I have to admit, even before everything in recent memory that’s gone on with Andrade, I was never his biggest fan. He’s great in the ring, but I can’t say I find him very interesting as a character, and I was just never a fan of his pairing alongside Zelina Vega, either. That being said, on a TakeOver with a lot to like, Andrade “Cien” Almas’ victory over Drew McIntyre for the NXT Championship was my least favorite thing on the show, outside of the opening match.

My biggest issue isn’t any of the in-ring action, it’s mostly with Vega. While I don’t mind her in the ring nowadays on “SmackDown,” she wasn’t exactly the most believable when it came to helping out Andrade, especially in this match. At the very beginning, she attempted to get in McIntyre’s face, but rather, stared at his belly button, so the massive size difference is highlighted immediately. I get it’s all about suspension of disbelief, but I can only do that so much.

Toward the end of the match, Andrade goes for the belt at ringside, distracting the referee, leaving the match wide open for Vega to interfere. She attempted a hurricanrana, which was apparently her go-to move to interfere in Andrade’s matches at the time, on McIntyre, who was on his knees in the middle of the ring. The way she hit it, despite McIntyre being down a little lower for her to execute the move, it just looked kind of dumb. It would have made more sense to me if Vega came in and punched him or something since he was closer down to her level.

The only thing that made sense with Vega was when she put Andrade’s foot on the rope after he took a Claymore, which I thought was just fine. Andrade also recovered way too quickly from that, and the match went on for a bit too long after it all. Andrade beat McIntyre with a Hammerlock DDT with McIntyre on the top rope.

I also don’t know if it was the impending WarGames match and the excitement for that following this bout, but even Andrade’s celebration didn’t exactly hit the way title celebrations usually do, which may seem silly, but for whatever reason, stood out to me on this show. This ended up being McIntyre’s final match in “NXT” due to him suffering a bicep injury during the match, which is kind of obvious at the end when officials are clearly checking on him in the ring. While he was always destined for the main roster following his WWE comeback, this match, injury included, wasn’t exactly a super exciting one for him to go out on.

Written by Daisy Ruth