The stage is set for the 25th edition of NXT’s Takeover branded events.
The typical preshow hype concluded with an appearance by former NXT Champion Tomasso Ciampa. The black heart of NXT is only 12 weeks post-op, but announced that he has been cleared already for non-combat activity. He’s got a long way to go yet before any potential return to the ring, but being cleared to work out is still great news for a guy whose career could potentially have been over forever.
As with most TakeOver events, there are 5 matches on the card tonight. All NXT titles are on the line, including the guaranteed crowning of brand new tag champions.
Roderick Strong vs Matt Riddle
The match kicks off with a lot of great technical grappling and fast transitions. Eventually they find themselves outside the ring and trading strikes. After dropping Riddle on the apron, Strong takes things back inside the ring, seemingly in control of the match for now.
Strong maintains control with some ground and pound. Every so often Riddle tries to make a come back with his striking skills, but gets shut down. A flurry of kicks turns the tide in the bro’s favor, but Roddy isn’t ready to go down yet.
Riddle climbs the corner and gets hit with an enzeguri. Strong climbs up and hits a superplex to begin a new rally of offense. Riddle seems almost down for the count but manages to kick out at 2.
Riddle makes another come back but Roddy puts him down for another 2 count. Strong quickly turns the pin into a submission but Matt refuses to quit. The original bro tries for his Bromission hold but can’t lock it in due to the damage done to his back during throughout the match. He switches gears and hits a new finisher to secure the pin.
Winner: Matt Riddle
NXT champion Johnny Gargano is shown warming up backstage. WWE Hall of Famers and NXT coaches Shawn Michaels and Road Dogg are shown ringside.
NXT Tag Title Ladder Match
Undisputed Era (Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly) vs Forgotten Sons (Steve Cutler & Wesley Blake) vs Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch vs Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins & Montez Ford)
With 8 men in the match, you know it’s starts off in chaos. The rules of the 4-way ladder match don’t require tags in and out. That means action all over, and I’ll do my best to keep up with it.
Fish and O’Reilly are the 1st tandem to attempt the introduction of ladders, but they’re stopped on the ramp with a suicide dive from Wesley Blake. A 3 team melee is underway when Dawkins dives from the top rope onto all of them. The Street Profits are the 1st team to succeed at bringing in a ladder, but are quickly cut off by members of the other teams.
After some multi-team madness, the Profits set one end of a ladder on the 2nd rope. Then they lay Blake atop the ladder and Dawkins picks up the other end. Montez Ford hits the ropes, leap frogs his partner and comes crashing down on Blake. They set up Blake’s partner Steve Cutler to receive the same treatment, but Kyle O’Reilly cuts off Ford before the leap frog.
Fish and O’Reilly take out the Profits and set the ladder back up in the middle of the ring. Kyle tries climbing while Bobby keeps other teams out of the ring. The Forgotten Sons take out both Undisputed members and try to set up their own ladder. UE fights back but the Sons put them down again. Blake and Cutler are both on the ladder when Dawkins and Lorcan enter to remove them followed by monster hits from Ford and Burch.
All 8 men are down. Kyle O’Reilly begins dragging himself towards the ladder but suddenly looks scared. Enter the 3rd member of the Forgotten Sons, Jaxson Riker who cleans house to assist his boys. Before they can take advantage though, the other 3 teams all join forces to take down Riker.
After a bit more chaos, Burch & Lorcan are the team left climbing a ladder, but UE cuts them off and sets up a 2nd ladder. All 4 men now climbing and fighting each step of the way. The Forgotten Sons slip under the ladders and dump everyone off though. Blake starts climbing while Cutler gets hit with a spear from Dawkins. Ford flies onto the ladder from out of nowhere and cuts off Blake’s attempt to climb faster.
Winners: New Tag Team Champions Street Profits
Post-match the Profits leave the the crowd to celebrate their victory with the fans.
In the locker room Candice laRae pumps up Io Shirai for the Women’s title match.
North American Title match
Velveteen Dream(c) vs Tyler Breeze
Dream starts by putting on a show with his wardrobe, and Breeze just looks amused by it all. When the action finally gets under way Prince Pretty looks much more aggressive than he has in years. This is definitely NXT Tyler Breeze and not the joke that he often seems to be on the main roster.
I knew these two showmen would be entertaining, but this is actually a hard hitting back and forth battle. Breeze is laid out on top of the announce desk. Dream grabs his title and phone to take a selfie with Tyler’s prone body. This gives Breeze time to recover, and back in the ring a Dream Valley Driver is not enough to score a pinfall for the champ.
Further back and forth action has both men looking relatively even. Tyler tries to set up an Unprettier but Dream reverses it into a DreamDT. It’s still not enough for the win. Dream hits an Unprettier of his own, and that doesn’t get the job done either.
Dream tries to finish things off with a Purple Rain maker, but Breeze gets his knees up. This allows the challenger to hit an Unprettier, but it’s not enough. Breeze hits the Beauty Shot, but Dream has the sense to roll out of the ring to escape the pin.
Tyler Breeze is desperately trying to get the champ back in the ring while the ref counts. Breeze tries to convince the ref to stop counting, knowing that he can’t win the title that way. This gives Dream time to recover and hit a distracted Breeze with another Dream Valley Driver. He immediately follows up with a Purple Rain Maker and scores the pin.
Winner and still NXT North American Champion: Velveteen Dream
Post-match Breeze shows respect to Dream by taking a selfie with him and the title.
A promo video is shown for Damien Priest (the wrestler formerly known as Punishment Martinez).
NXT Women’s Title Match
Shayna Baszler(c) vs Io Shirai
An amped up Shirai is ready to scrap while the champ is her usual cold and confident self.
Io climbs the rope but gets taken down quickly by the champ who proceeds to deliver a Reality Check to Shirai’s arm. The stone cold Baszler continues her methodical weakening of the left arm. Shirai somehow avoids falling prey to a second Reality Check, but when she follows up with a German Suplex she can’t quite hold it.
Shirai continues her offensive volley, but shows clear signs of damage from the work Shayna did to her arm earlier. The Genius of the Sky takes flight with a huge moonsault which she follows up with a Missile Dropkick. Marina Shafir and Jessamyn Duke try to make their presence felt but Candice LaRae cuts them off with a kendo stick.
Io and Shayna trade unsuccessful pinfall attempts which eventually lead to the challenger falling prey to a kirafuda clutch. She tries desperately to hang on, but eventually has no choice but to tap.
Winner and still NXT Women’s Champion: Shayna Baszler
After the match, while Shayna celebrates, Io snaps and attacks her with the kendo stick. She then asks candace for a chair and delivers a moonsault onto the champ with the chair.
Promo for the next NXT UK TakeOver event live from Cardiff, Wales in August.
Stephanie McMahon shown at ringside.
NXT Title Match
Johnny Gargano(c) vs Adam Cole (Bay Bay)
Cole comes out with some guy rapping lyrics to the UE theme. Gargano continues his long tradition of Marvel themed gear with Captain Marvel attire.
A fast flurry of near misses leads to a stalemate and a reset to start the match. They then follow up a bit of grappling with some strong back and forth strikes.
On the outside they once again avoid one another for the most part. A double stomp onto Cole’s arm allows the champ to take control fro the moment. He ties up his opponent in a series of submission holds to try and wear him down.
Cole eventually gets some momentum on his side and focuses on the champ’s knee. He attempts a drop kick from the 2nd rope but Gargano catches him and turns it into a sit out powerbomb.
Back and forth offense now with both men showing the wear and tear they’ve already suffered to various body parts during the match. Cole lures Gargaon outside and hits a big offensive move then follows it up with another inside the ring but it’s not enough to keep the champ down for the count.
Johnny locks in a Gargano Escape but Adam counters it into a Figure 4. Gargano reaches out and manipulates the challenger’s arm to reverse and break the hold. Brutal punches and kicks lead to our quote of the night from Beth Phoenix, “this just became a scrum!” 😉 😉
With Cole once again on the outside, Johnny takes flight. He’s met with a kick to the face followed by a Panama Sunrise from the apron to the floor. Cole drags the champ back into the ring, but only gets a two count.
Cole taunts the champ by telling him, “you’ve already had your moment! Now it’s my turn!” He then goes for his big knee strike which Gargano avoids and tries to turn into another Gargano Escape. Cole reverses it into his own Garagano escape! Then Johnny does escape and hits his own knee strike! They can’t even finish each other using each other’s finishing moves!
Back and forth elbow strikes lead to a series of kicks from Cole that are followed by a big lariat from Gargano. Superkick Gargano. Superkcik Cole. Reverse rana Gargano. Knee strike Cole. Still only good for a two count.
Adam Cole begins arguing with referee Drake Wuertz. Cole goes outside to grab a chair and Drake follows him to stop him from bringing it inside the ring. Johnny takes flight but instead of hitting Cole he accidentally takes out the ref. he follows up by superkicking the chair into Cole’s face but the ref is still down and can’t count the pin.
Johnny leaves the ring to help the ref. Cole begins acting like he’s signaling for interference from the other members of UE. It’s a ruse though, and he uses it score a big offensive hit on the champ. The champ kicks out yet again.
Johnny Champion tries once more for the Gargano Escape but can’t get Cole to tap. Cole tries for another Panama Sunset but the champ avoids it. He can’t avoid the second attempt though, and Cole follows that one up with one last knee strike to score the victory.
Winner and new NXT Champion: Adam Cole (BAY BAY!)
Post match the other 3 members of Undisputed Era join Cole in the ring to celebrate.
That’s a wrap on TakeOver 25! The next TakeOver event takes place the night before Summerslam.
