Welcome to Masto's 2 Cents where I, Super Mastodon will be sharing my thoughts & opinions about certain topics in professional wrestling. This time I'm gonna be talking about NXT TakeOver Dallas and the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony 2016. WrestleMania Weekend has officially kicked off! I'm gonna give my quick thoughts on both of these wonderful shows so let's get right through it. NXT TakeOver Dallas If there is one word to describe NXT TakeOver Dallas it would be: AWESOME! What a show! Let's start off first with the NXT Tag-Team Championships match between The Revival & American Alphas. A good match, while there are a few botches here and there (and the crowd is willing to let them know by chanting Botchamania) it was still a good match. I love The American Alphas' finisher and finally they've won the Tag Titles! Both Chad Gable & Jason Jordan definitely have a bright future in WWE! Next up is Austin Aries' NXT Debut going up against Baron Corbin. I'm a little disappointed in this match after all the hype but hey it wasn't a bad match. Some people weren't happy that Aries wasn't booked to be dominant but hey he was facing a big guy like Baron Corbin so it's either you make him look weak at his debut by getting squashed by Corbin or you know have a fair fight. There were some good spots during this match especially outside the ring where Corbin hits his signature move on Aries, in the end Aries got the victory but not that terrific of a match. And then we got a Match of the Year contender between the debuting Shinsuke Nakamura against Sami Zayn! HOLY SHIT what an awesome match this was! Nakamura and Zayn just had chemistry together and if I'm not mistaken this is their first time competing against each other and it's just perfect! There were a lot of close pinfalls throughout the match but in the end Nakamura got over and shook hands with Zayn. I believe this should've been the main event because the crowd kinda loss momentum after this, it's like Hogan vs Rock situation where the crowd was so in to it that they didn't care much about the main event which was HHH vs Y2J in Mania. Plus it's Sami's NXT Farewell so yeah, whether main event or not this is still a great match and one of the best matches in wrestling today! Up next the NXT Women's Title match between Bayley against Asuka, a good match between these two. While a lot of people saw Asuka winning, I didn't. I was cheering for Bayley all throughout this match and I had a "mouth dropped" moment a little bit when she passed out to the Asuka Lock. A great end to a match if you ask me, didn't really make Bayley look weak, shades of Stone Cold vs Bret Hart where Austin didn't tapped to the sharpshooter and passed out instead. Asuka is the new NXT Women's Champion and I think she'll have a great reign! Maybe it's time for Bayley to move up to the main roster? And last but not the least we got quite the controversial main event between Finn Balor and Samoa Joe. First of all I just wanna mention that I loved Balor's entrance with the chainsaw! Probably paying homage to Terry Funk? Anyhow these two had a good match but it certainly could've been better if the fucking medical team weren't all up in Samoa Joe's face when he was bleeding! Yes I know WWE is PG and all but for fuck's sake let the man bleed without interrupting! You can't prevent moments like these, afterall it's pro wrestling! I know some folks like Mick Foley didn't mind it but I just hate it whenever they try to clean up Joe. At one point he even pushed one of the medical crew. The crowd wasn't shy to share there thoughts about this too with chants like "Fuck PG!" and "Let Joe bleed" can be heard all throughout this main event. Anyhow Balor retains his title and I didn't mind that. A lot of people said they should've given the title to Joe but it's fine, maybe he'll move up to the main roster the night after WrestleMania. A feud between Joe & Brock Lesnar would be awesome to see! Also talking about NXT TakeOver Dallas isn't complete without talking about the special guests on the audience. You got legends like Scott Hall,X-Pac,and JR on the crowd. Then there's Japanese superstar Kota Ibushi along with Funaki watching, Ibushi is gonna be competing in the WWE's Global Cruiserweight Tournament this July. And of course who couldn't forget about Bobby Roode's appearance! Boy was I marking out to see Bobby Roode in NXT! Can't wait to see him in action! So that was NXT TakeOver Dallas. Overall a great show! Gets an 8/10 from yours truly. WWE Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony 2016 Now let's talk about the WWE Hall of Fame 2016! I really enjoyed this year's ceremony and all of the speeches by each Hall of Famer were good. So yeah let's get to the details. We started out the night with the induction of The Godfather. JBL & Ron Simmons did a good job introducing their good buddy and Godfather had a short but good speech. Also the HO Train was there as well! Next up is Stan "The Lariat" Hansen. Vader's induction speech was good, I liked the bit where he wore the glasses with a swollen eye on it real funny! Hansen pretty much talked about his whole career and thanked a lot of his peers that helped him throughout the business like Bruiser Brody,Vader,Terry Funk,Giant Baba,and Fritz Von Erich. He also mentioned about his infamous 9 second match against Rick Martel which Ric Flair referenced later on. After that we got Jacqueline who was inducted by her good friends The Dudley Boyz. Jacquline similar to The Godfather, had a short and sweet speech. She talked about her career for a little bit and then proceeded to thanked the women that she competed with throughout the years like Trish,Lita,Molly Holly,Terri Runnels,and Sable. The Fabulous Freebirds... boy this has got to be one of the greatest speeches in WWE Hall of Fame ever! First off The New Day were funny with their introduction of The Freebirds. Then we got Michael Hayes and Jimmy Garvin dancing as they make their way to the Hall. The sons of Terry Gordy and Buddy Roberts then came in and talked for a little bit, Ray Gordy (who was previously known as Jesse in WWE) and Buddy Jack Roberts Jr. talked about their fathers and thanked WWE for the opportunity to honor the legacies of their fathers. Then Hayes & Garvin talked about some funny stories during their time. Then Kevin Von Erich also made an appearance in his hometown of Dallas, basically talking about the importance of family, a great moment there. After the speech of Kevin, we had a mini concert with Michael Hayes singing Badstreet USA! Just an awesome speech! Big Boss Man is the next inductee. Slick did a decent job in talking about Boss Man's career. Boss Man's wife and daughters were there to accept on his behalf and they did a good job talking about their father's career and reminiscing some of the highlights of his run in WWE. In the end they raised Boss Man's nightstick in memory of one of the greatest big man in pro wrestling! Up next is one of my personal favorite people: Snoop Dogg! And believe it or not, Snoop Dogg actually had a good speech! Unlike other celebrity inductees, Snoop is actually a loyal wrestling fan. He gave shoutouts to various wrestlers like Randy Orton,Mark Henry,HBK,Stone Cold,and The Undertaker. Of course to his cousin, Sasha Banks! Out of all the celebrity inductees, Snoop Dogg has the best Hall of Fame speech in my opinion! Oh and John Cena did a good job introducing him as well, although the crowd were a little disrespectful for booing him but I guessed Cena is used to that already lol. And last but not the least we got Sting. Ric Flair as usual had a long ass speech introducing Sting, half of the things he was even talking about was about him! There were some funny comments I saw like "is Flair inducting himself or Sting?" Anyhow Flair paid tribute to Dusty & Piper in his speech which is classy. After that he finally introduced Sting and out of all the speeches in tonight Sting's was my favorite! He talked about his career,life,and yes he did announced his official retirement. The rumors were in fact true after all. He thanked a lot of his peers in the business and his family. Out of all the speeches, Sting's and The Freebirds were the highlight for me. Also I'll just talk about the Legacy Award real quick. WWE paid tribute to legends: Lou Thesz,Ed "Strangler" Lewis,Frank Gotch,George Hackenschmidt,Mildred Burke,Pat O'Connor,and "Sailor" Art Thomas by inducting them to the first ever Legacy Award. Apparently this was a last minute deal but hey it's great that they're finally honoring these great legends, although they definitely deserved a proper ceremony because all they got was just a video presentation. Also I was shocked to see Hulk Hogan during Sting's video but I guess you really can't avoid not showing the most famous person in wrestling in a WWE video! Sting also mentioned Hogan in his speech. Also Jimmy Snuka appeared in the intro as well with his famous cage jump moment, I guess they were too lazy to edit it out? Vince must be pissed! Anyhow that's the Hall of Fame 2016. A great ceremony and a must watch if you haven't yet! Thanks for reading.
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AuthorSuper Mastodon. Spent countless of hours throughout my life watching professional wrestling. Now I write about it, because I like that too. Archives
March 2021
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