Thursday, December 11th, 2014
Full Sail University
Winter Park, Florida
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Kevin Owens vs. CJ Parker
KO kicks off the show and gets a nice reaction once they know the unfamiliar music is for him. Corey Graves is here making his announcing debut here. Not that there is any doubt about Owens going over here, but Parker has been treated as such a jobber, that it makes it even more obvious. Owens attacks him immediately and then hits the cannonball. He then destroys Parker's sign before hitting the somersault dive over the top rope. Parker is able to hit a palm strike and gets a 2 count. Owens is busted open because of it. Owens fight back with a clothesline and hits a package neckbreaker. He hits the pop up powerbomb and that is all. This probably should have been a little quicker, but Owens was impressive nonetheless.
Match Rating: *
Corey Graves announces that he is announcing due to concussion issues. They then show Adrian Neville getting ready for his match tonight. They show a clip of his WWE.com interview and does some pull ups.
NXT Tag Team Championship Match
Lucha Dragons vs. Vaudevillains
This is probably the best built tag team match in NXT's short history. They just have never put much effort into the division until recently. The challengers single out Sin Cara, with Aiden English showing off some nice heel work. Gotch is able to hold off Cara from getting a tag in and hits a back suplex. Cara is finally able to make a tag and Kalisto hits a springboard corkscrew. He hits a nice kick to the head and Cara hits a dive off the top rope. Kalisto hits a roll through kick and then they both send English to the outside. The Dragons then go for a double dive, but English pushes Gotch out of the way and he takes the double dive alone. Gotch does nothing with it and is back in the ring just to get hit with Salida del Sol for the victory. That finish makes no sense to me. The match was fine, but would have been just fine on TV rather than TakeOver.
Match Rating: **1/2
Tye Dillinger vs. Baron Corbin
The bell rings and the crowd begins the fast count. Corbin hits Snake Eyes and the boot and then Bull Dempsey is shown. He hits End Of Days and that's all. Dempsey does the slow clap and Corbin stares him down before walking away. This was what it was supposed to be.
Match Rating: 1/4*
Zayn is shown in the locker room sitting on a bench. He is wished good luck by Enzo and Cass and then Owens is shown in the background. They show a clip of his WWE.com interview.
The Ascension vs. Hideo Itami & Finn Balor
This is the debut of the Demon character for Balor. All four men start off brawling and they hit the double dropkicks in the corner. The bell finally rings and Itami hits a big dropkick. Konnor is able to hit a flapjack on Itami and slow him down. The Ascension double team Itami and isolate him from Balor. Itami is able to fight them both off and crawl to tag in Balor. He knocks down Viktor and leaps off his back to attack Konnor. He runs into a reverse elbow but hits an enzuigiri up the second turnbuckle. He hits a dive on both opponents outside and stands tall. Balor throws Viktor back in the ring and misses with the Coup de Grace. He's able to hit a variation of a brainbuster, but the pin attempt is broken up. Balor misses with a kick and gets hit with a clothesline. Itami is in and goes for the GTS, but Konnor makes the save. They set up for Fall Of Man, but Itami pulls Konnor out of the ring. Balor hits a Pele kick and both men go to the top rope and hit the double Coup de Grace for the victory. This was a lot of fun and the best the Ascension have ever looked.
Match Rating: ***1/2
Renee Young is with Roman Reigns to congratulate him on being Superstar Of The Year. He cuts a pretty robotic promo here about trying to be the first NXT star to win the World Heavyweight Championship.
NXT Women's Championship Match
Sasha Banks vs. Charlotte
Things get off to a heated start with Charlotte being more aggressive than normal. After some action on the outside, Sasha kicks Charlotte on her way back into the ring. Sasha then throws Charlotte into the steps and it looked to be a pretty stiff bump for Charlotte there. After a lengthy heat segment from Sasha, Charlotte is able to hit a neckbreaker and shift the momentum. Sasha comes back and hits a dive through the ropes on Charlotte. These two are putting on a real solid match here so far. Back in the ring, Charlotte hits a Spear and that has the crowd going. Sasha is able to trip up Charlotte into the turnbuckle. Sasha rolls her up and gets a 2 count. Charlotte goes up top and goes for a moonsault. Sasha moves and Charlotte lands on her feet and then does a somersault onto Sasha for a nearfall. Sasha goes for a superplex, but Charlotte blocks her and hits a face-first suplex from the top. She grabs Sasha and hits Natural Selection from the top rope and picks up the victory. That was a very good match and they had the crowd with them the whole way.
Match Rating: ***3/4
NXT Championship Match
Sami Zayn vs. Adrian Neville
The crowd is 100% behind Sami to start. We get a feeling out period to start with Neville keeping things slow. Zayn is able to hit a backbreaker and then a seated springboard moonsault to the outside. Neville slows things down again and then hits a second rope dropkick. Zayn hits a nice lariat and a pop up dropkick. Zayn tries to go for a dive, but Neville runs in and hits a flying headscissors on him. Zayn is able to back body drop Neville out of the ring and hits a senton dive over the top rope. Back in the ring, Zayn hits a top rope crossbody and gets his closest pin attempt thus far. Zayn hits a Blue Thunder Bomb and naturally Neville kicks out of the pin attempt. Just once, he needs to win with that move. I guess I don't actually know if he hasn't won with it, but none to my knowledge. Neville hits a German suplex with a bridge and Sami kicks out. Neville hits a sit down powerbomb and that looked like Zayn hit more on his neck than he maybe wanted to. Zayn goes for the Helluva Kick, but Neville gets out of the way. Neville goes up top and goes for the Red Arrow, but Zayn gets the knees up. Zayn slaps on the Koji Clutch, but Neville makes it to the ropes. The referee gets a minor bump and Zayn goes to check on him. Neville takes advantage and hits a reverse hurricanrana, but Zayn kicks out. Zayn is able to hit his dive through the corner tornado DDT that will never not impress. Zayn hits a Helluva Kick, but the referee also takes some of the strike. Neville grabbed the referee and got him hurt. Neville grabs his title belt and tries to use it for a weapon. Zayn knocks Neville out and then looks at the belt. Zayn goes back and forth about using it, but decides against it. Neville rolls him up and Zayn barely kicks out. Zayn is up and hits an exploder suplex in the corner. The Helluva Kick is next and he gets the pinfall to become the NXT Champion in a really good match. The crowd is ecstatic here and by far the biggest reaction anything has gotten in NXT up to this point. Zayn had been the best performer on the roster since the day he started here and it's nice to see him get this recognition.
Match Rating: ****
Sami gets the Bret Hart at WrestleMania X celebration. The music stops when Neville gets back in the ring and we get the delayed hug. Kevin Owens hugs Zayn on the apron as the closing logo pops up on the screen. He hold his hand up and they walk up the ramp. Owens attacks Zayn and then hits a powerbomb onto the HARDEST PART OF THE RING. William Regal comes out to check on him and this time we go off the air.
This was a slight improvement over the previous TakeOver and the last three matches all really delivered. The crowd was very invested in the action and that's a great sign that they are doing their job. This one also had the added drama of the attack by Owens.
Overall Rating: 87%
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