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 Third Edition Now On Sale (Updated All-Time Rankings, New Entries, Plus the "Wine Cellar" Section); Click to Order Follow @TheDocLOP QUESTION OF THE DAY: Was Takeover Brooklyn 2 good enough to maintain the reputation of what NXT has built or do you think the quality began to fade? NXT Takeover: Brooklyn 2 had a lot to live up to given the success of last year's groundbreaking event that stole the weekend right out from under WWE's 2nd biggest PPV of the year. I suggested on social media before the event tonight that NXT, with just a handful of roster members held over from a year ago, could use a shot in the arm for their brand moving forward with so many fresh faces and that several standout performances could give it to them, repeating the trend from 2015. There wasn't a match on the card that hit the level that Bayley vs. Sasha Banks reached at TOB1, but the overall night has to be considered yet another success for the Takeover series. One of the interesting things for me about watching these specials is that I really have no other exposure to NXT. I may watch a match or two here and there, but I basically tune in every two to three months when they Takeover. So, I was introduced to No Way Jose and Billie Kay tonight, each of whom put in solid work against their more hyped opponents. It remains to be seen if Austin Aries is going to become as big a star in NXT as he was in other promotions. Something about him is not connecting with me yet, but the heel turn is an upgrade character-wise from what we saw of him earlier in the year. He and Jose put together an above-average opener (** ½). Meanwhile, Kay played her part well and showed some potential against the debuting Ember Moon, who was pretty impressive via her innovative offense. The women's division in WWE has talents who are great athletes and who can pull off some risky maneuvers, but Moon seems like she might offer a little something extra in the athletic, risk-taking department with her high-flying style. I am digging the red eye look for her; it immediately sets her appearance apart and adds a hook to find out more about her persona. A more than adequate four-minute match to continue the show from the second position (**). The night started to really get going for me when Bobby Roode wrestled Cien Almas. Two months ago at the last Takeover, I was pretty intrigued by several flashes of brilliance from Almas, so I thought it'd be one of the quietly more engaging situations of the night to see how he was booked against Roode, especially given the kind of hype that Roode has built for himself in recent weeks. They nailed the presentation with Roode pre-match. His entrance was fabulous to accompany his glorious theme song. The proceeding action in the ring was fine, wrapping up the first hour with yet another solidly unspectacular match. Almas wound up looking good, taking advantage of his opportunities to shine along side of Roode instead of getting completely overshadowed by him. I would say that this bout was exactly what it needed to be for both guys (** ½). Switching up the order, allow me to comment on the match that I was most looking forward to: Bayley vs. Asuka. I was quite fascinated by the story set in motion through Bayley's title loss in Dallas; I thought her previous four months leading up to the rematch added depth to her personality. Some circles call her the female John Cena in-waiting for the main roster and she may be that for kids and casual fans of the fairer sex, but what separates the great babyfaces from the good ones is not just, as we've been taught from the Book of Cena, how stringently you adhere to your principles, but also how relatably you respond to the adversity of defeat. Bayley, through this storyline with Asuka, has had the chance to become the best kind of hero and eclipse Cena by relating to the large majority of the fanbase, cynical adult males included. I loved the story she told tonight. The stakes were enormously high for her character, as even her much heralded peers sat ringside to watch her attempt to regain the Women's Championship, and she responded with a sense of urgency, a fighting spirit, and clear will to win born of her previous failure. She lost again, but she could not have been more valiant. To me, she's more likely to be the Daniel Bryan of the women's division than the John Cena. Unfortunately, the match was a little off in its execution and that hindered my overall enjoyment of an otherwise beautifully told story and made this match more difficult to rate. People will remember the back-to-back botched powerbomb attempts and those were indeed very noticeable versions in the wrestling ring of the flubbed line on the theatre stage, but to be frank the timing was not there at various points of the match. Anyhow, it seemed like this was Bayley's swan song in NXT based on the post-match presentation; if so, what a career she has had down there. Her work with Asuka will ultimately make her a much better main roster attraction, of that I am supremely confident. (*** ½). Another match I found difficult to rate was the main-event featuring Shinsuke Nakamura defeating Samoa Joe to win the NXT Championship. I thought it was good, but I also thought that its slow pace placed a ceiling on its critical achievement. It stayed in second gear for the vast majority of its 20+ minute run-time, painting the picture of Joe as the dominant champion out-strong-styling the King of Strong Style with strikes that made Nakamura's look weak by comparison. I found what I consider to be a similarly fair criticism between this match and the Nakamura-Balor match from NXT on July 13th as well as the Jack Gallagher vs. Akira Tozawa match from last week's CWC episode, in that so much time was spent by Samoa Joe working over body parts (particularly a leg), but Nakamura only seemed to maintain his selling of physical exhaustion (is that a Japan thing?). When you have a match that reaches a higher gear, that becomes less of an issue, but when the match is heavily predicated upon a grind it out tale of one man having to overcome someone else's dominance, it stands out like a sore thumb. Overall, I felt about Nakamura vs. Joe what I felt about the first and third Takeover matches between Joe and Balor – it was a really good match that did not quite live up to the hype (*** ½). Where NXT Takeover again shined brightest was the Tag Team division. Last year, it was the women in NXT that started a revolution with their show-stealing matches, eventually earning the main-event at the October show and sparking the resurgence of women's wrestling on the main roster. This year, it is the tag teams in NXT that are stealing the show at Takeover specials. In Dallas, upon further review, the best match on the card was not Nakamura vs. Zayn (though it was close), it was the Revival vs. American Alpha. At Takeover: The End, we saw another show-stealer from Dash, Dawson, Gable, and Jordan. The Revival did it again tonight, this time with DIY, Tomasso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano. If it isn't already, eventually the comparison between the Revival and the Andersons (or the Brain Busters) is going to get old, but it's so very true all the same. Dash and Dawson are absolutely fantastic at the little things that bad guys do to get legitimate heat and draw viewers into the match emotionally. It's not about an entrance or a theme song or crazy moves; what the Revival does best is make people care about the outcome of the match by keeping them guessing who might eventually win, creating unparalleled drama and making the climaxes of their performances some of the best in recent memory not just for tag team wrestling but for wrestling period. Tonight, Ciampa and Gargano picked right up where Jordan and Gable left off, becoming the next duo that the world will want to see dethrone the champions. Maybe when that happens, it will be in the main-event of a Takeover special and in the midst of a Tag Team Revolution that translates to a huge boost in the tag team ranks on the main roster. What an incredible tag team match! (**** ¼) All in all, it was a good show with an amazing crowd and it was another feather in the cap for NXT, but with only one match meeting full expectations, I wonder what kind of lasting impact it could have for this current NXT roster as compared to what last year's event did for its NXT roster. Though still successful, I would say Takeover: Brooklyn 2 was only marginally so.
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