7 Ups And 3 Downs From NXT TakeOver: The End

2. Saving It For Later?

nakamura aries wwe
WWE.com

One thing that was surprising about TakeOver: The End was what didnt happen in the Austin Aries/Shinsuke Nakamura match.

Aries and Nakamura had a great match that showcased both mens talents, changing pace without being dull and making sure both men looked strong throughout. However, the one thing that seemed to be missing was a definitive heel turn for A-Double. He certainly looked like he was going down that road in recent interactions with Nakamura, and even during their match, the crowd felt comfortable assigning him the heel role for the bout.

So why didnt he turn? It wouldnt have been hard for him to take a shortcut during the match, or even outright cheat, or he could have blasted Shinsuke afterward. Maybe this is something that will be revisited in the coming weeks, but it felt like the crowd was hot and would have reacted strongly to something like that from The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived.

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Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.