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WWE NXT TakeOver: Respect Reaction
Courtesy of Cageside Seats website.
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
With a plethora of new signings mixed with already-established NXT mainstays, “Respect” delivered exciting action from top to bottom.
With the show named in honor of the late great “American Dream” Dusty Rhodes – who played an integral part in helping NXT talent “find themselves” within their character – respect was a booming theme throughout the show, right down from the Dusty-inspired stage with his likeness displayed on the LED screen to the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic Tournament trophy right next to it.
WWE Creative recently coined the term “Divas Revolution” and elements of that “revolution” witnessed first-hand perhaps the best women’s match to date – the 30-minute Iron Man match for the NXT Women’s Championship between Champion Bayley and Sasha Banks. Women’s wrestling took over the final half hour, fittingly appropriate for a show that delivered in spades.
Notes In Observance – WWE NXT 9/30/15: A Muscle-Busting Coup De Grace
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 9/30/15)
A Muscle-Busting Coup De Grace
– Things started with a Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic update since we were a week away from TakeOver: Respect, where the semifinals and finals would take place. We saw Round 2 highlights where Jason Jordan/Chad Gable beat The Hype Bros. at a live event to meet Baron Corbin/Rhyno in the finals, where Scott Dawson/Dash Wilder will also be waiting. Good preview to get us to this hot opener match on paper.
Notes In Observance – WWE NXT 9/23/15: Asuka Arrives
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 9/23/15)
Asuka Arrives
– The Eva Marie-Carmella match was another squash for the red-headed up-and-comer who has been mostly all glam and no slam. The crowd continued to berate her justifiably, considering she forgot to kick out the last time she was out there. They made an effort to take that botch and use it as a way to get promo heat, as she thanked the referee for not “falling victim to the biased crowd.” It’d just be smarter to not acknowledge it, but too late for that. As for the idea of Carmella being her opponent – sigh, again? Carmella is improving herself, but she’s not on the level to carry Eva of all people. Their in-ring chemistry has bettered and Eva wasn’t terrible, but played it way too safe here and the pace suffered. The crowd was obviously amusing themselves with chants like “That’s a kickout!” and “All botch everything!” and it was building to something decent… until the lame countout finish. That did no favors for Eva and then it made Carmella look weak since she couldn’t answer a 10 count when all she did was fall out of the ring.
Notes In Observance – WWE NXT 9/2/15: A Dusty Start
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 9/2/15)
A Dusty Start
– The opening video was pretty self-explanatory in explaining that a Tag Team Tournament was made in honor of Dusty Rhodes – the inaugural Dusty Classic. Classy move by WWE to pay tribute to the true mentor of mentors, with NXT the perfect platform for it, the environment he shared the most influence on, even in the weeks before his passing.
Notes In Observance – WWE NXT 8/26/15: Brooklyn Made
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 8/26/15)
Brooklyn Made
– The opening video chronicled arguably the most successful night of SummerSlam weekend – NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn. In that awesome, slow-mo style, we saw all the newsworthy happenings, ranging from Apollo Crews’ in-ring debut, Triple H’s introduction, the amazing Sasha Banks-Bayley match, Samoa Joe-Baron Corbin and so on and so forth. Still a little ironic that this show takes place after TakeOver while it was taped before the show in actuality.
Notes In Observance – WWE NXT 8/19/15: No Sleep ‘Till Brooklyn
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 8/19/15)
No Sleep ‘Till Brooklyn
– The opening video focused on last week when NXT Champion Finn Balor soundly defeated Marcus Louis, only to be ambushed from behind by Kevin Owens, who got the last laugh with a Pop-Up Powerbomb despite some fight from Balor. Bayley defeating Becky Lynch for the right to face NXT Women’s Champion Sasha Banks at TakeOver: Brooklyn was also featured.
Notes In Observance – WWE NXT 7/29/15: Dominance Is Bliss
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 7/29/15)
Dominance Is Bliss
– NXT seemed to do a decent job in straying from the norm, at least in terms of how the tag team division is presented. Sure – they’ll always have the over teams like Enzo Amore/Colin Cassady to fall back on, but we’re beginning to see an emergence of other teams. This show saw matches and segments dedicated to Dash Wilder/Scott Dawson, Jason Jordan/Chad Gable and then the main event was a Tag team Championship match between The Vaudevillains and the Champions Wesley Blake/Buddy Murphy. It’s a slow start, but if they stick by them enough, they can pull out something decent. For Blake and Murphy’s sake, they need some form of competition and they’ve been running strong as Champions for six months now. Has it really been that long now? As far as the Amore/Cassady-Dawson/Wilder match, it had the look and feel of a Team SAWFT victory from how we got the full SAWFT routine treatment and they worked in their usual spots to the hot tag. Even if they hadn’t won the match, Dash/Dawson worked in a lot of offense and hard strikes to be past what we’d consider a lopsided victory. The fact that they got out of Cassady’s hot tag offense and overpowered Amore to get the win came off like a major upset and a full confirmation that the format was indeed being changed. Got a negative reaction but one nonetheless. You get the feeling there will be a rematch and with Enzo/Cass recently working main roster shows and Main Event tapings, will this be their last big “rivalry”? It’s still baffling that they never had a run with the Tag Titles, but that’s just us.
Notes In Observance – WWE NXT 7/15/15: Ladies Show How It’s Done
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 7/15/15)
Ladies Show How It’s Done
– For what it’s worth, this episode of NXT had its share of new blood, old faces and a sense that a “new era” was indeed upon us. We had a little bit of everything here and maybe it’s an awesome thing that the NXT Divas can main event a show and it doesn’t feel like “big news” but rather the norm. The rematch between NXT Divas Champion Sasha Banks and Charlotte had a big amount of hype the week before when the challenger agreed to team up with the Champion to fight Emma/Dana Brooke for the favor of a Title match. The other half of the hype came in the fact that everybody pretty knew this would be quality from the bouts we’ve seen before and the timing couldn’t be better what with the Divas segment from Raw. Not to mention with the main roster transition, this was probably the last time we’d see a one-on-one match between these two on NXT.
Notes In Observance – WWE NXT 7/8/15: Beautiful Fierce Females
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 7/8/15)
Beautiful Fierce Females
– The opening video, as you’d expect, highlighted the happenings from the recent “Beast In The East” WWE Network live special, inexplicably leaving out the results of the NXT Championship match though as we came to realize, the match was later aired in its semi-entirety on the show. There was a good balance of recap and progress on this episode. Nothing truly “must-see” but it was better than average. Don’t forget, this is NXT we’re talking about here, so we’re judging by the high standards that the show has been known to reach sometimes.
Notes In Observance – WWE NXT 7/1/15: That’s Finn Balor
By Nicholas Jason Lopez
“Notes In Observance” features random thoughts and analysis on recent television shows. Quick results can be found at the bottom of the post.
(Aired 7/1/15)
That’s Finn Balor
– The opening video hyped the tag team main event of NXT Champion Kevin Owens/Rhyno against Samoa Joe/Finn Balor well as a clash of sorts, which in many ways, it was.
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