2. NXT Championship – Andrade ‘Cien’ Almas (c) vs. Aleister Black
These two are just incredible in-ring workers, aren’t they? Not just from a sheer work rate point of view either but their facial expressions, their body language, their overall selling of the toll fighting to the limit has on them is all just top shelf quality.
It is not all about the men in the match, however, as Zelina Vega is a fantastic X-factor out of and inside the ring on behalf of Almas as well. She is always in the right place when she needs to be and her character makes perfect sense. Every time Almas could potentially get the upper hand, Vega is there to tell him how and throw out instructions.
Whenever the referee is even the slightest bit distracted tending to Almas, she squeezes in a quick Hurricanrana, earning her ‘kayfabe’ and her legitimate paycheck every step of the way. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of watching her spike people into the mat.
The build for the match has been brilliantly told as well, with it getting personal between Almas and Black due to the latter’s blatant disrespect towards Vega and having Candice LeRae attack her at their contract signing. His actions there led to Almas tearing the man from Amsterdam apart, causing utter chaos on a recent episode of NXT.
Their match at TakeOver was fast-paced and hard-hitting from the get-go with multiple strikes landing heavily on Almas, leading him to take a breather on the outside. Black went for his patented springboard sit-out taunt but botched the landing and hit flat on his front. I flinched with fear that this might simply not be the night for the two but within three short seconds, the ‘Dutch Destroyer’ was pulling out a second-rope Moonsault to the outside on to the NXT Champion and off they went.
Hitting strike after strike, move after move and landing choice signature spots when necessary, these two future company faces never let off the gas and were at each other’s throats from bell to bell. It’s awe-inspiring to watch how intelligently they have put this bout together and how well they have both executed it.
Personally, I would not say this topped the NXT TakeOver: Philadelphia main event NXT Championship match between Almas and Johnny Gargano, but that is mainly because there were maybe one too many copy and pasted or slightly altered spots from that match here. Despite that, however, it was still incredible and the finish from every perspective, be that narrative storytelling, in-ring work or general entertainment, couldn’t have been done better.
My main gripe is that this bout only lasted 18:30. Considering Almas’ match with Gargano comfortably reached over half an hour, I feel like this deserved at least an extra five minutes to allow the competitors room to pull out everything they wanted to… but I guess they didn’t want to outshine the main event of the night.
6 years ago by Wrestle Talk
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