We now move on towards Episode 7 which is the culmination of second round contests with our final 3 matches. We start off with…
Lince Dorado vs Rich Swann - RATING: ***1/2
Lince Dorado had one of the best first round matches with Mustafa Ali with both guys just going balls to the wall to put out a quality match. It certainly left a lasting impression as we hope Lince can have a repeat performance especially given the level of competitor he’s competing against here. Rich Swann had a fairly solid first round bout against Jason Lee in which he showcased a lot of how good he can be in the ring so I have no doubt really that he should be able to put on a just as good showing at the very least against the Golden Lynx here in this second round match. This match was quite crisp for the most part with both Lince and Swann showcasing more of their arsenals and as a result, it led to both guys looking good. There was a couple things I’d nitpick from this admittedly so I wouldn’t say it’s as good as the Lince/Ali match from the first round with notable nitpicks really being the dancing early in the match along with a really weird interaction where Swann did the same jumping Hurricanarana he did in the first round and Lince just didn’t go with him. The spot looked like it was supposed to be Lince going with him but turning it into more of a roll but it just came off awkward. Outside of that however, these two got to show off what they do best and that being some high-flying with a mix of solid strikes in there accompanied by a hot crowd that was eating it up. Both guys had each other scouted as well which made for some really good spots with Swann’s finisher from the first round (the Standing 450 Splash) being blocked by the knees and Lince going for the Shooting Star Press which Swann moved out of the way. Swann decided to follow up on that with a beautiful Phoenix Splash (which looked like he landed on Lince’s face a bit) that led to the 3 count as Swann advancing to the Quarter-Finals. After this tournament, Lince Dorado went on to sign with WWE and was mostly relegated to the 205 Live brand for the most part. He’d later join up with Gran Metalik & Kalisto in order to form the Lucha House Party for a little while until both Metalik & Lince were released by WWE at the end of 2021. Following his WWE tenure, Lince went back to the independents such as MLW where he’d go on to win the MLW World Middleweight Championship in 2022 as well as making appearances in promotions such as Impact Wrestling and New Japan Pro Wrestling.
Our next match consists of…
Drew Gulak vs Zack Sabre Jr. - RATING: ****
A tale of two different kinds of first round matches for these two as Drew Gulak didn’t have the greatest match with Harv Sihra to kick off his tournament. A good result for him statistically but in terms of the workrate department, it wasn’t exactly anything that lit the world on fire. As for Zack Sabre Jr, his first round match against Tyson Dux was a fairly compelling one from the technical side of things and one that made him a notable wrestler to keep an eye on in this tournament. Both men’s styles are very complementary to each other with both guys having very technical styles along with submission based finishers (the Gulock Dragon Sleeper in the case of Gulak and a plethora of submissions in ZSJ’s case). Now I have to say, this was quite the sleeper hit for me and your enjoyment of this will vary based on your thoughts on submission wrestling as a whole but this rocked. Gulak set the tone for this match before the bell even rang by rejecting a handshake from ZSJ and then the second the bell rang, these two started grappling to the point where I was questioning if I was on two times the speed it was fast enough. These two just constantly tried one upping each other with every submission they did wanting to make the other tap to prove that they were the best technical wrestler in the world but neither succeeded. There were some slick counters and transitions that were as smooth as butter and I was just enjoying it. Towards the end of this match, they decided to start slapping each other in the face which certainly got the crowd going a little bit before Gulak managed to get a hold of ZSJ for the Gulock. However, like ZSJ himself said: “Harry Potter isn’t the only wizard from England” and proved as such by reversing the Gulock into his signature European Clutch rollup which got the 3 count over Gulak. More of this please. After this tournament, Drew Gulak went on to sign with WWE and was initially relegated to the 205 Live brand. He went on to win the Cruiserweight Championship from Tony Nese in 2019. He would soon lose it to Lio Rush on an episode of NXT in late 2019. Afterwards, he would continue his tenure but instead moved up to the main roster working on the SmackDown brand until he was eventually moved down to NXT. Shame we can’t get the PowerPoint presentations back because we very truly miss them.
In our final match of the second round we have…
Johnny Gargano vs TJ Perkins - RATING: ***3/4
Johnny Gargano ended up having the best match in the first round against Tommaso Ciampa so he comes into this match with a chip on his shoulder: can he retain having the best matches in this tournament? Well his dance partner for this affair is TJ Perkins who had a very flat match with Da Mack in the first round but I’m sure Perkins can work a very good match so here’s to hoping this one delivers. This match was definitely an improvement from Perkins’ first round match and Gargano continues his streak of pretty good matches. This one didn’t really slow down for the most part with the main story going in being that Gargano’s left knee being hurt from a tag title match against The Revival at NXT Takeover Brooklyn II since ironically Gargano had to submit to a leglock/kneebar. How appropriate that TJ Perkins just so happens to use a kneebar called the TJP Clutch as his finishing move that conveniently locks both legs up. Notable spots in this one include a Lawn Dart where Perkins sells it really well, a dive to the outside from Gargano where he hit his legs off the timekeeper’s table as well as the finish being captivating in the sense that it played perfectly into the story being told. My only problem with this match is I felt it lacked that next gear to take it up a further notch hence the below 4 star rating. TJ Perkins picked up the upset victory here with the aforementioned TJP Clutch that made Johnny Gargano tap out and advances to the Quarter-Finals.
Now before I get into what Gargano did after this tournament, I do believe that this was the correct booking decision considering Perkins’ finisher and how it plays into the Brooklyn match and I don’t think at this stage of Gargano’s career he needed to win this tournament or really go any further than he did. I’ll get more into the semantics of what I believe the correct decision in my eyes was later on (probably after the finals) but just wanted to clear that up. As for what Gargano did post tournament, Johnny Gargano continued his run in NXT eventually winning the NXT Tag Team Championships with fellow DIY member Tommaso Ciampa. They’d soon however lose the championships and become destined to fight forever in 2018 with a grand total of 3 Takeover matches in a row that main evented. Gargano would eventually go on to win the NXT Championship in 2019 in a match against Adam Cole which completed his Grand Slam achievement at the time for NXT. Gargano would leave WWE for a while in 2021 but would eventually come back in August of 2022. Unfortunately however, WWE have currently been fumbling the bag with Gargano on the main roster with him not really doing much. Hopefully over time, that may change but for the moment, it’s a matter of “Will they put stock behind Johnny Gargano on the main roster? Or will they not?” Only time will tell after the DIY reunion that is currently taking place.