Hi, folks. My semester is finishing up in the next two weeks, so I'm gonna have a lot more time to write for fun, which is awesome. In the meantime, I really don't want to edit a short story for a class at the moment, so I figured I'd talk a little bit about some of the wonderful graps that happened in the past weekend.
Before the shows even happened, I knew NXT Takeover Toronto was going to be a much better show than Survivor Series. I mean, most times the NXT show is better than the main roster show anyway, but this was even a bigger gap. For some reason I've heard from a good amount of people that the weekly TV series has taken a drop in quality, and I'm not sure where that's coming from. There was a little bit of an awkward transition because people didn't know who would be moving up to the main roster when the brand extension happened, but for most of the year, NXT has been the best regular weekly TV show in wrestling, aside from maybe Lucha Underground.
The weekly show got really good when the Dusty Classic started up again, and it had a chance to use the context of the tournament to build up some undercard and midcard guys. On top of the men's division, there's Samoa Joe, Shinsuke Nakamura, and a huge drop, even considering guys like Austin Aries and Bobby Roode. So the Dusty Classic both were great in developing the tag division and giving singles wrestlers like Aries, Roode, Cedric Alexander, No Way Jose, Tye Dillinger, etc. stuff to do. Just think. NXT is telling great stories with Tye Dillinger while the main roster doesn't even know what to do with guys like Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens and Cesaro. Ugh.
Anyway, main roster ranting aside, let's get into the show.
Bobby Roode def. Tye Dillinger
Of everything on the card, this match had probably the best build, and that's because Bobby Roode's on a tear as his Donald Trump character. I wasn't sure how he was gonna fit in NXT and was worried he was just gonna be just another TNA guy, but his character is brilliant. And it is totally Donald Trump. Dude shows up and wants to make NXT great even though NXT already is great. He's a rich entitled jerkwad. He says and does things, and then when asked about it denies it all, even though there are record of him saying and doing the things. It's awesome. He begged Tye to team with him and then said Tye was desperate for him. Then he leaves Tye to get murdered alone at the hands of Sanity and blames the loss on him even though he bailed. It's great, great heel work.
The entrance alone with the choir deserves all the praise. And so does Tye Dillinger's weird Doctor Strange get-up. And the match is dope too. It's not gonna be the best match in the world, but it's solid as hell. Tye works so much better as an underdog babyface character than he ever did as a heel enhancement dude. He's still basically the Tyler Breeze Honorary Jobber to the Stars, but at least he gets some more shine in this role than what he was doing before the Cien Almas match. This was just a well-worked, character-driven match that further established Bobby as more than "TNA Guy No. 286." Tye is a better wrestler than he gets credit for, and this was one of his best-worked matches. Loved how he was hot right out the gate. Good work on the head/neck by Bobby as well to eventually set up the DDT, and some cool nearfalls that played to the super hot crowd. I really do hope at some point he can get at least somewhat of a push and maybe even win on a Takeover Special. B+
Dusty Classic Final: The Authors of Pain (Akam & Razar) (w/ Paul Ellering) def. TM61 (Nick Miller & Shane Thorne)
I liked how this year the two spots in the final went to actual tag teams and continued to build the new teams instead of last year when the finals were four singles guys. It worked out last year because it allowed them to immediately go into the super hot Balor/Joe feud. Plus making us wait for American Alpha and The Revival a few more months ended up really paying off. I don't think those matches would have been as special if we got them in the Dusty Classic last year.
I like both of these teams, but this wasn't the best work of either. I don't necessarily blame them. While putting Ellering in the cage is a cool callback to The Last Battle of Atlanta (now available on the WWE Network!) and also ties into a toy WWE just made, it didn't feel earned. The Authors haven't been around that long and they've mostly won their matches clean, so putting Ellering in a gimmick cage seemed a little extreme from Regal. I think it made the match just a little disjointed and distracting. It did allow some cool moments. Thorne doing the dive off of the rigging was obviously the spot of the match. The big issue is that it kind of just felt like it ended too suddenly. Ellering throws the chain from the cage down to the Authors, but they drop it, but it doesn't even matter anyway because they hit the Last Chapter ten seconds later. Just kind of bizarre. I'm excited to see where these teams go and hope they get a little bit more character building (TM61 especially). B-
NXT Tag Team Championship 2/3 Falls Match: #DIY (Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa) def. Champions The Revival (Dash Wilder & Scott Dawson)
Sometimes I ask myself why I watch wrestling. So much of it is dumb or underwhelming, especially WWE who often insult my intelligence. Then something like this match comes along and I understand why. Wrestling is an escape like none other.
I haven't had the best month or so. I've had so many big school projects that it's hard to give any of them my full attention, and the end results have suffered and my grades have dropped. I've been so busy with school and my internship that I find it hard to write outside of things I have to do. Meanwhile all the time I've been overwhelmed, I've dealt with sickness. I had migraines last Monday and Tuesday nights. I was running a fever Wednesday. I still basically have to carry a tissue box everywhere because my nose won't stop running. If all that wasn't enough, add the fact that the sun goes down before I'm done with my classes for the day, and my seasonal depression is in full swing.
I'm stressed. I'm tired. I'm sick. I'm depressed. My country just elected a monster as president, and I don't know how to handle that. I need an escape, and wrestling is that escape.
I'm sorry to have that entire sob story before even getting to the damn match, but I needed this match. Because for twenty-two minutes, I forgot about how crappy anything and everything can be. This match was perfect in every way, and I can't stop watching it over and over again.
These four guys have tag team wrestling down to a science. They are in the exact right place at the exact right time every time. There's not a missed spot. There was barely a missed spot in their last Takeover match, and this ups the ante to eleven. I don't even know what to talk about. How brutal the Shatter Machine was on the first fall? DIY and Dash/Dawson stealing each others' finishers and the resulting nearfalls? The feeling of pure joy when Gargano finally reached the rope for a break when I thought the match might be over? Dash and Dawson murdering Gargano's leg with the belt while the ref was distracted? Wilder trying to stop Dawson from tapping out to the GargaNo Escape by holding Dawson's hand while Wilder himself was in Ciampa's armbar? Everything was perfect. Everything.
This is one of the best tag team matches I've ever seen, and maybe the best tag match I've seen that doesn't involve some combination of tables, ladders and chairs. It was so good. For twenty-two minutes, I forgot that anything else existed aside from these two goofy indie wrestlers who overcame the cheating tactics of the best tag team in the world (and Dash and Dawson are the best tag team in the world) to finally get the tag team belts. 10/10. Five stars. Whatever the highest rating you give, this is it. This is perfection. A++. Match of the Year
NXT Women's Championship: Champion Asuka def. Mickie James
This match was exactly what I wanted it to be. It was a little hard to get into when I first watched because the prior match was incredible, but Asuka and Mickie absolutely brought it, and I was a little surprised by just how good and evenly matched it was.
Asuka was always going to win this match, and there was never a doubt of that. She's undefeated, and she's not going to drop the title to somebody who's only around for one night as far as we know. So I was a little surprised they let the match run as long as it did (13:03; I thought the match would be under 10) and how much offense they let Mickie get in before Asuka murder death killed her. I'm not complaining though. Mickie James deserved a much better run than she ever got in the WWE. When she was around, the women were literally told not to do things that would outshine the men. Now things are different, especially in NXT where the women outshining the men is almost the norm.
Mickie's 37, but she still looks great in the ring. That shouldn't come as a shock to anyone who's watched her in TNA or the indies in the past six years. When she hit the Mick Kick, it looked brutal. Of course, Asuka got the win, and got one of her best moments after the W. Mickie went for the respect handshake, and Asuka just puts the belt in her face because she doesn't give a damn about respect. All that matters is the championship. Asuka doesn't think there's a woman in WWE that can beat her. She's beaten up almost every woman on the NXT roster. She chased Nia, Alexa and Bayley up to the main roster (at least that's what happened as far as she's concerned). The WWE brought in one of the best women's wrestlers in its history because there was nobody else left, and she took care of her too. I can't wait to see where things go with Ember Moon and Nikki Cross in the next few months when one of them eventually rises to the challenge. A-.
NXT Championship Match: Samoa Joe def. Champion Shinsuke Nakamura
This match was great, because it's Samoa Joe and Shinsuke Nakamura so of course it's great, but I think in a few months we're gonna talk more about how hot the feud was as a whole instead of any individual matches. The last championship match these guys had was pretty dope, but aside from Shinsuke messing up Joe's jaw do we even remember that much? This is better than the Brooklyn match and becomes increasingly more violent and overall better as time goes on. It's a nice slow burn before we got some awesome Kinshashas from Nak and some brutal suplexes from Joe. Still, it didn't seem like it matched the intensity of some of the buildup until the very end. I think at the end of things we're going to remember the promos turned into brawls and Joe injuring everyone in his way until he gets to Shinsuke instead of any of the actual matches.
I'm not sure what these guys do from here. I was convinced that Shinsuke was retaining and sending Joe to the main roster, which didn't happen. And I'm not convinced Shinsuke is going to the main roster even though he absolutely should be doing that, because that's where he belongs. I think you have to keep Nakamura around at least for a third match, because I don't know who you put up against Joe right now. There's nobody aside from Shinsuke built up to be on his level. I feel like they could've built Almas or especially Roode to be the next in line against Nakamura, but I don't know what faces would be in line to go against Joe. No Way Jose? Cedric Alexander? Rich Swann? They're all great and could put on dope matches, but I don't think any of them are built well enough on NXT just yet to be viable threats. Very curious as to where this may go. B+
Overall, this was one of the best shows of the year. I liked it more than The End and Brooklyn II, but it's not quite on the level of Takeover Dallas. Still, it has my frontrunner for Match of the Year, three very good-to-great matches and a solid if not uneven tag match. There's very little to complain about with Takeover Toronto, and I look forward to where they take things from here.
Final Grade: A
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