NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver Pre-Show – Night 1: April 7, 2021
Raquel Gonzalez ends Io Shirai’s near year-long run with the NXT Women’s Championship
Some superstars are simply not built to be champions and function better when they are in the mindset of pursuing a time rather than holding it; but the whole point of being a professional wrestler is to be a champion. Io is one of those people of the latter mindset. She has functioned to maximum potential as champion for over 300 days. Only two other women have managed to hold the women’s title in NXT for over 300 days and they are both champions at the moment who are defending at Mania, so that is working in favor of Shirai.
Gonzalez rose to the top among the women’s division in NXT very promptly – so she was a major priority from the moment she was signed. She was immediately dubbed the enforcer for Dakota Kai and began being pushed hard as a contender for Shirai’s title starting back in November at Takeover: WarGames where she pinned the Joshi Judas.
Walter has been NXT UK champion for 2 years and shows no signs of slowing down as he retains again
Ciampa was a legit possibility to win the UK championship from Walter. He was the first person outside NXT UK to challenge for the title, not to mention the first American challenger. It was the first time anyone legitimately thought Walter could lose the title since he won it two years ago from Pete Dunne at Takeover: New York on the weekend of WrestleMania 35.
Walter needs to be respected as a champion now as he is the longest-reigning champion in the modern era. He has had zero hiccups in this title reign over the past two years. A title victory for Tommaso Ciampa would have been poetic, however, being exactly 2 years removed from neck surgery that the Sicilian Psychopath thought at the time could possibly end his career.
Now Ciampa has his health in order as well as his family and is in a very healthy place physically and mentally emotionally and spiritually. NXT’s gatekeeper was also singularly focused on winning the title.
MSK (formerly the RascalZ in Impact) are champions just four months after being signed by WWE
The NXT Tag Team Championship match had the exact same outcome as the finals of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic just a few months ago. MSK got the victory over Grizzled Young Veterans and MSK becomes NXT Tag Team Champions just four months after debuting in December 2020.
GYV has come extremely close to the titles on multiple occasions: Dusty cup finalists two years in a row and now this loss.
Pete Dunne defeats Kushida and continues his assent toward becoming a future champion
Firstly, Pete Dunne’s new entrance music is going to take some getting used to. His old music seemed to fit his Bruiserweight/digit-obsessed character so well. The Englishman’s character has evolved immensely within the past several months, and the primary reason for that, at least in my opinion, is his affiliation with Pat McAfee from August – November 2020. McAfee significantly helped advance the careers of Dunne, Oney Lorcan, and Danny Burch (who all needed a little extra boost in the charisma department).
Even after being a former NXT UK champion for well over a year it still seemed as though there was something missing from Pete Dunne’s overall presentation. He did not have the same allure as a legitimate champion typically has. He has developed that unspoken quality now, but a little more time is needed for him to adequately cultivate this new character wrinkle. The Bruiserweight is on the right track as of now to become a champion in NXT within the next six months – year.
Kushida’s first two years in NXT have essentially been the preliminary years in his WWE career. Some guys or girls are pushed very soon after their debut (Karrion Kross/Raquel Gonzales), however that’s not the way the cookie crumbled for Kushida. WWE is fully aware of the talent he has and hopefully he is not wasted.
Unfortunately this has happened before with Hideo Itami/Kenta, and to a much lesser degree Cesaro. For whatever reason, many foreigners have a tough time getting over in WWE – largely due to the company taking a somewhat formulaic approach towards the way it conducts business.
Bronson Reed emerges victorious in the gauntlet eliminator and will challenge Johnny Takeover for the North American title
The match started with Isaiah “Swerve” Scott officially turning heel by attacking Leon Ruff from behind, signifying that WWE is drawing inspiration from Swerve’s history as Killshot in Lucha Underground. If we are observing that enough to notice, there is a common theme over the last couple years that every character in WWE who has embraced his or her edgier side has been met with open arms by the WWE universe.
Dexter Lumis was finally able to compete in a match like this. He was scheduled to compete in a five – men ladder match for the North American title back in August 2020 before suffering an injury. Just the fact that he was involved in a gauntlet match to determine the number one contender raised his stock.
LA Knight is virtually guaranteed to be money in NXT, but for right now he is a little too new – he reminds me a little bit of Adam Cole with his mannerisms and the way he speaks. I thought for a couple years “why has WWE not gotten their hands on this guy” when he was doing the Eli Drake persona with Impact (calling everybody dummies and using the “fact of life” gimmick which he brought to WWE). I did not realize he was with WWE in 2013 – 14 but it just never worked out.
Triple H, however, was extremely high on him and always kept an eye out as his radar for talent is spot on.
At the end of the day Bronson Reed emerged as the number one contender for Johnny Gargano’s North American championship. NXT’s Resident Thick Boy has become familiar with his own personal flow state and has hopefully enjoyed the process – becoming a better overall person (hopefully) over the past two years since being signed to WWE and it has finally paid off with a title opportunity.