Allo, allo, allo! Davie Portman here requesting all of your feedback for tonight’s NXT TakeOver: Portland. Braden and I will be recording our Post Show immediately after the PPV. We will also be LIVE for our Post Show on the Hot Mic app and youtube.com/upnxt.
North American Championship: Dominik Dijakovic vs Keith Lee
Street Fight: Tegan Nox vs Dakota Kai
Johnny Gargano vs Finn Balor
Tag Team Championship: The Broserweights vs Undisputed Era
Women’s Championship: Bianca Belair vs Rhea Ripley
NXT Championship: Tommaso Ciampa vs Adam Cole
Eva from London
Note: i will no longer be doing random Shayna facts. Seeing how Baszler is now fully on Raw, even though she is the greatest NXT champion in history, mentioning these tidbits steals the narrative from NXTs roster. Plus i get the sense many of the listeners are tired of it.
Dakota vs tegan was lit. Imo it stole the show. I understand the match going with a fuck finish to extend the rivalry, but i dont see what Gonzalez adds to the feud.
Balor Gargano. Carnage vs Absssssssss. Beautiful performance and Balor went over
I actually quite enjoyed Belair vs Ripley. Awesome.
Riddle vs O’Reilly? I want this to be an NXT championship feud. Take my money now.
Way toooooooo many kickouts in the main event. Took any sense of drama out of the match, well performed it was. Btw just realized is this the first time Gargano has worn villain themed marvel gear?
Dakota vs Tegan was great and brutal, but adding Reina/Raquel to the mix makes…no sense and completely deflated the match. It would be like adding Kona Reeves to the Gargano/Ciampa feud.
Belair vs Ripley was…fine? It was 1/3rd of a good match (the first part was mediocre, middle part good, ending fell flat). I felt like Bianca did well, but Rhea was not so great. Maybe it’s just me, but her title reign is quickly losing steam, and if she doesn’t lose it to Charlotte at Mania, she probably will soon after. Who do you see her losing it to if that’s the case? Because she’s really cooled off.
Also I think Bianca might get a match against Charlotte on NXT TV in the upcoming weeks (to give her a “rub” and in an attempt to pop ratings), but I don’t think she’ll be added to the Wrestlemania match, despite some people wanting it. Especially since it was revealed in the post show media call that Vince is the one handling the Charlotte/Rhea feud. Not Triple H.
Finally, I KNEW IT ALL ALONG. GARGANO IS A COWARDLY HEEL.
An enjoyable TakeOver. Nox/Kai was fun and kind of hot, cricket bat and all. Ending was a bit out of nowhere. What’s with Portland tables? Found the Bobby Fish song to be lame from the start and tonight Portland confirmed it. That thing died like a flatulent in a place of worship. That being said Matt riddle definitely sounded like he partook in the local culture. Match of the night goes to Lee/Dijak. Shout out to Cathy Kelley. Super underrated & WWE’s social media/video game jumped up exponentially when she was hired. I have to imagine she said to herself “I am a member of Mensa & once a week I hold the microphone & smile. I’m worth more than this shit”.
Jesus what an eventful show. Knew Gargano turning back heel was a very real possibility but honestly I don’t know how to feel about it. I don’t know where else he would fit in as a babyface after losing to balor but it still hurts if im being honest, and heel gargano vs babyface Ciampa is just…weird.
After this show it seems like the Tampa main event is Cole vs Balor? I don’t know what else they could possibly come up with so perhaps a Balor babyface turn is coming.
As for the show itself I thought it was terrific. The main event was my MOTN although almost anything on this card has an argument. Gonna need some time to internalize gargano turning heel again since I vastly prefer him as a babyface though.
I think we have an early frontrunner for Show of the Year. Six matches, and I thought all either met or exceeded expectations. It’s a toss-up between the Lee-Dijakovic and Cole-Ciampa for best match of the night for me. I thought Nox and Kai did a spectacular job in the Street Fight, especially having to follow the opener. Even Belair-Ripley delivered, considering no one thought Bianca had a chance. I imagine we’re gonna get Balor-Cole at the Mania Takeover, but part of me hopes they have Velveteen Dream go through Undisputed Era one-by-one before winning the belt from Cole Mania weekend.
Tonight felt like everyone wanted to top each other when they wrestled. It seems like the NXT locker room might have chips on their shoulders due to AEW’s success and tonight they went all out. I particularly liked Dakota Kai vs Tegan Nox and one reason could go with a potential issue with the show tonight. Kai vs Nox felt like a fight where as a lot of the other matches felt like an exhibition of moves. It certainly was exciting, but I felt like in many of the matches, one wrestler was going to pull a gun and shoot their opponent, only for a simple near fall. We had a Canadian Destroyer on the floor, but that wasn’t as powerful as a belt shot. It felt like Nox and Kai had a ladies agreement to hit each other as hard as humanly possible and ask for forgiveness later, but it felt like a fight. One other critique of the show was Mauro. I think he jumped the shark tonight with his whip it good line. Mauro is the best announcer nowadays, but tonight he was like Shawn Michaels during his match with Hulk Hogan at SummerSlam. Yes, he’s the best, but it was a little ridiculous tonight. I can’t say I didn’t have fun watching the show though, so 8 near falls out of 10.
First time, long time. Great show. As that main event went along I really felt Ciampa should have won. It just seems like WWE hates over babyfaces and I have no clue who they can have Cole face at Tampa that’ll garner nearly the reaction of Ciampa almost winning. Now Gargano is a heel and your other top baby faces are preoccupied with the tag titles and North American title. Unless…Dream faces Cole at Tampa?
I’ve been watching NXT from before they even had a champion, and I think Adam Cole is my least favorite NXT champion of all time. Gargano had a nothing title reign so we could watch Cole defend the title in increasingly ridiculous matches. He’s emblematic of the complaints people have about NXT. Tag title match banged tho, Kyle O’Reilly is the best wrestler in TUE
So I was out of the country for 3 weeks getting married and all. Missed all the shows as they were stupendously early morning for me. So thanks for keeping me updated on NXT and producing so much content. Particularly helpful on my 26 hour flight back. Also your Bond reviews are the best.
As for the show, if there is a better pro wrestling show this year, God bless it because this was fucking amazing. Gargano is a piece of shit. Broserweights are the best thing in wrestling. Keith Lee and Dominik Dijakovic are out of this world.
Holy hell what a show. I wanted to cheer the entire night but that Lee/Dijakovic match killed my throat. Crowd was so hot for everyone, easily the best crowd Portland has had. The tag team match was interrupted by a really boisterous fan in our section that eventually got kicked out, but we easily got back into the match. Glad the Broserweights won, but I hate that they’re trying to get that fish fry chant over. If Ciampa had to lose tonight, I’m glad it was due to something so shocking as a Gargano turn (or does that not count as a turn?). If I had one disappointment, it was the Rhea and Bianca match. I was hoping for a classic to really help put Bianca on the map, but we didn’t quite get that. Hopefully next time NXT is here we get Velveteen Dream, I can’t imagine how fun of an entrance he would have if he were on tonight. Also I loved the timeliness of the show. No part of it dragged and it felt like I got out early. 8/10
Question: with the NXT Women’s championship being defended at WrestleMania, what do you think will be the marquee match for the women at Tampa?
How does NXT keep doing it? They keep having amazing Takeover after amazing Takeover, and every time you think they won’t top one, they end up outdoing themselves yet again.
Dakota Kai is one of my favorite characters in wrestling right now, and it looks like she may now have the Diesel to her Shawn Michaels in Raquel Gonzalez. I love evil Dakota. Just like I love evil Shirai. I just seem to like evil women, it’s the same in all my relationships. What in the hell is wrong with me?
Going in, I thought for sure Gargano would beat Balor, Ciampa would beat Cole, and we would finally get that WrestleMania Takeover blow off to the DIY feud for the title. Instead, Gargano loses, fueling his rage, and he takes it out on both his best friend and greatest enemy, Tommaso Ciampa. We still get that match at Takeover Tampa, but now it’s even more personal.
Question: could you guys see Gargano and Ciampa main event Takeover Tampa, while Adam Cole defends the NXT Championship at WrestleMania, possibly against Balor?
Tag match was the highlight for me, Riddle was so over. But the Lee/Dijak match was also great.
Balor/Gargano was interesting and you have to wonder if the reaction Johnny got led to the heel turn tonight which felt really out of nowhere. The crowd was 65/35 for Finn though.
Charlotte was a nice surprise pop and there was a massive “you don’t go here” chant.
The street fight was the only thing that didn’t really get over, as it was a bit sloppy and no one knew who the run in was. The Bobby Fish sing along was also pretty forced, felt like not many people knew what it was. In general, it felt like a lot of people are necessarily watching all the TV and you didn’t have to with the video packages.
Biggest pops: Riddle, Balor, Lee
Biggest heat: Charlotte, Fish/O’Reilly, Sam Roberts (he got booed anytime he spoke)
Yeah the main event wasn’t that hot to me. The crowd really didn’t get into it until the final 10 minutes.
And to be honest, I’m not really looking forward to Gargano vs Ciampa version 453. With the amount of talent they have we should be getting new stories not rehashes
Yup totally agree. It wasn’t super hot and I hope we don’t get the same rehash again so soon.
I guess they could do a triple threat at mania with cole and DIY but somehow I think it’s going to be straight up DIY again and Cole moves into either Lee or Balor
No. The Opener and the Main Event with kick outs of incredible moves or 10 000 finishers. No. A HUGE No-No for me. The ME was especially preposterous when you add the run ins. Totally lost me. Rolled my eyes when Gargano turned on Ciampa (really?). Good for everyone that liked it, but this for me was just over the top preposterous and WWE recycled storytelling 101.
But you like AEW when they have matches with tons of finisher/big move kick outs? I’m kind of with you on the Johnny turn but I’m willing to see where they go with it. To me that felt like them not wanting Ciampa to lose clean and wanting a program going forward for both Johnny and Ciampa.
Jumped back in after not watching nxt properly for a while.
Made it to the first match & it lost me.
Too long, moves for moves sake, Too many moves, too many kickouts.
They completely ignored the referee’s countout so he stopped counting which killed the Match’s, the competitor’s & the referee’s credibility.
It felt like everything was done for the purpose of getting ‘This is Awesome’ & ‘Fight Forever’ chants which they got so I guess it works for the audience but not for me.