NXT MARCH 27TH 2019
Cole came out to start the show, with the NXT Title displayed in the ring and called Gargano out to face him. Gargano milked a dueling chant between the two, which went a real long time, with Cole finally shutting down the people chanting for him, only for it to start up again. Cole and Gargano, who’s back to full on babyface, built up the Takeover match. The crux of it seemed to be Cole saying he was successful at Takeover and Johnny wasn’t, which ignores a fair few Takeovers on Cole’s end. He also asked what Gargano had done to earn the title match at Takeover, which is a fairer point. Gargano said he didn’t get the top spot and debut that Cole did and detailed how he had to work for it, before saying the past four years had made him appreciate where he was going and that was the main event over Takeover to finally become NXT Champion. Cole teased leaving, but stopped to get the last word and say he was going to leave champion, saying here’s why. The rest of Undisputed Era then showed up on the stage and Cole said the match wouldn’t be definitive as HHH said, it’d be undisputed.
Footage was shown from after last week’s main event, when Forgotten Sons jumped Black and Ricochet.
Vanessa Borne and Aliyah vs. Lacey Lane and Kacy Catanzaro
This was the NXT debut for Lane and for Catanzaro. Vanessa and Aliyah were in the process of working over Lacey, when Shayna, Marina and Jessamyn appeared. Vanessa and Aliyah exited, leaving Baszler to attack. Kacy managed to escape the Kirifuda Clutch and dropkicked Marina and Jessamyn off the apron, but got caught in the Kirifuda the second time and was choked out, with Baszler posing with the title, in the ring and then on the announce table.
Matt Riddle vs. Kona Reeves
Riddle versus Dream was officially announced here for Takeover. Reeves, who randomly reappeared in a very brief cameo last week, hasn’t had a match on NXT TV since September. He’s still The Finest, but his look has changed a little bit. Dream came out mid-match, which I wasn’t so keen on since we just had a mid-match interruption in the last match, until he was wheeled onto the stage on a couch by two women, which was an entrance worth the interruption. The distraction helped Reeves to get a near fall with a teardrop suplex, but Riddle was able to fight back and win with the elbows into the Bromission. Dream immediately got on the mic post match, announcing ‘Matthew Riddle’ as the winner. Riddle then went up and threw away Dream’s goblet of drink, before telling him he’d see him in New York.
DUSTY RHODES TAG TEAM CLASSIC FINAL
Aleister Black and Ricochet vs. Forgotten Sons
A strong final match of the tournament. Ricochet and Black looked really good early and got the crowd, who recognised this was an important match and reacted accordingly, going. Forgotten Sons would take over after Ryker hit Ricochet while the referee was distracted, working Ricochet’s back over. Ricochet ended up getting the tag after a miscued slingshot and Black ran wild. The match would settle back down into a regular tag match, as opposed to being a chaotic finishing stretch, with pins for both teams broken up at the last second. Forgotten Sons would then go for their reverse DDT/stomp finish, but Black escaped. He took out both Blake and Cutler, before Blake hit a cool looking powerbomb into a codebreaker, with Black getting his foot on the rope and the referee spotting Ryker knocking it off. Ryker was kicked out and that led to the end for Forgotten Sons, with Ricochet getting a blind tag, Black hitting Black Mass and taking out Cutler with an asai moonsault while Ricochet put away Blake with the 630. Forgotten Sons are the kind of team that it’s not going to be cool to get behind, either the gimmick or the in ring, but realistically speaking they’re solid and Blake in particular is probably better than ‘solid’, given the chance. Ricochet and Black were great here though and have the makings of an awesome team.
Black and Ricochet celebrated with the trophy afterwards and Mauro dubbed them “the fast and the furious”, which isn’t a terrible name for them, before War Raiders came out for the staredown to hype the Takeover match.
RECOMMENDED VIEWING: The Dusty Classic final is well worth watching and the rest of the show was decent as well.