Friday night saw the latest edition of Takeover from WWE‘s most internet friendly brand, NXT. The supershow officially dubbed NXT Takeover: Dallas was a historic event and immediately enters the argument for being the best Takeover special yet. Two of the three titles changed hands and Shinsuke Nakamura made his debut, defeating Sami Zayn in what was likely the latter’s final NXT match. Austin Aries made his in-ring debut and his former rival/partner, Bobby Roode, made a surprise appearance in the front row, fresh off his departure from TNA.
The main event for the NXT Championship was seen by many to be a foregone conclusion. Finn Balor was expected to debut at WrestleMania, probably during the Hell in a Cell match between Undertaker and Shane McMahon, so dropping the title made sense.
Neither Finn’s debut nor the title change happened, and the audience in attendance on Friday night sounded a little bit disappointed that the purportedly obvious didn’t occur. What took them out of the match as it was taking place, however, with the ongoing referee and doctor stoppages that interrupted the action almost from the very start of the match. Balor and the challenger Samoa Joe unintentionally bumped heads early on, and Joe came away with a pretty bad cut around his eye. WWE’s policy is to have the referee immediately put on latex gloves and if the blood becomes excessive, to signal the ringside doctor.
Indeed, referee Drake Wuertz, who in his past life was no stranger to excessive blood loss (as CZW wrestler Drake Younger), got the doctor involved. The crowd booed the decision and chanted “PG sucks” on a pair of occasions, even though the PG designation isn’t the main reason WWE tries to avoid blood. This continued throughout the contest, and while initially it felt more like a benefit to the match, it started becoming detrimental.
All things considered, the negative effect of the multiple stoppages was fairly small, but it illustrates a very problematic double standard. If it was a Triple H match, Undertaker vs. Brock Lesnar or any match featuring a “major” star, they wouldn’t dare interrupt. In fact, sometimes they intentionally bleed!
I honestly expected that Triple H was going to make the executive decision to stop the interruptions after the second or third time it happened, but the call never came. It was still a very good match, but it could have been great with either no breaks due to the blood or a limited amount.
It’s just so unbelievably frustrating that WWE is willing to risk completely ruining a match that is the main event of the biggest show in the history of NXT. Joe wasn’t going to start bleeding so much that he was going to be covered in it and there was no chance that the match would become a bloodbath. Was the intention protecting Joe? Did they want to make sure sponsors didn’t get upset, even though they were running the event on their own network?
Blood isn’t a necessity in pro wrestling. Even in a street fight there are ways to work around a style that used to mean the red stuff was guaranteed to flow. But if it happens naturally and it isn’t an immediate threat to the wrestlers, address it initially and then just let it go.
WWE’s inconsistent behavior is mind boggling.