So it’s finally here. Wrestling Christmas. No matter how detached I become from WWE in the future, I will always drop back in for the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania. The wrestling community always comes together at this time of year and no matter how disappointing the lineup is there never fails to be a little buzz in the air. NXT Takeover this year has been moved to the Friday night so that it doesn’t go head to head with ROH/NJPW who are running Madison Square Garden that night.
I feel regardless of the reasons it’s a good move. I like the Saturday night buffer between the two shows and let’s be honest, the further removed WrestleMania is from Takeover is probably for the better as I would be surprised if this particular NXT Takeover New York isn’t the best WWE show of 2019. The build has been really good from top to bottom and I actually prefer the Johnny Gargano v Adam Cole match to the Gargano/Ciampa blow off. I can’t believe I am saying that but the main roster call-up caused significant logic holes in their storyline and while Ciampa being injured is horrible it will allow time for the dust to settle and hopefully they can end it right. It has been one of the best build WWE feuds in recent memory and it deserve
Saturday night this year will host the Hall of Fame instead. WWE long since gave up the Hall of Fame having any prestige but the 2019 class is quite something. They were struggling for a headliner so they settled on DX, which in time will no doubt allow Shawn Michaels to have a whole handful of HOF rings after he gets inducted with The Rockers, The Cliq and the Two Dudes with Attitude. Stevie Ray got a phone call by virtue of Booker T still being relevant and as such Harlem Heat are going in. It will be nice for Natalya to see Jim Neidhart go in alongside Bret in the Hart Foundation. If HOF rings were handed out for being a nice person by all accounts Torrie Wilson would be a first ballot entry. How she is going in for her wrestling skills is hard to fathom.
Honkey Tonk Man while a poor wrestler was at least a legendary gimmick and I’m glad after turning the company down all these years he has agreed to go in. Rounding out the inductees is Brutus the Barber Beefcake who is in a similar boat to Honkey, but is almost certainly going in as it’s another excuse to slowly re-integrate Hulk Hogan into the company. Years ago I said WWE should have limited it to 2 entries per year. If they had they wouldn’t be running so low on people to induct. It would also make me more likely to watch the show. Every year the take away from the HOF is it runs long and people get their speeches cut. This solution caters to all parties.
Finally before we talk about WrestleMania itself my picks for the NXT show are as follows.
War Raiders over Ricochet & Aleistar Black (Tag Champs retain)
Bianca Belair over Shayna Baszler, Io Shirai and Kairi Sane. (New Women’s Champ)
Matt Riddle over Velveteen Dream (New NA Champ)
Walter over Pete Dunne (New UK Champ)
Adam Cole over Johnny Gargano (New NXT Champ)
Now on to the main show. We will start with the three scheduled kick off matches, although I feel a fourth may find it’s way on there as well.
I’m not going to spend a lot of time on matches like this because honestly, who cares? I would like to Asuka or a surprise from NXT win, but unfortunately I think this has a Lacey Evans win all over it.
Heart: Asuka
Head: Lacey Evans
Unlike the women’s battle royal this one actually does have some fairly big stars in it like Braun Strowman, Jeff Hardy and even a celebrity element in the form of two wee wanks from Saturday Night Live. It hurts me that Andrade [Last name redacted] has been lowered to this and so if he has to be in it at least let him win it.
Heart: Andrade
Head: Braun Strowman
Andre Battle Royal
- Braun Strowman (79%, 703 Votes)
- Andrade (8%, 67 Votes)
- SNL Idiot (7%, 60 Votes)
- Jeff Hardy (4%, 32 Votes)
- Other (3%, 23 Votes)
Total Voters: 885
Look cards on the table. This will be a great match. Do I care? No. 205 Live is dead in the water. There’s a reason they are considering scrapping the show and making SmackDown three hours. Buddy Murphy has had the belt for a while and I think his strong performances of late may have opened a spot up for him on the main roster. For that reason I am taking Tony Nese for the win.
Heart: No preference
Head: Tony Nese
Cruiserweight Title: Buddy Murphy v Tony Nese
- Tony Nese (58%, 459 Votes)
- Buddy Murphy (42%, 330 Votes)
Total Voters: 789
MAIN SHOW
Poor Revival. That’s all I can say. You may want your release from a company, but you are playing with fire if you ask Vince McMahon to scrap your contract when it has a year left. In the Revivals case it has resulted in jobbing to the absolute bottom rung of the tag team division. I get that some will think it’s a nice moment seeing the losing streak end on such a big stage, but I prefer titles to mean something and if you enjoy logic this is not the match for you.
HEART: The Revival
HEAD: Ryder & Slater
As you may be aware I have all but completely ignored this feud in the weekly Wrestling with Mediocrity articles. Shane McMahon as a heel is a plus. At least we don’t have to listen to him going for cheap plugs every two minutes. Miz on the other hand is a dreadful babyface. With a lot of babyface wrestlers looking like they will go over I’ll take Shane in this one.
Heart: Shane
Head: Shane
I was against these titles being created. WWE already has too many belts and despite the women’s roster making great strides over the last few years they just don’t have the depth for an exciting division. Never has that been more obvious than looking at the six challengers. Anything could happen in this one. When there is no good option I lean towards keeping the belt on the champions, but I think this a lot of babyfaces are going over on this show, so this would be one you could switch up.
Heart: Bayley & Sasha (I refuse to acknowledge their team name)
Head: The Iconics 😫
As Finn is coming suited and booted as the Demon I think he takes this one. Hopefully after this both guys can move on to bigger and better things. Lashley has looked weak this entire feud and Finn the same, having initially won the title by beating Leo Rush. I’m beyond the point of having any faith in the IC title meaning anything again, but maybe one day they will go back to the good ‘ol days.
HEART: Finn Balor
HEAD: Finn Balor
At this point we aren’t even sure if the match is going to take place or not since Rey supposedly got injured wrestling Corbin on RAW. It would be a shame for Joe to be robbed of his Mania debut, but losing a few matches from this seventeen match card would certainly be a plus. I think Rey will soldier on though and lose in a rather quick match. The night is looking heavy on babyface wins and Joe could do with the momentum.
HEART: Samoa Joe
HEAD: Samoa Joe
That will wrap up part one of this preview. The show is simply too long for me to run down the whole show in a single post. Stay tuned tomorrow for part two where I will be discussing the top matches on the show. In the meantime feel free to get in touch with me on Twitter @VizualDze.
