WWE NXT TakeOver: Respect - 7 Major Talking Points
3. Apollo Crews And Tyler Breeze Are Both Going Places
At first glance, this match might look like it was thrown together at the last minute in order to fill space on the card. However, there’s an underlying story to this match that was made painfully clear before the opening bell rang: Breeze is upset that he’s been in NXT for so long without getting top billing, while so many other wrestlers have come to NXT and have surpassed him in shorter periods.
Frustrated, Breeze tried to take his frustrations out on Apollo Crews in what turned out to be quite the dramatic match.
Crews, whose prior matches had been primarily squash matches, had his hands full with Breeze, with his superior ring presence, technique, and psychology. Breeze targeted a body part (in this case, Crews’ back) and attacked it throughout the entire match with a myriad of different moves.
But not even that could hold the highly-athletic Apollo Crews back. He kept showcasing both his impressive strength and unbelievable agility in a way that really demonstrated his versatility (he executed a delayed vertical Suplex and a sunset flip attempt within minutes of each other).
Down the road, it’s fair to say that, not only are both Breeze and Crews going to be main-eventing NXT, but it wouldn’t be surprising to see both of them on the main roster sooner than initially expected.