NXT TakeOver Brooklyn Review

Jushin Thunder Liger defeated Tyler Breeze

Even at 50, Liger can still go. He and Breeze put on a very good, back-and-forth match. Liger pinned Breeze after a Liger Bomb. ★★★¾

The Vaudevillians (Simon Gotch and Aiden English) (w/ Blue Pants) defeated Blake and Murphy (w/ Alexa Bliss) to win the NXT Tag Team Championships

This was a good match, though it was slow at times. Blake and Murphy got the heat on English before Gotch got the hot tag and the Vaudevillians made their comeback. Alexa Bliss attempted to interfere, but was cut off by Blue Pants. Gotch got the pin after a swinging neckbreaker by English. ★★¾

Apollo Crews defeated Tye Dillinger

It was clear that Crews is an awesome athlete. Being that this was his NXT debut, he should have been booked to show how great he is. Instead we only saw a little bit of what he can do. The match didn’t have a great flow to it and Dillinger didn’t do Crews any favors. Crews won with a standing moonsault after a gorilla press. They may want to start calling the latter move something else. ★★

Samoa Joe defeated Baron Corbin

Here we saw the best sign of the night: “Samoa Joe has 8 1/3% chance of winning.” (Hey, Scott Steiner, how ya doin’? (Go Blue.)) As for the match, look, Joe did his best. But he was limited in what he could do since, outside of a bunch of brawling, there wasn’t a ton Corbin could do. Joe made Corbin pass out to with the Coquina clutch. ★★¼

Bayley defeated Sasha Banks to win the NXT Women’s Championship

This match should’ve been a lot better than it was. There were a few big spots, but I found myself not caring about much of the match. Bayley hit what looked like a reverse Frankensteiner (Another Scott Steiner mention. (Go Blue.)) and then won with Bayley-to-belly. I don’t care that it’s her finishing move (and why that’s her finishing move, I don’t know), to have Bayley do that high spot and then immediately after hit a belly-to-belly suplex is ridiculous. ½

Finn Balor defeated Kevin Owens in a ladder match to retain the NXT Championship

This was an awesome match. Owens and Balor threw pretty much everything they had at each other. Balor won after hitting the Coup d’Grace off the top of the ladder and then retrieving the belt. ★★★★

Overall: The opener and the main event were great. A lot of the stuff in the middle was just kind of there. All in all, not a bad show, but not as good as some past NXT TakeOver shows have been. Also, the next move Triple H needs to make is to send Jim Ross a blank check and having him commentate for NXT. The three doofuses they had at ringside for this made me miss Michael Cole. ★★½

Twitter: @KSchroeder2325

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