Opinion

Andrew’s NXT Takeover: Phoenix 2019 Ratings & Notes

Published

6 years ago

January 26, 2019

Andrew brings us ratings and overall thoughts on the first NXT Takeover of the new year!

Well the IWC tends to mark the Takeovers as the real must see events during these big WWE PPV weekends. Do we get another banger of a show that sets the bar too high for Royal Rumble, or does this show come down to Earth a little?

With many proven talents, this card could be fire. The only thing that sticks out is the Matt Riddle and Kassius Ohno match. Hopefully that’s not too much of a down moment on the show.

Ratings:

NXT Tag Team Championship: Undisputed Era (c) vs War Raiders: Raiders win via Fallout @16:55 – **** 3/4 – TITLE CHANGE!!
Matt Riddle vs Kassius Ohno: Riddle wins via Repeated Elbows, TKO @9:15 – ** 1/2
NXT North American Championship: Johnny Gargano vs Ricochet (c): Gargano wins via Slingshot DDT @23:35 – **** 1/2 – TITLE CHANGE!!
NXT Women’s Championship: Shayna Baszler (c) vs Bianca Belair: Baszler retains via Kirifuda Clutch @16:25 – **
NXT Championship: Aleister Black vs Tommaso Ciampa (c): Ciampa retains via Fairy Tale Ending @26:30 – **** 1/4

Review Notes:

War Raiders come out with Viking war horns, dark lightning and soldiers as the crowd starts to bustle before eventually appearing and going into their normal theme. With such a big entrance, I’m not surprised they won, hell I picked them in the staff picks. But this match was tremendous. Era started off quick and basically had this match feeling like a Tornado/Lucha match with the amount of times all four men were involved in the action. Hansen kicked out of the High/Low tandem finish, Raiders pulled out most of their moves though. Thor’s Hammer, Rowe’s Powerbomb/Bodyslam combo, Hansen’s Back Handspring Double Elbow, just a lot of good stuff. The matched flowed well, Raiders showed resiliency and Undisputed Era stuck to the gameplan of trying to just use speed and double team maneuvers to get an upper-hand. Just damn damn good.
This match was a little better than expected. Ohno was 0-4 on Takeovers and 0-2 against Riddle, so he had something to prove, and did pull out a lot of stops. Stepping on toes, biting toes, general underhanded tactics still weren’t enough. If anything it just pissed off Riddle more, so he hits a close range Knee Strike and starts raining down elbow strikes until Ohno taps out. Also I have to mention, Nigel had a great V for Vendetta/Guy Fawkes reference when he was talking about the first meeting between these two and said something to the effect of “Remember, Remember, that night in December”.
Velveteen Dream shows up in a limo with two women and a hat, in similar fashion to The Godfather. Gotta love Dream’s propensity to make references.
Well now, great match. A few awkward moments here and there, but all in all, both Gargano and Ricochet put on a hell of a show. Ricochet’s movie stunt Wall Run Backflip off the post onto Gargano was impressive. The way he just shrugged off distance or difficulty of jumping over the turnbuckles and post to dive onto Gargano, just all great. Gargano exposes the cement as a callback to his Ciampa feud, but doesn’t go through with it right away. Then, he’s pushed to the brink, shoved Ricochet into the post whilst on the apron, as a callback to his match against Andrade, and eventually hits a Brainbuster on the exposed floor. Impressive match, but one big takeaway is that Ricochet really needs to tone down the excessive flips, especially since that’s mostly why he lost and when he got caught by Johnny, plus the misses felt obvious, so they didn’t add anything to the match.
I had more than a few issues with the Baszler/Belair match. Baszler did not go after the “injured” shoulder nearly enough, and if she’s such a submission specialist, she should know how to go after an injury. The finishing sequence was sloppy, the roll in the ref bump, and Belair doing the 450 Splash that missed everything except Shayna’s foot, just the whole thing fell apart in the last couple minutes. Bad camera angles on the Kirifuda Clutch hurt the believability too. Could”ve been a decent match, but sloppiness hurt the match and it would’ve been nice to see some logic from a former MMA fighter instead of just going to her Kirifuda Clutch twice.
This was a damn good match. Ciampa worked over the plant leg heavily to try and take away the Black Mass. Seth Rollins could learn some things from Aleister Black, since he actually sold a busted up leg well and for the entire match. Two nice wrinkles I picked up were Mauro’s commentary about Tommaso calling himself Tommy Sports Entertainment, and asking if Aleister will end…Tommy, yes Tommy End, we get it. The second wrinkle was hearing Nigel call his own move when Ciampa hit a Rope Hung Cutter onto the apron, but Nigel called it Tower of London. Also, Ciampa had a beautiful transition from a roll up, into a Draping DDT and then a Fairy Tale Ending, but that wasn’t the finish. So what hurt this match to me were two things, another ‘exposing the concrete’ spot shortly after Gargano did the same thing and too damn many false finishes. When Black hit Black Mass, it made sense for Ciampa to be able to roll to his side, since it took time for Black to crawl over to Ciampa. But 4 Fairy Tale Endings? Really? And the fourth one coming after Aleister almost pulled off a miracle Black Mass, but his leg gave out and it just looked awkward. The finish to this match really took it down a peg, but it’s still damn good.

Overall Score: 7.25/10

So this wasn’t a bad show, but the order of the card was a little weird and it definitely under performed compared to what we’re lead to expect from Takeovers. Though we see Gargano win his first singles’ title, War Raiders unseat Undisputed Era and Bianca’s undefeated streak was broken…this didn’t feel as fantastic as most usually do. I guess we can be thankful Takeover wasn’t so outstanding, cause now even the smarkiest of fans can’t completely discredit Royal Rumble tomorrow.

The show was still perfectly fine. As I listed off, some things did happen that make this show worth watching, but maybe we just expect too much from NXT. I guess we’ll see if Brooklyn V picks it back up, or maybe NXT might be cooling off a little.

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Royal Rumble: Shocking Twists or Routine Roads to WrestleMania?

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Greg DeMarco’s LITERALLY LIVE NXT Takeover Phoenix Review

Opinion

Chairshot Staff Picks: Money In The Bank

Extra, extra read all about it… Chairshot Staff picks are in!!!

Published

2 weeks ago

June 6, 2025

PC Tunney

Sing it with me… money money money money moneeeeeeeeeyeeeeee… everybody’s got a price! MONEY IN THE BANK is here!!! How money will our staff picks be?!?

AJ – Roxanne Perez
Andrew – Stephanie Vaquer – *Bubba Sparxxx Impression* I don’t tell stories, I let them tell theyself.
Dave – Guilia – A stacked field but I just like her here.
DJ – Naomi
DPP – Roxanne Perez
Jason – Alexa Bliss
Patrick – Roxanne Perez
Rey – Naomi – If Naomi loses, we riot!
Rob – Naomi
Greg – Alexa Bliss – Bliss has had huge reactions since returning and is moving a ton of merch. While I can see them wanting to build Roxanne Perez, Giulia, or Stephanie Vaquer, I think Alexa Bliss.

Tunney’s Take: Rhea Ripley – I’ll make my case short and sweet… Mami in the Bank! You can’t leave that money on the table.

Chairshot Pick – Tie – Naomi 3 & Roxanne Perez 3 (Alexa Bliss 2, Giulia 1, Rhea Ripley 1, Stephanie Vaquer 1)

AJ – LA Knight
Andrew – El Grande Americano – Feels correct given his push and the fact he’s over.
Dave – Seth Rollins – Got to push that new faction.
DJ – LA Knight
DPP – El Grande Americano
Jason – LA Knight
Patrick – Solo Sikoa
Rey – LA Knight – Looks like another push, and he does have history with Cena.
Rob – Solo Sikoa
Greg – Seth Rollins – This company is extremely high in the El Grande Americano gimmick, but this match comes down to Seth Rollins or LA Knight. Given the Rollins storyline, it’s his briefcase to win.

Tunney’s Take: El Grande Americano – Picture this: Chad Gable wins the AAA Mega Championship and El Grande Americano wins MITB! WHAT A SATURDAY in LA!!!

Chairshot Pick – LA Knight 4 (El Grande Americano 3, Seth Rollins 2, Solo Sikoa 2)

AJ – Becky Lynch – Sadly
Andrew – Becky Lynch – I still don’t care about Lyra.
Dave – Lyra Valkyria – Starting to warm up to her and Becky has a lot to do with that.
DJ – Lyra Valkyria
DPP – Becky Lynch
Jason – Becky Lynch
Patrick – Lyra Valkyria
Rey – Becky Lynch – Put some fire on the Irish Beef.
Rob – Becky Lynch
Greg – Becky Lynch – I don’t think you do a rematch here just to have Becky lose again. Unless Bayley shows up to help Lyra.

Tunney’s Take: Becky Lynch – A big part of me feels that winning this title checks off a major box for Becks in her HOF career.

Chairshot Pick – Becky Lynch 8-3

AJ – Cena & Paul
Andrew – Rhodes & Uso – Easy way for Cena to lose without eating the pinfall.
Dave – Rhodes & Uso – Get the QB back on the winning track.
DJ – Rhodes & Uso
DPP – Rhodes & Uso
Jason – Cena & Paul
Patrick – Cena & Paul
Rey – Rhodes & Uso – Heels usually lose these kinds of matches. Logan takes the pin.
Rob – Cena & Paul
Greg – Rhodes & Uso – I hope Jey isn’t an afterthought here like Cody was last fall when he was paired up with Roman. I think Cody pins Cena to set up Cody-Cena 2 at SummerSlam.

Tunney’s Take: Cena & Paul – I don’t think Cena is involved in another loss until he loses the WWE Championship. I also think Logan Paul is NOT done trying to capture Jey Uso’s World Heavyweight Championship. …Travis Scott in the house?

Chairshot Pick – 6-5 Rhodes & Uso

In closing I want to thank everyone on the panel for participating with their picks! You can follow each prognosticator/podcaster on X @ the handles below. We all enjoy Pro Wrestling so remember three things… be respectful of others, comparison is the thief of joy and HAVE FUN!

AJ – @PhenomenalAJB
Andrew – @IWCWarChief
Dave – @AttitudeAgg
DJ – @TheMindlessPod
DPP – @itsmeDPP
Jason – @JediFett
Patrick – @WrestlngRealist
Rey – @itsreycash
Rob – @rbonne1
Greg – @gregdemarco44
PC – @PCTunney
TheChairshot.com – @ChairshotMedia

prowrestlingtees.com/TheChairshot – a PLETHORA of GREAT designs…MAKES A GREAT GIFT!

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CHAIRSHOT RADIO NETWORK PODCAST SPECIALS

Attitude Of Aggression Podcast & The Big Five Project (chronologically exploring WWE’s PPV/PLE history)

TheChairshot.com PRESENTS…IMMEDIATE POST WWE PLE REACTIONS w/ DJ(Mindless), Tunney(DWI) & Friends

Patrick O’Dowd’s 5X5

Classic POD is WAR

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About Chairshot Radio Network

MONDAY - Bandwagon Nerds (entertainment & popular culture)

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CHAIRSHOT RADIO NETWORK PODCAST SPECIALS

Attitude Of Aggression Podcast & The Big Five Project (chronologically exploring WWE's PPV/PLE history)

TheChairshot.com PRESENTS...IMMEDIATE POST WWE PLE REACTIONS w/ DJ(Mindless), Tunney(DWI) & Friends

Patrick O'Dowd's 5X5

Classic POD is WAR

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Let us know what you think on social media @ChairshotMedia and always remember to use the hashtag #UseYourHead!

Opinion

Chairshot Staff Picks: Backlash St. Louis

Chairshot Staff picks!!!

Published

1 month ago

May 9, 2025

PC Tunney

May is upon us and with that, so is Backlash from St. Louis! What does the first PLE after WrestleMania have in store for the WWE Universe? Let’s see if the Chairshot Staff can properly interpret the crystal ball of rasslin’ future.

AJ – Pat MacAfee – Gunther has to start losing control and who better than an announcer.
Andrew – Pat MacAfee – Goldberg getting involved does seem correct here.
Dave – Gunther – He’s not losing to a broadcaster.
DJ – Gunther – Pat is sent to the shadow realm until football season is over.
DPP – Gunther – Post match beat down leads to Pat time off.
Jason – Gunther – One massive spot and or bump from Pat.
Patrick – Gunther
Rey – Gunther – RIP MacAfee, t’was a good life.
Rob – Gunther
Greg – Pat MacAfee – Why? Goooooldbeeerrrrrgggggg!

Tunney’s Take: Gunther – Seems like the right pick here. Pat may be getting some time off and Gunther needs more heat.

Chairshot Pick – GUNTHER 8-3

AJ – Lyra Valkyria – Becky’s hopefully putting her over, still mad about Dakota.
Andrew – Becky Lynch – I have no real interest in Lyra currently.
Dave – Becky Lynch – Lyra is boring AF!
DJ – Lyra Valkyria – Bayley interferes.
DPP – Becky Lynch – Becky cheats and steals the title.
Jason – Lyra Valkyria – Bayley costs Becks.
Patrick – Becky Lynch
Rey – Becky Lynch – Story needs to jump up a bit, Becky Charlotte’s Lyra.
Rob – Lyra Valkyria
Greg – Becky Lynch – It’s been fun, Lyra. (It kinda hasn’t)

Tunney’s Take: Lyra Valkyria – Bayley’s interference should set up some type of program with Becky as we head towards Summer(Slam).

Chairshot Pick – BECKY LYNCH 6-5

AJ – Jacob Fatu – Great way to put him over w/ two former WHCs and LA Knight.
Andrew – Jacob Fatu – He’s Jacob Fatu!
Dave – Jacob Fatu – Too soon to pull the belt off him.
DJ – Jacob Fatu – Priest and LA can’t decide who’s is bigger.
DPP – Jacob Fatu – Your hardcore match, tables and chairs involved.
Jason – Jacob Fatu – The Champ retains due to or in spite of Solo.
Patrick – Jacob Fatu
Rey – Jacob Fatu – All gas. No brakes. Ain’t losing.
Rob – Jacob Fatu
Greg – Jacob Fatu – Someone from The Samoan Dynasty ain’t winning a title just to drop it.

Tunney’s Take: Jacob Fatu – Uncle Mo is on Fatu’s side and other than Knight, I don’t see Drew or Priest holding the US title in the current circumstances of this title’s landscape.

Chairshot Pick – JACOB FATU 11-0

AJ – Dominic Mysterio – Judgement Day shenanigans just leading up to Finn turning on Dom later.
Andrew – Penta – Dom’s fine having a short reign, could also work for pushing AAA.
Dave – Dominic Mysterio – He’s probably more over than Penta.
DJ – Dominic Mysterio – Dirty Dom takes home the gold and the girl.
DPP – Dominic Mysterio – Big Head helps Dom pull out the win.
Jason – Dominic Mysterio – By hook and crook.
Patrick – Dominic Mysterio
Rey – Dominic Mysterio – Latino Heat keeps burning. Finn gets closer to the edge.
Rob – Dominic Mysterio
Greg – Dominic Mysterio – Someone from The Guerrero Dynasty ain’t winning a title just to drop it.

Tunney’s Take: Dominic Mysterio – That belt looks good with the king of chicken tendys. I can see Penta and Rey reforming as a tag team sooner than later.

Chairshot Pick – DOMINIC MYSTERIO 10-1

AJ – John Cena – Why? Cena wins, lol.
Andrew – John Cena – Shenanigans ensue so it’s not a clean win.
Dave – John Cena – The last time is now.
DJ – John Cena – Randy hears voices telling him he needs an Attitude Adjustment.
DPP – John Cena – Cena tries to cheat but the ref doesn’t call for a DQ.
Jason – John Cena – Nefarious means, Randy not ready for Evil John Cena.
Patrick – John Cena
Rey – John Cena – Cena just counting down the dates. Should be fun though.
Rob – John Cena
Greg – John Cena – You know they want Cody to be the hero in the end.

Tunney’s Take: Randy Orton – Once upon a time Randy got himself intentionally disqualified and it cost John. Saturday, history repeats itself with a 180-degree twist. Cena retains via Orton DQ victory. This time, Travis Scott’s appearance takes care of that task.

Chairshot Pick – JOHN CENA 10-1