I zoned out during the main event. Did I miss a classic?

It was a solid war games match and the 2.0 team showed up

I'd put a top strap from a brand on Bron Breakker now. 

 

Fucking amazing. 

Honestly, no idea why there wasn't a mass call up for these people that have been in NXT forever. It's not even just the ones like Ciampa/Gargano/KOR/Dunne that have been spinning their wheels for years, but also guys like Cameron Grimes, DJZ, Roderick Strong, Robbie E, DJZ who all have years of TV experience before even getting to NXT. There's something to be said for vets teaching the young guys and all that, but obviously that's not something WWE has ever seemed to give a shit about with NXT. 

 

Eli Knight as part of the old school NXT team is bizarre. Dude didn't show up until earlier this year. He has no history with the brand. The only thing of any interest in 2.0 is Bron Breakker and I think odds are pretty good that once he gets called up he ends up another Chad Gable. 2.0 feels like that weird period in 2004-2005 when they suddenly started reviving 80s/early 90s style gimmicks.

They showed this on Sportsnet 360 in Canada, the same channel that shows Raw and Smackdown, and I still wasnt interested in watching it. The old vs new thing really didnt seem that interesting.

I'm not interested in anyone on the brand so this was a chore to get through. 
 

On 12/5/2021 at 9:52 PM, ButchReedMark said:

I'd put a top strap from a brand on Bron Breakker now. 

 

Fucking amazing. 

Yeah I haven’t watched any NXT in a long time prior to this show and that was my main takeaway, as well.  What a stud.

Thought the women’s War Games match was terrible but the mid-card was mostly inoffensive.

Bron's only had like 10-11 total matches to date, him being as good as he is so soon is frankly ridiculous. It's just so annoying and so typically WWE that they have to make a thousand references to his family and legacy but are never allowed to mention it directly. Like they are supposed to be trying to draw the hip young crowd while calling Bron the "Big Bad Booty Nephew" and no one they are targeting would have the faintest clue what they were talking about. 

I know he's on the verge of becoming a meme wrestler at this point, but the fact that Tony D'Angelo had only the 4th match of his career in a big event WarGames match, and didn't look lost or out-of-place, is pretty impressive too.

I don't know...given how rehearsed NXT big matches are (I couldn't stand the acclaimed Dunne v Bate match from a few years back, it was so inorganic, ditto Bayley v Sasha), it only tells me he can remember his spots. Not having seen the match yet, I may be being a bit harsh, but TakeOver matches in the past have never felt like they were listening to the crowd, rather listening to an agent through an earpiece. 

10 hours ago, NotJayTabb said:

I know he's on the verge of becoming a meme wrestler at this point, but the fact that Tony D'Angelo had only the 4th match of his career in a big event WarGames match, and didn't look lost or out-of-place, is pretty impressive too.

Honestly most of the NXT new faces are really fucking good. Tony, Bron, the Creed Brothers have all been great despite basically starting this year.

Carmelo Hayes has "star" all over him, and others like Cora Jade and Elektra Lopez are slowly developing. It's actually what makes the show so endearing to me.

I think guys like Carmelo, Tony, Bron & the Creeds would've eventually found their way even in the "old" NXT format because you can't hide natural talents. They have it and sooner or later, people would've found out. But it's good to see that guys like Carmelo can kinda be the bridge between the Black & Gold era and this NXT 2.0 era where they didn't throw everything out of the window with Papa H's vision.