It’s time for our fourth consecutive TakeOver in Brooklyn (and probably the end of the streak, with ‘Mania in NYC/NJ next Spring). We have five very promising bouts ahead of us, with all four major NXT championships (apologies to Pete Dunne and the UK strap) on the line. We have the very exciting Ricochet challenging Adam Cole for the North American title. Shayna Baszler and Kairi Sane do battle once again, this time for Baszler’s women’s title. Moustache Mountain tries to regain the NXT tag belts from Undisputed Era. EC3 and Velveteen Dream do battle, and we get Gargano and Ciampa, for the NXT title, in a Last Man Standing battle. Everyone is brawling in Brookyln tonight, so let’s crack open this Nutshell!
Best Match of the night:
I liked the opening match.
I liked the main event.
I absolutely loved the North American title match. Cole and Ricochet get the nod here. It’s not a knock on the main event…but we’ve seen that match before, and hopefully it’s the last for a while. Not that it isn’t good, but it’s probably time to move on for both.
Worst match of the night:
None were abysmal, but it was not the best work out of Velveteen Dream, and EC3 wasn’t great either. I blame this one, at least partially, on the fact that both men seem best suited to work as arrogant and cocky heels…so working in a program against one another wasn’t the best. Still a strong match, but on the card, it was fifth best.
Crowd Chants of the Night:
Moustache Mountain
Undisputed
NXT
This is awesome
Velveteen
Let’s go Kairi
fight forever
Johnny Wrestling
Star of the Night
For me…if I have to only pick one, it goes to Ricochet. Congrats to the new North American champ.
Honorable mentions to both tag teams, and to Kairi Sane on her title win as well.
Spot of the Night:
Tyler Bate with another impressive show of strength, spinning one man while carrying another.
Actually, all four men in the opening tag battle had some awesome spots. Really good match.
The height that War Raiders got on O’Reilly was crazy.
We could go with Tommaso Ciampa using a chair to drive Johnny Gargano through the ringside barrier (after which Ciampa piled all sorts of stuff on top of Gargano, including a downed WWE ringside employee).
Or, there’s the double table spot (not the usual, but still he had to go through two slabs of wood), where Gargano dropped Ciampa. Looked like Tommaso might have caught
Jobber of the Night:
That poor employee sitting ringside that got destroyed as part of the Last Man Standing match.
Upset of the Night:
Mildly surprised that Kairi Sane defeated Shayna Baszler. Not an upset though, considering it had been done by Kairi before.
Holy Sh** Moment of the Night:
The closing portion of the Last Man Standing match. Gargano grabbed Ciampa’s handcuffs and locked the champ to the stage and unleashed what most expected to be the deciding offensive. Ciampa kept answering the count, so Gargano lowered the knee bad and delivered his signature running knee. The momentum took Johnny off the stage, into the stage and the boxes below, ultimately taking Johnny out of the match and allowing Ciampa to roll off the stage, answer the count and win. The announcers sold Gargano as being injured, possibly dislocating his kneecap in the process. It was an interesting ending and a sick looking spot.
Botch of the night:
Mauro saying “as an announcer you want to remain biased”. At least, I heard biased. I am sure he meant unbiased…but we also know that it’s scripted and even the announcers play heel/face.
Commentary of the night:
Interesting to hear Mauro say “War Raiders have the tag titles in their sinister sights”. I’d assume then that Undisputed are being positioned more for the face role, but War Raiders come off more as faces…at least to me.
LOL Moment of the night:
Nothing here.
Noteworthy Moment:
Either Dream had approval for what was on his tights (you’d think he’d have to), or he was being ballsy with a “call me up Vince” on them
Matt Riddle was in the house, announced as the newest signing.
The rest of the Four Horsewomen of MMA were ringside for Shayna’s loss.
Overall lowlights:
I know WWE is changing running times and start times and all that. I just wish the show went past 10pm. By 9:40, we had faded to black and switched to a Finn Balor special.
Overall highlights:
Absolutely phenomenal show from top to bottom. I will admit, as the show closed, it felt not quite as good as last year, but in fairness, last year we got the debut of Undisputed Era. Purely from a wrestling perspective, the matches were very good.
After the final bell:
Heels though they may be, Undisputed Era continues to get a big pop.
I am going to be curious to see what comes next for Undisputed Era (the group, not the team). With the tag team belts still in their control, but Cole dropping the North American belt, it will be interesting to see if they are being primed for a main roster call-up.
We’ve been spoiled. Had a crazy TakeOver last year as we saw the formation of Undisputed Era. No such surprises tonight.
Results:
Undisputed Era defeated Moustache Mountain, retaining the NXT tag titles. Post match, War Raiders lay out Undisputed Era.
Velveteen Dream defeats EC3
Ricochet pins Adam Cole, becoming new North American Champion.
Kairi Sane defeats Shayna Baszler, becoming the new NXT Women’s Champion
Tommaso Ciampa defeats Johnny Gargano to retain the NXT title
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