I’m sorry Royal Rumble, but you WILL NOT win WWE Pay-per-view of the weekend. Why? It’s because of the lack of engaging characters and intricate storytelling the main roster seems to not like telling. Or perhaps it’s the lackluster matches that received an even more lackluster build. Sure you’ll have good matches, but nothing will match or even rival Takeover: Philadelphia.
Johnny Gargano vs. Andrade “Cien” Almas is the reason I’m proud to be a wrestling fan. The mix of storytelling and wrestling was at its finest here. The story of an underdog babyface looking to overcome the odds is nothing new; however, NXT creative knows what the hell they’re doing in telling the story and Johnny Gargano is a fantastic wrestler.
He IS the best babyface in the WWE right now. Both men topped their previous encounters and this is a sure fire match of the year candidate. SEE THIS MATCH. If you’re a fan of storytelling and excellent wrestling, you’ll love it. Almas and Vega continue to be a tremendous act together. I could on and on about how awesome this match was, but you get the point by now.
Before Gargano/Almas, Takeover was still a fun show and one worth seeing. Bobby Fish & Kyle O'Reilly vs. Authors of Pain was a good opener. Fish and O’Reilly have always been strong workers and the AOP have really come into their own as workers themselves.
Dream/Ohno was a fun match as well. It’s cool to see Dream’s momentum from his match with Black carry over to the fans. As great as NXT is, they have failed when it comes to booking Ohno. He feels like nothing more than a jobber at this point, which is a shame as Ohno is talented. Hopefully this loss will give Ohno some needed character development. A name change would be great too.
Ember Moon/ Shayna Baszler match was good and Baszler is a certified star. She carries herself as a badass perfectly. Her mannerisms are on point and her wrestling ability is pretty good. Moon may have won the battle, but Baszler clearly won the war.
Black/Cole Extreme Rules match was the second best match of the night. I love how badass Black has looked thus far. Cole is a very talented wrestler in his own right. I’m not a big fan of him losing again, but clearly a bigger story is being told with Black at the moment. Cole can always get his heat back on the mic.
It’s really nice to see Ciampa return and I’m happy his return happened after the match instead of during. I look forward to the matches between him and Gargano and can’t wait to see what happens next.
NXT continues to be the best wrestling on WWE TV, no comparison. It’s not just the takeovers that are great, but it’s the television product that gives us well-crafted storylines. It’s not perfect of course; however, if you’re not watching NXT, then you’re missing an example of what good wrestling should be.