NXT Takeover: New York 4/5/2019

NXT Takeover: New York 4/5/2019

More pics/gifs to come later.

NXT Tag Titles - The War Raiders vs Ricochet and Aleister Black

They do the usual chain wrestling counters early and Rowe teases nailing Black before they restart. They tease Black trying to kick Rowe in the head, but he doesn't for some reason and they stare down and pound fists. Ric tries to armdrag Hanson, who blocks it, then he sends him out. Ric and Black do Black's sit down pose. WR both roll over top of them at the same time and get to their feet. Hanson has Black coming at him in the corner so he jumps up and opens up and sits on him. Rowe tries to slam Hanson on Black,  but Black kicks him and he slams his own partner. Ric does a standing SSP. Black does a sitting abdominal stretch on Rowe. Rowe turns him over and knees Black. Hanson does a low crossbody, just squashing his opponent. He then does a lariat train on both. Ric ends up doing a fallaway slam on Rowe. Black and Rowe do a cool strike exchange and trade knees. Hanson and Ric do a cool cartwheel exchange that ends with Hanson taking an enzugiri. Hanson then does a handspring elbow into the ropes. Ric takes a John Woo knee. WR throws Ric into a german then Hanson springboards off the ropes with a clothesline but Black does a surprise footstomp on them and breaks the pin. WR throws up Black and Black lands with double knees on Hanson. Ric does a corkscrew flying space tiger drop. Hanson then follows with a swanton on everyone. They beat the count to get back in. Ric boots Row straight in the face. Black hits a nasty spinning thrust kick on Rowe and Ric does an SSP, but Hanson and Black fall into them and break it up. Ric misses a 630 and Black misses a 2nd rope moonsault. Ric takes a pop-up then is slammed and WR gets the win by holding Ric in a backdrop then Hanson dropping the leg on him. This was definitely one of the coolest matches I've seen. They did overdo it and didn't tell much of a story, but this was super fun and still a MOTYC regardless. Just a really cool highlight reel from start to finish with a hot crowd on a big stage. If you are going to do something like this, do it on the big stage with a hot crowd instead of at the local bingo hall.

NXT North American Title - Velveteen Dream vs Matt Riddle
Dream does a Statue of Liberty cosplay. The crowd likes both men and they play up the chants. They go to the mat early and Riddle takes down Dream. Riddle walks up the ropes and jumps off to lock in the Kimura, but Dream hits the ropes. They test strength and go back to back before Riddle turns it into an armbar. Dream hits the ropes though. Dream stomps the bare foot and rakes the back, then does the Rick Rude gyrations. Riddle then does some awesone connected Karelin's Lifts and does a Rude gyration as well. Dream tries something from the top to the outside, gets caught, then gets german'd on the floor. They get back in and Riddle exploder's him  then misses a standing moonsault but lands on his feet. Riddle tkaes a big german but doesn't sell it, then does a shotgun knee. and a fisherman's buster. Matt starts pounding on him on the ropes. Riddle does a triangle and does a german which gets him a 2 count. Riddle hits some light kicks to his chest and then Dream hulks up. Dream does some nice punches and a big boot. Dream lariats him out and does a top rope axe handle onto Riddle on the floor. Dream hits a fameasser then goes to the top but Riddle hitsa brogue knee. Dream does a codebreaker for 2. He then tries a running knee but Riddle rolls through and turns it into an ankle lock. Dream kicks his way out but Riddle just grabs the other ankle. Dream does a Dream DDT and a Dream Valley Driver. He goes up top and Riddle catches him coming down. Dream clips him with the ropes and then Riddle jumps on the seocnd rope and germans him back in. Riddle then does a twisting senton for 2. Riddle then hits the bromission but Dream rolls back and pins him with it. They did too much here. Wasn't bad early but got dumb quick with too much being done and kicked out of and it took me out of it. I also wasn't really sure about Dream working the face here vs Riddle.

NXT UK Title - Pete Dunne vs WALTER

The finish

They go to the mat and Walter tries to do a single leg. Pete gets out and goes for something but Walter kicks him away. They do a staredown. Dunne tries to go to work on his hand but has to duck out of a chop. Walter grabs Dunne and throws him down by his arm. Walter then hits a big chop and sends him down. Walter leapfrogs Dunne and hits a boot to the face to send him down. He chops Dunne hard and Dunne takes the hard way down from the top rope to the floor. Walter then backdrops him on the arpon while being on the floor. Dunne does a cool set-up into a heel hook but Walter chops out of it. Walter sends Dunne off the apron with a big boot. Dunne starts to fire back with slaps and he gets whipped into the corner, which he moonsaults out of. Dunne then lands on a release german and kicks Walter hard. Dunne then does a moonsault from the 2nd rope on the post to the floor, which makes it the 3rd or 4th person who did this on the show. Dunne does a sunset flip on Walter from the top and turns it into a powerbomb for 2. Dunne then does a double footstomp from the top rope onto Walter on the floor which was sick. Walter doesn't sell it for too long though and hits a John Woo dropkick which makes Dunne fly. He then release german's him and powerbombs him for 2. They trade chops and then Walter steps on him after he knocks him down. Dunne hits some back and forth shots on him but goes down with another chop. Dunne then downs him with an enzugiri. Dunne stomps his fingers and Walter does a release sleeper suplex from the top on him, which of course is only worth a 2. Walter starts selling the hand and Dunne pulls his fingers apart on chops. He then germans him and does a crucifix bomb on him. Dunne then starts stomping on his head, and Walter returns it then takes it again and again. Dunne then stretches him while working the fingers. Walter lariats him while he's sitting on the top then Dunne turns a Walter headbutt into a triangle and grabs the fingers. Walter gets annoyed and starts stomping away on Dunne, but Dunne grabs the fingers again. Dunne won't let go and gets stomped on more. Dunne then takes a huge lariat and fires back with some shots. Dunne hits his Bitter End finisher but it's only worth a 2. Walter and Dunne stare down each other from across the ring and trade shots. Dunne throws more wild shots then takes a huge boot to the face. Walter goes up top but Dunne catches him since he was slow. He then tries a triangle from the top and takes a big powerbomb from the second rope. Walter then does a splash and wins it. I liked this one. The logic was good with Dunne not being able to do much to Walter except work the fingers and they didn't overdo it too much with Walter's offense when he was bullying Dunne. A fun and different big guy vs small guy match. 


NXT Women's Title - Io Shirai vs Kairi Sane vs Bianca Belair vs Shayna Baszler

They start fighting early and we get a 1 on 1 between Baszler and Belair. Io double knees Bianca out of nowhere. Kairi's put on some weight since coming to the US. Io takes Bianca's leg and kicks Shayna with it. Io and Kairi clear out Shayna and the Sky Pirates of Io and Kairi get forced to battle each other. Shayna grabs Bianca's hair and whips her into the ropes. Shayna stamps down on Bianca's arm. They do a tug of war over Bianca's hair and she pulls Shayna into the post. Kairi gets put into the ropes and baseball slides under while Io springboards with a dropkick over. Bianca catches Io flying off the top then whips her into Kairi and thorws her. Shayna does a cool lifting drop that the cameras almost miss. She then puts a choke on Bianca and hangs her with it, but Bicana gets on top. They do a tower of doom spot. Io throws Kairi over the top rope onto people and Io does a 2nd rope post moonsault. They get back in and everyone goes down. Belair gorilla presses an opponent onto the girls on the outside, then Baszler reverses a double chickenwing into her grounded choke. Bianca hits an almost botched sitout death valley driver then Io hits double moonsaults, before Kairi breaks it up. Io and Kairi aren't happy about it. Kairi then hits a great top rope elbow which Io breaks up.Belair gets both Io and Kairi in the torture rack position and then slams them down. Shayna then surprises her with a kick and her choke and wins it. The match was pretty rushed and had a lot of people in it which made it difficult at times, but it had its highlights. I liked the story they did with Io and Kairi as well.

NXT Title - 2/3 Falls - Adam Cole vs Johnny Gargano

I admit, some of this review is in retaliation to Dave rating this something silly. If every match is the best match ever than what does the best match ever even mean anymore? They do the usual headlock work and armdrags to start. They do an enzugiri and Cole puts JG in a dragon sleeper. They each do crossbodies on each other and collide in air. Johnny does a slingshot spear in between the ropes for 2. Cole gets Johnny on the middle rope and backcracker's him. They both tease superkicking each other but then hesistate. Cole then hits a Last Shot half shining wizard to the back of the head to win the first fall. They second starts with a Last Shot to the face and JG kicks out at 2. Johnny spears him on the apron, which makes him thud then he dies a flip dive on him from the apron. Cole hits a firemen's carry on the knee. JG then does an Air Raid Crash on Cole from the top for 2. JG does a slingshot DDT on the apron to Cole, which sends him outside. JG has a chance to win the fall by getting Cole counted out but breaks the count. Then Cole gets up and slams him into posts. Cole then taps out to a crossface and JG's eyebrow starts bleeding.

They trade strikes with Cole doing a flip on a lariat at a very fast pace then Cole suplexes Johnny on his knee. JG throws Cole into the middle turnbuckle then does a full nelson slam. They trade enzugiri's, strikes and superkicks. Cole superkicks him in the back of the head then does a straightjacket german suplex for 2. Cole hits him with a backdrop and then JG hits a reverse hurracanrana, then a superkick. Cole then rolls out. JG goes out after him and gets wheelbarrel suplexed into the hard apron. Don't worry, he hits a DDT then a slingshot DDT seconds later. They keep it up and JG takes a shot on a missed slingshot DDT, then Cole does a middle rope canadian destroyer. Cole goes outside calling him a failure and a disappointment. The camera's catch him as he says "What you do is fail".

Johnny then powers up and throws Cole over a table after some shots. Cole then does a sit out pedigree on him on the table. They tease Johnny not being able to beat the count then Cole superkicks him in the face for 2 for like the millionth time. JG gets up eventually, takes a superkick, gives him one of his own and then Strong from UE comes out for Cole. More UE members come out and Johnny puts on his Gargano Escapre crossface, then the ref goes down. UE does an over/under on JG, but Johnny can't be pinned and kicks out again. Johnny then backdrops Cole onto UE and handles them 1v3. Cole hits some front and back superkicks and another last shot and JG still kicks out. JG hits the Gargano Escape and wins it 2 falls to 1. I didn't like this match. The whole match was superkick > kickout > ignore previous move done to you on end for 30 minutes. They destroyed any credibility the superkick had and did little but kick out of stuff.

Overall thoughts: I really liked the opener and the UK title match, but the theme of the show was "everyone doing too much and kicking out of everything". Almost every match was effected by this. The main was nowhere close to the inflated rating it got while the opener and UK match were probably underrated. The girls match got rushed and I didn't really like Riddle/Dream, unfortunately.