I watched the Takeover specials before I watched the TV show. So I’m going to add notes to my original reviews now that I have the full context. I’ll put them in red.
April 7, 2018 – New Orleans, Louisiana
Adam Cole def. EC3, Killian Dain, Velveteen Dream, Ricochet & Lars Sullivan {NXT North American Championship Ladder Match}
It’s bizarre for me to see Bateman wrestle as EC3 in a WWE ring, you know, since the C stands for Carter… as in Dixie Carter. This match was a lot of fun. It was a really good character showcase for almost everyone involved, and oddly it was Dream who least got to show off his personality. Still, like everyone else in the match, he did get to show off a few dope spots. **** This title still seems completely unnecessary though.
Shayna Baszler def. Ember Moon {NXT Women’s Championship Match}
The seriousness of this match is undercut by Moon dancing like a goof with the woman who is performing her entrance music. Sometimes WrestleMania weekend pomp is counterproductive. The stuff with Baszler’s arm here really was cool, but aside from that it felt like they were sleepwalking through this. **½ I was, and am, so over Moon by this point that I’m surprised I gave this any of my attention at all. Luckily, this was her last NXT match as she was a post-Mania call-up.
Adam Cole & Kyle O’Reilly def. Akam & Rezar, & Roderick Strong and Pete Dunne {NXT Tag Team Championship Match/Tournament Finals}
Strong turning on Dunne here and joining the Undisputed Era was pretty dastardly, but not as evil as not hitting the Sick Kick, a move for which I created the name. Also this match was a ton of fun and I liked it very much. The turn was really effective and had the crowd freaking out. Cole and O’Reilly’s faces at realizing that Strong has joined up with his team are incredible. ***¾ What’s less incredible is Cole and O’Reilly winning the Dusty Classic trophy in addition to retaining the tag titles. That’s some indy-level nonsense.
Amsterdam Black def. Andrade Cien Almas {NXT Championship Match}
It’s fun when a match builds off of previous matches. And while this didn’t necessarily build off of their first match (which was Black’s debut), it did build off of Almas’s matches against Drew McIntyre and Johnny Gargano, so that was neat. It was also nice to see Zelina Vega be the cause of Almas’s loss, since she was such a big part of all of his wins. **** Yeah this was great. Just a good, simple angle that was well-defined and didn’t need any stupid, extra crap that didn’t make sense.
Johnny Gargano def. Tommaso Ciampa {Unsanctioned Match}
So the story here is that after losing his first title match to Almas, Gargano put his career on the line to get a second one. Ciampa interfered and caused Gargano to lose, so this match isn’t officially sanctioned. Gargano gets his career back if he wins. I think this is the first time Takeover has been headlined by a non-title match. Heel Ciampa is the best character I’ve seen in wrestling in a long time. He’s an evil pirate and he’s over as a bastard and all of that is fantastic. I think some folks got a little over excited when this match happened because the finish is unbelievably strong. The match is terrific, don’t get me wrong, but so much of what makes it great comes down to that finish. And a million points to Mauro Ranallo, who put the finish into the context of their very first WWE match against each other. And of course, countless points to Gargano and Ciampa for beating the crap out of each other, culminating in a glorious swollen eye on Ciampa. ****½ I can give all the credit I want to Ranallo, but now that I’ve seen the match he’s referring to from 2016, it changes the way I feel about this match. I do feel as though a match should be rated on its own merits, but I’m also a human being with feelings and my feelings now thinking about this match given its full historical context makes me feel the need to bump it up to ****¾.