What's going on folks?! It's been almost two years since my last wrestling post, and trust me, I've missed doing them. I have had a TON on my mind concerning the sport and I'll be back to expressing my thoughts regularly again, starting this week. This past weekend was an exciting weekend with both the NXT brand and WWE doing shows in Takeover: Chicago and Backlash respectively. Traditionally, NXT's Takeover shows tend to put Vince's main roster shows to shame, as the NXT guys and girls are able to freely be themselves (for the most part) within their wrestling, and mixed with the grassroots feel of the brand, NXT is almost always the winner of the two. However, Backlash marked the main roster in-ring debut of Shinsuke Nakamura, as he faced Dolph Ziggler. How did these events fare against each other? Let's break each event down.
NXT Takeover: Chicago
The event started in exciting fashion with Roderick Strong facing Sanity's Eric Young. For those who have followed the indie history of Roddy know just how incredible of an in-ring performer he is. He has held numerous titles in several promotions including ROH, PWG, Evolve, and FIP. Likewise, Eric is most known for his touted run in Impact, where he has been Tag Team Champion and World Champion there so on paper, this had the makings of a hell of a match. Although not a five star classic, this was a pretty good opening match, with Roddy picking up the win.
Next up was the United Kingdom Title, as the current champion, the twenty-year old Tyler Bate faced the man he faced in the finals of the tournament earlier this year, "The Bruiserweight" Pete Dunne. Folks, this match was EVERYTHING. These two young men put on a performance the likes of which has only been rivaled by Cena and AJ at the Royal Rumble at the beginning of the year. Easily a MOTY (that's Match Of The Year) candidate already, there was non-stop action here, but after a nasty miss on the outside by Bate from an attempted over-the-top-rope Poncha, Dunne capitalized with his finisher to become the new UK Champion in the division's undisputed best match. The WWE presented a UK special that was also a very good event, and the momentum continued with this simply amazing match. Of course it was that much sweeter with Hall Of Famer, the legendary Jim Ross calling the match with another UK legend, former ROH World Champion, Nigel McGuinness.
Following that match was going to be very, very hard, as Dunne and Bate put on a clinic, but the women were up next, and they would not be denied. The record-breaking champion, Asuka, faced Sanity's Nikki (Storm) Cross and the young lady formerly known as Heidi Lovelace, Ruby Riot (I'm super proud of seeing her emerge in NXT, as her work is incredible, as is Cross'). The majority of the match was centered on Cross and Riot beating the hell out of each other (as they're no strangers to each other on the indie circuit), but Asuka showed once again why she's the champion of champions, as she nudged out another win, furthering her status as being perhaps the most dominant woman in the game today regardless of promotion. With Ember Moon, who was originally supposed to be in this mix but was sidelined due to a shoulder sprain, looking on, one has to know that Ember will ultimately be the one that ends the streak and win the title, but until then, Asuka will continue to be THE ass kicker for NXT.
Next was the NXT Championship match, as the champion, Bobby Roode, faced off against Hideo Itami. Itami, formerly known as KENTA in Pro Wrestling NOAH and one of the in-ring sources of inspiration for the styles of the likes of CM Punk and Daniel Bryan (congrats to him on becoming a first time father BTW), has had quite the span of bad luck since his arrival a couple of years ago. He suffered a devastating shoulder injury that sidelined him for a year and a half, then returned in 2016, only to sustain a neck injury that occurred at an NXT house show. Hopefully getting past the injuries and bad luck, Itami had received a shot at the red hot champion, and it was a good match as well. Between Roode's selling of his shoulder and Itami's selling of his ankle with him missing Roode and dropkicking the steel steps, the storytelling was great, but Itami's aggression in the match was what we had been waiting to see from him since his almost forgotten about debut in 2015. However, "The Glorious One" pulled out a win and continued his reign as NXT Champion. In the back, Itami more than expressed his disappointment with the outcome that is on point with a heel turn soon.
The final match was upon us, as DIY faced Paul Ellering's Authors Of Pain for the NXT Tag Team Titles. We all know Ellering's long and illustrious history with Chicago, managing one of the single most influential teams of all-time in The Road Warriors, so to have his big, young, hungry champions continue his managerial legacy is very profound. As for DIY, the team of former ROH TV Champion, "The Psycho Killer" Tomosso Ciampa and Evolve Wrestling's icon, Johnny Gorgano has been the darlings of the tag division. Since their dramatic win over The Revival at NXT Takeover: Brooklyn last year, these guys have been one of the most talked about teams out there, and rightfully so. They lost the belts to AOP earlier this year at NXT Takeover: San Antonio, and have been struggling to get the belts back. This match wasn't just a rematch, this was a Ladder Match, and this one was as physical as was expected. There were several scary spots and bumps throughout the match, including both Ciampa and Johnny Wrestling diving onto AOP from a high ladder and both nearly landing on their heads, as well as a frightening spot by one of the AOP almost beheading Gorgano with the ladder to the face. At the end of it, AOP retained the belts in a hell of a match, that was the closest to rivaling Dunne and Bate. The story, however, was after the match, as DIY was on the ramp saying "thank you" to the fans who had given them a rightful standing ovation, and the NXT copyright logo was the screen, which typically indicates the show will end in about five seconds. WRONG. Ciampa pulled a MASTERFUL heel turn and destroyed Gorgano, delivering two brutal knee strikes and putting him through a production table, thus causing a stretcher spot. The ending was superb high drama, and left he crowd surprised and shocked. Let me just say, this was coming since last year. Anyone that has followed Ciampa over the past six or so years know that he has spent a large part of his career as a sociopathic heel, and a damn good one at that. Last year, when they faced each other at Cruiserweight Classic, and Ciampa won, one saw it happening eventually. I'm surprised it ook this long to pull the trigger but I understand that they wanted to put the belts on them first.
Overall, this event was possibly the best NXT show thus far in 2017. From start to finish, this event was simply incredible and is now the standard for the Takeover shows. The past few have been good but not classics compared to others had been, but this one is the best overall NXT show we've had in recent memory. Kudos to Hunter and the gang for a memorable night.
WWE Backlash 2017 (Smackdown)
How would WWE and the main roster follow the superb efforts of NXT Takeover: Chicago? Well, their biggest selling points would be Nakamura's main roster debut, and to see how Jinder Mahal would fare in his very first main event against Randy Orton for the WWE Title. Did it work?
The event started surprisingly with the Nakamura/Ziggler match. Going into it, many felt the match, on paper, should've been a thrilling one. It was not. It goes without saying that Nakamura is one of the finest competitors in the world, based off his frequently epic performances in Japan, and even when he was in NXT. He got to the main roster and...well...he's not the same. He's as watered down as we knew he would be. Not saying he's wack by any means. Far from it. We just came into this match with such high expectations and it didn't quite measure up. Nakamura got the win, as we knew he would.
The six woman tag match followed with an overall sub par performance from everyone involved except for probably Natalya, who is finding her rhythm over these past several months and deserves to be mentioned as a contender for the SD Women's Title. This match was very skippable and was the sloppiest match of the night. Team Nattie won the match. Bore.
The Tag Team Title match with The Usos and Breezango aka The Fashion Police was next. This was surprisingly an entertaining match. Over the past couple of weeks, Breezango has produced some very humorous skits on SD, as they've been under the guises of detectives going after the ugly and unattractive, much less going for the Usuos titles. I've been a fan of Breeze's since NXT, as the former student of Lance Storm is a damn good performer (let's not forget he was former FCW Tag Team Champion with Roman Reigns years ago). Plus, The Usuos have been delivering some pretty good promos going into this match and has gotten the interest of the fans back, even though their heel personas get chopped and screwed whenever they appear on Talking Smack. Breeze's performance in the match was, at times, hysterical as he proved he not only knew how to wrestle, he was a great entertainer as well, plus with Fandango, they officially got themselves over at Backlash. Unfortunately, The Usuos retained the belts, but this match belonged to The Fashion Police for entertainment value alone.
Relative underdog, Sami Zayn, faced off against Baron Corbin, but it wasn't an impressive match by any means. We all know Zayn can go. This we know. Look up his matches in NXT and in the indies as El Generico if you're not aware of his work. Corbin, although still a little rough around the edges, continues to get better and better since his departure from NXT. This match, however, was another lackluster match and so far this event is flat. Zayn picked up the win, but I'm not sure what, if any, impact this had.
One match that we knew would make up for the lack of appeal for this event thus far was the U.S. Title match between A.J. Styles and Kevin Owens. No strangers to each other, here or in the indies, Styles and Owens did a great job and saved this show from being damn near a complete failure. Although not their best match against each other, this was still a good match that deserves to see more from these two stellar athletes. Owens won by countout, which means this rivalry for the belt isn't over and I would expect the former Universal Champ and WWE Champ to give us an even better match or two before Summerslam.
The main event was here. In what has been a very average to below average pay per view for the SD brand, Randy Orton defended the WWE Title against the most unlikely and surprising challenger since James Ellesworth, Jinder Mahal. Before I go into this match, I'm not necessarily criticizing Mahal. He's not a bad in-ring competitor, but the stench of 3MB, which could've destroyed the careers of he, Slater, and McIntyre, plus the fact that when he returned to the WWE, he immediately jobbed to the likes of Finn Balor (did we forget that he also gave Balor a mild concussion that very same match) just doesn't add up to number one contender. Had he been given a good run before the match that made him number one contender, then it would've made more sense. No matter the case, Mahal and Orton collided, and kudos to the thirteen time champion for making Mahal look like a million dollars in this match. One of the most terrifying spots ever witnessed happened when Orton was going after The Singh Brothers (formerly The Bollywood Boyz-former Global Force Wrestling Tag Team Champions), and he attempted to slam one of them, only for this particular Singh brother to land extemely bad on his head and neck on the broadcast table. Seriously, it looked like it nearly killed him and the look on Randy's face right afterwards reflected it. However, in what has to be considered the most shocking upset in years, Mahal defeated Orton to become only the second Indian-born WWE star to win the WWE Title (Great Khali won the World Title back in the early part of the decade). The looks on the people's faces, including Lesnar Guy who was in attendance, were priceless. Mahal, a relative jobber, and 3MB joke, had become the WWE Champion.
Folks, the truth is the WWE Title this year has been terribly misused. The title was won by Cena at The Rumble, lost at Elimination Chamber in February to Wyatt, lost at Wrestlemania to Orton, and now won by Mahal, all within nearly six months. The booking is makiing this ever prestigious belt look like a non-important accessory, and it's disgraceful. Once Mahal loses the belt, because he will, and soon, it needs to stay on that guy past a month. Make the belt mean something. The Universal Title on Raw isn't any better, as their champion, Brock Lesnar, won it at Wrestlemania, and hasn't been seen since. For a part-timer to win the title and be off televsison and pay per views like he's been is an outrage. So much for title legacy, huh Vince?
As for these events, NXT clearly provided the beatdown to Smackdown and their pay per view. Typically SD pay per views aren't extraordinary but they're better than Raw's. This is the case here too, but not by much at all. This was the worst SD pay per view yet, and I hope it picks back up for Money In The Bank. As for NXT Takeover: Chicago, this was a knockout, and let's hope NXT Takeover: Brooklyn will be as good or better than in the past two years. For the record, every event in the game may have to bow down to New Japan's Dominion in a couple weeks, just so you know. For now, see you when I see you!
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