Now I’m fairly sure most of us can admit that for as monumental as the number may be, there isn’t really a marquee match.  That’s not to say there isn’t a lot of interesting question marks and angles abound; but no Ciampa vs Gargano, Samoa Joe vs Finn, Joe vs Nakamura, leaves a little excitement on the back burner.

A North American ladder match with a lot of unproven talent, a match with a retired Punter and a Heavyweight title fight after a fireball. Doesn’t really scream banger, now does it?

But some of the best shows are ones that have a slow build and a lack of expectations. So let’s just kick back, and see what the 30^th TakeOver brings us.

Ratings:

• Legado del Fantasma (Joaquin Wilde & Raul Mendoza ) vs Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch vs Breezango : Breeze wins via Super Model Kick @6:55 – ***
• Timothy Thatcher vs Finn Balor: Balor via 1916 @13:30 – ****
• Vacant North American Championship 5 Way Ladder Match: Damian Priest vs Johnny Gargano vs Bronson Reed vs Cameron Grimes vs Velveteen Dream: Priest wins @21:25 – *** ½ – TITLE CHANGE!!!
• Adam Cole vs Pat McAfee: Cole wins via Panama Sun Rise @16:10 – *** ¼
• NXT Women’s Championship: Io Shirai (c) vs Dakota Kai w/Raquel Gonzalez: Io retains via Moonsault @17:15 – *** ¾
• NXT Championship: Karrion Kross w/Scarlett vs Keith Lee (c): Kross wins via Avalanche Doomsday Saito @21:50 – **** – TITLE CHANGE!!

Results:

Legado del Fantasma (Joaquin Wilde & Raul Mendoza ) vs Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch vs Breezango

So one man from each team being legal at all times is the way I prefer triple threat tags, and that’s what we get! As expected there’s quite a bit of insanity with so many competitors.  Legado del Fantasma continued the NXT story by going after Breezeango initially, but trying to knock off Breeze and get too cute, especially with a third team involved, left the door wide open for Fandango to have a nice early moment holding the ring.

Oney and Danny never really got a lot of time to shine during this match, but they played their part. Raul has a great Escalera Tornillo to wipe out most people on the outside, and then things turn into trying to sneak covers. There was a great moment after Joaquin hits a 450, and literally everyone not on his team or legal slid into the ring to break it up.

The finish was surprising, where Breeze goes for the Unprettier, sees Oney coming with a European Uppercut, so he dodges and lets Joaquin Wilde get wiped out. Super Model Kick connects, and Breezango win! Great shot of Raul stepping through the ropes on the 3 count looking shocked at that being all it took to take out Oney. Obviously implying more drama with Legado del Fantasma and Breezango for the future.

Timothy Thatcher vs Finn Balor

Finn wanted to wrestle with Thatcher to make a point in this match. This was a great back and forth clinic on submissions, mat wrestling, counter holds and selling. Thatcher went after Finn’s legs, focusing mostly on the left, and Finn didn’t forget it. There was a Coup de Grace miss, where Finn crumbled to the ground holding the knee, Thatcher’s eyes lit up and Finn sold fear. It was a great spot and probably the first time in a long time that a WWE audience thought a Single Leg Boston Crab could finish a match.

Finn limped, and wobbled through the rest of the match as he battled back. Even though the match ended after another Coup de Grace and 1916, there was believable space and adrenaline between all of the moves. This was just a fantastic pro wrestling match, that had fairly basic psychology, but sometimes simple is still damn good.

Vacant North American Championship 5 Way Ladder Match: Damian Priest vs Johnny Gargano vs Bronson Reed vs Cameron Grimes vs Velveteen Dream

A few times during the match, commentary called this match “human demolition derby”, and it really was. I’ll start off with saying it was an entertaining match, and Cameron Grimes adding comedy aspects worked well enough, but god was this overbooked and messy. Candice getting involved, I mean, is THAT the extent of the Gargano heel turn? Candice gets involved and that’s how you know he’s bad.

Sheesh. I did appreciate a more unique version of the Tower of Doom, but so many awkward unnecessary multiple ladder spots and dives for the sake of dives. Also, are we supposed to believe that Velveteen Dream got YEETed off the ladder into orbit or something? The way they focused on saying what happened, was a little dumb. We saw the crash pad tables, we saw something similar on this past NXT when Mercedes Martinez got powerbombed into the off camera Twilight Zone, or whatever we’re calling it.

So it was fun, Priest getting the title is something I’m here for, but it was car crash fun and a little long which made the overbooking feel worse. No one likes a bloated feeling or a bloated match.

Adam Cole vs Pat McAfee

So anyone that thought Cole was going to have to carry McAfee to something watchable…must be astonished right now. McAfee used a lot of old school tactics with posse distraction, a few big flashy moves and a lot of trash talking.

McAfee’s Moonsault off of the top corner, followed up by a straight vertical jump to hit the Superplex was great. Yes you could tell the match was built around a few bigger flashier spots and it was up to Cole to fill in the transitional moments, but that’s taking nothing away from both. I appreciated that McAfee basically had this match won, if it weren’t for him injuring his Punting foot.

Just very enjoyable given that many just shrugged this off as a garbage celebrity match.

NXT Women’s Championship: Io Shirai (c) vs Dakota Kai w/Raquel Gonzalez

In a match that started a little awkward/rocky and had some moments that didn’t quite look right, the time this match was allowed; allowed it to recover to be a pretty damn good match. Io had multiple reasons to sell the left arm, and that was quite a good story through the match.

Dakota managed to look competitive without needing much of Raquel’s help. But much like most of her career in NXT, competitive she may be, but she can’t get anything done without help. A near ref bump, turned into Dakota deliberately connecting with a Running Boot Facewash, taking the ref down for a while. Io hits the Moonsault for a visible 8 count, but no referee. So Raquel slides in, does her One Armed Powerbomb, and drags Dakota into the pin. Ref comes to, counts and Io kicks out at 2!

Io gets a nice surge toward the end that allows her to hit a Tiger Feint, Orihara Moonsault, finalized with her normal Moonsault. Like I said, a match that definitely benefitted from a longer match time.

Raquel tried to get some revenge, but Rhea comes out to make the save. Raquel and Rhea stare down, and Io never acknowledges Rhea. Io poses and flaunts her retention while Rhea just scowls at the entire situation.

NXT Championship: Karrion Kross w/Scarlett vs Keith Lee (c)

This was one hell of a heavyweight slugfest. Keith came out fast, knocking Kross down and trying to impose his power and avenge his friend. But Kross kept finding small openings, slowly dissecting Keith. Catching Keith’s arm early in-between the guardrail and the hockey barrier, Keith was never really able to apply the same power after that.

Even without some of his raw power, Keith never stopped fighting. Keith blocked the Doomsday Saito a few times, fought out of the KrossJacket Choke. Scarlett helped sell the Kross side of the story since she was very animated and even channeled a little bit of Catrina from Lucha Underground when it looked like she was trying to beckon Kross back to his feet.

Grizzly Magnum and a Spirit Bomb didn’t get the job done, so Keith went to the corner. Now this could’ve been a prelude to the Moonsault that he breaks out on occasion, but with Kross interjecting himself, the situation started to fall apart. So both men were looking for something different, and Kross was the one to find his opening. An Avalanche Doomsday Saito grabbed Kross the win, and we have a new NXT champion!

Overall Score: 7.25/10

So now this was an interesting show. Nothing was bad, the McAfee versus Cole match was better than I think anyone expected. But when push comes to shove, nothing really stood out on this show. Everything was kind of the same level.  Granted the fact I rated everything between 3.5 and 4, it’s not like it was bad. But when nothing changes the pace or really sticks out, the show becomes less interesting or special.

Still a really good show and that shouldn’t be undersold by my malaise. I just wish there was a blow away “Match of the Night”. Instead of a card that allows for liking one more but not feeling overly strong about best and worst either way.

Kross being the new champion is interesting since there’s no really strong babyface that feels like they could challenge him. Damian Priest’s hot tub segment was corny cause…really? Who parks a car next to a hot tub in the performance center? Also not really looking forward to Rhea’s angle. I love Rhea, don’t get that wrong, but it feels like she’s treading water until she faces Io again. This feels very similar to that weird lull of Shayna and Kairi being the focus, with the rest of the division feeling kinda meh.

Nitpicking aside, it was a good show, but not an amazing show.