Thursday, July 22, 2021

NXT TakeOver: In Your House 2021


Last year, NXT did an empty arena In Your House-style throwback show... and apparently, people liked it so much that they did another one last year. Anyway, I recently dug up the old WWF In Your House musings I wrote a couple years back during the pandemic days and posted them on the blog. As it turned out, said NXT In Your House was also included as part of the package and since I did watch that one, it's only fair that I give this show a fair shake, especially if they end up doing another one this year.

So consider this a bit of a bonus musings of sorts.


This is the first time I'm watching an NXT show in their new Capitol Wrestling Center and I like the look of this place. Somewhat spacious and dark looking, but lit enough that it doesn't come across as dingy. Once again, they did the In Your House set on the stage and even brought back Todd Pentingill to play the old Karate Fighters game with that Dexter fellow... do they still make Karate Fighters?

North American champion Bronson Reed and NXT Tag-Team Champions MSK (Nash Carter and Wes Lee) defeated Legado Del Fantasma (Santos Escobar, Joaquin Wilde, and Raul Mendoza) in a six-man Winners-Take-All match to retain their titles. Like how none of the Legado guys wanted to face Reed and who could blame 'em because he looks like a mean SOB. I thought this was fucking tremendous. Reed looked like a monster that overcame the numbers and smashed one of the guys through the plexiglas. Hell of an opening contest.

Xia Li pinned Mercedes Martinez in what I thought was a perfectly fine match. I like Li's new look; very MK-esque and she was a beast here... Mercedes ain't too bad, either.

LA Knight defeated Cameron Grimes in a ladder match to win the Million Dollar Belt, because Cameron Grimes is a rich dude and he gets outdone by the Million Dollar Man in a bunch of vignettes that are the only bits of NXT I saw (they're pretty good and well worth looking up the clips on Youtube.) And then the former Eli Drake comes along and now both guys are feuding over Ted Dibiase's old gimmick belt. Well, LA Knight won the belt and turned on Dibiase, because of course, he did. Anyway, it was a contrast. Eli's the wrestler who stuck with wrestling, while Grimes was the guy willing to take the crazy bumps, which gave away the end result in my mind. Still a pretty fun match and a good continuation of this feud. I liked Eli and Grimes is also someone I'm warming up to. Hope neither guy gets fucked up down the road when they move down to the main roster.

NXT Women's Champion Rachel Gonzales defeated Ember Moon in a pretty good match to retain the title. Not much to add here other than both ladies pulled off a hell of a match and I enjoyed it quite a bit.

NXT Champion Karrion Cross retains the title in a five-way match involving Adam Cole, Kyle O'Reilly, and a couple others. I will be completely honest and say that after the ten minute mark, I shut the show off because the whole thing became a bit of a mess. Turns out the end was a bit of a mess too and they teased a William Regal resigning from the GM post angle for the post-show NXT episode, which featured the return of Samoa Joe as an on-screen character. Sorry I didn't stick around until the end, but these multi-man things are always a mess, especially when none of the guys really stood out.

So, up until the main event, I thought this was a pretty good show, all things considered. I'll tell you what; NXT has been killing it with these In Your House revivals. I'm even making a note to catch next year's edition if they go that route. We'll see.

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