WWE News: Big Spoiler On Gimmick Match For Finn Balor Vs Samoa Joe At Upcoming ‘NXT Takeover’ Special
Finn Balor lost his NXT Championship to Samoa Joe at an NXT live event recently, shocking us all. Clearly, this means Balor gets a rematch for the title, where Samoa Joe will put “his” NXT Championship on the line. The two are set to square off next month at the next NXT Takeover special on June 8. Usually, these specials are always great to watch and feature wonderful matches and exciting material.
It is said that WWE wants to end the Balor/Joe rivalry at this Takeover special, which makes many believe Joe will retain. Regardless, they want to send Finn Balor off with a bang. In order to do this, they have to give the two an amazing match to work in. That seems to be where they are headed. According to the Daily Wrestling News, WWE is expected to announce a steel cage match for the NXT Title at NXT Takeover.
NXT does not do many gimmick matches, as the brand is pretty old school with how they do things. This would be the first steel cage match in NXT history. WWE NXT has done two ladder matches in the past, one of which Balor was involved in with Kevin Owens. However, this is only the third gimmick match in the history of the brand. That means NXT will want to make the match special.
Obviously, this will be the main event of the night, and it goes really well with old-school philosophy. Back in the day, a steel cage match would be the last match you wanted to be involved in. It would be a match that everyone avoids because of how terrible it could be to work through storyline-wise. A lot of wrestling fans are jaded when it comes to NXT doing these rare gimmick matches, mainly because gimmick matches are done all the time on the main roster.
In fact, out of all 12 PPVs in WWE as it stands today, WWE has five gimmick shows. This doesn’t include WWE Network specials like Elimination Chamber. Old-school terminology was shifted in a major way with the rise of ECW, a hardcore promotion that was built on mostly gimmick matches. They threw in the occasional wrestling match, of course, but most of the time it was all about the gimmick.
WWE and WCW had to keep up with demand. This pushed both to not only adding a Hardcore Championship, but also add a lot of gimmick matches. Some were already around, including Survivor Series, which was WWE’s answer to War Games. Then, of course, we had the Royal Rumble match, a unique take on the old-school battle royal. However, WWE added a lot of new ones too. Since then, WWE has been gimmicked massively.
It is great that WWE NXT goes old school while also allowing new school to still have a role. Matches are done differently, and there’s a lot more show around the average match. However, the matches are usually quite simple in execution. Now WWE NXT is adding just their third real gimmick match in the history of the brand. It means a lot for NXT fans. It shows us that NXT can go just as gimmicky as the main roster, but they choose to avoid this.
The steel cage may not seem like a big deal, but if this is even a bit as good as the last two gimmick matches with NXT, then we’re in for a great show all around. Steel cage matches from the past have been brutal, and it is known if WWE will use the classic cage or the usual one. However, we can assume the usual cage will be the choice.
[Image via WWE]
