NXT TakeOver 36
Results & Afterthoughts

Match Results:

Kick-Off Show: Singles Match

Ridge Holland (with Pete Dunne) defeated Trey Baxter by pinfall

Singles Match for the Million Dollar Championship

Had Grimes lost, DiBiase would have become Knight’s butler.

Cameron Grimes (with Ted DiBiase) defeated LA Knight (c) by pinfall

I can't say that I cared too much about this feud but out of their several matches in this feud, I will admit that this was the best one to date. As someone who has seen their work both in this company and in IMPACT (and in NWA in Knight's case), I can't say that this was some of their best efforts either. I'm just glad that this is over finally with Grimes coming out on top.

It was fun to see Ted DiBiase get involved and lock in the Million Dollar Dream for the nostalgia. That being said, I'm ready for both of these guys to go in opposite directions.

Singles Match for the NXT Women's Championship

Raquel González (c) defeated Dakota Kai by pinfall

Here's the thing. I saw a lot of people raving above and beyond about this match, but I left this match feeling really underwhelmed by the time it was all said and done. Raquel and Kai really tried to make this a hard-hitting affair, but the entire time, I couldn't get into the dynamic of why should I care about Kai fighting from underneath as the underdog when she's HEEL against the babyface powerhouse that is Raquel? The whole heel/babyface angle going into this match is all wrong. That was the main thing that turned me off of this match from the get go. Wouldn't it made more sense to have Raquel turn on Kai, effectively casting her aside and showing that she didn't need her anymore? That way you could turn Kai back babyface, despite her affinity in the heel role, and have her fight against Raquel as a babyface underdog.

There were some brutal looking spots in this match - not from the physicality of the match but from how sloppy some of the execution looked in this match at various points. It gave me the impression that Raquel wasn't trying to be too rough on Kai and that should be the polar opposite impression given the build to this feud. I can't put my finger on it completely, but a lot of this match just felt "off" from bell to bell. It definitely didn't feel like a TakeOver match to me. I felt that they could have done this last week on NXT programming and no one would have batted an eye.

While I did enjoy the finishing sequence in this match, I couldn't help but feel that Kai was instantly cast aside as an afterthought for the debuting Kay Lee Ray (former NXT UK Women's Champion) coming in to confront Raquel in the post-match. If the rumors are true, then this was Kai's way of doing the honors on the way out as she's being called up to the main roster.

Singles Match for the NXT United Kingdom Championship

Ilja Dragunov defeated WALTER (c) by submission

This was THE match of the entire weekend out of everything between AEW and WWE combined. A master class in terms of a performance and storytelling. If this match isn't in your top five matches for 2021 thus far, then you need to reevalute what you deem is quality wrestling in this day and age.

Just do yourself a favor and WATCH this match.

I'm still cringing after seeing Ilja's neck and chest looking like raw hamburger meat after enduring all of the abuse WALTER was dishing out onto him.

I selfishly wanted WALTER to be NXT UK Champion FOREVER, but I can't be mad at Ilja picking up the win after enduring, or rather SURVIVING, all of that punishment unleashed by WALTER. I swear... WALTER's hands need to be registered as lethal weapons in not just this country, but WORLDWIDE.

I don't know what they have planned for WALTER next, but I would be all for him to be on the normal NXT brand full-time. I'm not getting my hopes up about that happening though since he has stated several times that he's is comfortable living in the UK and doesn't have any desire to move to the States.

Two-out-of-three-falls Match

Fall 1: Traditional Wrestling (won by O'Reilly via pinfall)

Fall 2: Street Fight (won by Cole via pinfall)

Fall 3: Steel Cage (won by O'Reilly via submission)

Kyle O'Reilly defeated Adam Cole 2–1

Here's my thing with this match... We're at, what...? The third and final KOR and Adam Cole match and I honestly couldn't care less at this point. I feel bad saying this as I genuinely like these guys but it ultimately comes down to the same reason why I soured on Johnny Gargano's matches over time. Adam Cole and KOR did everything under the sun to each other in the first two matches to the point where this Best of Three Falls match felt like complete overkill, especially when their first encounter was a non-sanctioned match. On top of that, when it comes to these Best of 3 Falls stipulation matches, I have grown to hate them as they almost always go down to the third fall nowadays. It's gotten as telegraphed as Ironman matches in modern wrestling, where 90% of the match is stalling until the final 5 minutes until they go into sudden death overtime.

It hurt this match even more with the impromptu finish out of nowhere with Cole being submitted by KOR while being handcuffed to the steel cage. In hindsight, it works but at the time watching this transpire live on Peacock/WWE Network, I could easily see why the live fans in the CWC were booing the hell out of that finish. I definitely extremely underwhelmed at that point, especially still coming off the highs of what we saw in WALTER vs. Ilja in the match prior.

As of this writing (8/25/21), it has been reported by several credited wrestling news sources that Adam Cole has not signed a contract renewal with WWE/NXT and will be officially a free agent as of this coming Friday. In all honesty, I don't really blame the guy. Look at what this company is doing with Karrion Kross, who fits the mold of what Vince McMahon wants in his future main events visually, in terms of his booking on the main roster since being called up over the past month. They stripped him of everything that made him cool, namely his entrance (like how they did Aleister Black) and his valet, Scarlett, who hasn't been seen with him at all since his debut on the main roster. Plus, with Cole's girlfriend, Britt Baker (current reigning AEW Women's Champion), over in the other company and probably letting him know about everything they have in the pipeline and who could be potentially coming in, he would be a goddamn fool not to jump ship at this point. Adam Cole has had a tremendous run in NXT - Longest reigning NXT champion of all-time, Grand Slam Champion, multiple standout performances on NXT TakeOver, and had a barn-burner of a match with main eventers (namely against Daniel Bryan) during the NXT vs. the main roster build for Survivor Series in 2019. Need I say more? He doesn't have to go to main roster to lay his claim as the best that company has seen. He hasn't been tainted by getting called up and being stripped of everything that made him great in the first place. He can leave now and don't have to stress out about his size being a handicap/setback of how he will be booked/featured.

Anyone who has WWE deals expiring soon and are looking at the hype train and momentum that AEW is currently riding off the heels of CM Punk's return on Rampage this past Friday night would have be insane not to jump at the chance to contribute to this high outside of WWE. It's the same thing as the momentum that IMPACT/TNA had following the signings of Sting and Kurt Angle. At that time, a lot of people jumped ship and made the difference on the other show outside of Vince's domain. Those signings made a lot of difference for the public perception of TNA/IMPACT Wrestling really getting a foothold into wrestling landscape, not only in the United States but around the world. WWE was forced to create new stars when they couldn't rely on the greats from the Attitude Era and Monday Night Wars to pull them out of their declining product. That was one of the only good things to come out of the original brand split at the time. Eventually, those same people came back, but it's the same deal as CM Punk - "How can we miss you if you never go away?" Cole can leave and come back again down the road. I think he's built up enough good will for himself between Triple H and Shawn Michaels that he will always have a place back in that company in some capacity. Plus, let's be honest here. Vince isn't going to be around forever either. At the end of the day, Cole probably wants to have fun with his friends in the Elite (and possibly in the Kingdom too in Ring of Honor) over in AEW for a few years and come back to WWE, possibly with Britt in tow, and settle down for tail end of his career. Adam Cole is currently 32 years old. That's still fairly young for a wrestler. If AJ Styles and Bobby Lashley can come back in their late 30s to early 40s then Cole will be fine coming back in a few more years down the road. Opportunities like this don't come up often and let's face it, AEW might not be around in a few more years, but WWE will still be in some capacity whether we want to admit it or not.

Afterthoughts:

TakeOver 36 has been regarded by a lot of people as "The End of an Era", but was it really? I thought NXT has been a chore to watch since even before their move to the USA Network after leaving the WWE Network roughly two years ago, so this notion of how much the show changed AFTER moving to the USA Network is completely foreign to me. I'm no stranger of hearing the reports and rumors that Vince McMahon is looking to "reboot" NXT in a sense to truly be a developmental show again. We could be getting the original NXT format with the pros and rookies all over again, but I seriously doubt that they would devolve into that format again when that wasn't even a hit even at the time. I think the brand, along with WWE's landscape as a whole would thrive off of a lot of veterans (who have been overexposed and beaten into powder on the main roster) would thrive with a fresh coat of paint as they are given the opportunity to reinvent themselves on this brand, while helping groom the future stars of the company. What's the point of continuing to run NXT as if it is Ring of Honor from roughly a decade and a half ago, full of "indie darlings" when AEW's entire business model is featuring the "indie darlings" from top to bottom? That formula worked when NXT was one of the only thriving brands of its kind, especially when WWE harvested 75% of Ring of Honor's top stars, along with some of the hottest international talents at the time. Love or hate it, but NXT was thriving solely off of showcasing these big names from the indies instead of creating their own stars. And the few stars that they did create who were homegrown in WWE's system are far and few - notably Charlotte Flair, Roman Reigns, Bianca Belair, and the list isn't much longer after that. This process is going to take some time to replenish what has been lost and these new stars aren't going to pop up overnight. I have my fingers crossed that they will lay out the proper ground work to get the ball rolling for they won't have to go into a hiring frenzy in a decade from now when all of the former legends are too old to come back when the ratings sink even lower than they are currently.

At the end of the day, this was solid show to end on in terms of wrapping up all of the key storylines up to this point, even though I wasn't heavily invested in a lot of them to begin with, but that's a conversation for another day...