NXT TakeOver: Orlando was a great show, I loved it! 9/10
- First off, I liked the set and the intro by HHH. I also liked the new titles, the commentary and Drew McIntyre being back.
- SAnitY vs Tye Dillinger, Roderick Strong, Kassius Ohno & Ruby Riot was a pretty good show opener. ★★★½
No Way Jose was originally scheduled to be in the match, but they wrote him off at AXXESS and KO was the mystery partner and got a good reaction. As for the match, it was about as chaotic as advertised, the pacing was good and the crowd was invested the entire time. SAnitY picking up the win was not surprising and Tye eating the pin probably means he'll be debuting on the post-Mania RAW or SmackDown episode.
- Aleister Black vs Andrade "Cien" Almas was good. ★★★
This was good, considering it had pretty much no build going in. I mean, it wasn't either Black or Andrade's best effort, but it had some good back-and-forth action. Black looked good in his debut and I really dig his theme song and entrance.
- The Authors of Pain vs DIY vs The Revival was fantastic and MOTN. ★★★★½
What a great tag match filled with tons of great moments and action. I loved it. DIY and The Revival being unwilling allies made for a great story, I also loved Dawson and Gargano hitting DIY's finisher and Ciampa and Wilder hitting Shatter Machine on the Authors of Pain, respectively. I marked out for that. The AoP were good here and had their moments, as well. Oh, and I totally expected DIY to go out first. And since we're on the subject, the sequence right before the elimination of DIY was marvelous. And then we had The Revival vs The AoP, which was good, but it would've been better if it was DIY and The AoP in the end, it would've made for a much hotter finish, but oh well. It was still a fantastic match, nonetheless.
- Asuka vs Ember Moon was very good. ★★★¾
This match was exactly what it needed to be and it served its purpose of making Asuka look beatable. Not only could Ember keep up with Asuka throughout the match, but she almost one-upped her, which made the finish itself so perfect to me. Ember was about to hit Eclipse and finish the champ off, so Asuka had to resort to cheating in order to retain the title. And to be frank, Ember dethroning Asuka here wouldn't feel right, because she hasn't been built up properly. But now that Asuka's heel turn has kicked off, the fans will keep caring about Moon more and more, she's needed character development since her debut, so with that said, when she finally dethrones Asuka in a rematch, it's going to be glorious.
- Bobby Roode vs Shinsuke Nakamura was a pretty good ME. ★★★½
First off, the entrances were great and the crowd was really hot for the match. But, I'm gonna say what I said about their match in San Antonio... I just felt like the match could've been about 5-7 minutes shorter. It felt long at times. However, the homestretch and the finish itself were good. I also like the fact that Roode won clean here and Nakamura's probably set to debut on post-Mania RAW or SmackDown episode, preferably SmackDown.
All in all, this was a great and enjoyable show.
