One night before Backlash, NXT hosted a big TakeOver special in Chicago. Four of the five matches that night were for a championship, and they all delivered one way or another. Every titleholder retained their championship except for Tyler Bate, for better or worse. With a lot happening in the Windy City this past Saturday, what did NXT do well and what went poorly?
The Best
Tyler Bate & Pete Dunne Steal the Show
Going into TakeOver: Chicago, the WWE United Kingdom Championship match between Tyler Bate and Pete Dunne was by far the most intriguing. If you didn’t watch the United Kingdom Championship Tournament or the two-hour long special this past Friday, you wouldn’t know what either of these men bring to the table. If you had seen their previous work, you would have a good idea of what to expect. Either way, this match blew away any expectations anybody might have had.
Tommaso Ciampa Turns on Johnny Gargano
Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa are known for being best friends, to the point where Ciampa was Gargano’s best man at his wedding. They showed up in NXT together in the inaugural Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic, and they would compete as a team over the next couple years. Known as #DIY, they put on some of the best tag team matches in recent memory, including their match against The Revival at NXT TakeOver: Toronto, which was awarded the NXT “Match of the Year” award by the WWE Universe.
NXT TakeOver: Chicago was #DIY’s last chance at toppling The Authors of Pain, which is seemingly impossible. They were fingertips away from grabbing the NXT Tag Team Championships, but after getting powerbombed, they lost to Akam and Rezar yet again. The former tag champs stood in the middle of the ring while the fans in attendance showered them with cheers and applause, and they started heading to the back. That is until Tommaso Ciampa decided otherwise.
Ciampa turned on his best friend, throwing him into the stage monitor and hitting him with a couple running knees. Gargano showed a mix of physical and emotional pain (with some confusion) during this entire attack, up until the moment where Ciampa jumped off of the announce table and slammed his former partner through several nearby tables.
#DIY was the only top tag team in NXT that was prominently featured last year, and while they are a tremendous asset to the division, this could be the launching point to make big singles stars out of both men. This type of story worked with Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn, and these men are talented enough to make it work for them too.
The Worst
SAnitY is Still Trying to Find Its Purpose
WWE is going a little overboard with the edgy, unstable characters. On the main roster, we have Bray Wyatt, Luke Harper, Erick Rowan, and Dean Ambrose just to name a few. Even in NXT, Aleister Black is doing a good job of filling that role without doing much of anything. SAnitY is in an interesting spot because they are not quite the Wyatt Family or The Shield, but they are similar enough where the comparisons will potentially hinder their success.
Eric Young took on Roderick Strong to kick off the show this weekend, and Strong made the group look like a ton of idiots. Strong was facing 3-on-1 odds with Alexander Wolfe and Killian Dain at ringside, but he managed to pin Young cleanly in the middle of the ring while also taking out Wolfe and Dain. They really didn’t have much motivation for the match in the first place; they just seem to dislike Strong for the hell of it.
The only thing that is keeping SAnitY from being bland is Nikki Cross, who tends to do her best work away from her male counterparts. Cross embodies the term “erratic,” with unpredictable actions at just about every turn. Just look at her “interview” from a couple weeks ago. She scared off the guy who tried to put a microphone on her and just yelled “Where is Asuka” the entire time. If the rest of SAnitY can go in the direction that Cross has already gone (Wolfe is nearly there), it will take them to the next level.
