WWE NXT Takeover Dallas: Retro 3 Things We Hated And 3 Things We Loved

Welcome to another edition of Wrestling Inc.'s retro reviews, where we take a trip back in time and look at some of the most notable shows in wrestling history and detail some of things we loved, and some of the things we hated — because as we all know, nothing is perfect. We've been on something of a 2016 kick as of late with a look back on the 2016 Royal Rumble, as well as shining a spotlight on some AJ Styles' matches from that year as well. Now it's time for the stars of "WWE NXT" to hog the spotlight as NXT TakeOver: Dallas celebrates its 10th anniversary.

Taking place two days before WWE WrestleMania 32, NXT TakeOver: Dallas went down at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas, Texas on April 1, 2016, and it was a very pivotal time for WWE's developmental brand. The secret was out about "NXT" at the time as it was quickly becoming a safe haven for WWE fans who were tired of the way the main roster had been booked, while also being a place for fans outside of the WWE Universe to come in and watch some of the stars who they had followed on the indies and internationally.

NXT TakeOver: Dallas was the ninth event under the TakeOver name, the third to take place outside of Full Sail University after the success of the shows in Brooklyn and London in 2015, and the first to happen the night before WrestleMania, a tradition that still exists to this day as the Stand and Deliver Premium Live Events are now staples of WrestleMania weekend. This show is notable for a number of reasons as we saw the official WWE debut of Shinsuke Nakamura as he squared off with the heart and soul of "NXT" in Sami Zayn, Austin Aries making his in-ring debut for the company against Baron Corbin, and three huge title matches that dictated where the men's, women's, and tag team divisions would go next.

If you don't already feel old by the thought of this show happening 10 years ago, you're about to feel a lot older as we go through the three things we loved and hated about WWE NXT TakeOver: Dallas!

Still to this day, tag team wrestling doesn't get the credit that it deserves, and if you've read any of these loved and hated pieces, you'll know that when we finally get to see a good tag team match, we're all over it here at Wrestling Inc.. WWE has never truly valued its tag team division for reasons that are still unknown to people like myself, but the "WWE NXT" brand was pushing tag team wrestling to the forefront in the 2010s, and this match is a prime example of two-on-two action done right.

Seeing Chad Gable with hair, Dax "Scott Dawson" Harwood with mutton chops, and Jason Jordan actually wrestling had me feeling some kind of nostalgic way when this match kicked off because I remember American Alpha and The Revival both being pegged to be future pillars of the WWE tag team division. The Revival have obviously had a lot of success as FTR outside of WWE and are probably better off outside of the WWE bubble, but poor American Alpha got broken up and Jordan ended up being Kurt Angle's child for some reason, despite the fact that Chad Gable was RIGHT THERE!

Anyway, this match still rocks. Classic tag team chemistry between the two teams as Dash and Dawson try every trick in the book to stop the babyface team from getting any sort of shine, with Dash somehow managing to crawl underneath the ring to pop out the other side and prevent Jordan from tagging in despite there being LED screens over the ring skirt. One thing that really stood out all these years later was the Jordan hot tag, because that guy was like a runaway train when he finally got the chance to unleash hell on The Revival. Obviously it helped that Dash and Dawson were more experienced so they could make the much greener American Alpha team look good, but Gable and Jordan more than held their own.

For what it's worth, this match isn't perfect as a few botches and missteps do take the crowd out of things momentarily. However, the four men work at such a frantic pace that the crowd isn't allowed to even acknowledge that anything went wrong, although they did sneak in a "you f***** up" chant. Overall, this is exactly what a show like this should have opened with — a great, fast-paced, hard-hitting match that proved tag team wrestling is alive and well, and doing it all in 15 minutes makes it infinitely rewatchable. Check this out (and their rematch from two months later) right now.

One of the biggest talking points heading into NXT TakeOver: Dallas that has really been lost to time due to the quality of the rest of the show is the in-ring debut of Austin Aries in WWE. "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived" was one of the hottest free agents in the business at the beginning of 2016, which sounds cliché to say, but given the success he had in both TNA and Ring of Honor, you'd be hard pressed to find someone who wasn't excited about Aries finally getting his long-awaited chance to strut his stuff in WWE.

Aries was paired up with the "Lone Wolf" version of Baron Corbin, complete with a receding hairline that makes me feel very good about myself, and a lot more talent in the ring than I will ever have, especially for someone who was as new to the business as Corbin was in 2016. It was clear that WWE saw big things in Corbin, which was emphasized by the fact he won the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania 32 two days after this bout, but it's seeing so much in Corbin that ends up being this match's downfall because in the end, the match is trying to do too much.

To start, trying to follow The Revival and American Alpha was going to be a tall order for anyone, so the crowd really wasn't invested in this one as much as some would have expected given that it was Aries' in-ring debut for WWE. However, there was also an expectation that this was going to be something of a showcase for "The Greatest Man That Ever Lived" and a way for a new audience to see what the hype was about. What it turns out to be is a showcase for Corbin instead, and letting him have the majority of the match go his way grinds the bout to a snail's pace, which just isn't what the people in the building paid to see.

Fans wanted Aries to do all the things he did in ROH and TNA, and to do it against a big time heel for "NXT" like Corbin, who was main roster bound anyway, would have been the perfect structure for a match like this. Let the people who know Aries enjoy his work on a big stage while showing new fans why he has such a loyal following. It didn't pan out that way, and having him beat someone like Corbin with a roll up didn't sit right with me either. A real missed opportunity right here.

Come on, this was never going to be hated, was it? 

When the graphic for Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Sami Zayn flashed up on the screen, there was a little worry in my head that maybe this match doesn't hold up 10 years later. After all, wrestling has changed dramatically, and so have people's tastes and what they want from shows and matches. However, I can safely report that this match isn't just as good as I remember it, it's arguably better.

You only get one chance to make a first impression in many different walks of life, and wrestling fans have long memories. If you mess it up the first time, no one will ever let you forget it — just look at someone like Mistico in CMLL; worshipped in Mexico, but there are still people who bring up the fact he didn't know how to use a trampoline properly when he got to WWE. Nakamura comes out and is every bit the star he was in Japan, which was a fear fans had at the time due to WWE notoriously watering down a lot of international exports. He showed up, owned the room, and without even saying a word everyone knew they were in the presence of someone very special.

Picking someone like Sami Zayn for his first opponent was very smart. It was a "passing of the torch" moment in the context of "NXT" as Zayn would be moving to main roster two days later, so there was never a doubt that Nakamura was winning this and taking the "Face of NXT" mantra from Zayn. On top of that, Zayn's experience working in Japan as El Generico meant that he was familiar with how someone like Nakamura would work, meaning that he was not only able to get the best out of the "King of Strong Style," but he allowed Nakamura to be himself with as many stiff strikes as he was willing to dish out.

Zayn dished out some of his own, causing Nakamura to get a bloody nose halfway through the bout, but that just made Nakamura look even cooler and, if anything, it made the strikes that followed look all the more vicious. The chemistry these two guys have is off the charts as well, each of their moves and counters just flow effortlessly between each other, to the point that Nakamura snatching an armbar caused the whole building to leap to their feet.

I could go on about this match, but it is best to just stop what you're doing, watch it, and realize that it might be the best match in "NXT" history.

The dreaded death spot on any wrestling show is one that performers obviously don't want their match to be slotted into. Watching a match tearing the house down from behind the curtain, knowing you have to follow it, must be one of the most intimidating feelings in the business, but Bayley and Asuka thrived under pressure to produce one of the more underrated NXT Women's Championship matches of this era.

The story of this match is as simple as it gets. Bayley is the beloved babyface champion, second only to Sami Zayn in terms of the "heart and soul" role of "NXT" at the time. Everyone knows she'll be moving to the main roster very soon, but you just want her to hold on to the WWE NXT Women's Championship for a long time because you love her so much. On the other hand, Asuka has come in, beat the snot out of everyone she's faced so far, not taken a single loss on her way to being the number one contender, and is the most legitimate threat to Bayley's title that she has ever had. David vs. Goliath in the metaphorical sense, and it works brilliantly.

Bayley actually gets a lot of the big moments in the match which surprised me watching this back because the way Asuka was talked about in "NXT" made me think that she annihilated Bayley, but that couldn't be further from the truth. Bayley was more than capable of matching Asuka with intensity, to the point where you can feel the crowd shift towards the champion as they are seeing Asuka being worked over by someone on her level for the first time. The crowd legitimately comes up and believes that despite the undefeated streak and the superstar presentation, Bayley might actually just win this match, but that obviously isn't the case.

Asuka locks in a nasty looking armbar that Bayley is able to escape from before locking in the Asuka Lock which looks to be the end of things, but Bayley fights out of it. It's only the second time the Asuka Lock is applied, this time much further from the ropes that the first time around, where the air gets sucked out of the room. Everyone knows Bayley is tapping, except she didn't — she passed out. I liked the finish as it put Asuka over as a monster who can win with basically anything, while keeping Bayley as a valiant babyface right until the end as she would rather pass out than quit. Highly underrated and well worth going back to watch all these years later.

Four matches down, one to go — it's the main event, a rematch from the main event of NXT TakeOver: London in December 2015 as Finn Balor defends the NXT Championship against Samoa Joe. However, the fans were blissfully unaware that they were going to be treated to a special bonus match within the main event, one that completely ruined the flow of an otherwise good match, that being Joe taking on the WWE medical team in a Handicap Match.

In the opening exchange, Joe tries to bullrush Balor in the corner but misses, leading to the two guys just swinging for each other. In the midst of everything, both men clashed heads and as Joe throws Balor to the outside, you can see a little trail of blood coming down the right-hand side of Joe's face, nothing major but enough for the referee to get his special gloves on in case. Balor gets back in and Joe throws him out again, the blood a little more prominent than before, then Balor gets back in and throws Joe to the outside, only to be thrown into the front row by the "Samoan Submission Machine." Then it happens, then the towels come out.

In this era of WWE, blood was obviously a big no. Whether it was accidental or intentional, it's a PG product, there must not be any blood, and to be honest, cleaning Joe up while Balor is laid out in the crowd was fine and a perfect time to do it. Sure, Joe wanted to continue because he probably knew he looked like an absolute beast with a face and chest full of blood, but it needed cleaning up regardless just like how cornermen do in a Boxing or MMA fight. 

But these guys just wouldn't leave Joe alone!

Every momentary pause in the action and there they were with the Vaseline, and the towels, and the gloves, and it just takes you out of the match entirely. It got to a point where Joe probably went from being like "No it's fine leave it, it'll close by itself" to "Would you actually leave me alone I'm trying to wrestle a main event title match here." Even the crowd were chanting "Let Joe bleed," "PG Sucks" and "B*******" because it was genuinely ruining what would have likely been a classic TakeOver main event had the doctors not tried to stop the match about 18 times.

Yes, they were trying to do their jobs and God bless them for their efforts, but let the guys work. Wrestling is a violent art form, and sometimes that canvas needs a little bit of color.

I spent the majority of the main event thinking "How am I going to figure out a third thing to dislike on this show? This is my job after all, what will I do?" Then Finn Balor beat Samoa Joe with what was effectively a roll up and my job was saved.

In fairness, this is much more of a nit-pick as the match between Balor and Joe was very good, and for me personally the best of the trilogy of NXT TakeOver main events they would have, despite the doctors trying to cash-in their Vaseline In The Bank. However, this show was built up as the "WWE NXT" version of WrestleMania, you would be foolish to not expect a grand finale to what is the biggest show of the year for "NXT." All of the storytelling over the past year building to this night, a night where the brand would likely have more eyes on it than ever before given when it took place and you could still get a 30-day free trial of the WWE Network (RIP the WWE Network by the way), and it ends in a roll up? Come on now.

It does make sense from a storytelling perspective as Joe, who is on the absolute top of his game here for what it's worth, is so blinded by rage that he can't get the job done against Balor, falling victim to the champion just being a little smarter than him. Joe could have just let go of the Coquina Clutch, but found himself in a position where he physically couldn't let go, which is a smart finish, but for me personally I would have liked a finish that was a bit larger, more fitting of the biggest show of the year for "NXT."

The match feels like it's going that direction as well as Balor kicks out of a Muscle Buster in the closing stages, something that sends Joe into a panic. Finisher kickouts have been done to death at this point, but they were reserved for the main event on this show, making it feel earned. Balor is the NXT Champion, you've got to pull out all the stops to beat him as opposed to the other matches that had literally zero finishers being kicked out of.

With that said, a flash pin is what ended TakeOver: Dallas which, again, isn't what I was looking for personally. It's more than understandable why they went this route and if you enjoyed it, that is completely fine, but WWE had the slightest of wobbles sticking the landing to what was, on the whole, a show that outshined WrestleMania.