WWE NXT TakeOver: Chicago 2017
May 20, 2017
Rosemont, Illinois
Hideo Itami gets the biggest match of his career when he challenges Bobby Roode for the NXT Championship. In the main event, The Authors of Pain defend their NXT Tag Team Championship against #DIY in a Ladder Match!
Match 1: Eric Young vs. Roderick Strong
Before the match, Roderick Strong takes out both Killian Dain and Alexander Wolfe from behind to try to and limit them as distractions. At this point, Strong is still on the rise to being one of the brand's top babyfaces while Eric Young was being booked as one of the stronger heels on the show. Solid and very physical match here, Young works really well as a heel with his slower and more methodical approach in the ring. This made it so whenever Strong was about to get the upper hand on things, you were almost anticipating a change of power happening. However, the help from both Dain and Wolfe at ringside overshadowed much of the action in the ring. Why didn't the referee kick them out for all the distractions they were creating? It almost became more of an annoyance to watch above anything. Strong was able to seal the win with his awesome suplex into a backbreaker finisher. Good match, just wish they didn't test our intelligence with the stupid interfering in front of the referee.
Winner: Roderick Strong
Rating: ***
Match 2: NXT United Kingdom Championship - Tyler Bate (c) vs. Pete Dunne
Cool to see them put on a match for the NXT UK brand here along with having Jim Ross on commentary for this one. Both Tyler Bate and Pete Dunne are the young stars of the brand and this is a great way for the two to get a rub. Crowd was seriously hot for this one here and they got even rowdier when the match progressed. Loved how they structured this match, slow and methodical in the beginning before ramping things up and hitting us with some spectacular spots and believable nearfalls spread out the match. One of the sweetest spots I've seen in a long time had Bate nail a corkscrew 450 splash off the top rope like it was nothing which led to a nearfall. Eventually, Dunne would nail his Bitter End finisher to score the win. Great match, loved how it didn't go over 30 minutes and hit us with an excessive amount of nearfalls to the point where it exhausted us. Would it benefit from a few more minutes? Sure, but there is a huge card still left to go and you don't wanna break out all the stops in the second match of the night. Either way, great way to put the spotlight on these guys and their brand.
Winner: Pete Dunne
Rating: ****1/4
Match 3: NXT Women's Championship - Asuka (c) vs. Ruby Riot vs. Nikki Cross
With Ember Moon being out of action, Asuka still has a tall task ahead of her in defending her gold and undefeated streak against both Ruby Riot and Nikki Cross. Match was very reminiscent of the match at TakeOver: San Antonio but almost at a lesser scale. You get your cool spots in the beginning of the match and the ladies in the ring were great in keeping the action flow throughout the entire thing. But despite that, this match just didn't seem to click like most of Asuka's great matches. Crowd wasn't so into the match and likely because the last match pooped them out a bit or possibly because they all just knew that Asuka wasn't going to be dropping that belt. They didn't help matters when the finish just saw Asuka hit a quick knee strike on Riot before pinning both opponents to score the win. A definitely underwhelming finish to a rather underwhelming match. But still a good match nonetheless, you're not always getting nor do you always need a ***** performance.
Winner: Asuka
Rating: ***1/4
Match 4: NXT Championship - Bobby Roode (c) vs. Hideo Itami
First off, how cool is it to see Hideo Itami get a chance at some NXT gold? Loved following him back in the day and to see him get a spot here is pretty darn cool. As usual with most Bobby Roode matches, a slower pace to start things off which is a nice change of scenery when it comes to NXT. His style allows to build for stronger and more dramatic finishing sequences. As expected, very physical action between the two here and while it was pretty evident that Itami wasn't going to be dethroning Roode, they did a great job of building some intense drama as the match progressed. Itami was able to hit a GTS but with Roode quickly rolling out of the ring soon after, he wasn't able to get the victory. Slick way to protect the GTS there. Roode was able to hit two Glorious DDTs in a row to score the big win. Again, nobody really expected Itami to win the match here but they did a great job of keeping the drama alive before delivering us a fantastic finish. Good match heading into the main event.
Winner: Bobby Roode
Rating: ***1/2
Match 5: NXT Tag Team Championship - Ladder Match - The Authors of Pain (c) vs. #DIY
Both Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano score another crack at the tag team gold against The Authors of Pain here in the main event of tonight's TakeOver. With these guys going on last, you just get the feeling that something's gotta give. At this point, I've seen way too many Ladder Matches to the point where I'm almost become tired of seeing them so coming into this, I was interested to see what unique things they were going to bring to the table. While the match had its slow points, there was certainly no shortage of drama here and like the last match, they did a great job of building towards an awesome finish. That build saw some nasty spots like Rezar being driven through a ladder set in the corner by Ciampa and a spot that saw both Ciampa and Gargano dive off ladders through both members of The Authors of Pain. However, a final blow with the Super Collider allowed AOP to gain an opening to win the match. Afterwards, Ciampa shockingly turned on Gargano by driving him off the stage. Good match and a solid way to end the show. You can never go wrong with a Ladder Match, especially when the guys in the ring are as good as these guys. However, you do run into the problem of repetitiveness, how many Ladder Matches can you have in a year span before they start getting old? Regardless, credit to the guys in the ring for some great closing action.
Winners: The Authors of Pain
Rating: ****
Overall Show Thoughts and Rating:
Another great TakeOver event that had a little bit of everything. You had your big singles title matches that all delivered on what they needed to and you had it topped off with a great main event along with a shocking turn to cap the show.
Rating: 8/10
Wednesday, May 27, 2020
Tuesday, May 5, 2020
WWE Money in the Bank 2017 Review
WWE Money in the Bank 2017
June 18, 2017
St. Louis, Missouri
The annual Money in the Bank PPV event sees two wild Money in the Bank Ladder Matches along with a WWE Championship match that has Jinder Mahal defending his newly won title against Randy Orton.
Match 1: Women's Money in the Bank Ladder Match - Charlotte Flair vs. Becky Lynch vs. Tamina vs. Carmella vs. Natalya
This is the first ever Women's Money in the Bank Ladder Match and it looks to be a good one with some great talent lined up for this. Pretty wild to think that less than two years later, both Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch would go on to headline a WrestleMania. But I digress, solid opening match here and nice way to introduce this watch to the women's division. There wasn't anything that was so over-the-top but there was way more than enough here to keep my attention throughout the match with the wrestlers nicely spreading apart some of their bigger spots and really allowing everyone to get a spot in. Not every damn Ladder Match has to have a triple backflip off the top of a ladder or something. With Lynch climbing the ladder and ready to secure the briefcase, James Ellsworth appeared out of nowhere and dropped Lynch off the ladder. Ellsworth then climbed the ladder and retrieved the briefcase for Carmella to win the match. Not sure how I feel about that finish. If they wanted to use Ellsworth, then I would have preferred to see him earlier in the match and not be the deciding factor in the match. But also, it puts some extra heat on Carmella and really got some people talking about this one. I want to hear what you think.
Winner: Carmella
Rating: ***1/4
Match 2: WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship - The Usos (c) vs. The New Day
These two teams had a phenomenal rivalry in 2017 with this match being the starter to it all. Since this was just their first match, they didn't pull out all the stops here but instead made sure to give us a nice appetite for things to come. As you would expect from these four guys, great action throughout the contest, they have pretty great chemistry with just about everyone. Also enjoyed watching The Usos as heels, I feel like their vicious and fast style suits them better as heels. The New Day had the win on their fingertips as both Big E and Kofi Kingston landed their Midnight Hour finisher on Jey before Jimmy pulled his brother out of the ring. Afterwards, the two left the ring and walked away from the match with their belts which would then lead to the referee calling for the countout. I get that they don't want to give us a straight finish with this being their first encounter, but I think they could've at least done a fishy pin or something considering the match before this already gave us a lame finish.
Winners: The New Day (via countout)
Rating: ***
Match 3: WWE SmackDown Women's Championship - Naomi (c) vs. Lana
Announcers note that this is Lana's first singles match since WrestleMania of last year. That can't be right... can it? Regardless, nobody was going into this match expecting much and while the match wasn't that bad, it wasn't very good. Carmella entered the match and thought about cashing in her Money in the Bank contract but decided not to when she saw that it probably wouldn't be going her way. Naomi is able to submit Lana to retain her title. Nothing much to see her with Carmella's interference really just being a way to cover up some of the bland action in the ring. But with all things considered, this could have been much worse.
Winner: Naomi
Rating: *1/4
Match 4: WWE Championship - Jinder Mahal (c) vs. Randy Orton
After shocking the world and defeating Randy Orton for the WWE Championship, Jinder Mahal must prove that his championship reign is not a fluke. Prior to the match, they show some past WWE Champions sitting ringside for the match including Bob Orton and Ric Flair. Mahal comes out looking like a million dollars with The Singh Brothers accompanying him by his side. Orton is the hometown hero and comes out to a spectacular ovation from the crowd. Solid action here with Mahal working on the left knee of Orton throughout the match and as usual, Orton doing a fantastic job of selling the injury. You just get the feeling that Orton was really high on Mahal at this point. They did a great job of reminding us about the legends sitting ringside for the match with Orton dropping Mahal on top of the barricade next to them along with Mahal stealing some of the moves from the legends at ringside. The match came to a collision when The Singh Brothers put Mahal's foot on the bottom rope during a count after an RKO from Orton. From there, The Singh Brothers were kicked out but would get their hands on Bob Orton on their way out. This led to Orton beating the living daylights out of the two before hitting an RKO to both of them with one of those being through an announcers table. However, Mahal would capitalize on all the mayhem and hit Orton with a Khallas as soon as he stepped back in the ring. Enjoyed that match but would love to have seen more of just Mahal and Orton. However, they wanted to have another oddball finish to set up their Punjabi Prison match and this was a solid way to do so. Just almost feels like this entire event is setting up for matches down the line and it gets pretty repetitive.
Winner: Jinder Mahal
Rating: ***
Match 5: Breezango vs. The Ascension
Welp, we needed a match to bridge the gap between the two main events and this is it. Pretty boring tag match here that had the crowd either sitting on their hands or going to the restroom. Fandngo is able to quickly roll up Viktor to score the pretty easy win for himself and Tyler Breeze. At this point, The Ascension were so lost in the scuffle that there was seriously very little hope in rebuilding the team. On to the main event.
Winners: Breezango
Rating: 3/4*
Match 6: Men's Money in the Bank Ladder Match - AJ Styles vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens vs. Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Baron Corbin
Before the match, Baron Corbin attacks Shinsuke Nakamura before the match to grab the upper hand on things and temporarily takes Nakamura out of the action. Definitely the best guys on the SmackDown roster that you could ask for in this match with Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens truly being the two standouts for me in this match. As I said earlier, not every Ladder Match needs to have somebody land a triple backflip and follow it up with a corkscrew moonsault off two ladders for it to be enjoyable for me. In fact, I'd rather much see less of that at this point. Like the first Ladder Match in the night, the spots were nicely spaced out and all of them made sense, it certainly didn't feel like they were just tossing up big spots for the sake of it. Credit needs to go to Owens for taking the brunt of all the nasty exchanges along with Zayn for also tossing himself in the fire many of the times. Also need to credit AJ Styles for the awesome spot of him hanging from the top and trying to grab the briefcase while he was hanging on to the chain, made for a sweet looking spot. Nakamura would later return to the match to take out Corbin when he had an open window for the briefcase but it didn't prove to be much as Corbin was later able to secure the briefcase to win the match. Good main event, maybe a little too long for my liking but it made sense when taking into account how weak the rest of the card was. Also an interesting choice to have a heel win the match with Jinder Mahal being the WWE Champion at the time and it really not looking like he was going to lose the strap anytime soon during this period. The match was fun but nowhere near what I was expecting with the talent in the ring.
Winner: Baron Corbin
Rating: ***1/2
Overall Show Thoughts and Rating:
Easily one of SmackDown's weakest PPV outings with no match on the card really being a standout. There were definitely some great moments throughout the show and the action wasn't bad but nothing was really great either. Money in the Bank PPVs usually deliver but unfortunately, the 2017 edition is a hard pass.
Rating: 5.5/10
June 18, 2017
St. Louis, Missouri
The annual Money in the Bank PPV event sees two wild Money in the Bank Ladder Matches along with a WWE Championship match that has Jinder Mahal defending his newly won title against Randy Orton.
Match 1: Women's Money in the Bank Ladder Match - Charlotte Flair vs. Becky Lynch vs. Tamina vs. Carmella vs. Natalya
This is the first ever Women's Money in the Bank Ladder Match and it looks to be a good one with some great talent lined up for this. Pretty wild to think that less than two years later, both Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch would go on to headline a WrestleMania. But I digress, solid opening match here and nice way to introduce this watch to the women's division. There wasn't anything that was so over-the-top but there was way more than enough here to keep my attention throughout the match with the wrestlers nicely spreading apart some of their bigger spots and really allowing everyone to get a spot in. Not every damn Ladder Match has to have a triple backflip off the top of a ladder or something. With Lynch climbing the ladder and ready to secure the briefcase, James Ellsworth appeared out of nowhere and dropped Lynch off the ladder. Ellsworth then climbed the ladder and retrieved the briefcase for Carmella to win the match. Not sure how I feel about that finish. If they wanted to use Ellsworth, then I would have preferred to see him earlier in the match and not be the deciding factor in the match. But also, it puts some extra heat on Carmella and really got some people talking about this one. I want to hear what you think.
Winner: Carmella
Rating: ***1/4
Match 2: WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championship - The Usos (c) vs. The New Day
These two teams had a phenomenal rivalry in 2017 with this match being the starter to it all. Since this was just their first match, they didn't pull out all the stops here but instead made sure to give us a nice appetite for things to come. As you would expect from these four guys, great action throughout the contest, they have pretty great chemistry with just about everyone. Also enjoyed watching The Usos as heels, I feel like their vicious and fast style suits them better as heels. The New Day had the win on their fingertips as both Big E and Kofi Kingston landed their Midnight Hour finisher on Jey before Jimmy pulled his brother out of the ring. Afterwards, the two left the ring and walked away from the match with their belts which would then lead to the referee calling for the countout. I get that they don't want to give us a straight finish with this being their first encounter, but I think they could've at least done a fishy pin or something considering the match before this already gave us a lame finish.
Winners: The New Day (via countout)
Rating: ***
Match 3: WWE SmackDown Women's Championship - Naomi (c) vs. Lana
Announcers note that this is Lana's first singles match since WrestleMania of last year. That can't be right... can it? Regardless, nobody was going into this match expecting much and while the match wasn't that bad, it wasn't very good. Carmella entered the match and thought about cashing in her Money in the Bank contract but decided not to when she saw that it probably wouldn't be going her way. Naomi is able to submit Lana to retain her title. Nothing much to see her with Carmella's interference really just being a way to cover up some of the bland action in the ring. But with all things considered, this could have been much worse.
Winner: Naomi
Rating: *1/4
Match 4: WWE Championship - Jinder Mahal (c) vs. Randy Orton
After shocking the world and defeating Randy Orton for the WWE Championship, Jinder Mahal must prove that his championship reign is not a fluke. Prior to the match, they show some past WWE Champions sitting ringside for the match including Bob Orton and Ric Flair. Mahal comes out looking like a million dollars with The Singh Brothers accompanying him by his side. Orton is the hometown hero and comes out to a spectacular ovation from the crowd. Solid action here with Mahal working on the left knee of Orton throughout the match and as usual, Orton doing a fantastic job of selling the injury. You just get the feeling that Orton was really high on Mahal at this point. They did a great job of reminding us about the legends sitting ringside for the match with Orton dropping Mahal on top of the barricade next to them along with Mahal stealing some of the moves from the legends at ringside. The match came to a collision when The Singh Brothers put Mahal's foot on the bottom rope during a count after an RKO from Orton. From there, The Singh Brothers were kicked out but would get their hands on Bob Orton on their way out. This led to Orton beating the living daylights out of the two before hitting an RKO to both of them with one of those being through an announcers table. However, Mahal would capitalize on all the mayhem and hit Orton with a Khallas as soon as he stepped back in the ring. Enjoyed that match but would love to have seen more of just Mahal and Orton. However, they wanted to have another oddball finish to set up their Punjabi Prison match and this was a solid way to do so. Just almost feels like this entire event is setting up for matches down the line and it gets pretty repetitive.
Winner: Jinder Mahal
Rating: ***
Match 5: Breezango vs. The Ascension
Welp, we needed a match to bridge the gap between the two main events and this is it. Pretty boring tag match here that had the crowd either sitting on their hands or going to the restroom. Fandngo is able to quickly roll up Viktor to score the pretty easy win for himself and Tyler Breeze. At this point, The Ascension were so lost in the scuffle that there was seriously very little hope in rebuilding the team. On to the main event.
Winners: Breezango
Rating: 3/4*
Match 6: Men's Money in the Bank Ladder Match - AJ Styles vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Sami Zayn vs. Kevin Owens vs. Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Baron Corbin
Before the match, Baron Corbin attacks Shinsuke Nakamura before the match to grab the upper hand on things and temporarily takes Nakamura out of the action. Definitely the best guys on the SmackDown roster that you could ask for in this match with Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens truly being the two standouts for me in this match. As I said earlier, not every Ladder Match needs to have somebody land a triple backflip and follow it up with a corkscrew moonsault off two ladders for it to be enjoyable for me. In fact, I'd rather much see less of that at this point. Like the first Ladder Match in the night, the spots were nicely spaced out and all of them made sense, it certainly didn't feel like they were just tossing up big spots for the sake of it. Credit needs to go to Owens for taking the brunt of all the nasty exchanges along with Zayn for also tossing himself in the fire many of the times. Also need to credit AJ Styles for the awesome spot of him hanging from the top and trying to grab the briefcase while he was hanging on to the chain, made for a sweet looking spot. Nakamura would later return to the match to take out Corbin when he had an open window for the briefcase but it didn't prove to be much as Corbin was later able to secure the briefcase to win the match. Good main event, maybe a little too long for my liking but it made sense when taking into account how weak the rest of the card was. Also an interesting choice to have a heel win the match with Jinder Mahal being the WWE Champion at the time and it really not looking like he was going to lose the strap anytime soon during this period. The match was fun but nowhere near what I was expecting with the talent in the ring.
Winner: Baron Corbin
Rating: ***1/2
Overall Show Thoughts and Rating:
Easily one of SmackDown's weakest PPV outings with no match on the card really being a standout. There were definitely some great moments throughout the show and the action wasn't bad but nothing was really great either. Money in the Bank PPVs usually deliver but unfortunately, the 2017 edition is a hard pass.
Rating: 5.5/10
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