This match surpassed all expectations and Tegan Nox was so brutal as the babyface, using a chain on Dakota Kai’s injured knee and she even put the chair around Kai’s neck.
That was her downfall. This calls back to the Johnny Gargano feud with Tommaso Ciampa where Johnny went too far and lost as a result.
This match ended with Raquel Gonzalez making her NXT debut by coming down and throwing Tegan Nox onto a table (which didn’t break) and Dakota Kai got the win.
Gonzalez helped Dakota Kai up and raised her hand in victory but Kai looked very confused.
Johnny Gargano is Johnny TakeOver and he has competed in more than one Match of the Year award for his work in NXT. Finn Balor is the man who made NXT a big thing and since returning as a heel, he has been on fire.
This match had no reason not to be great.
The two men knew each other so well and kept reversing each other’s moves, countering holds, blocking finishers, and turning in a match every fan of Gargano and Balor have come to expect.
However, as Gargano fans know, he never knows when to stop. When he tried to put Balor through a table, it was reversed.
Balor hit the John Woo kick off the table and into the barricade and then he sent Gargano in and hit a flush Coup de Gras and followed it up with the 1916 DDT to win.
The next match was for the NXT Women’s Championship and few people expected Bianca Belair to best Rhea Ripley since Rhea had dared Charlotte to challenge her at WrestleMania.
That meant this match had a lot to live up to since they needed to make Belair look like she had a chance.
Sadly, it never felt like she was going to win. However, despite that, the two women put on a great match and really delivered on the big stage. Ripley won with the Riptide.
After the match, Charlotte Flair showed up and laid out Rhea Ripley in a sneak attack from behind. Charlotte said “I thought about it and I will see you at WrestleMania,” before hitting another shot on Ripley.
Charlotte then grabbed Bianca Belair and tossed her into the ring steps after that as revenge for the previous attack on her.
The next match saw The Undisputed Era defend their titles against the Dusty Rhodes classic winners Matt Riddle and Pete Dunne (Broserweights).
The match started with Matt Riddle trying to lead the crowd to sing-song the “Bobby Fish could fry fish” rhyme, which caused the match to start with a UE attack.
Honestly, the Broserweights have been treated like a comedy tag team since they were put together and even had silly skits leading to NXT TakeOver: Portland so it looked like they were not going to take the belts.
However, the two teams put on a great match that lasted over 15 minutes and ended with The Broswrweights hitting a double team, drop and kick to win the titles.
This is Pete Dunne’s first title since coming to the United States and Matt Riddle’s first WWE title period.
The main event is for the NXT Championship between Adam Cole and Tommaso Ciampa. This is Ciampa’s first shot at the title he had to forfeit when a neck injury forced him to have surgery.
This is a WrestleMania weekend quality match and it is a little surprising to see it taking place now. These guys should put on a tremendous match.
The two competitors were just destroying each other but it went to the limit when Cole dropped Ciampa next first onto the announcer’s table, reminding everyone of his neck problems.
That was hardcore.
The entire story here was Cole constantly working on Ciampa’s neck, as most of his high impact moves were delivered to that neck.
This even included the Panama Sunrise on the floor, and that was just one of many brutal moves.
These two guys just gave it their all and they will be hurting for days after this match.
Sadly, the ending was a screw job with The Undisputed Era running down and attacking Ciampa when Roddy Strong distracted the referee. There was also a referee bump, very unlike WWE NXT.
Then, Johnny Gargano came out and delivered a belt shot to Ciampa.
Then again, this should lead to a rematch WrestleMania weekend with Gargano and maybe Finn Balor in a Fatal Four-Way, so that is a positive.
Overall, every match was great and this was a great TakeOver event, as expected from WWE NXT.
Image Source:*WWE
Source:monstersandcritics.com
