by Kyle Childers
It’s that time again kids, that special time when WWE puts on it’s favorite Ring of Honor shirt and dips it’s fingers in Cheeto dust to pretend to be indie for the night, it’s NXT Takeover: Fatal 4 Way. This is only the third live NXT special since the WWE Network launched way back in February but already they have a reputation as must see shows for fans. I’m no exception so let’s take a look at this show top to bottom, including some potentially fantastic matches and the debut of KENTA.
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Mojo Rawley vs. Bull Dempsey
Guess who’s not hyped for this match? This guy! Alright, so here’s the deal, these guys were partners but then they decided to beat on each other instead. That’s really it. The most exciting thing about this match is the presence of your favorite chubby Taz impersonator and mine, Bull Dempsey. I guess Bull has to win this one unless they want to have the most one-sided feud on the program be this one.
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Enzo Amore vs. Sylvester Lefort in a hair vs. hair match
Why is this not a goddamn tag team match? Enzo has Colin Cassady, Lefort has Marcus Louis and tag matches are awesome. But no, we’ve got this stip match instead. I’ll be honest, I’m not a huge Lefort fan. He gives me serious Test vibes and Test is the poster boy of wasted potential. That being said, Syl wins this one. Why? Because he’s the face and faces never, ever ever ever lose hair vs. hair matches and this angle gives me no reason to think this goes any other way.
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KENTA Debuts
This isn’t a match but I want to talk about it for a second. While everyone has spent weeks throwing out ideas for KENTA’s debut, I don’t think I saw the idea of an in-ring segment on a live event thrown out there and…I really like it. It makes this guy seem like the big deal that he should be. His list of great matches, professional accomplishments and technical innovations is rivaled by few and treating him like just another dude would be an injustice to WWE, KENTA and the fans. Why Ric Flair though? Can’t we trot out another legend? Maybe someone that doesn’t show up to ramble often, sometimes drunk? I consider Ric Flair one of the absolute finest performers of all time. I get drunk and impersonate him and “Macho Man” Randy Savage. But enough is enough and it’s time for a change of legends. Regardless, barring major botches, this segment should be entirely harmless and ought to make KENTA look huge.
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The Ascension (c) vs. Kalisto and Sin Cara for the WWE NXT Tag Team Championship
I swear guys, I really like NXT. It’s the only non-Total Divas WWE program I have to watch “live” every week with volume on. I feel like I need to say that to break up the negativity of these previews and predictions. Now that, that’s out of the way, I’m really not a fan of The Ascension. Maybe it’s because they remind me of a standard extra medium indie tag team, maybe it’s because they have the theatrics of The Undertaker’s half as talented sons, or maybe it’s because they’ve been my WWE 2K14 universe NXT Tag Team champions for 122 weeks. It could be all of those things. I don’t know, what I do know is that they’re finally about to lose the tag team titles for real. It’s going to be main roster time for Konnor and Viktor soon enough and with NXT’s booking team finally allowing The Ascension to show some weakness on house shows, expect this to carry over to TV as these guys are phased out of Full Sail University.
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Charlotte (c) vs. Bayley for the WWE NXT Women’s Championship
Charlotte is getting good you guys. Like really good. While not exactly the caliber of Emma or Paige, Charlotte and Bayley are two of the strongest performers on NXT’s now dwindling diva roster. Bayley’s character is often portayed as the victim of the heels’ heelery and it’s not time for her (s)hero moment. Charlotte is the stronger choice to continue as champion from purely a booking perspective.
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Adrian Neville (c) vs. Sami Zayn vs. Tyler Breeze vs. Tyson Kidd for the WWE NXT Championship
Can we put Neville back in a tag team? Can we give him a mouthpiece? Something? Anything? Don’t get me wrong, the man is an outstanding performer in the ring but his mic work is sub-porn levels. If he’s not main roster bound immediately, they need something to keep the man busy because NXT Champion isn’t it.
This match is actually the most interesting from a booking perspective because of the different ways it could go. Does Zayn get rewarded for being a solid worker that’s managed to get over enough to have a pretty solid chant in his favor during his lone WWE Monday Night Raw appearance? Do we get the end of Tyson Kidd’s twisted path of redemption where the guy looking to reinvent himself finds the gold belt at the end of his warped and bitter rainbow? Or does the arrogant top heel, the walking avatar of the #Selfie generation gain the ultimate status symbol? All roads are logical but I think Breeze wins this time, if only because the top end of the NXT card is face heavy and Breeze has incredible momentum.
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Photo Credits:
Photo 1: onlineworldofwrestling.com
Photos 2-6: en.wikipedia.org
Categories: Smooth Runs
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