[Jack Quinn]

watched most of the show tonight, first time watching NXT my thoughts:

Breeze/Itami - was what it was. Not terrible by any stretch. Not a fan of Breeze, but Itami wasn't bad

Corbin/Dempsey - sucked. Waste of a no-DQ match. Corbin has the look, but man, he just wasn't good. And Dempsey, meh, dunno. Dud of a match

Women's match - Didn't watch it, honestly I don't really care about women's wrestling, so I skipped it

Tag Title match - also got skipped due to lack of time, I wanted to see the other matches more. Maybe I will go back to it.

Neville/Balor - really good match. Not sure if I like Balor's entrance or not. I went back and forth between thinking it was really cool and just really too long. Neville is certainly ready for the main roster, and Balor is not far behind him. Not sure I liked this as much as a lot of people have (more on that later) but it was a very solid match

Steen/Generico - LOVED this match. So weird seeing them in a WWE ring. I was kind of surprised they put Owens over so hard so fast. I hope that means he has some people solidly in his corner. I also read some complaints about this match, but really, you have to believe that this is just the first step, if they let Owens and Zayn do their thing, in a couple of months you are going to see an amazing blowoff to this feud. I think Zayn has been in NXT WAY too long already, to me it's kind of insulting that someone who has been wrestling as long as he has has been in the minors for two years. I don't expect Owens to be there nearly that long, I think after WM, they are both on the roster.

NXT thoughts:

- Not completely sold on the announcers, though I did like that they were quiet for the intro for the main event.
- Hate the ring announcer
- love the black ring, just gives it a different look
- Nice to see some higher risk moves. I haven't seen RAW in years, I wonder if moves like Balor's double stomp to the back of the head and that sick knee neckbreaker Owens did will be allowed on the big roster? It's nice to see the guys on NXT breaking out more moves and such, but it would be really disappointing to see them neutered when they get to the main roster and only allowed five moves or whatever.

Moose and Wrestling:

I think I either haven't seen enough wrestling, or I am a fan of a different kind of wrestling. I remember in chat, Sop and Angle were talking about how great the Shield/Wyatts six man last year was. I watched it, and it was good, really good, but I wasn't blown away like they were. ROH had just done an eight or ten man elimination match not long before that that I thought was light years better. Now, again, I don't think what they did tonight in NXT was bad, not at all, I just think I like the ROH style a little more (or whatever the difference is). I am looking forward to watching more NXT though.

One Final Question:

Have Zayn and Ziggler wrestled? Cause that match would be sell-city!

[Road Warrior Shark]

Balr/Neville and Owens/Zayn were both very good.

I really dig Itami's entrance music.

Breeze is really underwhelming in the ring.

The tag match was OK, but not really worthy of a spot on the show. I dislike Hunico and Kalisto alot, but I see a ton of upside to Murphy and Blake. They have a great look together. Hot-shotting the belts on them was questionable, but better than leaving them on the Lucha Dragons

I disagree with Corbin. He does NOT have the look, the presence that the announcers are trying to sell. His vacant stare is not intimidating at all. He has a great entrance, but needs to beef up to fill that spot. And I LOVE Bull Dempsey. His look is different, and they guy is better than average on the mic. He may not be Main Event material, but he can be a nice solid midcard brawling heel ala Finaly or somthing.

Balors entrance IS too long. The paint look is different, and the fact he doesn't do it every week gives it a special feel. I dont think he gets to take all that offense to the main roster tho.

My biggest objection to the Itami/Balor/Neville/Owens/Zayn group is that none of the have the WWE look. The closest is really Neville body wise. Owens is fat and looks out of shape and will not get a serious push because of it. The other 4 are built better, but is any of them bigger than 6'2, 220? because if you aren't Good luck getting a ME spot with Cena and Orton and Brock. Ask Daniel Bryan & CM Punk. The only exception I see is Seth Rollins, and he is a LOT more muscularly defined and impressive looking that any of the NXT 5

[Jack Quinn]

yeah one thing I noticed when they were doing the intros was how light everyone was. The WWE is going to have to keep going through a change in philosophy (years ago Punk and Bryan wouldn't have sniffed the ME, thanks to Bret and HBK that changed) for them to make it to the top.

One thing that may work in Owens favor is Bray. I know Bray is not exactly a main eventer, but he is not cut either, though last I saw he looked to be in better shape than Steen.

I think Corbin has the look Vince likes, he is pretty well cut, tats and all that crap, but the guy is a long long way from the main roster. I liked Dempsey more, but based on that match he really offers nothing to the main roster other than the fact that he kind of reminded me of Bray in the looks department

[Chris Eco]

Finally finished the show, I liked it fine, but it wasn't at the level of the last couple Takeovers, IMO.

Neville's the fucking man. Moose, I don't know if you saw him as PAC, but this was one of his less impressive/less important NXT matches, and I would go back and watch Neville/Kidd, Neville/Zayn or Neville/Kidd/Breeze/Zayn instead of this. But I hope he's getting the call soon.

If you don't like women's matches, then that's that, but I enjoyed the Fatal Four-Way more than most of the show and thought it was a good way to tell three stories in that division (Charlotte-Sasha, Sasha-Becky, and Bayley's Quest). I would un-skip that rather than the tag match, The Tag Championship match was meh - Kalisto needs to be his own man, and though Sin Cara is improving, I think he'd be better served unmasked (Hunico was a fine promo with time). Blake and Murphy feel like a throwback to pre-Network FCW/NXT - which is to say, actually a little green and unpolished in presentation.

I just suspect Corbin is too far personally from the guy they're playing him as being; I watched some old Performance Center promos of him as a Gnarly Dude type, and it seemed way more natural. And he's almost lanky for his size. Dempsey needs to try being funnier (he was a hilarious Rosebud when he had that role).

I really like Breeze, but I get that it's a minority opinion, and he is the epitome of Safe WWE Style.

I hated Zayn/Owens, but in the way you're supposed to - I'm not a ROH guy, but Sami made me love him, and this fat asshole who doesn't entertain me comes from out of nowhere and beats the shit out of MY GUY and makes him look like a fucking jobber, BOOOOOOO. It'll be a while before I secretly love him like I do Rollins; for now, I just resent the fan cheers.

Re: the size thing - I think it bothers me more with Itami and Balor than anyone else, because they're not just small, but their offense is sold like world-beater hard-hitting shit, and somehow I buy it less than the kind of underdog style that Zayn and Bryan exemplify well. I want to root for Itami though.

[Jack Quinn]

I haven't seen anything else of Neville, but he has what it takes. I can absolutely see him on the main roster soon.

I have read that the womens match was good. Maybe I will go back and watch it, dunno, like I said, I just don't particularly care about womens wrestling. Despite what Sop has sworn, it always looks half a step slower and more, dunno, fake, than a mens match. And I am sure SHIMMER and other feds are better, I am talking WWE, TNA and hell, even ROH the few womens matches they had. They just never seem to flow very well. There have been exceptions of course.

[Carter]

You should go on youtube and watch the PAC / Devitt match from NJPW. This is the match that is believed to get them both to th WWE.