01.NXT TakeOver Toronto - NXT Tag Team Championship: #DIY vs. The Revival (Two Out Of Three Falls Match)
Well here it is, WWE.com’s MOTY Do I agree let’s find out, first of I wanna say I love, love, love the Brooklyn match, it’s my favorite tag match since No Mercy 2002, EdgeRey vs. KurtBenoit. Or even since the Two Man Power Trip vs. Benoit/Jericho. I’ve heard Austin say or it might be someone else say, when Tag Wrestling is done right it, it’s one of the best things in wrestling. I remember in the live watch, this being incredible I was just a little salty about the finish because I’m #TopGuys4Life. But I will try to be objective here; Revival throwing love out the Heart Foundation by wearing pink and black and the leather jackets makes my heart melt. The two out of three falls stipulation is perfect for the old school style of the champions, and is a great way to determine who the undisputed best “tag team” The first fall it really well done, The Revival do a great job of surviving DIY’s quick/flashy offense weathering the storm before slowly cutting off the ring, slowing the match down and isolating a body. From out of nowhere, off a Johnny hot tag, they sucker him in and hit the Shatter Machine for the first fall. 1-0, Revival. The second fall saw the Revival do what they do best, we got a brief glimpse of it in the first but the heat on Gargano is magnificent, cutting the ring off cheating, double teams, using the refs full 5 counts. And I give Gargano a ton of credit he bumped and sold his ass off. Awesome fuckin moment, Dawson is in trouble so Dash runs in, and he begins to take some offense from Johnny, but Dash rolls over right in front of Ciampa so if Johnny was gonna tag he would be right in the way to intercept, AWESOME! Another great moment Dawson rolls to the floor and grabs Ciampa leg pulling him down to stop Johnny from tagging in, but when he kicks off Dawson rolls in to distract the ref, the same time Johnny makes the tag. THE REF DOESN’T SEE IT SO HE HAS TO HOLD HIM BACK WHICH ALLOWS THE REVIVAL TO CLOBBER HIM IN THE CORNER! Ciampa has seen enough and chases Dawson around but the ref stops him and Since this was in Toronto, they busted out the Hart Attack for a great near fall. Ciampa finally gets the hot tag and does a great job at showing the desperation at just tying up the match, hitting moves and covering after everything just hoping one can stick. After some good back and forth, The Revival make their first mistake, well Dawson does as he grabs the ref and that allows DIY to hit their double running knee/superkick strike and cover to tie it up. THIS FUCKIN’ THIRD FALL THO! The final fall is incredible. Non-stop action with some of the best near-falls I’ve seen since I started this project. DIY have this new found confidence that they can win, after tying it up so they throw everything at the champs, this time they do an amazing job mostly Johnny does out of fighting out of possible double teams. The small-package near fall is amazing, but it was a great spot. Another fuckin amazing moment it when Dawson throws one of the tag belts in, and as Johnny is going for the rolling kick Dawson counters by hitting him with it essentially taking out the knee again. Gargano got trapped in the submission he lost to in Brooklyn but survived this time around, as he uses the crowd to will his way and to grab the bottom rope. HE WILL NOT BE DENIED! The champs are in shock, so what do they do they go for DIY’s finisher but Dawson accidently superkicks Dash, and that allows DIY to hit Shatter Machine and I absolutely believed it was over, but it was broken up. DEAD! Dash rolls up Johnny but has the tights, but the ref breaks up the count because he can “see it” which is bullshit because the angle he had, no way he can see it. The match breaks down, and Dawson absolutely murders Johnny leg with a chop block, HOLY SHIT! IT LOOKED LIKE HE TORE HIS KNEE UP! They trade back and forth roll-ups, as the DIY lock in stereo double submissions on both champs and the Revival tap out. The finish was brilliant; The Revival go down together
HOLY FUCKIN’ SHIT! I think the only reason I never went back and watched this is because my saltiness of The Revival losing, it still hurts but as we are in the beginning of February and we just found out DIY are only transitional champs for Samoan SWAT Shield Team Adjace, and to give the crowd that pop moment considering Nakamura would lose the title in the main event. But as for the match, everything here clicked. The crowd was hot; the work was crisp, the call-backs to their past, the storytelling and the underlying tease of Gargano possibly failing again and with the CWC/2005 now being a thing, could WWE want these guys as new pieces to do nothing with. #DIY’s win was emotional, hard earned and beautiful the Revival looked amazing in the loss and still look like the best tag team on planet earth. WWE got one right, this is the match of the year, yeah it really is. Bravo. When was the last time WWE had a match that you could argue it’s the MOTY? 2001? The Power Trip/Canadian Violence? ****3/4
