I want to give a huge shoutout to every single person I had the pleasure of meeting this past weekend in Dallas like Paul Fontaine, Stevie J, Erin Dickerhoof, and everyone else I was able to get rides from. Another shoutout to people who “remembered me from last year”. Let’s face facts: if I was 140 pounds, y’all wouldn’t remember me!
This week’s episode is a one hour recap show of TakeOver with a main event: a hideously boring Apollo Crews vs. Elias Sampson match.
– Cathy Kelley is the newest broadcaster and hosted this week’s episode from WWE Global Headquarters.
– We got a video package of the tag team title match from TakeOver with American Alpha defeating The Revival for the straps before an interview with the new champs. Both men were happy and proud to be new champions.
– Moving onto the Women’s championship, it was Asuka challenging Bayley for the belt. I would like to point out that I was standing at the guardrail and when Bayley came out, I held my arms out for a hug…and she ran to the person next to me. Anyhoo, this was a great match that left me interested in what was going to happen next. We got a Bayley interview and she was upset that she let everyone down. She did congratulate Asuka on winning.
– Austin Aries called himself the most polarizing person in wrestling, but he is not here to prove something to the fans. He is here to prove something to himself and doesn’t care if people like him or not.
– Samoa Joe vs. NXT Champion Finn Balor was a really good match. While it lost momentum a few times, it was a great way to finish TakeOver. Balor said he didn’t win the match, he just survived, calling it a war.
– No Way Jose is coming.
Apollo Crews pinned Elias Sampson
This was a dark match in Dallas and honestly, they should have aired the Manny Andrade-Chris Girard match, which was much better and much more fun. No one wanted to hear “The Drifter” sing his song, and we booed our little heads off instead of allowing him to perform. Alas, it didn’t come across nearly as loud and vocal against Sampson as it was live.
Ultimately, this match was fine. The problem is the fans didn’t really want to see it and it went way too long live. Apollo won with the spinning power bomb.
– The show ended with a recap of Sami Zayn-Shinsuke Nakamura, which I am sure Dave Meltzer gave at least 7 ½ stars. Zayn did his promo calling this one of the hardest battles in his career, having nothing but respect for Nakamura. It was hard for him to put into words the emotion of what happened after the match.
Nakamura did his promo, translated through Funaki. Funaki started to translate, but Nakamura cut him off and said, in English, to the camera “Strong style has arrived”. So that does it for this week. Next week starts four weeks of tv from Axxess, but until then, remember to say your vitamins and take your prayers!