Over the weekend, the WWE took over Toronto, Canada with NXT on Saturday night and then the WWE on Sunday with Survivor Series. Overall, the NXT show was done very well and many wrestling fans thought it was much better than the main roster. What boggles the mind of wrestling fans who were able to watch both events live was that both shows were done by the same company, yet we ended up getting two totally different shows.
This NXT event kicked off with the match between Bobby Roode and Tye Dillinger. In my preview piece that I did last week, the big thing I mentioned with this match was what type of reaction was this match going to get being that both wrestlers were from Canada. I also felt that opening with this match was the right move as it was a great way to knock off the event. The match ended with Bobby Roode performing a Lifting DDT and pinning Dillinger for the win.
I felt that this match was the last match for Tye Dillinger in NXT and I suspect he will be up on the main roster in early 2017. After these two Canadians clashed, we were set to have the finals of the Dusty Rhodes Classic Tag Team Tournament between the Authors of Pain and TM-61.
This match’s stipulation was that the Authors of Pain’s manager the WWE Hall of Famer Paul Ellering was suspended above the ring in a shark tank. This was done as WWE NXT’s General Manager William Regal wanted no interference in the match.
The Authors of Pain ended up winning the match and would end up winning the 2nd annual Dusty Rhodes Classic Tag Team Tournament. I hope that WWE does something with the Authors of Pain coming off of them winning the tournament.
My guess and hope are that they head into a feud with the NXT Tag Team champions. Over the last few years since WWE started doing more tournaments, they seem to not want to do anything major with the winner.
An example of this is the last few winners of the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal as Cesaro, Baron Corbin, and Big Show have not had anything change in their careers since winning the Battle Royal at Wrestlemania. After the Authors of Pain won their match, up next was a match that many people could see being a Match of the Year candidate.
In the third match on the card, we saw the Revival of Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder, defend their titles against the team of Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa, or as they are calling themselves as the team of DIY in a two-out-of-three-falls tag team match.
The first pin went to the Revival as they would perform their tag team move Shatter Machine on Gargano. Due to how quick that pin came, people thought that this was going to be a quick match.
However, the second pin would end up going to DIY as they pinned Dash Wilder after they performed their tag team move. So, it was tied at 1 and then it hit sudden overtime. This made the match one of the best tag matches that have been seen in WWE in years as there happened to be a lot of false finishes and both teams told a great story.
In the end, DIY would end up dethroning the Revival and would become the new Tag Team champions. As someone like myself, who is a subscriber to the WWE Network, I have gone back to watch that match a few times since Saturday night.
After this Match of the Year happened, it was time for the NXT Woman title that was between unbeaten Asuka and a returning Mickie James. One reason for a lot of Asuka’s actions during the match and in the post match was to make her a heel. By doing this, WWE can now push Ember Moon to the top babyface in the NXT woman’s division. It is expected that these two will have a match at either the takeover that is going to happen on the night prior to the Royal Rumble or Wrestlemania. After all these heart-pounding matches, there was still one more match to happen. It was main-event time as Nakamura had his first title defense against Samoa Joe.
Going into this match, the feeling was that Samoa Joe wasn’t going to beat Nakamura as it is expected to see him on the main roster sooner rather than later. However, Samoa Joe went on to defeat Nakamura and become the first two-time NXT Champion. This was a hard-hitting match as they tore down the house.
Overall, the NXT Takeover card was done very well and held back to the old way of wrestling that there happened to be many unpredictable things from DIY winning the Tag Titles to Samoa Joe winning the NXT title. If I had to pinpoint a match of the night, it is a little tough as there could be a few choices here.
My pick is the NXT Tag Title match between DIY and the Revival. This was due to how these four wrestlers were able to tell a great story and the feeling is we will see the Revival up on the main roster also in 2017.
A few things I am expecting to see happen with NXT as we wrap up 2016 and head towards 2017.
Tye Dillinger, The Revival, and Samoa Joe will all be up on the Main Roster in 2017 Ember Moon will be the first loss on Asuka’s WWE record at the Takeover prior to Wrestlemania Bobby Roode will get a shot at the NXT title against Samoa Joe Nakamura won’t be up on the Main Roster until the middle to end of 2017.