black’s got a nasty bloody graze on his back. Back in the ring Black eats a superkick, but Cole’s too knackered to do much about it. He makes it to his feet with a chair but gets a Black Mass and gets pinned for the 3 count. This was a lot of fun, better than in my memory. EC3 in the crowd. A shame Vince apparently hates him, I think he’s great. Andrade “Cien” Almas (C) vs Gargano for the NXT Championship So from the video, Johnny’s been on a losing streak (I think this is after an aborted heel turn? Hard to remember because this tale got quite convoluted) but he turned it around and earned a title shot. Even though there’s been a few of wrong turns in his NXT career, I still find him to be a great babyface. Very likeable. Andrade’s got a masked mariachi band. Excellent. He comes out with his own mask before taking it off. Must be a Killer Bees mark. He looks shit hot. The challenger comes out last. His theme is total dogshit shit. He’s got a nice face though. They do some of that amateur/technical stuff early, and it looks good. Both guys are evenly matched. Candice LeRae is shown in the crowd, apparently she is a recent signing. More wrestling where no one gets the upper hand, before Gargano finally uses his superior skills to take the advantage briefly. The end up outside and this time neither can do any flippy shit, because the other has it scouted, but Johnny does a somersault and lands like a big slab of gammon when he misses. At some point Andrade goes to do that dumb move that Alberto Del Rio used to do when the other guy is in the tree of woe, but he actually holds Johnny in place by the arm, and when he has to let go, Gargano moves. Good. That’s exactly how that would go. Johnny overhead belly to bellys him into the turnbuckle, which looks brutal. He gets a 2 count with a top rope spinning hug, which looks better than it sounds. Another 2 count with a slingshot spear. When Almasis back on top, he does a moonsault which Johnny avoids, but immediately does a standing moonsault. They begin to trade near-falls, then slap each other at the same time and both collapse. Imagine if you saw that in a pub. Gargano tries a sunset flip from the top rope, but Almasdoesn’t go over and drives his knees into his head. He gets a run up to do it again with velocity, Johnny moves and goes for a slingshot spear, he’s caught and driven into the mat, dragged up for an inverted tornado DDT for a near fall. It’s breathless stuff. You can imagine some of the older guys shaking their heads. “Slow down, brother.” They crowd are going insane though. After a double down, they’re slugging each other with proper strikes, not wet slaps and Johnny gets a DDT onto the apron, drags him in the ring for a near-fall. The story throughout the match is that every time one of them gets on top, they’re countered pretty swiftly, because they’re both so evenly matched. A superkick out of nowhere gets another near fall for Johnny, and they end up tangled in the corner. Gargano is the that shitty Del Rio move position again, except this time he’s on the outside of the ring and if he lets go, he’ll smash his head on the apron. That’s what I’m telling myself anyway. Almas gets it this time. He also gets the running knee strike in the corner. He doesn’t get a 3. Johnny’s doing the old Randy Orton concussion selling, but he can still throw a punch. A weak superkick turns Andrade around, leaving him open for a reverse frankensteiner, then he runs at him for some reason, gets caught in a tilt-a-whirl, but manages to lock in the Gargano Escape. If that sounds a bit confusing to read, it was to watch as well. Now Vega distracts the ref, and after Johnny ends up outside, she hits him with a hurricanrana. Hammerlock DDT for the super-near fall. Almas wants to cry. Johnny rolls all the way to the outside and Vega strides over with purpose, but she’s intercepted by Candice LaRae! Feel good moment right there. She pastes her and they brawl off into the crowd. Gargano Escape, and no Vega to rescue him, but Almas gets to the rope with the toe of his boot. They’re both on the apron, groggy as fuck. Andrade pushes Johnny back and he cracks his head on the ring post. Andrade knows what to do! Running knee smash into the post. Looked incredibly brutal, and made me think of Ed Leslie and the parasailing accident. In my memory that was the finish, but he pulls him up and does a draping hammerlock DDT for the win and retains the belt. It’s a bit of a flat ending, one; because the knee smash should have been the last move, and two; because once Candice took out Vega, you would have thought Johnny Gargano would win given the even odds, but he ends up losing pretty clean. I watched it with my old housemate at the time and he was very deflated by it, after being on the edge of his seat throughout. No amount of me saying stuff like “he put up a good fight though” would convince him that Gargano didn’t come off looking like a gimp. As he sadly looks into the crowd, a returning Chiampa brains him with a crutch and looks on as they go off the air. Yeah, why didn’t they have him interfere in the match? That makes it even odder. Feels like they had a better story in their back pocket. Oh well! Overall this was a very fun watch, which I knew it would be, but not blow-away like some of them have been. No matches felt like false finish overkill, which was nice and I definitely got a sense of that with later ones. It felt a hell of a lot longer ago than 2 years though. Time moves fast in developmental. Another thing, the commentary made absolutely no impression on me throughout. That’s not a good thing, but it’s not a bad thing either. When I saw Percy Watson my heart sank, but really he was absolutely fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr.Showtime Posted March 31, 2020 Share Posted March 31, 2020 The first-ever NXT Takeover took place in May 2014 at Full Sail, just two months after WrestleMania 30. I don’t remember ever watching this in full, as I think I began to watch NXT properly the following year, but I’ve definitely seen the women’s championship match. Let’s see if I missed anything else. On commentary were Tom Phillips, Byron Saxton and William Regal, who introduced himself with a cheeky “hello!” and could be seen dancing away at the desk after the first match. Which was a huge one. The show kicks off with Adam Rose and his Rosebuds entering the arena from outside, heading to the ring for the opening contest. Some of those trailing behind Rose included Braun Strowman, Becky Lynch, and the twat from the Vaudevillains. Adam Rose took on Camacho, who was released from the company just a couple of weeks after this. Camacho, whose career highlight was probably getting beat up alongside a bunch of other people by the Undertaker and Kane at Raw 1000, was not happy with Rose having fun at his job. But Rose couldn’t help himself. He was loving it. After a minute or so of comedy, a beatdown, then a quick comeback, Adam Rose was your victor after 5 minutes. A Takeover classic. After Rose and his gang fuck off back to their bus, we go back to the ring to Eden Stiles. Eden who? Eden Stiles! Whatever happened to her? What a babe. She even still has her own WWE profile page: WWE.com Eden profile However, on this show, I thought she looked so BORED. Next up, we get The Ascension against Kalisto and… El Local?? Who the hell is this? I had to search for El Local online, and lo and behold it’s Ricardo Rodriguez, the personal ring announcer of Alberto del Rio! El Local was released about two months after this show. Judging by this match, it’s no surprise. It was a quick 6-minute tag, but El Local seemed sloppy. He almost stomped on Kalisto’s face jumping into the ring after the hot tag, flailed a nasty-looking kick at one of the Ascension lads, and almost missed completely with a jumping slingshot… thing off the ropes. The Ascension quickly took advantage and smashed them up. Entirely forgettable. Next up is Tyler Breeze vs Sami Zayn, in a number one contendership match. There’s a fun pre-match video package, highlighting that Sami is struggling to win matches. Tyler Breeze is great getting his character over in this. I always thought he was a decent hand. The match was good also. At 16 minutes or so, it didn’t outstay its welcome. And there was a unique ending that I didn’t see coming - Sami went to hit the Helluva Kick, but Breeze put his fists up across his face in an X shape to protect his beautiful face and Sami basically went balls first into said fists. One Beauty Shot spinning heel kick later, and Tyler Breeze became the number one contender! WWE has actually provided the last two minutes of the match here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jjda9pO1PfE Before the next match, the Ravishing Russian Lana comes out and introduces her main squeeze, Rusev! He comes out waving his flag around, then Mojo Rawley comes out with an American flag! And hilariously, even though this was six years ago, even back then Mojo was treated like a pure loser. Rusev battered him immediately. Good stuff. I could not find a photo online but shown in the crowd was KRIS KRISTOFFERSON! A bit mad I thought, at first. The country singer-songwriter has a special place in my heart as he was the star in 1978 movie Convoy, a film about trucks just moving along on the motorway, one after the other. Honestly, it’s great. My wee brother, who wanted to be a trucker like our dad, would put this on all the time, using a thing called a video cassette. I preferred to watch Twins, but oh well. But there’s no mistaking that the theme tune to Convoy is amazing. Convoy by C.W. McCall Anyways it turned out Kris’ son Jody was in NXT for a little bit at the time. Paige here! The new WWE Divas Champion returned to NXT to show off her belt. Beating AJ Lee on her Raw debut just prior to this, then-NXT General Manager JBL stripped Paige (just of her belt, not anything else) and put the NXT gold on the line in a tournament, with the final taking place RIGHT NOW! Oh, and already I don't remember a thing Paige said. Charlotte (w/Ric Flair) vs Natalya (w/Bret Hart) It’s a 17-minute match and it’s not bad. I just don’t get invested in any Natalya stuff. I don’t know - I’ve always wanted to like her, there’s just something off or missing all the time. So yeah it’s a good exhibition of what the women can do, but it’s nothing special, especially when you compare it to upcoming NXT battles involving the likes of Sasha Banks and Bayley. Bret Hart and Ric Flair don’t do much during the bout, but having them there of course helps the match have a big-time feel. Charlotte and Natalya trade some submissions towards the end, especially a back-and-forth figure four, and I don’t think Charlotte had the figure-eight yet because she escaped the submission attempts and finished Nattie off with Natural Selection. We have a new Women’s Champion, and Charlotte better start getting used to carrying those heavy belts around… Tyson Kidd v Neville Your main event, for the NXT Championship, is between champion Adrian Neville and Hart member Tyson Kidd. A video package shows how we got here, with Neville successfully defending the gold against Bo Dallas, before winning a mini-feud with Brodus Clay (although Neville got a few teeth knocked out in the process). Now we have Tyson Kidd, in what they say is maybe his last chance for a title and an opportunity to get back to the main roster. Neville does his best to put over Kidd as a danger to his title reign. I’m not buying it though. Tyson and Natalya have an awkward embrace before Tyson heads out to the ring, and this one is on. Quick highlights of the match are below, including an impressive jumping-middle-rope-Russian-leg-sweep thing, top rope huricanranna, and some other flippy stuff. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAtFCKX5gmY Ultimately, Neville retains the gold with his superb Red Arrow finish. A decent 20-minute match. Again, I was just not that invested in Tyson Kidd, but it was interesting to see Neville at this point in his career. It’s obvious he’s a machine, they just gotta get the character to shine through. And that was that. I wouldn’t go out of my way to watch any of this again, and it must be very low down on the Takeover list, but it wasn’t offensive. There was a buzz about the show, the fans were supportive, it was nice to have Regal on commentary (although I hate Saxton’s over-the-top enthusiasm, bloody hell there’s been six years of this!) As an aside, in case anyone is still unaware, the WWE Network is currently offering free access to every single NXT Takeover show, along with a bunch of other WWE pay-per-views, and the Ruthless Aggression series, which I'm working through now, it's worth a watch. Stay safe everyone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Awards Moderator HarmonicGenerator Posted March 31, 2020 Awards Moderator Share Posted March 31, 2020 Great review @Mr.Showtime! I only started watching this version of NXT from the time Kevin Owens debuted and have never delved farther back than that, so this was an illuminating read! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Dem Wanz Posted April 1, 2020 Share Posted April 1, 2020 (edited) Just been furloughed so have done this to try and take my mind off it. As mentioned earlier in this thread, I attended this live in what was my first ever wrestling show in the flesh! What I didn’t mention though, was that I’ve actually already done a write up of this TakeOver for the forum already, posting a review literally the day after it happened (eat it Meltzer). I’ve watched the show in full again just now, which I think is for the first time since being there on the night. Therefore, I’m going to be casting 2020 eyes on not only on the wrestling itself, but my own UKFF write up of the show as well, in order to find out what I make of both things five years on. Enjoy! ------ 2015: Having attended last night’s show and then my work Christmas party I’ve spent a very hungover morning writing this up, it’s long but I hope you guys enjoy it. 2020: Heh, alcohol – classic. No change there in the last five years. 2015: A quick scan of the ticket and a pat-down later I bought a couple of pints of Fosters (£5 each) and made my way to my seat, six rows from the front with a superb view of the ring although the entrance way was a bit out of sight. 2020: Fosters? Ergh. I tried but couldn’t see myself in any of the footage on the Network unfortunately. 2015: In terms of the card: Tag team opener was decent, Jordan and Gable were the stars of the show and got the Yaya/Kolo Toure chant in addition to “we want Jordan/Gable” whenever neither of them were in the ring. They need a bit of fine-tuning but I can’t wait until they get called-up as I can see them being main-eventers in the future. Bullfit v Elias. “You’re a hipster” chants were richly deserved, the Macho Man elbow didn’t seem like it was going to be the finish and a few people were surprised it was over so quickly. I guess they’re pushing this guy. 2020: These matches were on the pre-show so weren’t part of the main card on the Network and I couldn’t watch them again, but I remember how fucking OVER Jordan and Gable were. If you’d have told me Jordan would be Kurt Angle’s storyline son a few years later it would’ve got me very excited and led me to believe he’d be doing huge things in 2020. Not really turned out like that has it? Elias looks like he stinks currently so can’t imagine why this would’ve been different in 2015. I don't recall Motorhead's Ace of Spades being used as the theme song for this, its cool though, and much better than the "IT COULDA BEEN MEEEEEE" tune they also lined up as an official theme. 2015: Asuka v Evil Emma – A great effort, I didn’t think Emma had it in her but she was taking Asuka’s wicked offence like a soldier. Asuka did a lot of screaming and shouting towards our section and got a good response from the crowd in doing so. She has an awesome look. 2020: This was a good watch, Asuka’s offence looked brutal at times, have to admit I enjoyed Emma heeling it up and wouldn’t mind her seeing her back in either AEW or WWE at all. I wouldn’t mind her front either (sorry for the Lawler/Boydy). 2015: Tag titles match – How over are Enzo and Cass? Christ it was like the second coming. I sincerely hope that Big Cass chant to Hey Jude follows him back to Full Sail and beyond, loved the little touches on their outfits too especially London Bridge on Amore’s trunks. Dawson (or is it Dash?) reminds my mate of Perry Saturn, not sure on that shout myself. 2020: With hindsight Enzo and Cass have probably fallen the furthest out of anyone on this card. I don’t think it was known what a gobshite Enzo was by this point and Cass hadn’t discovered Krispy Kreme burgers yet, they’re with Carmella which I’d completely forgotten about somehow. She’s done the best out of all of them which would’ve been very weird to hear back then. Their entrance and pre-match promo (everyone goes nuts for Enzo having, and referencing, a Pound coin) was very good though and you could see why they were so over, charisma overload. The match itself was decent, some good NXT Formula tag fare which I always enjoy, loads of football chants including the one I referenced above, which did not catch on in the States or elsewhere if I remember rightly. Dawson and Dash retain thanks to some Cheat 2 Win, the crowd aren’t wankers and don’t cheer the heels retaining. One last thing on this, Carmella looks like she got her hat (a red pleather baseball cap with a Union flag on it) from one of those PRIDE OF LONDON gift shops in Covent Garden, not exactly “fabulous”. 2015: Corbin v Crews was the disappointment of the night, the match didn’t get going. Crews has wicked offense and a great look but is missing that “X” factor, I hope he can find it. Corbin is boring and got a LOT of swear words aimed him but he made a point of brushing them off with gestures and staring daggers at the neckbeards. His tattoos look worse in person than on telly. 2020: This was boring then and it is boring now, Corbin still sucks, and I can’t believe he’s got a match with Smelly Elias on a two-day WrestleMania that will have an attendance figure of 0. That would sound mental in 2015 or even two months ago but hey, thanks Coronavirus… Next! 2015: Jax v Bayley – Jax’s music sounded great over the arena sound system. I liked the story of this match, Nia is about twice the width of Bayley and I was actually struggling to imagine how Bayley could win. I don’t think they’ve built Nia that well, it’s just she’s massive and looks mean. Bayley adding a bit of steel and nous (ie, hang in there and hook this hold in as many times as I can until it works) is going to add layers to her character that she’ll need. She also seems like such a sweetheart, no wonder she’s over – her entrance had me clapping like a seal, I was giddy! 2020: Nia’s entrance jacket is pretty sweet and Bayley is over like rover, I remember clapping like a seal as I mentioned above, and in hindsight she was probably my favourite person on this card. I remember punching the air a few months later having come in from a night out when she beat Sasha in Brooklyn (can’t wait to see the UKFF’s review of that one) which is a testament to how over she was. The match here was a bit plodding but told a simple story, giant versus smaller underdog was the right move here. The finish does a good job of protecting Nia too who would go on to big things, and who is an example of a decent success story from NXT really. The atmosphere is incredible all night but in this match in particular I think, the variety and volume in the chants is again more football than wrestling. Many of us love to self-flagellate and get annoyed with each other but I do think UK people just “get” how to create an atmosphere and enjoy ourselves at shows like this, the talent looked chuffed whenever they got a chant and I’m all for it. Two hindsighty notes before the main event - Nia’s theme music is still on my gym playlist, and I got to meet Bayley in Orlando when I went to WrestleMania 33, and she remains the only wrestler I’ve ever met. She was lovely. 2015: Joe v Balor – Just a superb back and forth match, their blows were incredibly stiff – you could see the sweat fly off them each time a chop landed. Joe looks hard AF in real life. Can’t wait to see Finn’s entrance on TV. 2020: Joe does indeed look like a double hard bastard, even when he’s wearing “yer da’s” WWE branded black polo in the video package. This beef doesn’t come across as personal as they’re trying to make it, but this may be because I’m not in the moment. Finn’s entrance was cool, they got it right here when they definitely didn’t in Dallas in 2016 which I remember actually laughing at. The NXT belt they use is here is a lot better than the current one – the centre plate is lovely big golden “X”. It just occurred to me it must have been really cool for those long-time ROH/TNA fans to see Joe in a main event of a WWE show like this. Finn looks muscular but still feels about half the size of Joe – it’s a bit weird, but once they get going you can definitely get into this and it doesn’t particularly look a mismatch. This develops into a right hard-hitter as I mentioned above, something akin to a modern NJPW match, and is free of the finisher spam fests that have become a bit of a hallmark of NXT in recent years. Balor wins via coupe de grace after escaping a couple of Joe’s coquina clutch attempts and avoiding a muscle buster off the top. Good match, good show – except for Baron fucking Corbin. I had a few other things to say about the crowd and my Christmas party in my 2015 post, as well as the fact I missed Sami Zayn’s return, but I basically used a lot of words to explain the atmosphere was ace and I had a good night out with my work lot, so I’ve left it out . I had fun here though and watching it brought back some nice memories, I would love to go to another one of these one day whether that's here or in the US (I went to TakeOver: Orlando too but I think this was more enjoyable) and look forward to the day it comes. Edited April 1, 2020 by Otto Dem Wanz Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Fatty Facesitter Posted April 1, 2020 Author Paid Members Share Posted April 1, 2020 Great reviews so far guys. Will update the OP with links tomorrow. My own entry is about 70% there and I’m off tomorrow for the first time in over a fortnight so I have more time to get it over the line. Keep ‘em coming. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Awards Moderator HarmonicGenerator Posted April 1, 2020 Awards Moderator Share Posted April 1, 2020 Great review @Otto Dem Wanz. I think I’ve got the Brooklyn one with Sasha and Bayley - hoping to get a chance in the next week to get it watched and written up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Fatty Facesitter Posted April 2, 2020 Author Paid Members Share Posted April 2, 2020 (edited) (20/5/2017) Right, this is my thread and I’m going to cheat slightly. Not out of laziness, but rather appreciation. Because while there isn’t a bad match on the show - one bout in particular stands head and shoulders above the rest. Not just from this TakeOver, not just from any WWE show in 2017…Because from a pure in-ring perspective, I genuinely believe this one match I’m referring to is one of WWE’s best of the last decade. Yes, Roderick Strong’s opener with Eric Young was perfectly serviceable, and Asuka did what Asuka did best in her triple threat with Ruby Riott and Nikki Cross by making a match appealing despite the lack of credible challengers for her by this point. Bobby Roode retained the NXT title in a solid if unspectacular affair with Hideo Itami (who never reached such heights in NXT again). DIY vs AOP in the main event is also a banger - though not on the level of other NXT tag title matches, and the match itself is overshadowed by the surprise heel turn at the conclusion. But in this humble poster’s opinion, this is a one match show. The Big Strong Boy. The Bruiserweight. 'Kin 'ell! The opening package features footage from the Norwich tapings, immediately making it one of the best packages they ran that year. While you're watching this back, keep in mind that Dunne is just 23 years old here. As for Bate? He was 20. Fucking 20! They don’t swan about, sliding right into some chain wrestling with a noticeable flair. They’ve been going less than a minute and the show is already the #1 worldwide Twitter trend. That’s how good it is already. Pete bends up his foe like he’s playing with a Stretch Armstrong, before Bate recovers and sends him packing. They spar on the outside before Bate leaps into Dunne with a spinning uppercut off the stairs - a bit like the one D’Von Dudley used to do when he needed to add a singles move to his arsenal to make it look like he did anything other than get tables and do part of a flapjack, only better. Dunne retorts by nailing Bate with an X-Plex and the poor champ lands on the apron with authoritah. Chicago loves them some Bruiserweight and he’s eating it up. They grimly cut to a close up as Dunne bends Bate’s fingers and makes them more closely resemble Quavers. He then just leathers Bate and kicks him in the head repeatedly. But this just awakens Bate’s babyface fire, as he catches Dunne, scoops him up and hits a delayed Xploder suplex. Oooooossssh. Bate charges at Petey with a couple of European uppercuts in the corner. Before he can do it a third time, Dunne charges at him like he’s Gordon with the express and nails an enziguri. He tries for another X-Plex, but Bate lands on his feet and hits a standing shooting star press while Dunne lies stomach first on the mat. We’ve barely started and we’ve had chain wrestling, brawling and flippy do’s. Variety is truly the spice of life. Bate quickly shows off his strength AGAIN with a delayed backdrop suplex for two. Pete teases us with a bit of nipple as we wind down from an intriguing first act. We hear the first NXT chants of the match - a standard reaction and occurrence on an NXT card to the point where the audience chants almost by default rather than out of spontaneous delirium. However, this is then quickly taken over by ‘UK! *clap clap* UK! *clap clap*’ chants. A feat in itself considering NXT UK had only ran a few shows by this point, and our two combatants hadn’t appeared many times in the regular NXT prior to this. The velocity ramps up now, as Bate tries another standing SSP only to land straight into a triangle choke, where Dunne batters him with rights and elbows. Bate though powers out, showing off leg strength not seen since Famke Janssen in Goldeneye, and hits a makeshift powerbomb. Dunne was initially the crowd favourite, but Bate has won over the locals with his sizeable cojones. He then busts out an airplane spin and defies science by making time stand still as the crowd - and not for the first time - really start to lose their minds over this. Bate goes for a German, but Dunne lands on his feet. Bate tries to charge him, ducks a clothesline and leaps off the top rope, but Dunne yells ‘…’AVE THIS’ and TWATS Bate on the way down, then nails him with some kind of delicious looking suplex into a powerbomb for a near fall. Look at Dunne’s reaction…. …And look at the crowd reaction. A standing O, and deservedly so. Next comes another superb sequence. They catch their breath and continue to land blows on the mat, before they rise to their feet and just unload on each other with frantic lefts and rights, and the crowd is going INSANE by this point. They trade blows again, bringing their fucking dinner in the process. Bate with a rolling spin kick. Dunne with a penalty kick, which Bate then rolls out from and charges into his springboard clothesline, which Dunne sells like he’s been rammed at both ends on the dodgems and forgot to put on his seatbelt, and the crowd stands AGAIN because this match is absolutely fucking brilliant. Bate goes for the Tyler Driver, Dunne counters and tries for the Bitter End, only for Bate to drop him with a DDT that looked so good it made my perineum jump. Extra gold star for Bate there selling the wrist from Dunne’s earlier tomfoolery during the initial Tiger Driver attempt. We’ve had everything you could possible want from a myriad of styles in a wrestling match except for high-flying. So of course Bate does a moonsault to the outside, then chucks Dunne back in and hits corkscrew 450 splash on him, landing right on his cock, for two. Yeeeerrrsss. Another standing ovation as the crowd realises how sick this is. Bate goes to the well once more and goes for an Undertaker-dive to the outside, but Dunne dodges and lays him out on the way down. Back in, Bitter End, job done. Lovely stuff. Quite simply, that was liquid wrestling. A match that had everything and two young, hungry Brits that produced some absolutely liquid wrestling. Just brilliant bell to bell. It drew some strong praise from the wrestling fraternity on the night, and it still holds up well three years on. He's not wrong. Other brief observations The promos in the opening montage are so wooden. Even though this was almost three years ago the standard in NXT in particular has gone way up in that regard. Rocket League are the principal sponsor. Is that still a thing? I think I’ve already become pre-conditioned to the Covid-19 era shows, because watching shows now in front of packed crowds already feels really strange for some reason. My brain has accepted the new normal. Interestingly (or, rather, quite uninterestingly), Chris Jericho’s AEW theme is also one of the themes for this show. INTERTEXTUALITY. It's a great show as with most TakeOvers, but the Bate/Dunne bout remains my favourite since Rock/Austin at Wrestlemania X7. Edited April 2, 2020 by Fatty Facesitter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Awards Moderator Onyx2 Posted April 2, 2020 Awards Moderator Share Posted April 2, 2020 Such a great match. I'd forgotten all about it! Might put it on this afternoon. Will be watching my shows over the weekend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Awards Moderator HarmonicGenerator Posted April 9, 2020 Awards Moderator Share Posted April 9, 2020 (edited) As I'm now furloughed, it's time for me to take on a Takeover! I had originally been assigned WarGames III, which was gratefully reassigned to the original Takeover Brooklyn. - Taking place in August 2015, it will be interesting to see how much NXT, and WWE, has changed in just under five years. The show begins with the standard Triple H "we are NXT" in-ring segment. He looks proud, and who can blame him - this was the first time they'd done a Takeover outside of Full Sail, and it's packed, and they're loud. This show is a major step towards NXT as a proper entity in its own right. - Tyler Breeze vs. Justin Thunder Liger Breeze gets a big Takeover entrance with a catwalk of models dressed as New York icons. The man himself gets a huge pop, and he's got his fluffy selfie stick. What happened with Tyler Breeze? There's clearly a lot of stock in him here - he's facing Jushin Liger in Liger's only WWE match, for fuck's sake - but he bombed on the main roster and ended up back in NXT a shadow of the man you see here. Missed opportunity or was he just not as good as NXT made him seem? Did he ever stand a chance on Raw or Smackers? Your announce team is Corey Graves, Byron Saxton, and Rich Brennan who I do not remember. JUSHIN THUNDER LIGER. God, what a fucking ICON. I still can't believe they got Liger in for a one-and-done on a Takeover. Crazy and brilliant and immediately made NXT a far bigger deal. Liger is brilliant. The arena is wonderfully lit. I bet we don't get tons of crowd shots and that they actually stay on the hard cam sometimes too. Although, saying that, it would be nice to have some crowd shots again. Of people in audiences. Liger mocks Breeze's turnbuckle pose and gets him into a surfboard. The announcers are putting him over massively, and why wouldn't they. He's got the legendary red and white outfit on and everything. LIGER TAKES A SELFIE. Breeze quickly takes control. One striking difference between this and 2020 Takeover is that we're several minutes in and nobody's done a dive yet. Liger hits his rolling kick and a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker, but misses a splash and it's back to Breeze. in his next comeback, Liger hits a palm strike and Tyler sells it wonderfully. Now we get a dive as Liger somersaults off the apron and poses like the deity of wrestling he is. The crowd goes crazy for a Running Ligerbomb, which gets the pin. Liger is 1-0 in WWE! And it shall ever be thus. Corey is clearly in awe of having got to call a Jushin Liger match. He's marking out, but in an endearing way and not a Matt Striker "I'M MARKING OUT!" way. The match is: Fine. Standard structure of intro, heel takes control, babyface comes back to win. There's nothing outstanding, but it's lots of fun. Where are they now? Liger retired this year and will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame soon. Breeze is in NXT Limbo. - Between match bits: Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and X-Pac are in the audience. They're here to support Triple H apparently. Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair, who must have just moved up to Raw, wish Bayley luck for that match you know is coming up. Vignette for Nia Jax, who is coming soon. Has she seriously been around nearly five years? - The Vaudevillains vs. Blake & Murphy Ah, the Vaudevillains. I used to like this old-timey gimmick they had. Maybe it was never destined for greatness but this is another act that bombed on the main roster. Did WWE do them a disservice? Or in a company where the fucking Revival can't get over as a tag team, maybe it was never going to happen. I'd actually forgotten who their opponents were going to be. I am THRILLED that it's Blake & Murphy, who I thought were an ace little unit. Honestly, I still don't believe Alexa Bliss has ever been better than when she was in charge of these two. They've got great Iron Man style gear on. (The Vaudevillains' royal blue is nice too.) While I loved the trio, I can't remember how good their matches as a team used to be. I know now that Murphy is bloody excellent, but was he always as good as he was on 205? The Vaudevillains have a surprise for Alexa, and it's Blue Pants, who the crowd love. She gets the first "this is awesome" chant of the night. Is she Leva Bates in AEW now? I've had it in my head they're the same person. Sorry if that picture's huge. The Vaudevillains wear down Blake in the early going, but Aiden English gets dragged down into a back-bump on the apron, which is not yet referred to as the hardest part of the ring, and Blake is suddenly in charge. I haven't written much about the match because it's mostly been wearing-down holds so far. English eventually makes a hot tag to Simon Gotch, who receives the biggest pop possibly of his career so far. He takes on Blake and Murphy with his old-school strongman moves, but English wants back in and immediately Murphy's back in control. He goes for a superplex, Blake goes to help but Gotch powerbombs them both off the turnbuckle for the first big move of the match and the first near fall of the night. Blue Pants chases Bliss into the Vaudevillains. Alexa is about to sort them out - you know she would have - but BP rolls her away. The VV hit the Whirling Dervish and win the NXT Tag Team titles! The match was: Not that exciting, actually. But the crowd were well into the Vaudevillains. Blake and Murphy are capable of better, I'm sure, and I wonder how they'd have done against the teams that really heightened NXT's tag division in the years to come. Where are they now? Alexa is or is not a Women's Tag Team Champion depending on what happened at WrestleMania. Murphy's allied with Seth Rollins, while Blake never got out of NXT. Aiden English is toiling away on commentary for NXT UK, while Blue Pants, I can confirm did turn out to be Leva Bates from AEW. I've got no idea what happened to Simon Gotch. - Between the matches Neville turns up with Finn Balor. Cesaro is there too. They're wishing Finn luck for his title match. Neville couldn't be further removed from The Bastard Pac in his polo shirt and glasses. - Tye Dillinger vs. Apollo Crews Dillinger is out first. He's doing the Perfect 10 gimmick and while there are signs and hand gestures in the crowd, it doesn't seem to have reached its peak when you couldn't threaten a countout because the audience would only say "10". I think this is Apollo Crews' debut. Making Tye Dillinger the Kassius Ohno of his day. I've got no memory of this match happening. They don't really do that "big new signing debuts" with Takeover matches anymore, do they? Matt Riddle's the last one that comes to mind. The crowd chants "Uhaa", bringing back memories of when crowds would chant for Apollo Crews. Dillinger doesn't quite look like he's fully up for this "10" gimmick yet. Crews does some flips and the crowd love it. I'll be honest, I'd forgotten how smoothly athletic he was, because I don't know if I've even seen a singles match of his since he moved up to the mains. When was the last time he made a PPV card? What is surprising me is that there are relatively few crowd chants. In my head, the NXT audience always did chants and never shut up to just react to the match, but that is definitely not the case here. Apollo does a gorgeous Gorilla Press into an even more gorgeous standing moonsault and wins. Big things in this guy's future... right? The match was: Again, fine. It was the level it should be for its place on the card, I guess. But this is certainly in the days before Takeover matches were expected to be moves-moves-moves-snowflake-snowflake-snowflake. Where are they now? Tye Dillinger is Shawn Spears in AEW, and he's doing okay. Apollo Crews recently completed a huge brand switch and is now on Raw, shocking all the fans who loved him on SmackDown every week for the last year. - Between the matches William Regal announces the first Dusty Rhodes tag team classic. There is a guy who looks rather a lot like Trent Seven just behind the announcers and Rick Rubin in the front row. They then show the Tough Enough finalists. Three of them I don't recognise, but Amanda ... Amanda looks familiar... Yep, it's Mandy Rose! - Samoa Joe vs. Baron Corbin This one gets a video package before it. Corbin thinks he's great because he's so innately impressive he can get and do whatever he wants. Joe is the journeyman - "I didn't have to make a phone call... they called me". Corbin looked better with long hair. Joe looks a beast, as always. This is probably the first match on the show where the competitors went on to do pretty well on the big shows. It's a damn shame that Joe has been so plagued with injuries every time he gains a bit of momentum these days. I wonder if he'd have done better if he'd spent less time in NXT and just jumped straight to the mains? I know that was never the plan but I just wonder if it might have helped him stay healthier for longer periods of time. Then again, I also wonder what might have happened if they hadn't had Brock squash him with one F5 at Great Balls of Fire, so I have trouble letting go. He's in great shape here. Joe gets an early advantage but Corbin stops his dive and starts the beatdown. Another NXT-then vs now comparison. The indy favourites - Crews, Liger, Joe - are put up against WWE trained people - Dillinger, Breeze, Corbin. These days you'd be more likely to have seen Liger vs. Joe, which would have been a better match but not so much the point of NXT. Is it still the point of NXT, though? Joe chucks Corbin into the barricade. Corbin comes back with a heel hook. It's so nice how infrequently the camera angle changes. Is that a stupid point to make? They go back and forth with bigger moves - a spinning slam here, an enziguiri there - and both end up down and out. There's a big strike exchange before Joe starts setting up the Muscle Buster (there's something we don't see anymore) but Corbin gets out of it and gets a near fall. He also fights out of the Coquina Clutch... but not for long! Joe gets it in and the crowd's urging Corbin to tap. He passes out, and everybody is happy. The match was: Still probably the best match Baron Corbin has ever had. It's not astonishing or anything, but it's a good match. Joe looks dominant and Corbin looks his equal. Where are they now? Corbin is one of SmackDown's top heels, for what that's worth. Joe is, I assume, injured again but there was that Wellness rumour going about so maybe not. I hope he gets a proper WrestleMania match before he's done. - Between the matches Ric Flair, Sgt Slaughter, and a very impressive Japanese women's wrestler they tell us is called Kanna. (it's Asuka) Stephanie McMahon's coming out to the ring to chat about the Divas Revolution. The Women's Title match is the "first main event" of the night. - Sasha Banks vs. Bayley Here we go. The UKFF match of the year 2015. How will it hold up? The video package (featuring Izzy rather a lot) before tells us the following things: - The Four Horsewomen really kick-started this emphasis on women's wrestling in WWE. That's the angle they're pushing but it's also kind of true. - Sasha was an excellent heel. Bayley was an even better babyface. It's so odd to think of her as a heel. I'd be quite up for going back and watching the four of them in NXT again five years later. The video really makes you want Bayley to win. Come on, Bayley! Sasha gets the big entrance and she just looks like a star. I think she tied for Wrestler of the Year with Lesnar in the UKFF Awards in 2015. It might seem faintly ridiculous now but back then, she was a star. This match feels huge. They'll not be able to replicate this again no matter how long they tease Bayley and Banks turning on each other. There's a hideous sparkly noise when they do the graphic of the title belt. Bayley's wearing polka dots on her wristbands as a Dusty tribute which is lovely. They start by just throwing punches at each other and Bayley gets early advantage. There are duelling chants but it's excusable because the atmosphere's just so loud and everyone's so into it. Very back and forth in the early going until a lovely arm drag sends Banks out of the ring. Banks sets Bayley up for the double knees to the gut in the corner with a vicious slap to the stomach - it's avoided but Bayley tumbles to the floor. Sasha mocks her brilliantly with her gestures and her moves. She's firmly in control now, but when she tries again for the knees, Bayley sparks a little hope in the crowd by countering it. It doesn't last long, and Sasha sets her up a third time - this time on the top rope and there's an "ohhhh" from the crowd because they know this will end badly for Bayley. She kicks out! Banks trash-talks a fallen Bayley, who kicks her in the face! Hope! But not for long, because again Sasha takes advantage and whips her arm into the rope, sending her outside. Sasha rips off the tape on Bayley's formerly broken hand (first we've heard of it) and smashes it into the steps. Boooo. She even does the Shayna Baszler stamping-on-the-arm thing! While Bayley recovers on the outside, Banks takes her out again with a somersault dive, jumping over the referee who was checking on Bayley. It's the first big dive of the night, and gets both a "holy shit" and a "this is awesome". Contrast to 2020 when we'd likely have already had dives in every match by this point. It's almost like they're more effective when done sparingly. They exchange strikes, Bayley having to use her good (left) hand. She's getting a proper comeback now, and a corner suplex has Banks down, but she hasn't got the strength for the Bayley-to-Belly. Sasha takes out the arm again and it's straight into the Banks Statement! And in an extraordinary moment, just as Bayley reaches the ropes, Sasha fucking STAMPS on her hand repeatedly. But she reverses into a Statement of her own, and the crowd POPS! That was great. Bayley to Belly! 1! 2! Kickout! They're both on the turnbuckle now, and Bayley was going for something. Banks shoves her off and that was a nasty landing. Meteora, and a near fall. Sasha's facials have been very good throughout the match - she's clearly frustrated by not having won yet, but by no means is she doing the hammy "WHAT HOW DID THEY WHAT DO I HAVE TO" oversells that you tend to see a lot in near fall heavy matches now. They're both back on the turnbuckle, reverse hurricanrana by Bayley off the top! Bayley to Belly! Crowd goes wild! One! Two Three! She did it! The people are ecstatic! Flair and Lynch come out to celebrate with Bayley, Banks comes back in and they hug it out and they do the Four Horsewomen thing. This did lead to more and more post-matches going this way, but I can't begrudge them it this time. The match was: Still great. I think there have been (a few, not many but a few) better women's matches since, but I'd still regard this as a big turning point and a milestone in how WWE treated women's matches. Where are they now? Bayley's SmackDown Women's Champion (or is she, depending on if you've watched WrestleMania?) and is heel for some reason. Sasha may or may not turn on her but still doesn't quite feel like the star she was here. They've been teasing a match between them for years at this point so who knows. - Between the matches Seth Rollins is shown with a woman who may or may not have been his girlfriend at the time. Triple H announces the UK tour. That was a good night. - Finn Balor vs. Kevin Owens The video package before the match has reminded me how vicious and horrible NXT heel era Kevin Owens was. I can't quite get on with him as a good guy, but he had a superb 2015. I remember being surprised at how great he was because I never liked him in ROH. He's been in WWE for over five years now. They both have. They show Balor winning the title in Japan. This one's a Ladder Match, and Finn's coming as the Demon by the looks of it. Yep, it's all gone red and he's flailing about in the smoke. The Demon only really worked once or twice on the main roster - I think it was a Summerslam against Corbin, or possibly WrestleMania against Lashley when he just came in, smashed them up and won without the opponent standing a chance - but this show's before they started trying to argue the Demon was a different character, and it worked for me in a "he does it to get psyched up for big matches" way. He's painted abs over his actual abs. Owens has been sitting in an announcers' chair looking distinctly unimpressed at the routine. When did he get the T-Rex tattoo on his arm he had against Rollins at 'Mania this year? He doesn't have it here. The belt is hung up and raised and we're off! Owens shoves Balor and tries to go straight for the ladder - which is correct - but he's stopped and gets hit with a nice Balor dropkick. Owens fights back and lands a senton that took the wind out of me, and I was just watching it. Nobody is paying attention because something's happened in the audience. Double stomp by Finn brings the crowd back to the match. He looks up at the title but actually maybe the crowd aren't paying attention still, because they're chanting something. They react when Owens hits a cannonball though. His turn to look up at the title. There's a good logic to the match so far - beat down your opponent, try to get the ladder, get stopped. The crowd start chanting "ole, ole, ole" and Owens doesn't ignore it. He plays up to it, in fact, pretending he's hurt his shoulder. Excellent stuff. The ladder's been put all the way at the far end of the ramp which seems silly. They have a tug of war and Owens clatters it into Balor's ribs a few times (looks and sounds nasty), and takes a run up ... the crowd thinks he's going to cannonball into the ladder into Finn! Instead he stops just short and punches him in the face instead. Brilliant! They brawl out into the audience. I always wonder what the arena staff think about this sort of thing happening, they're always very professional and unmoved by it. Balor is thrown into the announce table so hard he goes rolling all the way over it. Owens lobs the top of the table at him and poses for the crowd. Why is he a face now? I guess because Rollins can't be? He's got a ladder now anyway, but Finn's up and dropkicks it into him. Balor does a lot of quite obvious "this is me staring at my title" acting and then hits a nice flip dive. First attempt at the belt fails, Kevin has a go but climbs down when Balor grabs another and stops him. Ladder 2 gets set up in the corner and Finn's aiming to dropkick Owens into it but it gets countered with a clothesline. Lots of ladder teasing, very few stunts so far, which I quite like. This is 10 years on from Money In The Bank debuting and Ladder Matches had long become stunt shows by 2015 so it's nice to see one playing out so differently. Saying that, we got the "Kevin what are you doing to yourself" bump of the match when he gets backdropped onto a ladder that's laid down open and on its side. Then in the second "Kevin what are you doing to yourself" bump of the match he misses a cannonball into Ladder 2 (still in the corner). Balor hits the Coup de Grace but takes too long climbing the ladder and gets a Pop Up Powerbomb, which will always be Owens' finisher to me no matter how much they pretend the Stunner is his move and not Stone Cold's now. That whole thing is Miz-inherits-the-Figure-Four levels of wrong. We're in the 'each move puts them both down for ages' part of the match now as a Pop Up into the apron is followed by a considerable amount of lying down. As it should, to be fair. I stopped paying attention while they set up ladders to watch a clip of Peter Cook's scene from The Princess Bride. There are two further "Kevin no" bumps when he falls backwards onto one and bounces off it, then gets double stomped by Finn from the top of the ladder and I don't know how those double stomps don't destroy your insides. Finn wins. The match was: Very good. Felt like a grudge match and not a stunt show, and was built more around trying to win than setting up the next big spot. Good stuff. Where are they now? Owens is one of Raw's top babyfaces (which is a good place to be, even if I have been saying he's better heel). Finn is back in NXT where he feels like a much bigger deal, and is also heel, which was necessary, for sure, but this match is a good reminder of how well he plays the babyface. - Overall show thoughts Matches: One classic, two very good, the rest fine. Nothing bad. Standout performers: Liger, Bliss, Banks, Bayley and Owens. Worth a rewatch? Yes, I'd say so. Liger in WWE has wonderful novelty value, Joe and Corbin have a better match than you remember, and Banks-Bayley's worth revisiting when they finally pull the trigger on it again on Smackers. Where does it rank among Takeovers? These days, possibly not that high. You wouldn't get matches like that tag title one or Crews-Dillinger on a Takeover in 2020, or even in 2017/18 to be honest. But it feels like a big-time event, it's well structured, it builds from the opener to the main event in a logical and effective way, there's no finisher spam or near fall overload, and the right people win every match. Mawage: That bwessed arrangement, that dweam wivin a dweam... Edited April 9, 2020 by HarmonicGenerator Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Awards Moderator Onyx2 Posted April 14, 2020 Awards Moderator Share Posted April 14, 2020 “I'm just a magnet for pain” screeches the band. Indeed. Welcome to your teenage years, live from New Orleans. This is the 2018 WrestleMania weekend and the show is packed with trails for that WrestleMania (the highlight being the Ronda match). Ladder match to crown the first North American Champion EC3 v Killian Dain v Velveteen Dream v Lars Sullivan v Adam Cole v Ricochet “This is awesome” chant as soon as the Bell sounds. The beginning of the end for NXT golden era as the crowd TakeOver. This match review is less of a write-up and more random things I wrote down as it played out. "I am the top, top 1%..." hey I remember that music… Oh yeah, EC3! What a lemming-like plummet he had. He should be everything Vince loves, so why can he barely scrape getting on Main Event? Adam Cole is insanely over. The BayBay chant is one of the most over things in all wrestling right now. Shame the guy has nothing else. His appeal completely baffles me. Nigel McGuinness says one of the most absurd things ever. “Ricochet wants to join the likes of Buddy Rogers, Pat Patterson… Paige.” Sullivan does his Eric Sykes plank act with the ladder. Round the head, spin it around, thwack the guys on all sides. Good fun. Neat spot where Ricochet goes for the powerbomb off the ladder helped by EC3 and Dain, while Cole punches him in the face. Everyone comes-a clattering down. I'm sure this must be good but it really suffers from "I could climb the ladder and try to win but why don't I just do a spot instead?" There's spectacle but no purpose or story. It's just an endless chain of hurting yourself in a variety of amusing ways. Apparently though, "this is awesome." The best spot is the camera focuses on Sullivan climbing the ladder and Ricochet suddenly pings out of nowhere and lands on his back. This does lead to Cole tipping Riccy off the ladder to pick up the win, which feeds into the sneaky, smug Cole character who happens to win. He then holds the belt for 18,000 days. Ember Moon v Shayna Baszler for the NXT Women’s Championship Lzzy Hale’s performance of Ember’s theme is proper 1980s rock chick greatness. A good match, but I don’t think Ember was ever better than this right here. Babyface in peril really giving Shayna everything. A failed Eclipse put Ember in a Kirifuda Clutch, and thus begin’s Shayna’s reign of terror. PAIGE HERE! YES! The debut of the PAIGE HERE meme which has lost no power. Hilariously awful segment. Why does the camera linger so long at the start? Why is it so close to her face? Such good shit. The Undisputed Era (Adam Cole and Kyle O'Reilly) vs The Authors of Pain vs Pete Dunne and Roderick Strong in the Dusty Classic Finale for the NXT Tag Titles Tag Match. AOP rightly dominate, clubbing around like the 80s heavies they should be booked as. Pete Dunne neutralises them excellently with finger-bending malarkey. This is the match where Roderick Strong suddenly stomps on Pete and finishes him to give Fish the win. Much to Adam Cole's surprised delight Roddy takes off his Undisputed Era armband and puts it on. Their surprise means they didn't know he's joining. Is this how you join UE? You just put an armband on and they have to welcome you? Interesting policy. Andrade 'Cien' Almas vs Aleister Black for the NXT Championship A vicious, nasty fight. I feel like these two don't like each other, and I feel like both want to win. There's little showboating, and real intensity. Vega does lots of sneaky attacks on Black (I just realised. She's putting loads of moves on her now-husband!). She's the perfect heel manager here, shrieking and doing dirty tricks behind the ref which gives her charge time to get his kicks in. The finish comes after a kick out from a hammerlock DDT. Vega again tries to interfere with a crossbody but Andrade ends up catching her, leaving him wide open for Black Mass. Perfect little story, the conniving manager creates the villain's downfall. Aleister is genuinely shocked at the win and I really feel for him. Shame he's farting about doing nothing at the moment, he's got real cult appeal and believability. Johnny Gargano vs Tommaso Ciampa in an Unsanctioned Match And so we end with the 'Unsanctioned' match between Ciampa and Gargano. The crowd are so into it but I'm not. I liked their first two matches but this is too much. For the WWE style there's just too much there that should put someone away so when the finish comes it isn't a crescendo, it's another ripple on the sine wave. This is where Gargano does an STF with Ciampa’s leg brace. It’s like poetry, it rhymes. This Takeover was the end of Takeovers being unmissable to me. The crowd are horrible ("1, 2, SWEET!"), it's gone up to three hours which is too long, and finisher spam rot is evident. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Awards Moderator Onyx2 Posted April 15, 2020 Awards Moderator Share Posted April 15, 2020 On 4/14/2020 at 6:13 PM, Onyx2 said: Oh yeah, EC3! What a lemming-like plummet he had. He should be everything Vince loves, so why can he barely scrape getting on Main Event Sorry EC3 😬 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shane O' Mac Version 2 Posted April 21, 2020 Share Posted April 21, 2020 (edited) NXT TakeOver: Fatal 4 Way September 11, 2014 Alright, NXT TakeOver: Fatal 4 Way. In the immortal words of Brock Lesnar, let's do this?!? As I fire this bad boi up on the Network, I notice the run time of this show clocks in at 1:58. Shorter than an episode of Raw these days, should make a breezy watch. The main event of this show is one that I feel is a bit of a forgotten/hidden gem in NXT's history. As the name of the TakeOver suggests, it's a Fatal 4 Way match for the NXT Championship. The champion, Adrian Neville (yep, he still had a first name then) puts up the gold against Sami Zayn, Tyson Kidd and Tyler Breeze. Before Triple H started signing every top level name from the indies and Japan, we had a few unsung heroes killing it in Full Sail. Of course, Neville and Zayn had their reputation as indie darlings, but Tyler Breeze was essentially WWE made, from the FCW days. From a jobber known as Mike Dalton, the Tyler Breeze character was born and really resonated quickly with the rabid audience. He definitely had the sizzle, and here he had to serve up the steak. And finally, Tyson Kidd. Maybe one of the most underrated contributors to the early success of NXT. After years of being an obviously gifted wrestler with the family pedigree, but with his career success not really matching his talent level, he went to NXT not only to help out the younger talent, but also to give his own career a shot in the arm. In this run, he managed to hone his character and promo skills, and really become a complete package as a performer. Unfortunately, injuries prevented him from realising the potential he started to show here. What could have been... The signature WWE "Then, Now, Forever" intro is interrupted by static and flashing images of NXT wrestlers. Cool little touch to hammer home the TakeOver branding. Our commentary team is Tom Phillips, Byron Saxton & Renee Young. From what I recall, Phillips did a much better job on commentary in NXT than on the main roster, he actually had something of a personality before becoming almost a Michael Cole clone these days. I've always thought Saxton is the worst on the headset, and Renee Young... well, she's quite pretty, isn't she? She busts out her commentary chops quickly as the challengers enter for the tag title match, ready to do Lucha Things™- Kalisto does his trampoline-assisted flip over the ropes, and Renee lets out a "woo-hoo!" like she's on a ride at Universal Studios. Bless her. Match 1: NXT Tag Team Championship: The Ascension (Konnor & Viktor) (c) vs. The Lucha Dragons The crowd chants "sha!" as soon the champs make their menacing entrance. The Fucker of Faces, old Tommy Boy, lets us know that the Ascension have held those titles for 344 days. Also, COO Triple H called them "the most dominant tag team of the last ten years". Sadly, quite a true statement at the time. More "sha" chants as the match starts- it's a reference to the noises Ascension make as they laboriously beat down their opponents. Can't fault Full Sail for this one, they've got to entertain themselves somehow. The monster tag team get an early advantage through underhanded means- Konnor distracts Sin Cara, who was standing on the apron, allowing Viktor to blast him off into the guardrail. The burly bruisers take turns dishing out punishment on an isolated Mr. Cara. The masked man gets a brief opening- he reverses a Vikor slingshot powerbomb attempt into a rana in a cool spot. He's unable to tag and get some respite though, as Konnor is tagged in and charges across the ring to knock Kalisto off the apron. Really impressive speed... this was before Konnor started his undefeated reign of terror against the backstage catering at Raw. More beating down the artist formerly known as Hunico. Another spot of hope as Sin Cara lands an enziguri. Konnor cuts him off once again by putting his body between the Lucha Dragons and charges him back towards the Ascension corner on his hands and knees, reminiscent of Junkyard Dog. Sin Cara manages to flip over him and finally make the hot tag to Kalisto. Kalisto picks up the pace immediately by flying all over the ring in the direction of the HOSSES. The champs bail to the outside, and Kalisto immediately follows with a springboard plancha, but gets caught. Ascension go to launch Kalisto onto the steel ramp in a double fallaway slam... but the luchadore lands on his feet! Sin Cara wipes them out with a suicide dive. Great lucha things, and the challengers have momentum. Well... nope, Viktor takes Kalisto's head off with a massive lariat. Ascension set up for the Fall Of Man (the high/low), but Sin Cara kicks Konnor out of the ring. Salida del Sol soon after gets the win! Winners: The Lucha Dragons (at 7:48). This picked up really nicely down the stretch with the speed of the Dragons. Quite surprising to see the monster heels lose in such quick fashion, although the loss itself wasn't too shocking- one of the commentary tells I've noticed over the years is that when they make a point of telling you exactly how many days a long title reign has gone for going into a match, it often means that reign is coming to an end. Decent way to kick things off- obviously not in the same realm as a TakeOver tag title match these days, but a nice way to whet the appetite all the same. (***) Renee Young conducts a post-match interview with the new champs. Sin Cara says, "Thank you Renee. Woo!" and Kalisto says, "We are the Lucha Dragons, and the future starts now!" Hardly "with a tear in my eye", but it'll do. They at least seemed very excited about their win, selling it as a big deal. Match 2: Baron Corbin vs. CJ Parker This is Baron Corbin's NXT debut. He gets the "currently in the ring" treatment, and the eco-warrior CJ Parker gets the full entrance. Corbin immediately shows his strength by shoving Parker on his arse from a collar and elbow. An embarrassed Parker charges at the big rookie... and runs straight into a punch to the face. An emphatic End of Days puts the future NJPW US Champion away in less time than it took to write this. Winner: Baron Corbin (at 0:29). Both men in this one would go on to do much bigger and better things, but it was clear here that the powers that be saw something in Corbs. This period of time was fun, as Full Sail would actually count how many seconds Corbin's matches would take in the months to come. Being a pure WWE product, I actually think that Baron Corbin is one of the PC's biggest success stories. He was badly exposed when he started having full matches, but he worked hard and eventually became someone that could have good showings on WWE PPVs. (**) A promo airs with Tyson Kidd. He talks about his upcoming match, saying that in it, there's a man who's one of the greatest high fliers, a man with the most heart of anyone, and a man that is loaded with arrogance, but has all the talent to back it up. Oh, and Neville, Zayn and Breeze are in the match too. Tremendous. Match 3: Hair vs. Hair Match- Sylvester Lefort (w/ Marcus Louis) vs. Enzo Amore (w/ Big Cass) Enzo comes out doing his usual "certified G and bonafide stud" routine. The crowd chant the phrase- gotta be some sort of record for syllables in a wrestling chant? He lists the types of hair styles he could give Lefort, punctuated with a "how you doing?" from Cass. The actual match... well, it's an Enzo match. His offense is mostly hair pulling, although he does a nice dropkick at one point. Louis distracts Enzo, allowing Lefort to hit a big time clothesline for a near fall. Cass takes out Louis on the outside, which in turn distracts Lefort, allowing Enzo to roll him up-with the tights pulled- for the 3 count. Winner: Enzo Amore (at 5:38). I mean, the crowd was into it, so that helped, but objectively as a match, it might be in the running for worst match there's ever been on a TakeOver. (*) Post-match, Lefort runs away, and Marcus Louis gets a bucket of hair removal cream dumped on his head. Byron Saxton is outraged- he called this match overtly heel, which was jarring, I have no recollection of him ever being a heel. I mean, I think he sucks anyway, but I just don't remember those character traits. Tyler Breeze promo/video package. "Until you've walked a mile in my gorgeous shoes... you don't know what it's like to be me." OG Tyler Breeze was great, he really embraced this character with everything he had. We cut backstage to Breeze getting a massage from a beautiful woman, and two other women come along with fur coats for him to wear for his entrance. He dismisses them, saying that he's busy. One of them is Dana Brooke- playing an extra role long before she debuted. Back to the arena, and JoJo (damn she's fine) introduces the NXT General Manager, William Regal. He's two weeks into the job, which really illustrates how long ago this was. Regal says he's here to introduce "the greatest international signing in WWE history", Kenta. A video package airs hyping Kenta, including him signing his contract in Japan with Hulk Hogan. Kenta walks out looking great in a suit, and cuts a promo, first in Japanese, then in English, saying that he's happy to be in NXT, and he will now be known as Hideo Itami. Pleasantly surprised that the crowd didn't boo the Japanese speaking. The Ascension interrupt, saying that they're in a bad mood after their loss, and attack Itami, sending him flying out of the ring. They begin to tell Regal that they want a title rematch, but Itami comes back in, takes his jacket off, and goes on the attack with lethal kicks. Ascension bail from the ring, Itami grabs a chair... and sits on it, holding the high ground. Regal is great in this, smirking in the background like, "this motherfucker..." It's a shame Kenta's WWE run went the way it did, but it's hard to blame WWE for it. They were all in commited to making it work, the guy just couldn't stay healthy. Outstanding debut segment here. Match 4: Bull Dempsey vs. Mojo Rawley This is pre-Bull's "Bull-Fit" character, which I actually thought was a lot of fun. I was thinking about Dempsey earlier in talking about Baron Corbin and some of his rough outings where he was exposed, for lack of a better term. Corbin really blew up in those matches. Bull was good value though, I think he's got to be one of the more prominent NXT alumni to never make the main roster? Anyway, Dempsey and Rawley were tag partners, as we were quickly shown in a pre-match video package. As it turned out, the video package was almost as long as the match, there was a brief bit of big boys brawling, then Bull mowed over Mojo with... I guess a Mack Truck version of the Lou Thesz Press? Flying headbutt ends things REALLY quickly. Winner: Bull Dempsey (at 1:10). Not a whole lot to say here. Even considering the context of NXT at the time, I'm really struggling to see why this got put on a TakeOver event. I actually saw someone in the crowd hold up a cardboard shovel after the pinfall! That's creative! Bull hits another flying headbutt post-match, because fuck Mojo. (*) Backstage, Enzo and Cass are complaining that they didn't get to make Lefort bald. They spot Marcus Louis talking to Lefort with a towel on his head. After chasing Lefort away, Cass picks up Louis on his shoulder and carries him to the ring. They rip the towel off, exposing Louis' bald head to the world. Old Baldy sells it like his dick's hanging out. That's one thing I never really understood in pro wrestling... why is losing your hair such a big deal? Why is it the go-to "greatest humiliation"? I get the aspect of being forced into it, but otherwise, yeah, I don't get the whole hair pride thing. I'll gladly buzz cut myself in the summer months to keep cool. A really excellent video package airs highlighting the Bayley vs. Charlotte feud. It does a great job portraying Bayley as the super-fan underdog, while highlighting Charlotte's success as champion and noting that she "has a legacy to live up to". Match 5: NXT Women's Championship- Charlotte (c) vs. Bayley Wow, it's strange seeing how different Charlotte looks. Much slimmer and before all the plastic surgeries, almost like a completely different person. "Bayley's gonna hug you!" chants Full Sail. Charlotte offers a handshake, but Bayley isn't buying it. She charges her into the corner, rams her head into the turnbuckle, and the aggression gives the Hugger the advantage. The champ gains control of the match after reversing a backslide attempt into a neckbreaker, and the beatdown begins. A nice sequence of Charlotte locking in the Figure Four headlock and using it to ram Bayley's head into the mat- I remember that being something of a signature of Charlotte's, but I don't think she's used it for a fair while now. Bayley eventually escapes by stacking Charlotte up in a bridging pin attempt. The champ keeps up the attack with kicks, stomps, knees and more holds, cutting off Bayley whenever she tries to mount a comeback. Finally, Bayley finds an opening, cutting off a moonsault attempt and nailing a top rope rana! Near fall, and an attempt at a Bayley-To-Belly follows, but Charlotte has a unique roll up counter (almost like Kofi's SOS) for a near fall of her own. Charlotte follows up and manages to hit the moonsault, but it looks bad as she landed legs first, with little body contact. Kick-out, and Bayley has a defiant look on her face. Undeterred, Charlotte quickly follows with Natural Selection for the win! Winner: Charlotte (at 10:40). A little too short to be a classic, but it told a great story of Bayley continually trying her hardest to fight back and overcome the champ. Enjoyable work, and both ladies would up the ante soon after. (***1/4) Post-match, Sasha Banks walks out to attack Bayley, but Charlotte returns to the ring and throws her off. The commentary team surmise that Bayley earned Charlotte's respect with that match. A video package airs on Sami Zayn. Main roster wrestlers talk about Zayn from their pre-WWE experiences. Daniel Bryan says that when Zayn faces adversity, he gets stronger. Seth Rollins says that Zayn is the most resilient person he's ever been in the ring with. Hell of an endorsement for Sami. Match 6: NXT Championship- Fatal 4 Way- Adrian Neville (c) vs. Tyler Breeze vs. Tyson Kidd vs. Sami Zayn Alright, this is the big one. For all the marbles. Insert another cliche about the importance. HUGE support for Sami Zayn, with the "Ole'" chants almost drowning out his music and firing up again as the match started with a feeling out process. They pair off as Breeze puts the boots to Zayn, and Kidd does the same with Neville. The brawling quickly spills to the outside, Zayn and Neville get the better of it, and return to the ring for a staredown, but Kidd and Breeze pounce before the friends can fight it out. Gonna have to wait for that one. Back to the outside for some more clubbering. Zayn takes Breeze's phone and takes a selfie with it, which gets another big pop. Back in the ring, Zayn seizes an opportunity and locks Kidd into the Koji Clutch, but it's broken up by Breeze. More outside brawling, and Kidd and Breeze team up to hit Neville with a double suplex on the stage. They repeat the feat on Zayn on the steel ramp. Back in the ring, they isolate and beat down Zayn. Dissension finally occurs when they attempt to pin Sami, and Kidd wipes out Breeze with a spin kick. Every time Neville tries to return to the ring, he gets kicked out of it. Kidd locks Zayn in a chinlock, which seems like TERRIBLE strategy for a Fatal 4 Way. Anyway, Zayn keeps taking a licking (err, metaphorically). Kidd is on a roll- he hits Zayn with a top rope guillotine leg drop, hits Neville with a penalty kick, and blasts Zayn with a dropkick while he's in the tree of woe. I'm telling you guys, this version of Tyson Kidd was money! Neville returns to the ring, and it's the equivalent of a hot tag, as the pace immediately picks up with a comeback sequence on Kidd, bouncing him around the ring. Then Breeze follows moments later. Then Zayn explodes out of the corner onto Breeze. We've got a fight on our hands here! Breeze and Kidd bail to the outside and it looks like Zayn's going to hit them with a flip dive, but Neville stops him in his tracks and wipes them out instead with a massive Asai moonsault! We finally get the Neville vs. Zayn showdown, which Sami gets the better of with a dangerous looking back suplex, but Kidd breaks it up. Neville gets knocked to the floor and Kidd scores with the fisherman's neckbreaker on Zayn for a near fall. Sharpshooter attempt by Kidd, Zayn fights it off, Kidd goes for the springboard elbow, Zayn with the knees up and tries to follow up with the Helluva Kick- but Breeze intercepts with the Beauty Shot! Supermodel Kick on Kidd and it's Prince Pretty's moment to shine. He intercepts a flying Neville with a dropkick, and all of this doesn't get Breeze the win. He chucks a "Christian in 2002"-esque tantrum. Tower of Doom spot follows with Zayn getting the better of it for a super-close near fall. Full Sail chants "That was 3!" Moments later, Breeze gets a convincing near fall of his own, looking to pick up the scraps after Neville hits a shooting star press on Zayn. Next, it's Kidd's turn for a close call as he counters the Beauty Shot into a Sharpshooter, but Neville prevents Breeze from tapping. Zayn and Neville start a "yay/boo" striking exchange, ending by Zayn launching Neville into orbit with a massive back body drop to the outside. Sami turns his attention to Kidd, hitting him with an exploder suplex into the corner, then sets up for the Helluva Kick. Instead, though, he hits Neville with a tope that knocks him over the barricade, then runs to the other side of the ring to hit Breeze with his torpedo DDT, then back to the ring to finally hit Kidd with the Helluva Kick. The cover, the crowd can feel it, it's Sami's time! 1, 2... and Neville pulls the referee out of the ring! There's no DQs in a Fatal 4 Way, so it's legal. An enraged Zayn charges at the champ and eats a superkick. Kidd is still down from the Helluva Kick, so Neville flattens him with the Red Arrow... and the champ retains! Winner: Adrian Neville (at 24:12). They packed so much action into this match, it really showed what the top tier of NXT was all about during this time period. Great intensity from the get-go with the brawling, and while the first half of the match had a lot of time where wrestlers were out of the action, it was done in a way which built heat really well, particularly for Tyson Kidd. Then down the stretch was some wild exchanges, with perennial favourite Sami coming close, and the defending champ getting desperate and showing some heel tendencies. Tyler Breeze got his time to shine, and even though Kidd took the fall, he had plenty of time on offense to look strong in defeat. Really well done all-around. (****1/2) ---------------------- Overall, as strange as it is to think about, with the modern-day structure of TakeOvers, which every match gets a chance to be the show-stealer, this was almost a one-match show! The co-main of Charlotte vs. Bayley was pretty good, but not a patch on the classics that would come later in the NXT women's division. You'd never get filler like the hair vs. hair match or Bull vs. Mojo today. But that main event... it encapsulated the best of 2014 NXT. And the debut of Kenta/Hideo Itami was an iconic NXT moment. Admittedly, I had forgotten that it occured on a TakeOver. I remember the segment, but I thought it was a regular NXT episode. Having it on this show does elevate things slightly. We'll go for an overall score of 7/10. Must-see main event, the rest... was a work in progress, we'll say. Edited April 25, 2020 by Shane O' Mac Version 2 Typos Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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