Tornicade
2018 RBF League Champion
- Joined
- May 11, 2011
- Messages
- 17,542
- Reaction score
- 10,441
- Points
- 123
Apparently Ciampa may have suffered a serious leg injury during an NXT live event. He had to be helped in the back, and was apparently yelling "get me the fuck out of here." If he can't work Takeover on Saturday, it'll be interesting to see what they do with the tag title match. I'd imagine they've got two main options. They could simply replace him with someone else. Chris Hero springs to mind, as unlike other potential guys like McIntyre and Black, he hasn't been protected. I suppose they could go with a surprise partner like Adam Cole as well, but I feel like he'd be a better choice to debut as a heel given how few heels NXT has at the top of the men's division right now (it's basically just Roode, Almas, and Young/Sanity).
The other option would be to go with Heavy Machinery. They're over and seem capable of putting on a fun, hard-hitting match. Dunno if they'd keep the ladder stipulation in that event, though.
Use Nick Miller since his partner is also injured.
Speaking of that UK special, Mark Andrews and Tyler Bate had a hell of a match in the main event. It starts out pretty slow, but man the second half of the match is fucking great.
I think Gargano might actually be dead.
I'd rate these:
Dunne/Bate - *****
Women's Match - ***
Roode/Itami - ****
AOP/DIY - ****1/2
I got home a little late from the bar and missed Strong/Young. I'll catch that later tonight.
My general thoughts:
1. Bate and Dunne was a masterpiece. It started a little slow for my taste, but everything else was perfect. The ending sequence was just fantastic. It built to the perfect point before Dunne won.
2. The women's match would have been better if it weren't so sloppy. I know Nikki and Ruby aren't quite on Asuka's level, but even Asuka screwed up her timing at least once. Still a good match, but nowhere near Ember/Asuka good. I think I gave that four stars and it was the best WWE women's match since Bayley/Sasha in NXT. This one wasn't on that level.
3. This was Roode's best match since joining NXT. He had two good matches with Nakamura, but I think this was the first borderline great match he's had.
4. AOP/DIY tried to kill themselves for our amusement, and we should be grateful. The worst spot of the night was when the AOP hit Gargano with that ladder in the face. That looked like it fucking hurt.
5. Ciampa turning was fantastic. I loved how they put up the credit thing in the lower left corner to make us think the show was over, then had him turn and just destroy Gargano. Those knees were brutal.