NXT: Velveteen Dream’s Secret TakeOver Weapon Is His Style

The Puma Look

Ricochet vs Velveteen Dream was a feud that made sense from the jump. Dream and Ricochet are perfectly paired in the ring; flashy, cocky, and willing to go to extreme measures to win. As the two antagonized each other in the build-up to TakeOver Chicago, their roles became clear. Ricochet was the improbably good indie kid who wanted to prove himself, and Velveteen Dream was a treacherous wall of ego for him to climb.

Dream considered himself the king of the roster at NXT, a WWE pedigree, and he explicitly told Ricochet over and over again that his rinky-dink past in church basements wouldn’t have given him the skills he needed to win a singles match with an elite WWE superstar. Ricochet maintained he deserved the chance to prove himself, and that Dream had to back up his ego in the ring. Equally skilled, equally confident, and equally hungry for a win, there was no way their TakeOver Chicago match wouldn’t be a blow-out.

Ricochet’s gear for the match was…fine. It looked like he may have gotten lost on his way to an anime convention, but at least it was fun. It’s a good thing he didn’t put a lot of effort into showing up Dream, because he would have been wasting his time.

First, we have Dream’s entrance. A vision in yellow feathers and a canary t-shirt, Dream once again drew on his knowledge of epic confrontation to give his fight with Ricochet a little more depth by referencing another infamous big-time bout. (We’ll get into that shortly.) But once he ripped away his Hulkamaniac cocoon, he revealed another surprise: tights painted to resemble Prince Puma, former champion of Lucha Underground.

Prince Puma was a masked wrestler, so a person unfamiliar with Ricochet may not have caught the reference. (The WWE commentary table also didn’t point it out, presumably for copyright reasons.) But by dressing up like the character Ricochet had abandoned to come to WWE, Dream was able to wordlessly remind Ricochet of the indie past that he held in such contempt, and threaten to show up Ricochet in his own clothing. Anything Ricochet can do, Dream can do better.

If you haven’t watched that fight, go do it now. It might be the best singles match that has happened on WWE this year. Ricochet and Dream decimated each other, eventually stealing each other’s finishers in an attempt to put the other one down for good. In the end Ricochet came out triumphant, literally defeating a version of his former self to win his first big victory at NXT. It was an awesome moment, made all the more awesome by Dream’s attention to detail and willingness to go above and beyond to make a match shine.