Kevin’s NXT TakeOver XXX Review

NXT Tag Team Championship Number One Contender’s Match: Breezango vs. Danny Burch and Oney Lorcan vs. Legado Del Fantasma

A rare NXT Kickoff match. The winners face Imperium. Mendoza knocks Breeze off the apron and is the legal man against Oney and Fandango. All hell quickly breaks loose, including a dive to the outside. Fandango gyrates as he faces off with a vicious Oney. They collided and spill outside where everyone else is. Mendoza takes a bunch of them out with a spiral splash to the outside. Inside, Wilde uses a neckbreaker on Oney that causes him to DDT Fandango. A hot tag comes to Danny Burch who hits everything with force. The teams keep trading offense until Buch headbutts Wile and tags in Oney for what looks like Magic Killer. Mendoza breaks up the pin. Breezango comes close after a sweet backbreaker/leg drop combo. After things break down, Wilde hits a 450 splash on Breeze but the count is broken up.  Lorcan crushes Wilde with a running uppercut but then Breeze clocks him with a superkick to win.

Winners: Breezango in 6:53 [A really fun sprint. They packed a ton of action into this with no slow down. ***]

Onto the main show, Vic Joseph and Corey Graves are on commentary. Beth Phoenix too but she’s at home.

Finn Balor vs. Timothy Thatcher

Finn attacks at the bell but Thatcher takes him to the mat and holds serve there. Finn gets up but takes a club to the chest. He tries to take control on the mat but Thatcher is just better than him at that. Balor pops up with adrenaline only to get rolled into the Kimura. Finn is in clear trouble. Although Finn slips out, he still gets his arm wrenched and Thatcher drives knees into his back. Thatcher gets two on a butterfly suplex and holds on but Finn rolls through a pin with a dropkick, finally getting some air. That gets him going as he reels off some offense. Finn works an abdominal stretch like its 1992 and then hits a lifting reverse DDT for two. Finn misses Coup de Grace and hurts his leg further. Thatcher, like a shark smelling blood, pounces and wraps Finn up with a half crab. Finn kicks his way free but eats a release German suplex. Finn slaps on another modified abdominal stretch. Thatcher counters into an ankle lock. His next attempt to transition sees Finn roll through and deliver a double stomp. Coup de Grace works this time but his knee is still damaged. Finn connects on 1916 and wraps this up for his record 12th TakeOver win.

Winner: Finn Balor in 13:32 [I found this to be really good in terms of back and forth wrestling. It lacked something to make it special and peaked at being good. ***1/4]

NXT North American Championship Ladder Match: Bronson Reed vs. Cameron Grimes vs. Damian Priest vs. Johnny Gargano vs. Velveteen Dream

Reed has Bam Bam inspired gear. Priest attacks during Dream’s entrance to get this going. He and Reed clean house, saving a beating for Grimes before facing off. Dream interrupts and gets going with superkicks. Grimes kicks Priest and has a ladder but Johnny stops him and hits the slingshot spear. Everyone starts going after the title but keep getting cut off. Hilariously, Grimes has two ladders pulled apart, causing him to do a split. Priest and Dream throw ladders at each other when Reed avoids being sandwiched by them. Reed hits a senton on a ladder on Dream and Johnny. Grimes German suplexes Priest and Dream chop blocks Reed to save Johnny for a temporary alliance. Johnny sends Grimes and Dream to attack and he sneaks up the ladder. Everyone gets crushed in the corner as bodies and ladders pile up before Reed avalanches them all. Grimes tries to sneak up but is knocked over and hits the ropes hard. Priest climbs but Dream stops him. Then, Priest hits a springboard kick to Dream’s leg, knocking him down. His springboard somersault meets a Johnny superkick. Dream nearly murdered Priest by throwing a ladder outside. Then, nearly everyone hits dives from a Johnny tope to a Reed tope, with a Grimes inverted powerslam in the middle. Priest tops it all with a huge somersault after running up the ladder. Grimes climbs but Candice LeRae, who came out to check on Johnny, stops him and then knocks the ladder over. He scolds her and goes to hit her but she light shim up. Before he can do real damage, Johnny stops him with a ladder. Then, she holds Johnny’s hand to set up a rope walk rana off the apron on Grimes. Reed stops Johnny from winning. Then, Candice gets on his back to prevent him from winning, so reed comes off the ladder with a splash on Johnny with Candice still on his back. As Reed and Priest fight on one ladder, Grimes climbs another for no reason. Then, he knocks Priest off as he ends up on that ladder. Dream stops him and takes a superkick, then gets his leg caught in the ladder as it falls over. Dream ends up alone by the title but misses it. Priest climbs up and knocks him off with an ear clap only for Reed to interrupt. Johnny and Grimes nearly die when Johnny does a sunset flip bomb off a ladder onto another one. Johnny wants the DDT but Dream catches him. He then DVDs him off the apron onto Priest on another ladder. Reed and Dream get close but Reed manages to send Dream flying out of the ring and over the guardrail, through a table. Reed is alone until Grimes knocks him off. Gargano stops Grimes but then Priest stops him. Johnny hits him with it and unhooks it but Priest holds onto it. He hits Johnny, sending him down and Priest pulls down the gold.

Winner: Damien Priest in 21:23 [While it had plenty of big spots and constant movement, it always felt like they were just moving from one spot to another without any real rhyme or reason. Some of it seemed redundant. ***]

Adam Cole vs. Pat McAfee

After Cole’s entrance, McAffee cuts a promo backstage saying he’s kicked off Super Bowls and has the strongest leg in the world. This will be over quickly. He arrives with his friends, who all wear shirts saying Cole Sucks. Cole works a headlock that Pat can’t break. When he does, he has to avoid a Cole kick, which is a turnaround. Pat knocks him over with a shoulder block and brags. He ducks outside for a breather when Cole gets up. Cole follows and Pat’s boys get involved so the Undisputed Era show up and security keeps everything split. Pat then leaps off the top with a somersault onto the big crowd! That gives Pat the upper hand and he keeps control inside. He even does a body slam with squats. Pat also busts out a dropkick or two. Cole gets going and they slug it out. Then he pulls Pat’s tank top over his head and fires off shots before a pump kick. USHIGIROSHI gets two and Cole seems impressed. Pat also survives a Backstabber and cuts off Cole up top. Pat climbs up for a superplex and Cole shoves him off but Pat does a backflip, lands on his feet, then jumps straight up to the top to hit the superplex for two. Pat goes for a kick outside but misses and hits the steel steps. Cole pounces but Pat wants the referee to check on him. Cole kicks him in the leg and applies the figure four. Pat struggles and makes it to the ropes. Pat holds his leg and still calls Cole a little punk. Behind the referee’s back, Pat kicks him low. He adds a clothesline and hits the Punt but Cole kicks out. Pat mocks the BAY BAY and comes off the top but right into a superkick. Cole goes to remove the knee pad but stops. He backs to the corner and climbs up, looking for the Panama Sunrise. It connects and that’s it.

Winner: Adam Cole in 16:12 [I expected Pat to do good but this blew me away. They kept it mostly basic, which makes sense, and they delivered in spades. I hope Pat sticks around because he seemed to be a natural in there. ***3/4]

Drew McIntyre joins commentary.

NXT Women’s Championship: Io Shirai [c] vs. Dakota Kai

Io is angry and tackles Dakota down to start. Dakota fights back with a pretty big kick. They go outside and Raquel Gonzalez stands in Dakota’s path to protect her. That helps her swing the momentum and work the arm inside. She even traps it in an armbar while on the ropes. A pump kick gets two. She keeps control and goes for many covers but Io keeps kicking out, irritating Kai. Each kick out does cause Io to use more energy on her bad shoulder, though. Io finally gets going and delivers the 619 but her arm is still hurt. Springboard dropkick connects. Kai wants a German off the apron but switches to go for a powerbomb. Io gets free and double stomps on her. Inside, Kai kicks out right into another arm submission. She also fires off kicks but Io gets hype and no sells them before hitting her own until she runs into a Scorpion Kick. Kai misses the corner boot and takes a school boy into the corner. Io avoids another boot and starts hitting running knees, three of them in a row, in the corner. They fight up top where Kai gets stuck in the tree of woe and Io hits another double stomp for two. Kai comes back with a headbutt and a modified Kairopractor. She goes right into another armbar and Io fights hard for a while before reaching the ropes. Dakota gets her draped and hits the GTK that beat Rhea Ripley. The cover is on but Io gets her foot on the bottom rope and Dakota is furious. Dakota accidentally boots the referee in the corner. Io hits the moonsault and covers but he’s still out. Raquel enters and powerbomb Io. She drapes Kai’s arm on Io and wakes up the referee but it only gets two. Dakota wants another GTK but Io gets free and slaps on a version of a crossface with her one good arm. Dakota gets free and heads outside but Io then takes both out with a moonsault. She adds another inside that ends it.

Winner: Io Shirai in 17:14 [The match I was most excited for and it turned out to be very good. Dakota’s arm work was creative and interesting, while Io’s comeback worked The Raquel interference was done perfectly as it was just the right amount. ***3/4]

Post-match, Raquel lays out Io and wants the powerbomb but Rhea Ripley’s music hits and she comes out to stand up to Raquel. They come face to face and everyone is hype but Raquel backs off. Rhea steps to her again and they talk some smack. Dakota convinces Raquel to leave. Io celebrates as Rhea watches from the stage with her eyes fixated on her.

An ad runs to hype the return of NXT UK from a specific solo location in London on September 17.

Tommaso Ciampa returns on Wednesday.

Cesaro is in the crowd.

Damian Priest hops into a hot tub with two women in his gear. One of the ladies is Brandi Lauren.

NXT Championship: Keith Lee [c] vs. Karrion Kross

Another cheesy entrance for Kross. Lee runs him over immediately and Kross is taken aback for the first time. They trade shots and Lee obviously wins out with haymakers. The fight moves outside and Kross hits the glass with a shot. Lee misses and does the same but it doesn’t hurt him, only breaks the glass. He misses a charge into the post and then is sent into the glass. His arm gets hurt so Kross works it over inside. Lee still kicks out at one. He keeps working the arm with various holds and submissions for several minutes. Lee finally gets free with a powerbomb and starts hitting some shots. A powerslam gets Lee two. They trade stuff and Kross can’t put him away as Lee kicks out and Scarlett is stressed. Suplex from Lee gets him a near fall. They trade more shots and Kross takes him down with a clothesline. Lee survives but looks worn out while Kross seems fresh. Lee fires up with a clothesline of his own. Kross kicks out. They each kick each other. Kross gets going and seems to choke out Lee but he keeps his arm up and has fight left and he reaches the ropes. Lee gets going and hits the Spirit Bomb for two. Lee goes up and Kross fights him there. Kross wins the title with his suplex off the top.

Winner: Karrion Kross in 21:50 [It started cool with some hoss stuff and the arm work. Then, Kross worked that arm in boring fashion for days. This should’ve been a 10 minute brawl but instead got dragged out to go past 20. The finish was flat and this didn’t click. In terms of the decision, Kross makes for the most boring champion to me since Bobby Roode. **1/4]

7.0

The final score: review Good

The 411

They should've just put the title on Pat McAfee. I preferred In Your House. This one had quality matches up until the end but the ladder match was a disappointment and that main event was really lame.