Less than two months after NXTs insanely popular and nearly perfect special event TakeOver: Brooklyn, the Little Promotion That Could held its latest event Wednesday night. While it had a lot going for it finals in a tournament honoring the late Dusty Rhodes, the debut of a top Japanese star and a groundbreaking Iron Woman main event it really wasnt fair to expect this Full Sail University show to top the Brooklyn affair. Several hundred fans rarely can compete with 13,000. Still, TakeOver: Respect was a pretty good effort, as NXT broke new ground by having two women hold down the main event for a half-hour a bold move by doing both of these unique decisions at the same time and debuted a female wrestler who could have an immediate impact on the womens division. Three of the six matches on the card were eaten up by the semi-finals and finals of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic, an inaugural tournament announced in Brooklyn that had its share of good moments and teachable moments. Although this wasnt the Earth-shattering event that Brooklyn was, this was an enjoyable way to spend a Wednesday night, and the energy from the Full Sail faithful added to the night, with one exception: Chanting Womens wrestling, Main event and This is Awesome multiple times during the Bayley/Sasha Banks match isnt cool or smart the third time you do it. Otherwise, thanks for the energy, and of course for the respect. So what deserves to get called up to the main roster and what should be sent packing? Lets get to it
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.
