Apparently Trevor Lee made his NXT debut, I didn't even know he had signed with the WWE. He's an awesome wrestler with a lot of experience but still really young. Should be a great addition if they use him well. He could bypass NXT and go straight to 205 and be a top guy there.
There is absolutely nobody interesting in the women's division except for Shayna Baszlor. It's a good thin they called up Nikki Cross to have her do nothing.
Calling up Nikki Cross was dumb, but I don't think that's a fair statement. The Japanese women are good and Bianca Belair is fine. I think the four-way should be a solid match.
I have no idea what they what kind of match they are going to do at Takeover for the NXT title. Surely Gargano will be in it, but against who? Seems like Matt Riddle and Velveteen Dream are going to face each other. Aleister and Ricochet should be in the tag match, unless they're actually going to have The Forgotten Sons win the Dusty tournament (vomit). That doesn't leave a lot of options.
There's either Roderick Strong or Adam Cole I guess, but the UE hasn't won a match in ages. They could also hotshot Keith Lee or Dominik Dijakovic to the moon if they wanted, but that doesn't seem right either. I don't think there's anyone else, is there?
Yeah, they've really pillaged that roster to move a bunch of people up to Raw and SD now, where they're never even used. Cole would seem the most likely, but this roster is depleted on every level right now.
So...ADAM COLE...MAY-BE??
The two Japanese girls, who's names I can't even recall, seem to do nothing to stand apart. Bianca has the hair thing and says Un-da-fee-ted all the time even though she's lost, so she has that. She's fine, but not someone I need to make sure I see.
The more I think about it, it has to be Adam Cole. No one else is remotely credible.
Takeover is shaping up nicely imo.
Johnny Gargano vs Adam Cole - Vacant NXT Championship
Shayna Baszler (c) vs Kairi Sane vs Io Sharai vs Bianca Belair - NXT Women's Championship
Velveteen Dream (c) vs Matt Riddle - NXT North American Championship
War Raiders (c) vs Aleister Black/Ricochet - NXT Tag Team Championship
Dominik Dijakovic vs Keith Lee - Some gimmick match
Only put the last one in there because there's always five matches and can't think of any other possibility.
The matches will likely be good, but it's just that they haven't done a good job of building anything besides the dissension between Undisputed on the way here.
I still just don't get Riddle at all. I mean how does a guy call himself the Original Bro when his gimmick seems to be almost literally a copy of RVD. Guys that wrestle barefoot have always bothered me for some unknown reason too, but maybe that belongs in the unpopular opinion thread.
I can't remember the last time that there was a Takeover event on a weekend without a PPV the next day.
I'll be watching when not busy with other things.
Quick predictions
Riddle over Strong: I'm not convinced the tension between Strong and the rest of UE is over. Riddle needs this win a lot more.
Dream over Breeze: Should be fun, but unless he's moving up to the main roster, there is no reason to take the title off of the Dream.
Shirai over Bayzler: It's time.
Fish and O'Reilly win the ladder match: This is going to be the Undisputed Era's night. They've taken a bunch of steps backward, but they'll be draped in gold at the end of the event.
I've never understood if the Dream is meant to be a face or a heel. It's not even just that his actions change from show to show, but he'll face a heel one week then a face the next and kinda keep alternating pretty much ever since that feud with Black.