NXT TakeOver: New York (April 2019)

 

Original Airdate: April 5, 2019

From Brooklyn, New York; Your Hosts are Mauro Ranallo, Percy Watson, and Nigel McGuinness. Shouldn’t this show be called ‘Brooklyn 5?’

Opening NXT Tag Team Title Match: War Raiders v Ricochet and Aleister Black: The announcers note that Black and Ricochet have 'displayed more chemistry than Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga,' which is definitely something I can't imagine ever hearing in Gorilla Monsoon's voice. Rowe and Black start, and they get right into trading holds, feeling each other out. These guys have a ton of tattoos, between them. Tags all around, and Ricochet sticks and moves against big Hanson, managing to send him to the outside with a dropkick. That lures Rowe back in, but Black dumps him, and the challengers take a seat in the ring as the champs fume on the outside. Back in, War Raiders taunt them by hanging through a quick sequence, but the challengers are just too quick and well coordinated for them. They're not as strong, though - a point the Raiders make when Hanson slams Rowe onto Ricochet to get rid of him for a while. Rowe isolates Black with an armbar, but another attempt at that bodyslam spot backfires, and Ricochet tags in. He blitzes Rowe with offense, and a running shooting star press gets him two. Ricochet grabs an abdominal crossface, and Rowe starts to power out, but Ricochet is able to fall into his own corner to force a tag. Great ring presence there. Black comes in with his own abdominal stretch on the mat, and he's also able to force Rowe into the wrong corner when an escape attempt is made. Unfortunately for the challengers, Rowe fights them both off and tags, and Hanson comes in hot on both - hitting them with repeated avalanches in opposite corners. Dude's got some cardio game for a big guy. He then cross corner whips Black into Ricochet, but the charge ends badly when Ricochet catches him in a fallaway slam. Impressive strength there! Dust settles on Rowe and Black, and both guys approach cautiously. That turns into a slugfest, which in turn turns into both guys trading knee strikes, and Black gets the better of it with a bridging German suplex for two. Tags all around, and both guys fly around the ring to avoid various attacks, with big Hanson actually hanging with Ricochet. He wins the sequence with a handspring backelbow for two, but takes too long getting to the top rope to follow up, and Ricochet knocks him off. He tries a DDT, but Hanson blocks into a tag, and the Raiders double up on Ricochet for a bit. German suplex/springboard clothesline combo looks to finish, but Black dives in with a springboard flying double stomp to break the count at two. The Raiders try to hit him with a combo as well, but Black fights them off, and everyone ends up down on the outside after taking turns hitting dives. Rowe and Ricochet make it in first, and Ricochet is able to hold his own through a slugfest until Black recovers enough to tag in. He spinkicks Rowe down for Ricochet to dive onto with a flying shooting star press, but Hanson runs in to break the count at two. Ricochet tries another dive, but this one misses, and the Raiders hit a tandem pop-up front-powerslam. Hanson stops to take Black out with a tope before coming back in to hit Ricochet with a side suplex/flying legdrop combo to retain at 18:30 - Black desperately trying to break the cover, but falling just short. Killer opener here, with tons of action, and hot spots. *** ½ 

NXT North American Title Match: Velveteen Dream v Matt Riddle: I don't watch the weekly show, so I don't know the back-story, but 'the Original Bro' is a fucking stupid nickname. Both guys take turns playing to the crowd to start, and Riddle dominates once they engage, keeping Dream at bay with strikes. Dream tries a takedown, but that goes badly for him, and Matt cranks on the arm. Dream makes the ropes to escape, and they play the test-of-strength game next. Dream tries a takedown out of the knucklelock, but Riddle shifts it into a submission, and Dream is forced to grab the ropes before Matt can crank it on. Frustrated, Dream uses a cheap shot as they engage in another knucklelock, and tries a series of cradles, but can't put Riddle away. Dream responds with a backrake, but that just infuriates the Original Bro, and he gives Dream a three-alarm rolling gutwrench suplex - only to have the third alarm countered with a dropkick. Dream capitalizes with a pair of flying axehandles, so Matt bails to the apron, but Dream attacks with a springboard to send Riddle to the outside. Dream tries a flying axehandle out there, but misses, and Riddle German suplexes him on the floor. Back in, Matt works him over with chops, and hits a senton splash. Dream tries to fight him off, but Riddle is ready with a series of strikes, and a suplex to set up another senton. Kick to the face gets two, so Riddle decides to tie up on the mat, cranking on that arm again. He tries for a cross-armbreaker, but Dream is able to block the wrench until getting into the ropes to save himself. He tries buying time with a German suplex, but Riddle just pops right back up, and blasts him with a knee. Fisherman buster gets the challenger two, and another senton splash is worth two. This kid really likes his sentons. He tries tying Dream up on the mat, but the champ is too good at positioning himself near the ropes at all times, and Riddle can't get anything on. Dream capitalizes on the frustration by grabbing a sleeper, but Riddle monkeyflips out of it, and holds it into a cradle for two. Nice! He suckers a disoriented Dream into a triangle choke away from the ropes, forcing the champ to power out of it, but that takes a lot out of Dream, and Riddle is able to nail him with a knee into a bridging German for two. There's some great psychology here. Riddle punishes him with unanswered strikes, but Dream refuses to go down all the way, and starts hulking up! Big boot! Bodyslam! Shining Wizard! Dream sends him over the top with a clothesline to set up a successful flying axehandle out there, and then rushes Riddle back in to rocker drop for two. Dream with a dive, but Riddle is ready with a knee to block - only to have his follow-up cut off with a double-kneeling facebuster for two. Dream heads back up, but then thinks better of it, and decides to just charge him with another shining wizard instead - only for Riddle to roll through it, and into a anklelock! Nicely done! Dream is too far from the ropes, but manages to kick his way free, and a superkick sets up a roll of the dice. Dream wants to go up, but again thinks better of it, and decides to hit the cartwheel death valley driver instead. NOW he's ready to try the dive, but Matt catches him in a submission on the landing! The timing there was nuts! Dream manages to get the ropes, and he tries hiding on the apron, but Riddle forces him back in with a German suplex over the top! Fuckin' 'ell! Matt then heads up with a flying corkscrew senton splash for two, and the crowd totally bought that as the finish. Dream suckers him into a charge, but an attempt to roll the dice again is countered with a powerbomb, and Riddle throws another knee strike. He shifts right from the kick out into the submission, and Dream has no shot at the ropes now. Instead, he manages to find a way to roll back into a beautiful cradle, and Riddle is pinned at 17:32. This was excellent! Great sequences and psychology throughout, managing to get this across with pure in-ring storytelling (instead of an overreliance on spots), and then delivering a finish that perfectly punctuated the story they built. **** ¼

WWE United Kingdom Title Match: Pete Dunne v WALTER: They size each other up to start, with Dunne cautiously approaching everything against the much larger challenger. WALTER keeps trying to corner him, but Dunne is too quick. He avoids shot after shot, but can't really get any offense in either, for fear of getting caught. WALTER manages a takedown into an armbar, but Pete quickly uses the ropes to free himself, and finally manages to land a strike in the form of a right hand. Unfortunately for him, WALTER immediately responds in kind, and Dunne is floored. Dude just got wiped OUT there, and it was awesome. WALTER cranks on a side-headlock, so Dunne tries forcing a criss cross, but the challenger just absorbs his attacks. WALTER wins the sequence with a big boot, and he decides to bootchoke Pete on the ropes, until the champion falls out of the ring. WALTER is on his tail, dropping Dunne flush across the apron, then taking him back inside to ground in a toehold. Pete counters to a leglock, but WALTER chops his way into a Boston crab, and it's gonna be an uphill battle for Pete here. He manages the ropes, so WALTER starts cracking him with forearms on the apron, and throws a big boot to put Pete on the floor. Dunne comes back in all fired up, and manages to stun WALTER with a series of strikes long enough to try a suplex. WALTER reverses, but Pete lands on his feet, and manages to dump the challenger to the outside for a springboard moonsault press out there. WALTER's still in first, so Dunne tries a dive off the top, but WALTER follows him to the top. He tries a superplex, but Pete counters with a sunset sitout powerbomb - complete with an impressive walk before the drop! Damn! Only gets two, though, and WALTER wisely bails to the outside before Pete can try anything else. Dunne goes after him with a crazy flying double stomp on the floor, with the camera perfectly positioned for maximum effect. Dunne forces him back in, but gets knocked across the ring by a dropkick, and WALTER release German suplexes him. Powerbomb into a cradle gets two, so WALTER starts throwing short-chops. Dunne tries returning fire, but he keeps getting floored by single blows from the massive challenger, until he manages to crank on the hand to try fighting him off. WALTER responds by stomping on his face, but Pete manages to block another powerbomb, and he throws an enzuigiri to buy time. He tries to capitalize with a dive, but WALTER crotches him on the top turnbuckle to stop it, and the challenger cobra superplexes him off for two! Dunne taking the move with a full backflip is just the icing on the cake here. WALTER decides to blast him with more of those devastating chops, but Pete catches the hand, and starts cranking on the fingers. That stuns WALTER enough for Dunne to string a German suplex and a cradle together, but it only gets two. Pete manages to follow up by putting the boots to his challenger, but WALTER returns fire from a horizontal position! Yeah! Pete just keeps stomping back, and starts cranking on the fingers again to try for a submission, and big WALTER is reduced to grabbing the ropes to escape. He bails to the apron, so Pete tries suplexing him back in like Riddle did in the earlier match, but WALTER just shrugs that off. WALTER tries a flying headbutt, but lands in Dunne's grasp, and it's finger breakin' time! Unfortunately for Pete, WALTER starts stomping him to escape, and I think we're honestly moments away from a watermelon incident. Pete tries fighting him off with a suplex, but he's way too worn down to execute it, and WALTER wrecks him again. WALTER keeps coming until Dunne manages to use his momentum against him for the Bitter End... for two. Pete is spent, but WALTER isn't coming at him like he was before either, and both guys are well staggered. They meet at center ring for a slugfest, with Dunne absorbing the bombs WALTER throws at him, and returning fire - though his shots are doing significantly less damage per turn. He starts firing them off faster, getting three or four in for every one WALTER can, but WALTER manages to throw a big boot to end that experiment. The big guys goes upstairs, but Dunne follows, and grabs a triangle choke on the top rope. Unfortunately for him, WALTER is able to power that into a powerbomb down, and he capitalizes with a flying splash to end Dunne's 685 day reign at 25:29. I dug the strong Sting/Vader vibes they were giving off here. Like the North American title bout before it, the formula here was storytelling first, spots second. While it couldn't quite follow Dream/Riddle, it was a very good match on its own, and a satisfying end to Dunne's long reign. *** ¾

NXT Women's Title Fatal Four-Way Match: Shayna Baszler v Kairi Sane v Io Shirai v Bianca Belair: First fall wins it. Everyone trades off to start, with Sane and Io teaming up to dominate the other two with complex double team spots. That continues until they get the house all to themselves, and a criss cross goes to a stalemate. Another one, but Baszler and Belair put a stop to it, and everyone ends up on the outside. Would it kill them to let Kairi and Io do their thing for a few minutes? Inside, Belair hits Baszler with a handspring moonsault for two, but Sane dives off the top at Belair for two before Bianca can follow up. Sane tries a schoolgirl, but Belair blocks, so Io dives in with a springboard flying dropkick at Bianca. She adds a running kneesmash in the corner, but a bodypress off the middle rope gets caught in a fallaway slam for two - cover broken by Baszler. The champ slams everyone around now that she's back, and she grabs Belair in a choke on the middle turnbuckle, but Sane and Io powerbomb them both off. Baszler and Belair bail, so Io throws Sane out onto them, then does her own dive in the form of the crispest looking moonsault press you'll ever see. Another dive, but this time Belair cuts them off, and everyone ends up looking up at the lights. That leads to everyone trading pin attempts as they recover, and Baszler bails, leaving Belair alone with Sane and Io. They smack her around, but Baszler cuts off a combo, and Belair schoolgirls Io for two, then press-drops her at Sane and Baszler on the outside! Bianca selects Baszler to bring in, but gets caught in the Clutch for her efforts, and Sane/Io are too battered to break it up. Belair manages to power out, but here comes Io with a sitout facebuster to get rid of Bianca. Io with a 2^nd rope moonsault on Baszler for two, then a flying version for the kill, but Sane saves. Io doesn't appreciate that, so Sane decides to spinning backfist her ass, then whiplash slam her onto Baszler. Sane goes up with a flying elbowdrop on Baszler, but Io breaks the cover at two. She blasts Sane with a dropkick, but the follow-up gets countered with a brutal DDT, and Sane goes back up for another dive, but Belair cuts her off by whipping her with the braid. She then stacks both Sane and Io on her shoulders for a rack bomb, but Baszler cuts off the resulting pin attempt, and traps Bianca in the Clutch for the win at 15:42. This felt more like a tornado tag match than a proper four-way. Unfortunately, I wasn't feeling it. Sane and Io both did incredible work here, but the other two were struggling to keep up, and I just couldn't get into the flow of the match. Don't get me wrong, it's not a 'bad' match by any means, but it definitely felt like a big step down compared to what everyone else is doing tonight. ** ½

Main Event: NXT Title Two-out-of-Three Falls Match: Johnny Gargano v Adam Cole: This is to decide the vacant title. Feeling out process to start, and you can tell right away from the way they're setting the pace that this is going to be a long match. After trading off on the mat for a while, Gargano takes control with a clothesline over the top, and he nails Cole with a baseball slide out there. He rolls Adam back in, but Cole rolls right back out to avoid getting in trouble, and he throws an enzuigiri at a frustrated Gargano when Johnny goes after him. Now Adam comes back inside on his own terms, and starts nailing Johnny with chops, followed by knees. He cranks on a chinlock, but Gargano won't calm down, so Cole switches to a dragon sleeper instead, and Johnny settles. Gargano manages to force a criss cross, but both guys try for a bodypress at the same time, and both are left looking at the lights. That leads to a slugfest, dominated by Gargano into a snap overhead suplex. Rollup gets two, reversed by Cole for two. Johnny with a schoolboy into a kick that sends Adam bailing, but he dodges a plancha attempt, so Johnny uses a slingshot spear for two instead. Nice sequence there. Cross corner whip, but Cole reverses, so Johnny dives off the middle with a facebuster for two. Suplex, but Cole reverses, so Johnny counters to a full-nelson. Cole blocks, and we get a reversal sequence in the corner that ends in Adam landing a lungblower for two. Cole tries his own suplex, but Gargano counters with a cradle, leading to them reversing it back and forth a few times for two counts. That then leads to another reversal sequence that ends in Adam throwing an enzuigiri, and they trade cradles into another reversal sequence that ends in Gargano hooking a victory cradle for two. Another reversal sequence ends in Cole hitting a knee to the back of the head, and that's enough to pick up the first fall at 13:54. Man, those last few minutes with reversal sequence after reversal sequence was something else. Cole unloads in the corner as soon as Gargano is vertical again, and he uses a German suplex to put Johnny down for a shining wizard for two. Fireman's carry, but Gargano slips to the apron to escape, and hits a spear out there when Adam follows. Gargano with a somersault senton on the floor, and he rolls Adam in for the slingshot DDT - only to get caught in the fireman's neckbreaker for two. Cole takes him upstairs to try a powerbomb off the top, but Johnny counters with a backdrop driver down for two instead. Gargano takes another swing at the slingshot DDT, but Cole hits the deck to avoid it, and tries to scoop Johnny into a fireman's neckbreaker instead - only for Gargano to slip out, and hit the slingshot DDT onto the apron! That leaves both guys down on the outside, and Johnny's up first, but gets sent into the post before he can capitalize. Inside, Adam looks for the kill, but Johnny grabs a vicious looking fujiwara armbar instead. Adam counters to a crucifix cradle, but Gargano counters to the crippler crossface for a quick submission at 20:49. Cole didn't waste energy fighting the hold, so he's still strong as they stand for the final fall, and it's slugfest time. Gargano tries a superkick, but Cole ducks. Cole tries an enzuigiri, but Gargano ducks. Gargano manages to land a strike, but the kill shot is countered with a vertical neckbreaker for two, and Johnny is busted open now. Cole heads up, but Gargano blocks him with an enzuigiri, and uses a snake-eyes into the middle to set up a modified full-nelson facebuster for two. That leads to a slugfest on their knees, with Cole getting the better of it, but failing to capitalize. That leads to them each throwing an enzuigiri, each throwing a clothesline, and then each throwing a superkick for a double knockout. Crowd liked that sequence more than I did. Reversal sequence ends in Cole hitting a straightjacket suplex for two, and another sequence ends in Adam hitting a saito suplex. He tries a dive off the middle, but Gargano dodges, and lands a superkick, followed by an inverted rana. Another superkick to finish, but Cole falls out of the ring, leaving poor Johnny scrambling to cover a man who isn't there. He's dazed, allowing Adam to sweep him to the outside for a nasty wheelbarrow suplex into the apron, and he rolls him in - only to find that Gargano was playing possum, and Johnny hits him with a pair of DDTs for two! Adam immediately bails, so Gargano dives with a tope, but gets drilled with a knee while trying a slingshot spear on the way back in. That allows Adam a Canadian destroyer for two, and I had to watch that sequence twice just to make sure I didn't miss anything. Cole isn't sure where to take it from there, and Johnny bails to the outside before he can make up his mind. Cole follows for some verbal abuse on the outside, but that sets Johnny off, and Adam takes a spill into an announce table. Johnny takes him up onto it for a move, but Cole fights him off, and hits a double-underhook facebuster on it - the table failing to break. Cole heads in to try and win the final fall by countout, but Johnny makes it in just in time, so Adam welcomes him with a superkick for two. He goes for a knee, but Gargano blocks with his own superkick, so Adam returns fire with ANOTHER superkick. Gargano responds with the crippler crossface, but here comes the Undisputed Era! With the referee distracted, they're able to break Cole free, and Gargano takes a total elimination to give Cole the title at... no he kicked out at two! Johnny deals with the Era back backdropping Cole over the top onto all three of his pals, but the distraction allows Adam to nail him with a knee to the back of the head as they go back in... for two. These near falls are just nuts. Cole goes for it again, but this time Johnny ducks, and it's crossface time! He cranks it on, and with the Era still down, and Cole too far away from the ropes, it's enough to crown a new champion at 38:11. This one didn't quite have the intensity of the Gargano/Ciampa wars, or the balls-to-the-wall insanity of the Gargano/Ricochet match, but still another major work out of the always incredible Gargano. Afterwards, Johnny's wife runs in to celebrate, and he finds his family in the crowd to celebrate with, and just as it looks like we're done for the night, Tommaso Ciampa (in a neck brace) shows up to embrace the new champion as we go off the air. ****

BUExperience: Another great night of NXT, with top notch wrestling throughout, and a big, send-the-fans-home-happy ending. This honestly felt like a season finale, with lots of big angles wrapping up, with smaller threads left for new ones next time.

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