NXT Takeover: Toronto 2019 Review

Saturday, August 10th, 2019
Scotiabank Arena
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

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NXT Tag Team Championship Match
The Street Profits vs. The Undisputed Era

Angelo Dawkins and Kyle O'Reilly start things off. After some mat wrestling, Bobby Fish is tagged in and the Street Profits take control with some quick tags in and out. Montez Ford's athleticism is off the charts. It doesn't take too long for the Undisputed Era to start doing their thing. There is no better tag team in WWE who is better in the heat segment than they are. Dawkins hits a hot tag to Ford and he leaps all over the ring, including a standing moonsault for a 2 count. Ford then goes for a People's Elbow, but it's interrupted, but he is able to counter and hits a Rock Bottom on Fish instead. The referee loses control, allowing Fish to take out Ford's knee and they hit a beautiful double team into a German suplex. Super Exploder by Fish and then a leaping knee drop to the knee of Ford. Dawkins saves Ford from submitting by throwing Fish onto O'Reilly in what looked to be extremely painful. It's amazing how good of matches O'Reilly and Fish have with everyone. Hot tag to Dawkins and he goes nuts and the crowd is digging it. Leaping Blockbuster onto O'Reilly, but he's able to kick out. All four men start brawling and now they are all down as a result. Ford hits a huge dive over the top rope to take out both opponents. Two spears by Dawkins and then a Frog Splash from Ford and that's all she wrote. I loved the chemistry between these two teams. The Street Profits were more polished than I realized, having only seen them wrestle in the ladder match at the last Takeover. Another great tag team match at a Takeover.

Match Rating: **** (out of 5)

Johnny Gargano gets intimate with a ladder backstage ahead of his main event match. Ricochet is in the crowd.

Io Shirai vs. Candice LeRae

LeRae goes right after Shirai before the bell rings. Baseball slide by LeRae, but Shirai goes for a sunset flip into a powerbomb, but she ends up tripping her up into the end of hte ring instead and then suplexing her onto the announcers table. Shirai is quite the heel. I have to say I didn't expect that. LeRae avoids a dropkick from the top rope and comes at Shirai with some chops and forearms. Brainbuster by LeRae gets her a 2 count. LeRae gets Shirai in an Iron Octopus, but Shirai gets to the ropes. Shirai goes for a 619, but LeRae counters it with a neckbreaker. Shirai hits a reverse 619 and tries to follow up with a suplex, but LeaRae hits a suicide dive into a DDT in a surprising spot. Watching this match makes me think it's time for Shayna Baszler to lose the title tonight and move up to the main roster. I'm sure Paul Heyman would love to have her on Raw. They trade some German suplexes in a nice segment. Both women are working really hard here and playing their roles well. Double knee strike by Shirai and she goes up top, LeRae goes for a German suplex, but Shirai lands on her feet. Reverse rana by LeRae into a pinfall (!) gets a 2 count. This is really good stuff. Swinging neckbreaker off the second rope by LeRae. Spanish Fly by Shirai and that only gets a 2 count. Every Takeover, I tell myself that they won't be able to have another amazing show and two matches in and they are off to an amazing start. It's safe to say that these ladies have won over the live crowd as well. Shirai hits the moonsault but LeRae kicks out! Shirai is beside herself and is letting it out on LeRae. Shirai puts LeRae in a Koji Clutch and LeRae is passed out and the ref calls for the bell. Man, that was a really good match.

Match Rating: ****1/4

Out of the crowd comes Matt Riddle with a microphone and the crowd is loving it. He calls out Killian Dain. Dain comes in through the crowd as well and they go at it. Dain hits a big kick to the head. Dain is walking to the back, but here comes Riddle again. Riddle hits some knee strikes and out comes "security" and Riddle takes all of them out. But then Dain hits Riddle with a crossbody like Riddle was a baseball mascot. Riddle puts Dain in a sleeper, but Dain hits a leaping dive off the stage while doing a clothesline to a security guard through two tables. Solid segment.

Austin Theory is in the crowd.

NXT North American Championship Match
Velveteen Dream vs. Roderick Strong vs. Pete Dunne

Dream's entrance starts off with The Mountie's entrance music into a hip hop dance number featuring dancers in Raptors attire. The NXT roster is so strong right now. All three of these guys are so, so good in their own unique way. It only takes a few minutes until Dream takes his suspenders off. Dream and Dunne use a little teamwork on Strong in the early going. They dump Strong to the outside and they go back and forth with some nice wrestling until Strong crotches Dream on the ring post and then he goes nuts on Dunne. Dream eventually gets a Sharpshooter on Strong, but Dunne breaks it up with a dropkick off the top rope. It's now Dunne's turn and he hits a big moonsault and then a German suplex on Strong on top of Dream. All three hit signature moves on one another and they are all down. They do a unique tower of doom spot that didn't quite get executed as well as they probably had hoped, but still looked cool enough. Strong and Dunne are in the corner with Dunne trying for a triangle choke, but Dream hits a coast to coast elbow drop right onto Dunne. Dunne hits two huge knee strikes and then goes back and forth hitting forearms while running off the ropes. Strong then puts on a double Boston Crab. Strong is probably the most underrated performer in WWE today. Dream goes for a double DVD, but Dunne grabs his fingers and Strong hits him with a sickening knee lift. Dream then does an amazing job distracting the ref and then interrupting Dunne's pinfall attempt. Dunne just absolutely stomped Dream's face to the mat. Dunne hits Strong with a big kick, but then Strong rolls into a BOston Crab. Dream Valley Driver on Dunne, but Strong throws Dream out of the ring. Strong hits the falling backbreaker, but then Dream comes in and gets rid of Strong and gets the victory. Another heck of a match. There were a few moments where I thought the styles clashed a little, but they were on fire when it worked. I love the booking of Dream's character and Strong and Dunne continue to look awesome.

Match Rating: ***3/4

Adam Cole is taping up his wrists backstage for tonight.

NXT Women's Championship Match
Mia Yim vs. Shayna Baszler

Is tonight the night Baszler drops the belt? Yim hits a nice combo of a running hurricanrana followed by a big boot and a cannonball. She goes for a suicide dive, but Baszler hits her with a forearm. Yim quickly recovers and slams Baszler's arm in the ring steps. She hits a dropkick to the steps with Baszler's arm pinned between the steps and ring post. Baszler gets Yim back and is quickly working on her arm. Baszler throws a forearm with her injured arm and is selling it. I'm interested to see where they go with both women working on each other's arms. Yim comes back with a suicide dive and a tornado DDT for a 2 count. With all of the other matches tonight, this one feels like it's in slow motion. Not that a slower match is a bad thing, but it's worth noting. The crowd seems to be a bit on the disinterested side. Yim gets Baszler in a Tarantula. Yim hits a Canadian Destroyer off the top rope in a crazy spot. They trade submission holds, but then Baszler gets a figure four head choke and Yim taps out. This was just okay. They provided something different, but the finish reminded me a little too much of the Shirai match and the crowd just wasn't invested.

Match Rating: **1/2

2 Out Of 3 Falls Match For The NXT Championship
Johnny Gargano vs. Adam Cole

The first fall will be a traditional wrestling match. Will they go for the trifecta and go three for three on **** matches from me? Well, since I consider these two my favorite wrestlers in the company, I figure why not do a list of the 10 performers that I think are the best in the company right now. Here they are, in no order:

Johnny Gargano
Adam Cole
Ricochet
Daniel Bryan
Tyler Bate
Cesaro
Andrade
Charlotte Flair
Roderick Strong
Rey Mysterio

This list would probably change daily, but those are the performers who I think are on the biggest roll right now.

Back to the match, these guys continue to show their amazing chemistry together. Cole is selling the right leg after Gargano nailed it on the side of the ring. Gargano's rolling kicks is one of my favorite moves in wrestling. He just always hits it so nicely. This is one of those matches where I'm enjoying just sitting here and watching more than I want to type. Gargano hits a Sunset Driver but only gets a 2 count and the crowd is already chanting "NXT". Gargano goes off the top rope but Cole hits a Codebreaker. Huge double clothesline and both men are down. They continue to play off of how well they know each other and it continues to be such a good story. Gargano goes for the suicide dive but Cole hits a beautifully timed kick. We get a flurry of high impact moves that I'm too lazy to type, but these guys are the gold standard in conditioning in the WWE right now. Cole goes and grabs a chair and brings it in the ring. The ref grabs it and tells him he can't use it. As the ref is getting rid of it, he kicks Gargano south of the border but Gargano kicks out. The ref is getting some pretty big airtime tonight. He takes away the chair from Cole, but then Gargano uses it instead. Cole gets the first fall in the strategy that Triple H used against Randy Orton back in the day. It's now a street fight, so Gargano uses the chair repeatedly on Cole and then hits the suicide dive. They are now out into the crowd. Gargano grabs a phone and snaps a selfie. Gargano jumps off a table onto Cole, causing the barricade to come crashing down. Gargano is now clearing off the announcers table. They both go for offensive moves, but Gargano hits a back body drop onto the Spanish announce table. Gargano goes under the ring and brings out two tables and some chairs while he's at it. Gargano takes too long and it allows Cole to make a comeback with a Shining Wizard. Gargano then hits a lawn dart into a chair set up between the second and third turnbuckle and Gargano gets a submission victory with the Gargano Escape. We are all tied up at 1-1 and we now get to find out what Regal's selection is for the third fall. A steel cage is lowered and there is barbed wire on the top of the cage and has weapons all around the top. This receives a big pop from the crowd. They announce that you are not allowed to escape and can only win by pinfall or submission. They both grab kendo sticks and are just destroying one another and then hit a double superkick and the crowd is loving it. Gargano is climbing to try and get the ladder. He uses it to hit a hurricanrana and then hits a reverse hurricanrana followed by a superkick while Cole is seated in the chair. Gargano uses a fire extinguisher and then hits a tornado DDT into two chairs in a painful looking move as it appeared that his head hit the top of one of the chairs. They are now going for the sledgehammer, but Gargano hits a variation of the sunset flip powerbomb. Gargano goes up and gets the sledgehammer and goes to use it but Cole greets him with a superkick. Cole is on the top rope and throws the ladder at Gargano, but misses. He instead hits the Panama Sunrise after leaping off the top rope, but Gargano kicks out. Cole is setting up the ladder and leaps off from there and hits another Panama Sunrise and again Gargano kicks out. Cole sets up Gargano on a chair and goes for a knee to the back of the head, but Gargano moves and Cole hits the injured leg on the chair. Gargano sets up two tables by the ladder. Gargano climbs the ladder, but Cole rolls off the table. Gargano hits a Panama Sunrise off the top rope and Cole is able to kick out at 2 3/4s. Gargano grabs some wire cutters and cuts off a piece of barbed wire. Cole is trying to escape and they are both on the table that is in the corner of the top of the cage. The crowd starts chanting "Please don't die". Gargano tries to use the barbed wire, but Cole blocks it, causing both men to fall off the top through a table. Cole rolls on top and gets the pinfall victory. Good God, that table just exploded. I don't know how they did it, but they did it again. For me this is another all time classic. This was the perfect finale for this feud and I hope that we are able to re-visit it in like 5 years or so under proper circumstances. After the match, the rest of Undisputed Era helps carry Cole to the back as we go off the air.

Match Rating: *****

I don't know how they did it, but they did. Cole and Gargano gave us another incredible match on par with the first two. Three out of the four undercard matches delivered big time, with the Shirai/LeRae match really winning me over. I don't know what else to say other than if there's a NXT Takeover, you know you're getting one of the best shows of the year. Go ahead and watch this one as soon as you can.

Overall Rating: 97%