Takeover London

[KaiserGlider]

I really liked this show. Crowd was incredible. Asuka/Emma, Jax/Bayley, Joe/Balor were all great. Joe is the best he's been in a long time, and Asuka really won me over after that performance. These live specials have been outstanding.

[Str8Shooter]

Yeah I thought it was a solid show. Not one of the most noteworthy Takeover's, but I expected that going in with some matches that weren't quite that hyped up.

Asuka vs Emma was way better than I expected. I'm really like Asuka right now, she's got this weird charisma and mannerisms that make her stand out in the ring, and she's also got some really cool technical style moves and is very crisp in the ring. She's different from the other Divas and that may ultimately help her on the main roster if she gets there.

The tag title match was good, crowd absolutely loves Enzo and Cass. I'm surprised they didn't win the titles to be honest, it makes me think they may be getting a call up to the main roster soon. I'd like it too, them and the New Day seem like perfect foils for each other. Dash and Dawson are really old school and work well together, they have a vibe that works well in NXT, but I have my doubts about them on Raw.

Crews vs Corbin was okay, probably the weakest match of the show. I like Crews but there's something missing with him, he's in the usual NXT babyface rut of being good in the ring and over, but it feels like it's more on his past work than his NXT work doing it. I want to see him take it up a notch. Corbin is improving, but I still am not sure about him long term.

Bayley vs Nia Jax was fun. It was pretty much a squash for most of the match making Nia look like a monster. Bayley got little offense in and took a beating. I actually bought in that they were going with a Lesnar vs Cena-esque squash title win for Jax. The ending was well done, although I question whether having Nia tap out already is the right move. I might have gone with a flash pin ending.

Balor vs Joe was a hard hitting contest. Joe brought his working boots and I feel like he's having a lot of fun right now in NXT. Probably the best match of the night. It looked like both guys might have been hurt at the end so hopefully they're alright.

[JPG619]

I really enjoyed that show too, thank god I was off from work today to see it live. What really got me into the matches was the crowed with the different chants they did for the different wrestlers in the ring. Really wish all the WWE crowds were like any crowd outside of the US most of them are really into the matches.

[Twister]

Not watched it yet, but plan to later tonight. I saw this on Facebook which gave me a chuckle though:

[DBSoT]

I really enjoyed the show. Not every match was perfect from a technical standpoint, but the stories that were told were very solid.

Asuka/Emma - I loved this match. I think I am one of the few people who is a big fan of both of these women. Emma is much better then given credit and has done a very good job of reinventing herself. Asuka was clearly the star here, though. Her strikes look vicious and she transitions from move to move seamlessly. The ending sequence was done well and the right person won. Can't wait to see who Asuka faces next. They did tease Asuka vs Nia Jax.

Enzo-Cass/The Mechanics - I enjoyed this match for the people involved, but the match itself could have went better. The crowd being into it helped a lot. I would have preferred Enzo and Cass to go over, but no worries. The double team code breaker from the top rope was a great finish.

Apollo Crews-Baron Corbin - This was far and away Corbin's best performance from a character standpoint. He played the anti-indy gimmick perfectly. Telling Crews to go back to ROH (which Crews was never in) and screaming at him to stay in 500 people venues was great heel work. The match itself was lacking. These guys didn't seem to have much chemistry. Corbin kept slowing the match down and Crews didn't seem to know how to adjust his style.

Bayley/Nia Jax - If you went into this hoping to see a Bayley vs Sasha Banks level match, then you would have been disappointed. I didn't expect that and I loved this match. Jax played the dominant heel and Bayley played the baby face in peril. It is exactly what it should be. The one thing I wish they would have fix is the amount of leg drops, Samoan drops , and spine busters. Jax basically devalued all of her finishing moves in one match. I could have gone either way on the winner. Bayley winning was fine, because Bayley is awesome. If they would have had Jax win in dominant fashion, leading to a match with Asuka then I could have enjoyed that as well. Putting a dominant Jax vs a dangerous Asuka would be an interesting dynamic.

Finn Balor/Samoa Joe - This was Balor's best match to date. The Jack the Ripper outfit was a cool touch and it is nice that he is changing the body paint to match his location. This is the best Joe I have seen in years. He looked to be enjoying wrestling again. It also brings me to my next point. Joe should have won. They need a heel champion on NXT and especially one that will be there for a while. Joe comes across as dangerous and could fill the role Kevin Owens left, but be able to do it longer. I imagine that Balor is going to move on to a feud with Baron Corbin and Joe is going to feud with Sami Zayn.

All in all I would give the show a 7 out 10. Though the matches weren't up to normal NXT standards, the character work was there and I saw progression from everyone involved. I look forward to a Nia Jax/Asuka feud and am interested to see who Bayley's next opponent will be. The return of Sami Zayn should throw a wrench in the title picture and Corbin's win should also add to it. Next stop for the tag titles is Jordan and Gable (i am ready and willing).

[Hanley!]

I was a little disappointed in the show, but it's mostly because they've set such a high standard for Takeover shows in the past that I was expecting more than what we got. This was by no means a bad show. It's just that (unlike WWE pay per views) I'm always confident that we'll get a great show when Takeover comes around. This fell a little short of that.

I thought the show was missing that extra something to put it over the top. Sami Zayn's return would have done that. Zayn is probably my favourite active wrestler right now, so naturally I was a little disappointed when he didn't show up. I would have liked if they had shot some angle for next week's NXT show too. If they had set up a new feud somehow. I was half expecting one of the heels to start beating someone down during the show, only for Zayn to run out and make the save. Something like that.

With that being said, there was a lot of good stuff on the show. It opened and closed really well. Asuka continues to prove herself as one of the best wrestlers on the entire WWE roster. She had another great match, and Emma played her part well too. She's improved a bunch lately. And her new music is catchy as fuck. I love Asuka's moveset and delivery; even when she's hitting people with her ass it looks like it hurts. A few times here it looked like they were going to give us a bullshit finish and an Asuka loss, but she overcame the odds and knocked Emma out and it was fantastic.

The tag team match was an odd one. I think Enzo and Cass are a good act - they're not great in the ring, but they have a lot of character and can cut a promo. However, it feels like they're not quite as hot right now as they have been in the past, and Dash and Dawson are still coming into their own as a heel team. It didn't really feel like the right time to put the belts on the faces, even though the crowd would have gone nuts for it. Maybe it's almost time for Enzo and Cass to graduate to the main roster. They can succeed there if handled right. And I see Jordan and Gable being the next tag team champs anyway. The match was pretty good for what it was. The Mechanics are a great team in the ring, and they're good talkers too. But I feel like they need a little more character to make them a more memorable act.

Baron Corbin vs Apollo Crews wasn't great. The show definitely took a dip in the middle. A lot of people (including the live crowd) will blame this one on Corbin, but I think a lot of it is that Crews is still learning how to wrestle more of a WWE style. And Corbin, while improving all the time, isn't yet good enough to guide a newcomer to a great match. I'm a fan of Crews but there are areas where he needs work. He was a popular indy guy so the fans are more inclined to favour him over Corbin, but he needs developmental just as much as Corbin right now. Maybe more. Though obviously his ceiling in WWE is a lot higher than Corbin's if he can put it all together. The finish was surprising to me. I thought Crews would win, but I wasn't too annoyed that he lost. But I did think that they could have ended it in a way that generated more heat for Corbin. Him just winning out of nowhere doesn't really help in building a rematch (if they're going that way). And it's not good for Crews either.

Bayley vs Nia Jax wasn't very good, because Jax still isn't a good worker. She's confident in front of the cameras, she's an okay talker, and her moves look pretty good for the most part. There's a lot of potential with her, but she's still really green and you can tell in a longer match. She's crap at selling and doesn't show a lot of purpose between moves. Still, the match wasn't terrible. They turned it around a bit at the end and Bayley is so goddam over that the fans were never going to turn on one of her matches. Of all the chants and songs on this show, my favourite was "Hey Bayley, I wanna know will you be my girl?" That was cute.

The show picked up again at the end. That was one hell of a main event. This card never looked as good as a lot of the cards for the other Takeovers, but the main event was built really well and featured two huge stars. Joe is the best heel in the WWE right now by leaps and bounds. And probably the best talker too. Balor is getting better all the time, and while I thought he needed the time in developmental to work on his promos and the way he carried himself, at this point I think he's ready to be on the main roster. If they debuted him at Royal Rumble or on the Raw after Wrestlemania, I wouldn't have any problem with that. Unless they then ruin him like they do everybody else.

I thought this was one of Balor's best entrances yet. I absolutely freaking loved the way they built up to this entrance with the weird Jack the Ripper Takeover advertisements. I marked when that led into Balor's entrance. The Jack the Ripper gear was a cool twist on the usual Demon outfit. And I thought this was one of his best paint jobs so far. Awesome stuff to really hype people up for the main event.

The main event was stellar. Balor is a great wrestler, and Joe is even better. Nobody has been better in the ring for WWE lately. Except maybe Asuka. Both guys really looked great here, and the match was close enough that a rematch could be coming soon, and I'm 100% fine with that. I'd really like to see Joe as NXT champion. A Samoa Joe vs Sami Zayn feud is just about the best program WWE could possibly do right now.

One final note on the show: did anyone think the lights were down unnecessarily low? It was like WWE was trying to convince us that this was a small crowd. Which thankfully it didn't manage because those fans were so damn loud and excited for the show for the entire night.

Very good show overall, that started and ended great but dragged a bit in the middle. Not up to the standards of shows like R-Evolution or Brooklyn, but well worth watching all the same. Particularly when I can watch it live at 8pm like a real human would. They need to do this every year now.

[SlightlyJames]

I guess my irritating power cuts during the show were perfectly placed, I missed nearly all of Corbin vs Crews besides some chants towards Corbin that gave me a chuckle. I don't even dislike him that much but "You're shit and you know you are" put a wee smirk on my face.

Definitely some great matches on the show, Asuka vs Emma was bloody great, it was the match I got into the most. Asuka's becoming one of my favourite wrestlers in the company. I was kinda waning a bit by the time Balor and Joe went on so I wasn't as into it as maybe I should have been but it was a good match. I think Balor needs a new finish and I think WWE are muppets for keeping Joe in NXT when he's easily the best active wrestler they have right now. Though I think the old half-jokes about not wanting to leave NXT are becoming truer than ever before, I doubt he wants to go anywhere.

It was a good show, I certainly appreciated being able to watch it at a normal hour live. I doubt this happens again for a long time, think Hanley's annual proposition is maybe a bit far fetched. Though really with the Network that kind of thing is more possible than ever. They could easily promote one of the houses on their UK tour to a Network special though they do that very sparingly.

[Hanley!]

Completely agree about Balor's finish. I usually don't like top rope moves as finishers in general, because the set up to the end of the match becomes much more predictable automatically. You can't go to the finish in many different ways. But with something like Neville's Red Arrow, the move looks so spectacular that it's arguably worth the trade off, because at least you're ending the match with something that looks that incredible. Same goes for guys who do shooting star presses, etc. But Balor's move doesn't look so great that it's worth making the ends of his matches very predictable. Particularly given he's a main eventer on NXT and a potential main eventer for WWE. You definitely want your top guys to have a dynamic finisher.