Tuesday, May 19, 2015

WWE NXT Takeover: Fatal Four-Way Review

Adrian Neville defends the NXT Title in a Fatal Four-Way Match!


WWE NXT Takeover: Fatal Four-Way
Winter Park, Florida 9/11/14

1.) NXT Tag Team Titles - The Ascension vs. The Lucha Dragons (Kalisto & Sin Cara): **1/2

We start off the show with a match for the NXT Tag Team Titles. On the last NXT Special, Kalisto had challenged The Ascension with El Local as his partner, but they fell short. This time, he has Sin Cara by his side. This was a decent opening match. The Lucha Dragons are a good tag team. The Ascension? Not so much. So we got a match somewhere in between. In the end, The Lucha Dragons were able to dethrone The Ascension to capture the NXT Tag Team Titles! Again, a fine opening match.

2.) Barin Corbin vs. CJ Parker: DUD

Nothing really much to say about this one. Corbin came out, and squashed CJ Parker in just under thirty seconds. That's all there is to it.

I should note that, throughout the night, they aired video packages featuring each participant in the Fatal Four-Way Match for the NXT Title, which all did a good job hyping up the Main Event.

3.) Hair vs. Hair Match - Enzo Amore (with Colin Cassady) vs. Sylvester LeFort (with Marcus Louis): *

I feel like this may have been better as a Tag Team Hair vs. Hair Match, but whatever. All the characters involved in this match are just so fun to watch. However, neither Enzo Amore or Sylvester LeFort are good wrestlers, so it's no surprise that this match was pretty bad. It wasn't that long, going just over five minutes. Enzo would roll up LeFort to score the victory, meaning that LeFort was to get his head shaved, but that's not what we got...

Sylvester LeFort tries to run away, but Amore & Cassady cut him off. They try to drag him to the barber's chair set up on the stage, but Marcus Louis saves him. LeFort gets away, leaving Louis at the mercy of Amore & Cassady. They take out Louis, and then pour a bucket of hair cream (which they obtained in a pretty funny vignette) all over him. Louis scurries away as Amore & Cassady celebrate.

Up next, we have the NXT General Manager William Regal in the ring to introduce NXT's newest signee, KENTA!!! They show a video package before he comes out, and Regal makes KENTA out to be a very big deal. KENTA cuts a promo in Japanese & English, saying that his dream has come true and that he's happy to be here. He then announces that, going forward, he will now be known as Hideo Itami, and that his goal is to become NXT Champion. The Ascension interrupted his speech, tossing him out of the ring. They demanded a rematch for the NXT Tag Team Titles from Regal, but Itami gets back in the ring and cleans house! Itami then gets a chair and taunts The Ascension as they retreat. Really good debut segment for the newly christened Hideo Itami.

4.) Bull Dempsey vs. Mojo Rawley: DUD

This went a little longer than the Barin Corbin match, and Mojo at least got some offense in, but this was essentially another squash, where Bull Dempsey was victorious. Nothing much else to it.

We then get a backstage segment with Enzo Amore & Colin Cassady. They were upset that Sylvester LeFort didn't get his head shaved, but wanted to fine Marcus Louis so they can reveal his bald head. They find LeFort, and he gets away again, but they find Louis. They take him out to the ring, and do indeed reveal his new chrome dome, and he freaks out.

5.) NXT Women's Title - Charlotte vs. Baylay: ***

So the previous two NXT Specials featured two really stellar matches for the NXT Women's Title. While this didn't live up to the expectations to those matches, this was still a solid match. They told a good story with Bayley fighting back and refusing to give up. However, she wasn't able to pull out the upset, and Charlotte scored the win to retain her title. 

After the match, Sasha Banks comes out and attacks Bayley, until Charlotte pulls her away. This would be the beginnings of Charlotte's face turn.

6.) NXT Title - Fatal Four-Way - Adrian Neville vs. Sami Zayn vs. Tyler Breeze vs. Tyson Kidd: ****

These four were separated into two singles matches at NXT Takeover, but of course, their paths naturally intertwined, which brings us to this match. Looking at the show so far, it really needed this Main Event to deliver, because the show had not been very good. Fortunately, this match definitely delivered. All four of these guys are really good in their own unique ways, so it was no surprise that this was great. Lots of great action throughout this match, with a lot of close near-falls. The crowd really came to life during this match. Towards the end of the match, it looked like Zayn had the title won, but Neville pulled the referee out of the ring, preventing him from counting to three. Neville then takes advantage and hits the Red Arrow on Kidd for the win, retaining his NXT Title to close the show.

Overall: 6.5/10

Compared to the previous two NXT Specials, this was definitely the weakest. Outside of the Main Event, there really wasn't much else to get excited about, and that's exactly how the show unfolded. The Fatal Four-Way Match for the NXT Title was great, the NXT Women's Title Match was good, and the debut of Hideo Itami was pretty cool to see. Other than that, the rest of the show was pretty skippable. If you want to go back and see this show, do so for only those three things I mentioned.

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