Kyle O'Reilly & Roderick Strong vs. Trent Seven & Tyler Bate

[9.0] "One of the best tag team matches WWE has ever done, I miss the black & gold nxt era it was so much fun & filled with promise"

[7.0] "Really good stuff, if a little melodramatic. Strong and O'Reilly's leg work is so damn mean here, and Trent Seven, despite being the least famous/talented guy in this match has his career performance here with some genuinely excellent leg selling and he's able to milk some strong babyface sympathy. Bate's hot tag is good as well, and it's really just a match where everything comes together nicely."

[9.0] "This is 17 minutes and 30 seconds of Trent Seven torture. So I won't complain. This is such a good tag match. Tyler Bates' hot tag is perfect, Roddy and Kyle's performances were amazing, and Trent's facials and selling were top-notch. It was one note of just Trent Seven's knee, but it works. Bate was great, only getting one tag in the match and it is the best part of the match. Seven getting the forceful tag just for more knee work was great. Kinda hard to explain why I love this match but also most of you have seen it so I will just say it's great but not perfect. ****3/4 (4.75)"

[9.0] "I gonna be honest, one of my biggest issues as a pro wrestling fan and as a NXT Black and Gold enjoyers is not putting that matches into a god tier. I like it, for sure, without a doubt, but I'm not able to see that match and think "oh this is a banger" "This is a all time great tag team match! ". Everyone in this match has tag team matches better than this one and I'm not even joking about it. The storytelling was perfect anyway, Tyler Bate worried about his mentor's state while KOR and Roddy use and abuse of his injured leg, making the love for his mentor and friend cost his title...perfect in the way it was telled, but It was not my thing, for sure. Maybe in a rewatch I can put this grade higher, I don't know."

[10.0] "An absolutely phenomenal tag match between both teams with such masterclass in ring action and psychology from start to finish, another testament in how phenomenal the tag team division was in the Black and Gold Era of NXT and easily the best TV match in NXT history."

[10.0] "This was such a great tag team match. The match started off hot, the crowd was loud for most of it. Kyle O'reilly and Roderick Strong did a good job working on Trent's leg. They kept teasing a hot tag but the undisputed era was cutting them off. Once the tag happened, Tyler Bate looked great for a little bit. When Trent tagged back in he was on fire for a short minute, but Kyle quickly went back to the leg. Felt bad when Tyler threw in the towel. Didnt want to lose the titles and didnt want to see Trent suffer. Great storytelling in the match."

[10.0] "In my opinion, the selling alone in this match already makes it a solid 10, but we also have great in-ring work and even better psychology, really liked the ending as well."

[10.0] "What a Match ! Between the atmosphere which is absolutely PHENOMENAL, the incredible In-Ring, the totally CRAZY match psychology sublimated by the magnificent commentaries of the Goats Mauro Ranallo and Nigel McGuinness it's a MASTERCLASS! I saw this match when I was young and I loved it and rated it 5 stars. I saw it again today 6 years later as a different man and it's still and always will be a 5 STARS I was crazy during the whole match. A MUST-SEE!"

[10.0] "Huge match. A pumped-up crowd chanting Moustache Mountain! Undisputed! A big big one and very good work on Seven's injured leg. A Hot Tag from Bate which was magnificent. The finish sees O'Reilly do a submission on Seven's legs for more than 2 minutes. Bate throws in the towel to put an end to his partner's suffering. I don't see any negative points, any downtime. Magnificent! (5*)"

[9.0] "GOOD LORD Trent Seven's selling is enough to give this a 5 star rating. Stupendous quality match with incredible storytelling for a weekly episode. One of the best tag team matches ever."

[9.0] "Great storytelling, all the wrestlers involved were amazing. The audience was on fire from the start to the end of the contest, and the ending, even if it didn't totally convince me, worked great. Really great tag team match. 4.5 stars."

[6.0] "I have trouble finding any reason to give this match a decent score, and it's unfathomable to me that people prefer this, the build, over the TakeOver match which was the payoff. The story of Seven getting battered constantly wasn't really that moving, and Bate refusing to run in and break up any of the submissions didn't make him look like the ultimate babyface, it made him look more like an idiot. KOR and Strong's tag work is good as usual, and Seven does a good job selling his injuries, but that's literally it for the good. Everything else is head-scratching at best, and boring at worst. Just not my match. 3 Stars."

[6.0] "A good fast paced match with a lot of action and storytelling, the start of the match is just the undisputed era focusing and attacking Trent sevens leg but once the hot tag to Tyler bate is made the match really picks up in every department. The crowd really enjoyed the match too, however I do not like the ending at all why would Tyler bate not just get in the ring and break the submission, even if hes a face."

[9.0] "This match is good and is probably the best rated of the MM vs UE trilogy due to the incredible selling of Trent Seven in this match, I personally prefer the third match in TakeOver Brooklyn IV but this one in terms of storytelling is more impactful (****1/2)"

[10.0] "BACK WHEN HHH WAS A COOK just a random five star match on a random tv episode peak pro wrestling 10/10"

[10.0] "I can't describe this match except with the word "perfection". Eveything from the amazing moves to the amazing storytelling to the flawless selling of Trent Seven, everything worked perfectly. The ending is now iconic, with Tyler Bate throwinf the white towel to stop seeing Trent going through more pain. I can understand why it's the only 5 star tag team match in WWE"

[9.0] "this was incredible, Trent seven does some of the greatest selling i've ever seen and tyler bate's hot tag was hotter than the sun trent seven's return was fun and the ending is heartbreaking. i'm sad mustache mountain is split. 4.75 stars"

[9.0] "Imagine my surprise when I tune in to NXT expecting a complete spot-fest and I get blessed with actual competent wrestling. This was an awesome match that started off all wild and chaotic and then turned into a very compelling and emotional match. It had the right blend of story, drama, and psychology. It was definitely fun and worth watching. This was a rare match that shot me with adrenaline while watching. I was so entrenched in the action that I was almost nervous about what was next. Just really great stuff. Kyle O'Reilly was by far the best wrestler here. He always knew how where to be, he was excellent at doing small and subtle things to make Seven's life much more difficult, and he came across as a cold-hearted bastard as he tried to end Seven's career. Seven was impressive as an FIP, especially as he endured so much pain for the first half of the match and then showed incredible tenacity as he re-entered the match with only one good leg. Sure he had more guts than sense, but he wanted to show that he could still contribute to the match in a meaningful way. That's not to say that Strong and Bate weren't good here; they were, just not as impressive as O'Reilly and Seven. If you had no idea who these wrestlers were or what they were fighting for, they did more than enough to explain things to you through their actions in (and around) the ring. Plus, there was some excellent tag team psychology here that is quite from the rest of modern WWE. The way that Seven was consistently isolated from Bate and how they gradually built up to the hot tag was textbook classic tag wrestling. the things UE did to make things look hopeless for Seven and make the crowd really believe he was in peril is way less common than it should be. On that front, these four wrestlers really excelled at showing how great tag team wrestling can be if done correctly. However, the ending of the match was a bit too contrived. The final sequence with Seven getting his leg torn off dragged on way too long. We were meant to believe that he could barely stand and that he needed doctors to check on his leg, yet he could also withstand O'Reilly's punishing submission holds for so long. This went beyond milking the crowd and building up a moment. If O'Reilly's heel hook was supposed to be built up as a credible move, that credibility vanished here. Seven didn't even tap out to it, despite having his leg smashed into pieces for most of the match. I get that they were trying to squeeze as much emotion out of the audience, but they went a bit too far in doing so."

[10.0] "This is tag team wrestling at its best and certainly the best example of why some people call it art, for the simple reason that when it's as well written and as brilliant as this there's nothing better than watching four guys doing tag team action together. Here we had two of the greatest teams of this generation facing each other in a normal setting as it was simply at the Full Sail, and yet it felt like an incredible NXT TakeOver main event as the action was fantastic, the stakes were so high and the crowd was so red hot for this. They made the most of those seventeen minutes to tell us a deep & touching story with a brilliant Trent Seven in the role of the underdog, he's one of the best on the planet at taking that kind of heat as he sells like nobody's business and I thought Strong & O'Reilly's heel-work was particularly incredible to underline that. Their work on Trent's leg was vicious and perfect, as was his selling, the psychology was off the charts and at no point was there any no-selling from Seven so that's worth noting as usually there's that kind of work in a match and the person completely abandons their selling when they make their comebacks but here never. Tyler's hot-tag was insane as was Trent's return to the match, what was also beautiful was that ending with Tyler preferring to save his heartbrother/mentor's career rather than retain the titles and it was an incredible babyface move. Everything about this match was perfect from start to finish, it was so simple and yet so well done."

[9.0] "Excellent match. The action was great and the storytelling even better. UE did a great job of being the villains although the fans still loved them. They were relentless and merciless in their assault of Trent Seven's leg. The selling is superb especially with a supporting role from Tyler Bates at ringside. Bates at the Corner unable to tag himself in while O'Reilly and Strong are destroying his mentor and his friend. The dilemma of Bate to either save his mentor or his Championship was portrayed splendidly. Beautifully crafted and dramatic match.****3/4"

"Been recently doing a rewatch of Takeovers and I had to go out of my way to watch this one between shows. This was a truly special match and one of the best non-Takeover matches they ever put on"

[8.0] "I love Mustache Mountain, but this was only a **** to me. Tyler Bate, god bless him, did not have a great hot tag in this one."

"Great match, everyone played his role to a T, especially Tyler. The crowd was amazing too. And with that emotional finish it's a definitely a (*****) match."

[9.0] "They repeated a lot of spots from the previous match they had, which was a bit of a turnoff. As the story unfolded, however, I quickly saw why people are so high on this classic. Trent Seven holds you in the palm of his hand and Tyler Bate shows why he's one of the best wrestlers on the planet. The Undisputed ERA never miss, especially this formation of them. In the end, tears were in my eyes and I was overwhelmed with emotion. That's about as much as I can ask of any match. 4.5 stars, 9 out of 10."

[8.0] "An epic and dramatic match for sure, with excellent psychology and nonstop action from the opening bell. Watching the UE systematically destroy Seven's leg and keep him isolated from Bate was an absolute pleasure, and when it came time to bump during Bate's hot tag, these guys held nothing back. Seven was undoubtedly the star of this match though, with his incredible selling and tenacity during his hope spots. The overall story behind the finish was great, but I felt the inconsistent officiating undermined what they were going for here. The referee threatened to disqualify Bate for breaking up just ONE of Roddy's submissions, but never reprimanded the UE for their repeated double team attacks earlier in the match' Illogical finish aside, I thoroughly enjoyed this barn-burner of a match. ****1/4"

[7.0] "Some nice spots and heartfelt hot tags but I'm generally not a fan of limb-working matches and it did get a bit boring after a while. Still don't know what to think of the ending, definitely not a five star match though."

[9.0] "This features a career performance for Severn. He's by far the least impressive worker overall, but he brought his best here. He sells his injury convincingly and actually tries to fight back as his leg is getting worked over by Strong & O'Reilly. Speaking of the Undisputed Era, they were are smooth as ever cutting the ring in half and making constant hot tags. The finish with the towel is great, although I think they milked it a bit too much. My other gripe is how the Undisputed Era would constantly do double-team moves in front of the referee and not get penalized. Even with my minor gripes, this is one of the best standard tag matches that WWE has ever put out."

[7.0] "Not a big fan of this match to be honest, generic "big NXT match" that can often happen on the NXT Takeovers. The injury of Seven and his selling of the leg is pretty cool at the beginning but it becomes really boring and forced all along, the hot tag of Tyler Bate was interesting but not a fan of the ending, once again I think this is too much. ***1/4"

[6.0] "I could care less about Trent Seven's selling and FIP segment in this match. That might not mean as much in other matches but that's pretty much all this match is. This match is so far from deserving all the high praise in my opinion."

[5.0] "Pretty boring match, Trent is easily the worst worker in the match and since the whole match is about him and his injury it gets pretty boring, Tyler Bate is one of the most incredible wrestlers of all time but he does nothing in this match to really showcase that, it's not all bad as some of the limb targeting from UE on Trent was good"

[7.0] "Satisfactory Tag match on NXT TV, but not a 5 Stars match for me. Good pace, great psychology and really well done finish. But i actually prefer their Takeover Brooklyn Match."

[10.0] "After rewatching it, this match gets a lot better. The drama here is excellent, the selling by Trent Seven is something else, the heel work by Undisputed ERA is perfect and the underdog/babyface performance by Moustache Mountain (especially Tyler Bate) is simply awesome. I don't know what I didn't like it when I first watched this match, because it's amazing and it have one of the best endings/closing stretches of all time. NXT <3. *****"

[7.0] "Far, far away from anything near 5 stars, but still a good match with an enjoyable story. I expected a spotfest, but instead I got a pretty compelling limb-work story with some nice spotfest moments only thrown in. I definitely thought Undisputed Era did a good job working over Seven's pre-injured knee, especially O'Reilly with his faux-jiu-jitsu leg locks. This culminated nicely with the drama at the end as Seven's peril became the main focus and it was questioned whether he would give up or allow his leg to snap for the sake of his team's championship dreams. Seven's selling was quite good, though occasionally melodramatic such as during the towel-throw segment (which is when I thought Bate's own selling was actually the strongest and most genuine looking). Bate played the enforcer role for his team, taking out both Roddy and O'Reilly on his own while Seven was attended to by medical staff. Bate's hot tag was great, showing off his natural athleticism and playing up the idea of him being his team's ace in the hole. We also saw Bate being unwilling to tag Seven back in despite Seven's insistence because Bate knew that Seven was surely in no condition to compete. Bate eventually realised he had to tag Seven in for the sake of retaining their titles, but he eventually came to regret that decision as he saw that he was only allowing Seven to be subjected to O'Reilly's vicious leg locks. Maybe Seven not tapping out after such supposedly brutal work on his leg for so long was a bit unbelievable, but I just took it as Seven literally allowing his leg to break down rather than deciding to give up. I also liked the extra little detail with how at one point the ref told Bate off for running in to interfere and break up one of O'Reilly's holds, holding up one finger to Bate to seemingly tell him that his team would be DQ'd if they did it again, hence why Bate couldn't run in to save Seven again at the end and had to instead throw in the towel to save him. ***1/4"

[7.0] "I enjoyed parts of this but had some problems as well. Trent sold the leg really well early but then when he hot tagged in it was strange that UE didn? t target his leg at all at first. They did lock in on it later really well but then Bate quitting instead of rushing in to rescue Seven seemed very weird considering the modern trend of treating most tag matches as tornado style. Not really a classic in my eyes but some good stuff involved."

[10.0] "This match was not like any other I have seen in my two years of being a diehard wrestling fan. The focus was not on great sequences and high spots like the previous NXT Tag Team Title match at Royal Albert Hall, rather it centered around Undisputed ERA taking advantage of Trent Seven having an injured knee to regain the titles in perfect heel manner. Seven had a star-making performance, telling the story that he was in agonizing pain and torture, but would not submit until Bate had to sacrifice the NXT Tag Team Titles to save his career. Both teams surely benefited from it, and the NXT creative team could not have booked a better masterclass of storytelling to put the titles back on Undisputed ERA. (*****)."

[10.0] "This was my absolute shit. Roddy and Kyle DISMANTLE Trent Seven while a nearly helpless Bate looks on. Bate's hot tags are some of the most fun I've had watching wrestling. Throwing both members of UE around with his swing and germans. Trent was such a soldier, his acting, although a bit hammy, added immensely to the drama of the match. Best tag match of the year and a personal all time favorite. *****, has an even more explosive sequel at Takeover Brooklyn 4"

[8.0] "A very, very good match, an almost perfect one actually, spoiled a bit by an overwrought ending. I can't stand the will-he-won't-he internal dilemma overacting that the NXT bookers seem to love (see also: Gargano vs Ciampa - though this match was much better) and the same story could have been told without it. The last spot stretched out for so long that it devalued the limb work in the end though. Shame to harp on the negative, but when you rate below average you have to justify it. The limb work was incredible, O'Reilly's looked especially brutal. Great hot tag by Bate and perfect selling by Severn (which was undone a bit by the length of the last spot). Teetering between a 7 and an 8, but the match was so perfectly executed that I can't give below an 8."

[10.0] "This match was worked to the highest power of excellency. I'm so impressed with how Roderick Strong is able to portray himself as a good guy turned bad in this setup. It's refreshing to see that people can be dynamic in terms of face/heel alignments even at the performance centre level. To me, that makes him easily someone who could sometime down the road rival Chris Jericho in that regard. He's obviously got a loooooong time before he's there, but he's definitely on the right path to it. As for Moustache Mountain, I wasn't a fan of them for a bit, but that match changed me from being indifferent to actually sort of liking them. They work well with each other and what one lacks the other more than makes up for it. Pairings like that don't happen very often in the industry so it's awesome when it does. I still wouldn't call myself a fan of them just yet, but they're on the fast track to that. Kyle's performance is just what you'd expect from him: He's fun, energetic, and knows how to use the ring to his advantage. He's skilled and can drum up "negative" energy from the crowd which is what a heel should do, really. All and all, this match was fantastically worked. I literally felt high after watching it and to me, that makes this a match that will stand out in the oodles of matches that have happened under the NXT brand."

[7.0] "Yeah, I'm not seeing the logic in the throwing of the towel vs. simply running in to break up the submission, which MM (Bate) had already done in the match. It's this kind of cheesy drama that really tickles Meltzer's fancy, but it did little for me. The match itself was above average, good heel work by UE, and Bate had an amazing hot tag with a lot of big spots, and better than most main roster tag matches, but that's all the praise I can offer for it."

[8.0] "8. 45/10 : Good god what a match ! What a story more importantly, I love my wrestling well-told and logically sound, and boy did this match make as much sense as you would want it to. The story and the "legit-sport logic" in their wrestling are my highlights of the match. Sure the wrestling was great but what I love about this match the most are the little details that make it look like these guys are wrestling with sport-like rules that they learned to exploit and bend with experience. That and the entire narrative built around Seven's knee and Bate having to choose between watching his mentor get torn apart or sacrifice the titles for his father figure's well-being. Beautiful beautiful stuff that I want more of in my wrestling. I wouldn't give it 5 stars but I am happy for the guys that they got it."

[9.0] "As good a TV match as you'll ever see in WWE, and as good a tag match as you'll see anywhere in the world. Non-stop action while not seeming like a spotfest, a great, clear story told, fantastic match. Very reminiscent of Benoit/Y2J Vs. Austin/HHH"

[10.0] "Oh Christ, what the fucking match ! You rarely see something like this on TV. This is worth on even WrestleMania. O'reilly and Strong were absolutely fantastic together and they just destroyed Seven's leg. Seven gave the performance of his life and sold the leg like a boss. Bate was great when doing the hot tag. Crowd was hot since... forever at Full Sail. This is easily MOTYC and MOTY in WWE just like the Chicago tag. O'reilly Strong are legit Tag team of the year contender."

[8.0] "Really five stars? Dont get me wrong it was still a good match but I thought diy vs revival 2 out of 3 falls was better. Plus there was a big problem with the match that had flawed logic which was Tyler not breaking up the submissions undisputed era had on his partner not ONCE did he break it up. Still a good match just had some really flawed logic that didn't get me fully into the match"

[9.0] "This might go down as my favorite tag team match of the year. There was so much emotion and depth to this match that I had my mouth wide open at the end of the entire thing. Straight from the beginning, these two teams were hammering at each other and they had the crowd eating from the palm of their hands. Roderick and Kyle were so god damn vicious in this match by going after Seven's knee and just by being as despicable as humanly possible. Tyler Bate was a human highlight reel tonight and Trent Seven put on one of his best performances ever in this contest. Go watch this match. Right now. ****3/4"

[10.0] "Not much more to add to previous notes - it was absolutely incredible, no doubt my favourite WWE match of 2018 so far. MVP was obviously Trent - his selling was 5* level, almost flawless, pure perfection. One of the best bouts of the year in the wrestling as a whole (****Ÿ)."

[8.0] "A rematch of the great match both teams had in the UK. This sequal is just as good, but in an entirely different way. The leg work that Kyle and Roddy did on Trent's leg was great, and by god did Trent sell that leg to the bitter end. Bate did very well too as the FIP with his amazing signature offense. Very dramatic finish with Bate needing to throw in the towel to save his partner and give UE the win and titles back, ****1/4."

[10.0] "Right from the get go the dueling roars of "MOUSTACHE MOUNTAIN! " & "UNDISPUTED! " were really cool, really fit into the beginning of the match with them going at it right away, brawling all over the place. Then the big moment of the match happens; Roddy drops Seven knee first onto the steel steps. Kyle & Roddy torture the crap out of him, working over that knee in BRUTAL fashion; in particular Kyle was absolutely amazing during the heat segment. The heat segment overall is up there with the absolute greatest of 'em; incredibly compelling stuff. Tyler's eventual hot tag was goddamn superb, too - they milked it just enough & once he got the tag, and started busting out his signature big moves, I was marking out big time. He ran wild on Roddy & Kyle for a while - loved Roddy's brief cut-off's during that, especially that backbreaker one. Trent's one final stand was brilliant, with him swinging lariats & chops, as well as he could with a destroyed knee, but the Undisputed lads got the control by going after that knee once again, very quickly. Tyler coming in one last time to break Roddy's murderous looking knee submission, only for the ref to tell him to stop doing that or he's gonna get his team DQ'd was excellently executed, I thought. After that's it's all bum-knee-getting-destroyed-to-shits -drama, and incredibly compelling at that w/ Kyle torturing Trent with that Heel Hook. Brilliant drama, brilliant psychology, brilliant structure & brilliant performances from all involved. A tag team classic. ****3/4"

[9.0] "What a performance by Trent Seven. Absolutely excellent match. Off the top of my head, this is the best match at Full Sail since the Crusierweight Classic, and it might be the best NXT Tv match I've ever seen. This was so fantastic. British Strong Style vs Undisputed Era has my vote for WWE Feud of the Year. It's very rare that you get matches this good in WWE. Everything about this was excellent. I loved this! ****1/2."