What are your personal best / worst Takeover matches?

[Deleted]

Something I got to thinking about in the car earlier. Both difficult questions but kind of for opposite reasons - Takeovers tend to deliver so much, even the not particularly notable ones, that it's hard to narrow down the best and to remember something all that bad.

Personally for best.. I don't even know. Maybe the Revival / DIY two-out-of-three-falls for my favorite but I really have no idea, there's no shortage of great matches in NXT's history to pick from. Depending on the day I could say Gargano / Ciampa 1, Black / Dream, the North American title ladder match, Zayn / Nakamua, Dunne / Bate, or whatever else and feel confident in my choice.

Worst...

I'm leaning toward either Roode / Itami or Roode / McIntyre. Both have the same overall issues - boring as all sin, way too long, and with a 200% obvious result - but at least Roode / McIntyre's finish wasn't just plain repeating a nearfall spot from earlier in the match... while on the other hand at least Roode / Itami had a crowd that even passingly cared about it. Really best thing that came out of Almas winning the NXT title was it took it out of being consistently the worst part of every Takeover because between Balor and Roode's reigns it was basically the low point of the show every single time.

[The Yes Man]

The best is still Sami Zayn vs Adrian Neville at R:Evolution.

[Deleted]

Best: Revival vs. DIY 2 out of 3 falls, Gargano vs. Almas, Gargano vs. Ciampa (Takeover: New Orleans), Black vs. Dream, Black vs. Gargano

As for worst... hmm. Joe vs. Nakamura at Takeover: Brooklyn II really bored me to be honest.

[Deleted]

Bull Dempsey and Baron Corbin at Takeover: Rival wasn't very good.

Best is Neville vs Sami. Both guys looked like top level stars that night.

[Main Eventer]

I loved Bayley vs Sasha Banks at Takeover Brooklyn.

I hated Dempsey vs Corbin

[Oh Cry Me a Screwball]

NXT Takeover New Orleans is probably going to take the mantle of best live show I've ever been to for a long time, so the North American Ladder Match and Ciampa vs. Gargano I are going to be my favorites, with Zayn vs. Nakamura rounding out my top 3.

For worst, do we count some of the early Takeovers before the five match format (with them all being hyped matches of some sort) became the norm? Because Arrival had Tyler Breeze vs. Xavier Woods end with a No Contest when Alexander Rusev ran down and beat up everyone and nobody even saw it the first time around due to the Network getting stuck on Breeze's duck face.

[EoE: Well There's Your Problem]

Dec 29, 2018 22:24:39 GMT -5 Oh Cry Me a Screwball said:

NXT Takeover New Orleans is probably going to take the mantle of best live show I've ever been to for a long time, so the North American Ladder Match and Ciampa vs. Gargano I are going to be my favorites, with Zayn vs. Nakamura rounding out my top 3.

For worst, do we count some of the early Takeovers before the five match format (with them all being hyped matches of some sort) became the norm? Because Arrival had Tyler Breeze vs. Xavier Woods end with a No Contest when Alexander Rusev ran down and beat up everyone and nobody even saw it the first time around due to the Network getting stuck on Breeze's duck face.

I’d still say that was better than Enzo Amore v Sylvester Lefort. Like, as much as I liked the idea of The Legionnaires, Lefort wasn’t that good and Amore never even got to THAT level by 2017, let alone 2014.

[Oh Cry Me a Screwball]

Dec 29, 2018 22:28:39 GMT -5 EoE: Well There's Your Problem said:

Dec 29, 2018 22:24:39 GMT -5 Oh Cry Me a Screwball said:

NXT Takeover New Orleans is probably going to take the mantle of best live show I've ever been to for a long time, so the North American Ladder Match and Ciampa vs. Gargano I are going to be my favorites, with Zayn vs. Nakamura rounding out my top 3.

For worst, do we count some of the early Takeovers before the five match format (with them all being hyped matches of some sort) became the norm? Because Arrival had Tyler Breeze vs. Xavier Woods end with a No Contest when Alexander Rusev ran down and beat up everyone and nobody even saw it the first time around due to the Network getting stuck on Breeze's duck face.

I’d still say that was better than Enzo Amore v Sylvester Lefort. Like, as much as I liked the idea of The Legionnaires, Lefort wasn’t that good and Amore never even got to THAT level by 2017, let alone 2014.

The match was pretty garbage, but at least it had some level of importance, given that the stipulation on the match ended up being pretty significant despite being a bait and switch, because the nair bucket that Marcus Louis ended up getting doused with was provided by Carmella in her introduction to WWE programming.

Meanwhile, the Woods and Breeze match might stand as the most pointless match on an NXT special, because all it served to do was build up someone who was already no longer going to be on the NXT roster and didn't really benefit from the beatdown, and on top that wasn't seen during the broadcast because of the Network going down.

[blissified]

Favorites

Sami Zayn vs Adrian Neville

DIY vs Revival 

Sasha vs Bayley Brooklyn

Nakamura v Zayn 

Almas/Gargano Philly


Worst

Corbin/Dempsey

Roode/Drew

There's probably others but not too many i can say flat out sucked.

[Deleted]

Dec 29, 2018 19:01:44 GMT -5 @dax said:

Best: Revival vs. DIY 2 out of 3 falls, Gargano vs. Almas, Gargano vs. Ciampa (Takeover: New Orleans), Black vs. Dream, Black vs. Gargano

As for worst... hmm. Joe vs. Nakamura at Takeover: Brooklyn II really bored me to be honest.

I liked that Joe vs. Nakamura match. Not saying it should be top-tier but it was good.
It was two bad-ass guys bludgeoning each other with stiff strikes. It was gritty and wasn't pretty. It stood out for that reason. Was more like an actual fight instead of a lot of connect-the-dots type of action we are used to seeing.