JV's NXT Takeover Toronto PPV Notes

Attendance looked good considering it wasn’t sold out as of yesterday and on the secondary market tickets were selling for as low as $7

Sam Roberts - Conflict of interest
* He's been acting like an ass in this role
* He and Pat Buck went back and forth a little
-- why? What's the point? Roberts is a pre-show panel guy
* meanwhile – I really like Charly Caruso as the host of the pre-show – she has grown on me

Street Profits vs. Undisputed Era (Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly)
* Story: could UE win all belts tonight?
* Profits over with the crowd (Raps colors didn't hurt) – the Raps references got tiresome after a while
* Great striking combos by Fish on Dawkins
* Montez Ford the star (athleticism, charisma)
* Great double team by Undisputed Era - DDT into German on Ford
* Teased finish - Achilles heel, Ford close to ropes, KOR hits move off top (5 second), Fish pulls him center, reapplies, Dawkins throws KOR onto Fish
* Young Bucks-ish with four man spots with no count, ref watches
-- granted they were maybe 1 minute spots, not 4-5 minute spots like the Bucks do
* Frog splash by Ford great

IO Shirai vs. Candice LaRae
* hard hitting match that got LaRae over very much like her husband
-- she took a beating but didn’t quit
* suplex onto the ringside table early
* finish – German suplex, kickout
* Spanish fly, kickout
* then Koji Clutch and instead of tapping out, she passed out – looked good in defeat

Riddle / Killian Dain brawl
* glad they found a way to get Riddle on the show since the lineup felt a little lacking
* Killian Dain the latest guy to find success back in NXT after doing nothing on the main roster (again shows you the vision of Triple H vs. Vince McMahon this day and age)
* I liked how they made Dain's spot through the table look impromptu by having him inadvertently take out a security guy with Riddle

Dream vs. Pete Dunne vs. Roderick Strong (Darryl Sharma the referee)
* Dream is off the charts creative and charismatic - really nobody in NXT can touch him right now in that regard
* that entrance was something else: Jacques Rougeau's Mountie music, "Mounties" turn into Raptors dancers, then Dream out in Mountie-inspired entrance gear
-- between his charisma, his look and his athleticism, he is a megastar waiting to happen ---- very concerned that Vince will drop the ball with him on the main roster
* I’m glad Dunne stayed on the NXT brand and wasn’t called up – I can see him getting lost in the shuffle with Vince
* to me, the fact Fish and O’Reilly lost their match took Strong out of this one since the story of whether UE would win all titles was already done
* what I loved the most about this match: in most three-ways, one guy will peel out of the ring so the other two can work a lot of match 1-on-1
-- in this match they incorporated all three guys into almost the entire match
* Dunne hit a German on Strong onto Dream; Strong almost landed on his head
* some fun moments of three-way brawling strike exchanges “a buffet of battering blows”
* Dream’s timing was off a couple times
-- he was late getting to Dunne on a Dunne moonsault to the floor
-- he was late bumping off a “Tower of Doom” type spot
* Dream did a version of Shane McMahon’s coast-to-coast but instead of a dropkick it was an elbow drop which is even more impressive
* double Boston crab by Strong but he couldn’t hold onto everybody very long
* every time Dunne does the finger snap spot it makes me wince
-- in this one he did a double finger snap to both guys
* I loved the finish, very creative
-- Dream peeled out so Dunne and Strong were in; Strong hit the Boston crab but Dream ran in and tossed him
* then Dream hit the Dream Valley Driver on Dunne but Strong ran back in and tossed Dream again
* then Strong hit the End of Heartache but Dream ran in again, tossed him again, then pinned poor Dunne

Shayna Baszler vs. Mia Yim
* they promoted this one as a straight up brawl with video packages positioning Yim as this fighter from the streets and Baszler of course as an MMA fighter
* Yim showed it early doing things like fish-hooks and hair pulls to escape submission attempts
-- she continued with hair pulling to escape submissions during the match + eye gouging
* Yim missed a boot into the corner but hit a pretty stiff cannonball
* it turned into an arm vs. arm sell match
-- crowd was silent for a lot of it; they were in a rough spot after that triple threat
* they did an “arm trap” spot with Shayna’s arm in the steps which was dumb because she clearly had a ton of room
-- Shayna sold her right arm after that and did a pretty good job with it, even wincing when throwing a punch
* Yim then sold her left arm after Shayna softened it up with a stomp and keylock
* the psychology was good with the selling both ways
* and the story was good early with Yim using “street wise” moves to her advantage
-- but crowd wasn’t into it until Yim hit the Code Blue off the ropes
-- Yim then went hard after Baszler’s right arm and got an armbar but Baszler used her MMA background – countered into the Kirifuda Clutch, Yim tried to escape by going after the arm and hand, but then Baszler turned it into a leg triangle for the submission (good finishing sequence)

There are certain wrestlers who do well in NXT but don’t make it on the main roster
* I don’t mean the ones who were over but Vince dropped the ball (Bayley, Shinsuke, Ricochet, etc)
* I mean the ones who just didn’t connect (Tyler Breeze, Bo Dallas, Bobby Roode)
-- for whatever reason they were just lacking “something”
* my gut tells me that unless they align her with Ronda Rousey, the same will happen with Shayna and maybe with Johnny Gargano and Tomassa Ciampa as well
-- I think those three should stay in NXT as long as they can

Adam Cole vs. Johnny Gargano
* to me this match was sort of like the Young Bucks vs. Pentagon and Fenix
-- you know there will be excitement; you know there will be action
*** but you’ve seen it enough now that you don’t anticipate it as much anymore
* Adam Cole has presence which is a valuable commodity in wrestling that most don’t have
-- if handled correctly he can have a main roster run similar to someone like AJ Styles
** I mean he was supposed to be the heel but was over large here
* one story again:
-- Gargano was the fat kid who wasn’t supposed to be a wrestling champion
-- while Cole believes that he was always destined for greatness
FIRST FALL: regular wrestling match
* Cole chose it because he wanted to prove he was better than Gargano in the ring
* tons of counters and reversals early – a little sloppy at times but not bad
* Cole missed a kick at ringside and inadvertently hit the ring steps, Gargano then worked the leg
* later Cole hit a wheelbarrow German onto the ring apron and after that worked Gargano’s neck
* a nice spot saw Gargano hit a fisherman’s driver while hooking Cole’s bad leg, then a figure four
* Gargano’s clotheslines and chops look devastating, as does Cole’s back elbow
* they traded big near falls before Cole brought a chair in to distract the ref before hitting a low-blow for another big near fall
-- good story considering that Cole had picked “classic wrestling match” rules for the first fall
* Gargano then willingly used the chair and took the DQ with a smile on his face knowing…
SECOND FALL: street fight
* Gargano picked it because he doesn’t like what Cole represents as champion and wants to beat him up
* Gargano continued using the chair
* Mauro said anything goes and told Beth they could take the fight to Orangeville (Edge’s hometown)
-- but they made a point of noting that the pin or submission had to happen in the ring
* Gargano grabbed a fan’s phone and took a selfie with him and a down Cole
* Gargano was dominating the fall, then littered the ring with a table and chairs
-- he then launched Cole like a javelin across the ring into a chair in the corner (SICK!) and got the pin

THIRD FALL “thunderdome” style cage with weapons hanging in it + barbed wire on the top
* crowd went nuts as the cage came down and did an ECW chant
* each got kendo sticks first and swung away followed by double superkicks (crowd popped)
* Gargano climbed the cage, hung off a ladder and hit a hurricanrana
-- then a reverse hurricanrana and a sick looking superkick (“fight forever” chant)
* Gargano then set up a table but Cole dropped him with chairshots; he then threw Gargano head-first into a chair hanging on the cage
*Cole set up two chairs and tried to superplex Gargano onto them but Gargano stopped him with a fire extinguisher and then hit a tornado DDT on Cole onto those chairs
* hard kendo stick shots by Gargano broke the stick; he then climbed up to grab a sledgehammer and when Cole tried to stop him, Gargano hit a sunset flip powerbomb, then got the hammer
* Cole hit superkicks, then went up, unhooked the ladder and pushed it off towards Gargano
-- Gargano dodged the ladder but then got hit with a Panama Sunrise
* Cole then set up the ladder, climbed up it and hit another Panama Sunrise (“Yowie Wowie” chant)
* Cole tried kicking Gargano’s head into a chair, Gargano moved and Cole hit the chair (injured leg)
-- Cole then tried an STF on that leg but Cole bit his hand to escape
* Gargano set up two tables next to each other, put Cole on one, climbed the ladder but Cole rolled off and went into another corner, Gargano then went over, climbed up and hit a Canadian Destroyer
* Gargano opened a bag loaded with bolt cutters and brass knuckles
-- the crowd booed thinking the bag contained thumbtacks
* Gargano used the cutters to cut a piece of barbed wire off the top of the cage
* Cole tried to escape by climbing up onto the table on the top of the cage
-- Gargano tried to use the barbed wire, Cole tried to block, then both fell off the table, off the top of the cage and down through the tables
** Cole then draped an arm over Gargano and pinned him – Cole’s back got cut up on that spot

* first fall was good, wasn’t crazy about the finish (dumb on Gargano’s part)
* second fall, that finish was sick with the javelin throw into the chair
* third fall to me “only okay”
** not much psychology here; one minute a guy gets hit with a crazy move, the next he’s on offense
** a lot of setting up a spot, hitting the spot, near fall, then setting up the next spot
** the finish – one hell of a crazy bump those guys took

Match had a bit of something for everyone – classic wrestling, brawling, weapons
* This felt like the end of the feud