Botched Spot

Two days ago I posted predictions for NXT TakeOver: Toronto and Survivor Series. What did I get right and what did I miss? Did I forsee Goldberg squashing Lesnar in three moves? Did anyone? Let’s take a look:

NXT TakeOver: Toronto

I didn’t do too bad on TakeOver, with four predictions right and only one wrong. Bobby Roode beating Dillinger was easy for me to call because Roode is still on his way up and I think Dillinger’s on his way out (to the main roster, not getting fired). I also correctly called both tag matches, with DIY picking up the belts and the Authors of Pain picking up the trophy. The tag title match was a thing of beauty, with both teams showing why they deserve to be the top teams in NXT. TM 61 hit some nice spots in their match, but it will ultimately be remembered for how much the crane looked like the toy it was based on than anything either team did.

I was expecting Asuka vs. Mickie James to be great and it blew away my expectations. Mickie was the first competitor that presented a real challenge to Asuka and it was a nice change to see her sell for a bit. I saw people complaining about the quick end, but I thought it was a good way of showing that once Asuka has her lock in, the match is over. I thought Shinsuke and Joe’s match was great even though it was my only missed prediction of the night. These two always have great matches together, but I’m not really excited for this feud to continue, even with Nakamura now chasing Joe for the NXT Championship.

Survivor Series

I didn’t do quite as well with my Survivor Series predictions. While I called Miz successfully defending his championship correctly, I was really surprised by Baron Corbin ruining the cruiserweight division’s chance to move to Smackdown. Honestly, after Baron interfered and called the cruiserweights “little pests”, I’m feeling like Vince has given up on the division and it makes me want to give up on them too.

As far as the traditional elimination matches go, I was right about the Raw women and the single Smackdown men (I don’t know what else to call them) winning, but missed on the tag. Who could’ve seen the New Day getting eliminated so quickly? Who? Who? All of the matches were kind of a fun mess, and even though they didn’t count for anything, there were some memorable spots. The Shield and Wyatt Family reunion was a nice end to the single men’s match and almost made up for Braun sloppily dumping AJ out of the ring and Shane getting KO’d by Roman’s spear earlier in the night.

I totally blew it on predicting the main event! I said there wasn’t a surer bet than Lesnar winning. Whoops! While I know a few people predicted Goldberg winning, I don’t think anyone saw him winning with just three moves. I feel conflicted about the result though. At first I thought it was a great feel good moment and it was awesome to see Brock put in his place… but then I remembered how many guys he dominated in the past few years. So a guy can take twelve years off, train for a few weeks, and then squash a man who can beat main eventers like Randy Orton and Dean Ambrose with a series of German suplexes? No wonder WWE can’t build any new stars. I’m just going to try and enjoy it for what it was and not worry about what could have been.

Overall I predicted four out of five TakeOver matches and three out of six Survivor Series matches correctly. Not my best, but I think all Sunday night WWE was trying to surprise us. I think TakeOver: Toronto was great and Survivor Series was fun, but nothing people are going to go back and watch. At least the squashing of Lesnar gave people something to talk about for years to come.