GDT: NXT TakeOver: Toronto (10th Auguest 2019)

[Cor]

It might just be physically impossible for Cole and Gargano to have a bad match together

Vince will find a way soon enough

 

[Maffew]

Bro, I'm in the mood for predictions:

- Cole/Gargano III: I'm a bit surprised by the decision to go with another 2/3 falls match for this. It removes a lot from their feud for me doing the same match again, despite it being slightly different. I feel like this is going to underwhelm compared to their other two TO matches, but I'll be glad to be totally wrong. They're good enough to do it.
Winner: Adam Cole (BAY BAY)
Rating: ****

- Baszler/Yim: I don't think many see Yim taking the title, and I'm expecting Shayna to win again, but one has to wonder: given Mia's 2019 push, if not her to take the belt, then what credible faces are left? Candace needs stronger booking to become a title contender, and she shouldn't be going over Io right after the latter's turn. There's no one else until Dakota comes back.
Winner: Shayna Baszler
Rating: ***1/4

- Profits/UE: I do believe we'll see Cole's "draped in gold in 2019" proclamation come true, but I think this isn't the time for UE to take the belts. The Profits have been champs for barely two months at this point. I think there'll be a Profits/UE II before the end of the year where it'll happen. Maybe even as soon as the next Takeover in November-ish. Wargames III? Only monkeywrench in my theory I could see UE winning is if Heyman wants to get the Profits on Raw full-time and have them drop the belts for a full call-up.
Winner: Street Profits
Rating: ****

- Dream/Dunne/Strong: This is the time for Dream to drop it. He's been champ over 6 months, and a triple threat is a great way to pass the belt on, and you have the other two in the match naturally ready and able to continue feuding over the belt, given their history. Strong wins this and UE moves one step closer to winning all the gold. The talent and intensity in this match will make it MotN.
Winner: Roderick Strong
Rating: ****3/4

- Candace/Shirai: I'm frankly interested in this match most of all. Io just turned, so she needs to go over, but Candace needs some strong booking in this match. She's the only other girl with strong face vibes right now outside of Yim. If they get proper time and are allowed to go to their fullest potential, this could be one of the best matches on the card. A big IF though.
Winner: Io's Leather Pants
Rating: ***3/4

Nailed 4 out of 5, but the assessments were a bit off.

Re-rating them fresh off the PPV:
- Tag Titles: **** (great match)
- Io/Candace: **** (great match)
- NA Title: ***1/2 (good match, but didn't find it special)
- Women's Title: *** (not bad, but underwhelming)
- NXT Title: *****1/2 (broke that scale, Bay Bay)

 

[Disclose]

Are we still all alive?
This almost killed me. I love wrestling.

 

[jbell886]

Awesome event other than the yim /baysler match that the crowd didn’t care for

 

[Tw1ster]

Not close to being my favorite Takeover bit that main event is probably my favorite Takeover main event

 

[GKJ]

I think more than anything, Mia Yim isn't the one people want to beat Shayna, it's either Candice or Dakota Kai. It would've been really flat if they changed it tonight, and all anyone would then want to see is Io Shirai go in and crush her. Shayna and Mia know each other, so I figured they'd both be at their best for each other, but it wasn't to be. Shayna's best was against Io, because everyone's best is going to be against Io because Io is basically the female Shawn Michaels. Too bad for Vince that she's Japanese and not blonde.

Shayna's story in NXT kind of started with Dakota, so they can build it and time it right and you'll get something close to when Bayley beat Sasha, but this time against someone who everyone definitely wants to see lose.

 

[Clint Eastwood]

These two top each other every time.

 

[GKJ]

If this wasn't crazy enough, you can head over to AXS where they're showing Okada vs. Ibushi and Ospreay vs. Tanahashi

 

[M.C.G. 31]

Tag titles - ****
Io/Candice - ****1/4
NA Title - ****1/4
Women’s title - don’t care
NXT Title - ****1/2

 

[Disclose]

Tag titles - ****
Io/Candice - ****1/4
NA Title - ****1/4
Women’s title - don’t care
NXT Title - ****1/2

Bro. are you turning into Deen?

 

[Kairi Zaide]

Are we still all alive?
This almost killed me. I love wrestling.

i think johnny is still dead

 

[Petrouth]

I had never seen NXT before. Not a takeover, not an actual episode - nothing. I went to the show.

Was there anyone in the upper bowl? There was like no one on the camera side. Lower or upper bowl. Tons of empty seats probably because it was at Scotia and not Ricoh. Crowd was really, really fired up the whole time except that womens title match that sucked. I guess that didnt come across on.

Loved the triple threat and Velveteen is a a real show. Io is gorgeous. That cage was wild. Is Gargano leaving NXT? It really seemed like he was at the end with this girl and Regal hugging him and him waving for a long time.

 

[Del Preston]

Two of the guys Riddle attacked during the brawl I recognize from PWA in Edmonton/Calgary. The blond who was kicked in the head is Michael Richard Blais (trained by Tyson Kidd). He's excellent. WWE has used him in the past.

 

[GKJ]

I had never seen NXT before. Not a takeover, not an actual episode - nothing. I went to the show.

Was there anyone in the upper bowl? There was like no one on the camera side. Lower or upper bowl. Tons of empty seats probably because it was at Scotia and not Ricoh. Crowd was really, really fired up the whole time except that womens title match that sucked. I guess that didnt come across on.

Loved the triple threat and Velveteen is a a real show. Io is gorgeous. That cage was wild. Is Gargano leaving NXT? It really seemed like he was at the end with this girl and Regal hugging him and him waving for a long time.

They didn’t show anything after undisputed era walking off but it would surprise nobody if Gargano is done. He’s got nothing left to do there. Although that’s actually not good news. The girl is his wife, who is Candice, and she’s been talked about for a move up as well.

Gargano is also injured by the way. He hasn’t worked a house show since March. No matches since the last Takeover, and since Wrestlemania only did 2 tag matches on NXT where he barely did anything. He may need time off as well.

Crowd sounded fine to me btw.

 

[Dr Pepper]

I had never seen NXT before. Not a takeover, not an actual episode - nothing. I went to the show.

Was there anyone in the upper bowl? There was like no one on the camera side. Lower or upper bowl. Tons of empty seats probably because it was at Scotia and not Ricoh. Crowd was really, really fired up the whole time except that womens title match that sucked. I guess that didnt come across on.

Loved the triple threat and Velveteen is a a real show. Io is gorgeous. That cage was wild. Is Gargano leaving NXT? It really seemed like he was at the end with this girl and Regal hugging him and him waving for a long time.

Same deal, never really watched NXT outside of a few clips on Youtube but figured I'd check out this show. I was in the 100s, at the back, and from my vantage point it was about 80% sold out. Obviously plenty of seats available in the 300s but the lower bowl was packed.

I missed half of the Breezango match, not sure if there were any other matches prior to that one.

Tag match - surprised the Proffits went over as I figured they were already getting regular air time on the main show. Figured they'd drop the belts and move up full time but I guess Vince doesn't think they're ready yet. Good match, at any rate.

Io/Candice - another solid match, quick finish too.

Triple threat - it was cool to see Dunne in person, though I figured he wouldn't go over since he's from NXT UK and all.....probably going to head back there, I reckon. Saw that WALTER was in attendance last night as well, which was cool.

Shayna/Mia - no horse in that race, though it seems like Baszler's been champ for a while. Wouldn't have minded at least ONE new champion last night, but every title was retained.

Cole/Gargano - holy hell, what a match. Tons of "fight forever" chants, and it felt like they wanted to. That said, pretty chintzy first fall, with the DQ. Once he got that sub finisher in for the next pinfall, I thought Gargano would come out on top but that last table spot was just.....wow. Whole crowd popped for that one. Gargano sold the hell out of it, too, motionless for a couple of minutes.

All in all a pretty cool show, never would've guessed five matches would run over three hours - with some vignettes and a Matt Riddle bonus match thrown in.

 

[GKJ]

Dave said Io Shirai/Candice was his favorite match. Bryan said it was the best WWE women's match in a 'long time.' (by my count, last October). They weren't nearly as a big of a fan of the Cole/Gargano match, felt more like too much TNA.

 

[Clint Eastwood]

Dave said Io Shirai/Candice was his favorite match. Bryan said it was the best WWE women's match in a 'long time.' (by my count, last October). They weren't nearly as a big of a fan of the Cole/Gargano match, felt more like too much TNA.

Well they can think what they want. In my opinion that was the best Gargano - Cole match of the 3.

 

[ColePens]

Woke up early to watch this. I f***ing LOVE NXT. I love NXT. This is everything I love about wrestling. I think everything has been discussed so i'll just throw my additional ups:

+++ Io is one of the best i've ever seen. And she plays her character very well. What a match that was. I wasn't expecting much and it blew me away.

++ Kyle O'Reilly is one of the most underrated wrestlers ever. His strikes look so vicious. I loved the opener.

+++++ Dream is a LEGEND. That entrance was f***ing amazing. That guy is larger than life. That is a "character" that just doesn't exist in today's wrestling and he's so cool. Vince cannot f*** that guy up. He has the ability to transcend wrestling. And I loved the little spots with Dunne. Those 2 are on opposite ends of the wrestling world and both could transcend the game. The way Dream was selling his back was tremendous.

++ Mauro: "Here in Toronto that was nothing but nuts!"

++ Roddy's backbreaker spot was so cool. I cannot believe how f***ing fierce and awesome this match was. Absolute beauty. It gets 5* from me. I was a complete mark the whole way through and had no clue who was goign to win.

++ Mauro/Nigel are insane. Beth is actually very good, too. I actually love the chemistry Beth and Nigel have now. I love how they pick a side and do it respectfully.

+++++++ Gargano/Cole felt like Austin/Rock. It had such a big feel to it. The call backs and understanding/scouting of one another's moves was amazing. I loved it.

++ Does anyone turn a crowd more than Gargano? Always booed on teh way in and owns the crowd by the end of the night.

++ The final fall was incredible. It was absolute hell.

Have I mentioned? I f***ING LOVE NXT. 10 star PPV again. I f***ing love NXT.

 

[GKJ]

Well they can think what they want. In my opinion that was the best Gargano - Cole match of the 3.

Hey, anyone's allowed to think what they want, I'm just putting some of the opinions of some of the reviews out there. Some of it I agree with, some of it I don't, some of it I didn't think of until they said it. They thought the first fall they were trying to do everything and counter everything and started to get sloppy trying to do so much. The Street Fight they thought didn't make a lot of sense since Gargano got himself DQ'd and didn't totally pay it off because they allowed Adam Cole to get some heat back making the DQ pointless (and Gargano and idiot since he ended up losing, which has always been the concern of Gargano-character critics). Inside the cage is where they felt it started getting too TNA - they knew the match couldn't end until all the weapons were used, and then they used so many weapons that none of them meant that much (specifically, if the sledgehammer is weapon 6 of 9, why do you even use it there?). Also, this was a blowoff to a trilogy that after all the stuff they did, just ended with a fluke, which is something I thought at the time, but they didn't think it got Adam Cole over (but it didn't have to since he's already over as the top guy in the promotion).

They were critical of the crowd and the show (without ever saying anything was bad or disappointing other than the Shayna/Mia match) . Too much 'this is awesome' stuff because WWE conditions their crowds to think and react and expect to deliver on spots and thought there was more of this than usual for NXT.

I'm partway through listening to the PostWrestling side of things too, and they also think Io Shirai/Candice was the best match. They also brought up concerns with the crowd, and these were people who were live and in the crowd and started their review by questioning if it was the worst Takeover they've done (it's not).

 

[Alex Jones]

If Gargano is gone he'll never capture the magic again on the main roster, and it's okay. He's had one if the best runs I've ever seen while in NXT and will always be synonymous with the brand.

To me Io Shirai made herself a lot of money tonight. We already knew she was an elite wrestler, but at the main roster level your character work is so important..her heel work was so good, she can be a main event level heel.

 

[Dominator13]

I don't think, in 20 something years, have I been more into a match than yesterday's Cole vs Gargano. Holy Christ that match had everything. They both deserve a massive bonus in their next pay check.

 

[GKJ]

If Gargano is gone he'll never capture the magic again on the main roster, and it's okay. He's had one if the best runs I've ever seen while in NXT and will always be synonymous with the brand.

To me Io Shirai made herself a lot of money tonight. We already knew she was an elite wrestler, but at the main roster level your character work is so important..her heel work was so good, she can be a main event level heel.

When this show was over I felt like Io Shirai was the biggest star on it.

 

[Jussi]

Woke up early to watch this. I ****ing LOVE NXT. I love NXT. This is everything I love about wrestling. I think everything has been discussed so i'll just throw my additional ups:

+++ Io is one of the best i've ever seen. And she plays her character very well. What a match that was. I wasn't expecting much and it blew me away.

++ Kyle O'Reilly is one of the most underrated wrestlers ever. His strikes look so vicious. I loved the opener.

+++++ Dream is a LEGEND. That entrance was ****ing amazing. That guy is larger than life. That is a "character" that just doesn't exist in today's wrestling and he's so cool. Vince cannot **** that guy up. He has the ability to transcend wrestling. And I loved the little spots with Dunne. Those 2 are on opposite ends of the wrestling world and both could transcend the game. The way Dream was selling his back was tremendous.

++ Mauro: "Here in Toronto that was nothing but nuts!"

++ Roddy's backbreaker spot was so cool. I cannot believe how ****ing fierce and awesome this match was. Absolute beauty. It gets 5* from me. I was a complete mark the whole way through and had no clue who was goign to win.

++ Mauro/Nigel are insane. Beth is actually very good, too. I actually love the chemistry Beth and Nigel have now. I love how they pick a side and do it respectfully.

+++++++ Gargano/Cole felt like Austin/Rock. It had such a big feel to it. The call backs and understanding/scouting of one another's moves was amazing. I loved it.

++ Does anyone turn a crowd more than Gargano? Always booed on teh way in and owns the crowd by the end of the night.

++ The final fall was incredible. It was absolute hell.

Have I mentioned? I ****ING LOVE NXT. 10 star PPV again. I ****ing love NXT.

I'm beginning to feel the fans are doing this on purpose. As if they're setting a challenge to Johnny to win them over, fully well knowing he will.

 

[ColePens]

I do think that was the best Cole/Gargano match yet. I felt it had huge implications and honestly was a 5 star match to me. The psychotic Gargano in the 2nd fall was great. I could see maybe it perceived wrong as he was joking around but i felt like he was turning crazy.

To me... amazing trilogy. 5 star .

 

[Disclose]

the 1st fall was outstanding. the rest was fun but its not wrestling. great story.
really good overall but not my favorite. i preferred the "real" 2 out of 3.