10 Things You Learn Binge Watching Every WWE NXT TakeOver

2. How Gradually It Ate Itself Alive

Adam Cole Johnny Gargano
WWE

There was a point halfway through the stodgy main event of TakeOver: Toronto in August 2019 where Adam Cole and Johnny Gargano no longer knew what to do to one another, and on commentary Mauro Ranallo put this over as being the result of their many titanic struggles.

It was more a case of fact bleeding over into fiction.

The need for critically acclaimed classics grew more pronounced as Triple H tried to hide that he was running out of ideas. TakeOver: WarGames in 2019 offered scintillating titular battles, but they came at the expense of the performers' well-being. Adam Cole worked so much around this time that he looked like he'd been repackaged as an Egyptian mummy for 2.0 thanks to all the bandages.

There was no escaping the problem at the last TakeOver before the pandemic, and last of its kind before much of NXT's hardcore ticket-buying base migrated to AEW. It was fabulous by formula, with all the right moments making all the right noises but there was a frustrating sense of familiarity and excess in just about every match. Chesney Hawkes played "One & Only" twice in a 7-song set when he played the Unis after his brief peak. That looked disciplined compared to what became of the Factory Settings TakeOver show. Portland concluding with the setup to another Gargano/Ciampa showdown put too fine a point on that.

Obviously, none of that could go to plan, but March 2020's global shutdown at least squeezed some impressive ingenuity out of All Elite Wrestling. How would things go on the other side of the Wednesday Night War?

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation for 10 years. Alongside the production of daily written, audio and video content covering WWE and AEW, he also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot on the UK's wrestling podcast charts with over 10,000 episodes and 70,000,000 total downloads. He also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House!, Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast, and has guested on long-running Sunderland AFC podcast Wise Men Say. With WhatCulture, he has provided in-person coverage of some of the biggest pay-per-views and Premium Live Events in wrestling history, including WrestleMania, Survivor Series, All In & Double Or Nothing in destinations such as New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. He has also been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana, 411Mania and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in music and culture magazines The Crack, Pilot as well as Sunderland AFC's premiere fanzine A Love Supreme. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it every other Saturday at the Stadium Of Light, and at Cribs gigs nationwide.