10 Greatest NXT TakeOvers Of All Time
Aw, f***. …. f***. How do I … This is going to make so many horrible people cross.
Every single TakeOver has at least one match of the year candidate on it, and some of the
greatest emotional moments come on cards that weren’t quite as good, how I … what’s
the criteria … f***.
I almost thought it was wrong to post this video considering that as of recording, because
right now it doesn’t seem TakeOver Tampa is going ahead. Hey editor Rich, is TakeOver
Tampa currently going ahead? THANKS, MATE. But then I thought, f*** that, this list is
all about celebrating what is taken all together, for my taste, the best wrestling product ever
created in the history of mankind.
It’s not just moves, its emotional endurance, sharply focused character-based storytelling,
intricately designed spectacle from the greatest physical performers to lace their boots. It
finally legitimised western women’s wrestling in the mainstream, it’s got some the best
tag wrestling in the business, it’s created some of the best long-term slow-burn storytelling
ever. It’s the best of the indies and the best of WWE all wrapped up in a sequence of
shows that are epic without being FIVE f****** HOURS LONG. Where the hell do I start
It’s the 10 Greatest NXT TakeOvers of All Time
Honorable mention - R Evolution
Because I HAVE TO AND I’VE ONLY GOT 10. Sami Zayn spends over a year toiling and sweating
and redempting his way to the top of the NXT mountain and it’s a beautiful moment, he
has the chance to cheat but does it his way, and makes it on his own as Sami Zayn, unique
wonderful babyface, before being no-scoped by his best friend who’d debuted just that
night. The undercard isn’t as strong so I can’t officially include it, but this
payoff, this triumph and tragedy represents everything the first era of NXT was, and effectively
saw NXT start the climb towards the peak of their first golden era.
10. TakeOver Rival
So when we’re looking at NXT, especially in terms of TakeOver, there are (roughly)
three main eras. The Zayn Era, the Roode Era, and the DIY Era, or Gold, Silver and Platinum
as they’re otherwise known. If you leave this list feeling like the Zayn Era is underrepresented,
I understand. Some of NXT’s greatest moments exist in that era, American Alpha catching
fire, the Banks/Bayley Iron Man match, Becky Lynch finally putting all the pieces together,
Enzo and Cass actually being good but it was also still a developmental brand. There were
indie megastars but also, like, Bull Dempsey was there. That’s not a dig at Dempsey but
the early TakeOvers were a true mix of skill levels, which was sort of the point, showcase
these guys. However, even back then some cards were still fantastic, case in point TakeOver
Rival. Not only was the undercard stacked, Hideo Itami vs Tyler Breeze over-delivered,
we had the first, and still somehow ONLY fatal-fourway featuring the Four Horsewomen of NXT, and
Neville vs Finn Balor was a solid match of the year candidate, but the main event was
the first step in one of the better rivalries of the decade. Zayn vs Owens, the video package
is one of the best NXT ever did and the match itself was a masterpiece of simple, but unexpected
booking. Zayn mistimes a leap to the outside, cracking his head, then Owens just powerbombs
him over and over and over and over again, until the ref stops the match. Zayn loses
nothing, he wasn’t even pinned, Owens is turned into an even more loathsome monster
and Zayns title reign ends after just a month, with neither the champion or the championship
suffering. This match proved to many new fans that NXT knew how to reward its fans for their
emotional investment. Just a stellar damn night of wrestling, and this list is only
just getting started.
9. TakeOver Portland
Right now, NXT feels like it’s approaching the end of a very special time in its life.
One of Gargano and Ciampa is likely to leave the company at the next TakeOver, and the
reign of the Undisputed Era seems to be crumbling too. In yesteryear this would mean that we’re
about to see a raft of very important call-ups, necessitating a massive shift in the roster
and a period of calm that sees less spectacle and more a bit more patient character-building.
NXT’s existence as a third brand throws that tradition into uncertainty but it definitely
feels like they’re ramping up for a finale, because Goddamn this is NXT almost at the
point of self-parody. Every match is so so much, Lee/Dijakovic is the pinnacle of hoss
wrestling and honestly though, will Keith Lee marry me? Please? The undercard also features
Bianca Belair heartbreakingly becoming a superstar right when Charlotte decides to visit which
is just dreadful timing, Gargano and Balor being everything we needed it to be whilst
also featuring Balor pinning Johnny with his f****** DICK and the BroSerweights being very
dumb but also very very good. The only thing that really lets down this card at all, and
this is obviously subjective is that NXT has almost come too far in its delivery of big
matches. Portland represents the latest in a string of main events that stretch belief
to its breaking point, and then DDT belief on some concrete and then belief kicksout
a few more times. Depends how much Ring of Honour you like in your gumbo, but yeah, this
feels like a final inhuman sprint towards Tampa where everyone will explode in a Crisis
on Infinite Earths style event, and then maaaaybe things can calm down, just a smidge. You know,
if Tampa happens…. oh...
8. TakeOver Philadelphia
If there’s one man that has become synonymous with TakeOver that man would be Johnny Gargano,
what would happen if a meerkat put on beef and became the greatest set-piece wrestler
in the world. Since the days of Gargano tagging with Ciampa as DIY we knew he was an exceptional
wrestler, but it wasn’t until TakeOver Philadelphia with his INSANE match with Andrade that we
knew he was the next top star of the industry. It was the first one on one TakeOver match
to go over 30 minutes, the Iron Woman match went exactly 30 mins, don’t you @ me now,
it was the first NXT match to receive 5 stars from Dave Meltzer, if that’s something you
care about, and it set a new standard for TakeOver mains, something which perhaps they’ve
tried a bit too hard sometimes to replicate. It’s amazing, watch it again, and while
the undercard is not the greatest of all time, there’s still some very strong stuff here.
AOP vs Undisputed Era is something special, we have Shayna Bazler first TakeOver and while
she hasn’t hit her prime, the arm-stomping character work is still on point, Dream and
Kassius Ohno have a fun match, and Cole and Black have a very stupid extreme rules match
featuring men doing things with chairs that should not be done with chairs. However, as
good as the rest of it is, it’s a one match show, and what a match it is, ending with
finish cheapshot from Tomasso Ciampa as a perfect poison cherry on a meat sundae.
7. TakeOver Brooklyn 1
Does TakeOver Brooklyn feature Canadian Destroyers, eight dozen kickouts and Fight Forever chants,
no it does not. Does it feature moments of pure wrestling happiness that have rarely
if ever been replicated. Yes it does. First off, Blue Pants appears and helps the Vaudevillains
beat Blake and Murphy. Seems quaint to look back on it, but GODDAMN did this make everyone
happy at the time. If you’ve forgotten, Blue Pants (aka AEW’s Librarian Leva Bates)
was a comedy jobber who wore Blue Pants. Adorable. Ignore what happened on the main roster (something
you’ll have to do a lot of when watching this show back) but the Vaudevillains were
over, I promise you and their victory was the first of a number of beam-inducing moments.
Samoa Joe wrecked shop against Baron Corbin at the top of his game, Apollo Crews debuted
brilliantly, again ignore what came next, and the ladder match between Balor and Owens
was fantastic. Also, bloody hell what’s Jushin Thunder Liger doing in NXT, wrestling
like he’s in his 30s that’s what, go Kane the Power Ranger, let’s fighting love. But
of course, we’re here for Sasha Banks vs Bayley and there’s still something in my
eye. For any time that people bag on NXT for being predictable, remind them that giving
the fans a moment they’ve prayed for is a good thing. Bayley ascending to the mountaintop
and besting Sasha Banks in her prime was just… it just made us all happy. All of us. Everyone,
and when that curtain call took place it was thoroughly earned. The story of women’s
wrestling dominated much of 2015, and looking back, this was the apex of that narrative.
Emotive wrestling at its best.
6. TakeOver Chicago 1
And speaking of feelings, Ciampa, you godless f***. So begins probably the best rivalry
in NXT history. It’s truly an Odyssey, with twists, turns, injuries, redemptions, wounds
being torn open, and this is the Nexus point. Well, the seeds had already been planted,
because Triple H knows what he is doing, with Ciampa maybe almost, but not quite turning
on Gargano in the cruiserweight classic. The team survived only to Die Another Day, and
what a death. At the end of a great ladder match, the two men stand at the top of the
ramp, you think, will it happen, then the absolute bastards through up the copyright
logo which only appears seconds before the end of the show, so you breathe out, unclench,
relax, as Ciampa whispers, this is my moment, and then… and … then … It’s a perfectly
engineered bait and switch and exactly as vicious as it needed to be. Pats on the back
all round. For this moment alone, Chicago is a significant TakeOver, but there’s also
a hell of an undercard here. The Women’s Triple threat is stellar, both Bobby Roode
and Hideo Itami have the greatest match of their NXT careers, then there Tyler bate vs
Pete Dunne. One of the great show stealers in TakeOver history, and wee beauty of match
that sees Tyler Bate’s NXT UK Championship run come to an end. A star-making performance
for both men, especially Dunne, it helped make this a fully formed great show, rather
than just a show in service to a great story. After a few underwhelming TakeOvers with Nakamura,
Joe and Roode never quite managing to fill the space left by Zayn Balor and Owens, this
was a huge return for the brand.
5. TakeOver Brooklyn 4
Gargano & Ciampa were supposed to blow off the most psychosexual feud of brotherhood,
betrayal & brainwashing to not feature Bray Wyatt and his sweaty kisses at TakeOver New
York (oh don’t worry, we’ll get to that) but because God hates necks, Tomato Champion
went down, so for now this is the final Ciampa/Gargano match until Tampa, if that even happens at
this point, you know pandemics and all that, again God seems to have something against
Ciampa getting to finish telling his stories. This is probably the least good of the ChampGargs
which still makes it better than any match over SummerSlam weekend, but it did also end
with Johnny Stupid running into a speaker because his dumbass just can’t quit ciampa.
From a storytelling perspective, it’s one of the most ambitious long-form projects and
the care and no amount of slightly deflating finishes can diminish all the callbacks, the
repeated imagery, the anger, the nuanced psychological cruelty. Yes, sign me up for another helping.
The Street Fight at Chicago 2 was maybe better, but the undercard is a lot stronger here,
with the greatest towel-based storytelling since Survivor Series 94 in Undisputed Era
vs Moustache Mountain aka, the brothers shithead vs a proud circus bear and his beautiful son.
Velveteen Dream vs EC3 was a really good WWE style match, remember when EC3 wrestled? Pepperidge
farm remembers. Also, hey Kairi Sane was great once because her vs Sheyna Bazler is also
brilliant, but what really makes the undercard a thing of beauty is the Cole/Ricochet match.
It’s so good to see Ricochet being a thing, pepperidge farm etc, and that spot where Cole
nails Ricochet with a superkick as he’s upside f****** down, sometimes, just sometimes,
everything works out exactly as planned.
4. TakeOver WarGames 2018
The Wargames takeovers are just so silly. A silly shoebox filled with silly beef who
only barely know why they’re killing each other. It’s the only time that I think NXT
suffers from that debilitating WWE condition of ‘sorry guys forget about whatever feuds
you’ve got going on, the calendar says it’s STIPULATION MATCH MONTH’. The other two
shoebox takeovers are both good, no doubt, but as a whole show 2018 stands head and shoulders
above the rest. There isn’t a bad match on the card, Kassius Ohno rides Matt Riddle’s
knee all the way to heaven, NXT once again proved why 2 out of 3 falls is their signature
stip with the excellent blowoff to Sane/Bazler, sexy mindgames prince had a truly star-cementing
match against Ciampa, establishing himself as perhaps the greatest character in all of
NXT and Black Gargano stole the show with Johnny proving that his in-ring persona actually
get more engaging with him as a dirtbag. Also, those Black Masses were an abject cruelty
wrapped in holy vengeance. For twats like me who prefer for their matches to have more
community theatre than flips, “I absolve you all your sins” feels like a present,
just for me. And then there’s the shoebox, and gosh it’s silly. The Viking Experience
team with Captain Bounce and Billy Fingers vs The Twatstreet Boys. Why not I guess? It
is November after all. It’s … there’s … it’s a lot. There’s so much in it,
45 minutes of seemingly endless spots, with a nice sprinkling of story with Undisputed
Era locking Dunne inside his cage so he can’t enter the match. Seeing as it’s kind of
what Wargames seems to be designed for, let’s just rattle off some spots, Ricochet leaping
from one ring to the next, that GREAT shot of both teams standing in each ring recreating
the Civil War poster, possibly the beefiest tower of doom spot in all of wrestling and
then, of course, Ricochet proving why he’s a f****** valuable commodity with the double
moonsault off the top of the cage. What a stupid thing to cap off a very stupid, but
very great TakeOver.
3. TakeOver Dallas
I get it. A lot of you would not rank Dallas quite this high, but honestly, this might
still be my personal favourite TakeOver. More than any other show NXT has done, this one
felt like a card filled with actual living, breathing superheroes. NXT has a lot of indy
wrestlers who almost feel anti-WWE because their only quotes ‘gimmick’ is I’m a
very good wrestler, but people don’t give NXT nearly enough credit for it being a showcase
of the best qualities of WWE, the showmanship, and how that elevates their characters to
something else, monsters, gods and demons. I will always like my NXT hypermoves-style
cut with WWE camp, it’s the best of both wrestling world and Dallas is that at its
best. Baron Corbin coming to the ring with skulls on his shoulders, American Alpha finally
becoming super saiyan nerds, Asuka killing our hero because Bayley is but a person and
Asuka is a goddess of performing brain surgery with her f****** feet, Finn Balor going Texas
Chainsaw Massacre on Samoa Joe, it’s excellent wrestling and near mythic visuals, and then
we get to Nakamura vs Zayn. The most special moment of a most special night. It’s genuinely,
from every single standpoint, perfect. The anticipation of the crowd, Nakamura appearing
in silhouette before that note slides like a knife on skin to reveal the man who set
New Japan aflame. Sami Zayn getting the best possible swansong in a promotion that had
been built partly on his back, it’s the end of his era. That bit where they’re just
punching each other FOR AGES. I know it's not a perfect show, there’s ref stoppages
for blood, the Baron Corbin match isn’t quite as epic, but this all means nothing.
It’s a sentimental choice, but bloody hell I’d make Dallas number 1 if I could.
2. TakeOver New Orleans
I went around and around with this one, I really did. I wasn’t sure if this should
be number 1, I just … the top two TakeOvers are just perfect shows. They are. From top
to toe, there’s literally nothing wrong with either of them so hey, if this is your
favourite I want you to know that I understand, and I’m here for you. It features not one,
but goddamn two wrestling observer 5 star matches in the ladder match for the North
American Championship and the first and so far best singles match in the Gargano Ciampa
feud. Everything was great, Sheyna Bazler became NXT Women’s Champion for the first
time and beast moded her shoulder back into its socket to show that, yup, she completely
gets pro wrestling, she’s going to be just fine, Roderick Strong shocked the world and,
I guess, the system by joining the Undisputed Era and being the final chaos emerald needed
to take the group Super Sonic, Aleister Black was crowned NXT Champion and actually f******
smiled, we caught you, we’ve got you on TAPE, that match was another notch in the
increasingly crowded bedpost of Andrade’s accomplishments, and then the main event.
So, it depends what you want from your wrestling, but I think it might be the best main event
in Takeover history, certain from a storytelling standpoint. All the seeds blossom here, the
crutch, the leg brace, each man going back to their DIY finisher, them sitting side by
side just like they did at the cruiserweight classic, brothers, worn down, destroyed, nothing
left but each other, and then Ciampa completely shits any shot at redemption up the wall,
thereby sealing his own destruction. Just … yes … to all of it.
1. TakeOver New York
For a whole bunch of other people, this card has the great main event in TakeOver history
and honestly, lets just take a moment to appreciate how lucky we are that NXT exists. It justifies
the existence of WWE almost by itself and it is the king of wrestling. If there’s
only one thing that puts New York over New Orleans - and by this naming trend, TakeOvers
New Jersey, New Mexico and New Hampshire are going to be full big boy trousers - it’s
that maybe the ladder match was too good and hurt the matches that followed. Here though,
through some alchemical magic, every match manages to compel the crowd and deliver in
a big way. The Viking Experience vs The Undertaker’s Grumpy Teenager and Kid Flippz was off the
hook and generated that warm thank you feeling, as both Black and Ricochet left to become
a man trapped in a room and a man trapped in vince’s mcmahon’s scorn respectively.
Velveteen Dream wrestles Matt Riddle in what is an absolute dream match from both a character
and style perspective, it’s the purest WWE style performer vs the purest MMA style performer
and both of them are big silly characters who add immeasurably to the camp and demented
personality of the brand. Also the meta joy of knowing that by winning, Dream gets to
grow and shine even when confronted with the hottest newest prospect is such a deserved
reward for everything he does. Then f****** hell Walter vs Pete Dunne. Sweet jesus the
chops, the big hands of the big man. Walters like a bank manager who’s gone off the f******
deep end, strips down to his pants and runs screaming into a car park to fight all the
f****** cars. Then you get Bazler vs Belair vs Sane vs Shirai and just … how much more
is there left to say. Listing the names is all the endorsement I can give without crashing
thesaurus.com by spam refreshing the page for ‘love’ And then Johnny Gargano and
Adam Cole wrestle for 40 minutes, with Gargano going in as the unofficial heel because it
was quote ‘Adam Cole’s Time’ and turning it around so the fan were more rabid for him
that possibly in his entire career. Is it a bit much, yes, does it have too many kickouts...mmmm…
probably, but it stands as the culmination of Johnny Gargano’s journey, that after
everything has been taken from him, DIY, his health, his sanity, even the ultimate revenge
against Ciampa all he has left is the NXT Championship and somehow that makes him invulnerable.
It works and when he finally reaches the top it’s just… joy. What a show. Look at all
these shows. I just … f***.
And that’s our list, did we miss your favourite takeover, let us know in the comments, make
sure you subscribe to wrestletalk for more lists and news, and it’s Sunday, which means
over at partsFUNknown we’ll be airing the season finale of No Rolls Barred, so make
sure you subscribe to that so you know exactly when it drops!