Hopefully that doesnt carry over tomorrow

Crowd had to be worn out after the tag match

Authors of Pain seem really dumb -- like a tag team of two Roman Reigns/Lesnar/Goldberg hybrids. They took an insane amount of offense in that match and didn't sell any of it at all. (Posted this before reading the thread to avoid spoilers, but surprised at the love for the match. To me it was just a spotfest and despite Revival's best efforts the logic/psychology/selling was a mess imo.)

Cocky heel Asuka is pretty great... wish she and Ember had more time, but I assume this is building to a rematch where Ember eventually wins.

just watched off pvr .... that was fantastic. 2 hours for 5 matches with minimal shilling of products in between fights.

last 3 matches all really good imo

texted my buddy and send AOP sell less than Ahmed Johnson did

Only got that reference in my head b/c of the Monday Night War review thread

Yeah just finished watching the tag match and I really enjoyed it but AOP suck balls.

They're undefeated monster heels - since when do heels like that sell hard when they're going to go over? It's not like they were Scott Norton out there.

They should still some effects from the move/match -- it actually makes them look more badass if they are hobbled a bit and still can't be stopped by the faces. Lesnar is basically a monster, but he sells his ass off when the time is right, and it makes it look that much more impressive when he wins.

Instead, they were just wrestling like nothing happened to them, and it pretty much ruined the match for me.

Birds is correct. That is how they have always done it with new monster heels. They did the same exact thing with Braun Stroman and still are to a slightly lesser degree, but I don't think many are complaining about him.

Don't get me wrong I hear what you are saying as I found myself thinking similar thoughts watching that last night, but that is just what it is

The nitpicking itts is awful sometimes. If you watched that match and walked away annoyed then current wrestling is probably not for you and you should move on.

I loved the match and hated the finish, I think that's fair since it happens all the time in the WWE.

Yeah, I pretty much said the same thing in my post yesterday. It was an amazing story until the story being told didn't work out and then it was flat.

funny enough, I posted my "this is incredible" comment when DIY and Revival had a 4-on-1 advantage on that AOP guy in the ring which is the exact same thing that happened at EC 2014 when Wyatt's used Shield's number game against them and cornered Roman after Seth was put through a table.

Overall I'd give it a very high ****1/4 or very low ****1/2 because the beginning/middle was so great but had DIY/Revival finished it, it could've easily been 5*. Crowd chanting "bull****" when DIY got eliminated said it all.

Full Disclaimer: The following comment is half made in jest.

When you find yourself agreeing with the crowd at an NXT event, maybe you should rethink your position.

I see nothing wrong with the finish if both The Revival and #doittwoguys are being called up to the main roster immediately. Because AOP got put over both of them pretty heavily to the point where they're not really reasonable threats to the writer of a book called pain.

only half? I guess it depends on which story you want to focus on. I choose to focus on DIY/Revival teaming up to beat the monsters because 1) that's how it should go and 2) everyone was and is so hot for a DIY/Revival rematch after getting rid of AOP. The other story is how those two teams couldn't get along which didn't have a real payoff (yet) in an extraordinarily hot match that would've benefited from just ending the story in that match instead of dragging it out until the next Takeover where there's a 3-way rematch or a straight up DIY vs Revival rematch.

edit:
I was debating saying something like this because it's so true. How in the world do you have one team beat these guys?

If there is one thing that we all should know about pro wrestling, is that no one is unbeatable. It's a work and there is always a way to come up with a scenario where someone or team can be beat. They found a way to beat Lesnar cleanly and have the fans buy in. They found a way to have Taker lose at WM in a credible way. Again, it's a work, and I think some people at times fail to remember that

Two teams hate each other
Two teams are put in a position where they need to work together to take out monsters
It starts to work
Their hatred for each other is too much, revival tries to jump diy the first chance they get
They beat up each other a bit
Monsters take them out now that they are individual teams rather than working together


Story made plenty of sense to me and worked well for two teams that had what, 6 months+ of hating each other?

Obviously I realize it's a work. My location on a wrestling forum is "IT'S ****ING FAKE" because I'm not a troll.

Funny enough, wrt Taker's streak, I don't think people thought he couldn't lose in a credible way but that they thought Vince wouldn't have Brock do it so it goes completely against what you're saying because everyone was thinking of the work first and the competition second.

Also, I assume you're referring to Goldberg beating Brock. That's just super lol and you're right, they came up with a scenario to have him beaten.

Luckily, it's much easier in tag team wrestling to do something like what they did last night and then have AOP beaten some time soon.

@Jim: I didn't say the story didn't make sense. It's just the one that the crowd wasn't hot for. It wasn't the feel good story of teams that hate each other take out monsters and then fight among themselves.

Here is another one. For the past year plus, Asuka has been unstoppable in NXT. I'm sure that there are many people who thought the same thing about her that you said about AOP. I think they did an awesome job last night in telling the story of how she will eventually lose the title to Ember Moon and move up to Smackdown. But 6-9 months ago that seemed all but impossible. It's wrestling they always find a way

I understand what you're saying, but the story wasn't supposed to be "yay we worked together now we take each other out", it was supposed to be "we hate you so much we'll fight you even to our detriment to win the match". Which i thought was cool. different strokes tho etc

This. I actually commented right after the match that it was my favorite part of the whole match.

I think the other thing you are forgetting, is that no matter how good the talents or booking is, it's still a developmental territory, and the ultimate goal is to get these teams up to the main roster. Both DIY and Revival have been there long enough and have proven themselves enough to warrant promotion as soon as Monday. Having one of them win the title last night means that one of them would be delayed.

Let me also think that there is a better than 50% chance of neither show up on Monday or Tuesday. I was just using that as an example. And if neither do I would love to see a 30-45 minute iron man match between these two as a nice sendoff, when it's time.

Just catching up on this now. So glad Asuka won. Hope they understand the need to keep her dominant on Smackdown and don't 50/50 her.

Yeah, this was pretty much the point of that post. Some will like the heels getting the upper hand. Since I don't watch NXT on the reg, I really wanted whatever kept the crowd hottest and me more engaged which was obviously going to be monsters losing.

@Chachi: That was brilliant story telling with Asuka last night. Absolutely loved it. If they can do it again with AOP, I'd love to see it.

Oh my bad, misinterpreted your post I think. Yeah the crowd would have gone nuts there for sure, and if you don't really watch except for the takeovers then it's clearly the better result.

Agreed on loving the Asuka story.

Didn't Ellering initially cheat to help them win a match or two, that led to the shark-cage gimmick match? He hasn't needed to interfere lately IIRC so they can always go that route for awhile before they lose the belts/a match