This was an excellent Takeover event, even though there weren’t any title changes. Mauro Ranallo was bouncing all over on commentary as usual with references to people like Kawhi Leonard and Rick Ross (not to mention the “Mamma Mia” chants from the crowd).
Johnny Gargano’s rivalry with Adam Cole can be described in one word: legendary. Tommaso Ciampa should be incredibly proud that this great story ensued immediately after his neck injury. It’s also very interesting to find out that Adam Cole loves to scuba dive courtesy of Mauro Ranallo.
It’s also fascinating that Shayna Baszler is not getting stale at all as NXT Women’s Champion. She is a two-time Women’s Champion and has held the gold for quite a while during both reigns. Candice LeRae and Io Shirai also had one of the best women’s matches in quite some time despite the fact that it was not set up to be one of the primary attractions on the card.
It also appears to be a sign that WWE will incorporate their partnership with Evolve into future storylines given that Austin Theory was shown on camera to be in attendance at Takeover. It also got some big pops from the crowd to see Matt Riddle do a little tribute to CM Punk by giving one security guard a GTS during his battle with Killian Dain and Montez Ford doing a tribute to The Rock with a Rock Bottom.
Rollins possible character development after SS Brian or women’s tag title great idea to develop uncertainty regarding Roman Reigns and get people speculating.