NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver Pre-Show – Night 2: April 8, 2021
Kyle O’Reilly defeats Adam Cole in an unsanctioned main event
Any match that has the capability of holding the WWE universe’s attention for 40 minutes is a classic. Adam Cole has participated in a few of these 40 minute matches in NXT but this is probably the longest match in Kyle O’Reilly’s 15-year career. This was reminiscent of a petty disagreement between two brothers – it’s been done many times before (Triple H – Shawn Michaels, Seth Rollins – Dean Ambrose, Johnny Gargano – Tommaso Ciampa).
All of those rivalries manifested over a period of years, and this is the latest installment. The respective careers of Adam Cole and Kyle O’Reilly will be forever linked – even though they will be adversaries for much of it. This played out almost exactly like the unsanctioned match between Triple H and Shawn Michaels in 2002 – Michaels’ return match after a four-year hiatus with his back issues.
Karrion Kross takes the NXT title off Finn Balor – perhaps so Mr. McMahon could atone for a mistake he made years ago with Balor
Finn Balor’s character development, much like that of Io Shirai, works most effectively when he is carrying a title around his waist. Perhaps Mr. McMahon feels he made a mistake in not orchestrating for Balor to regain the Universal title upon returning from injury back in April 2017. The Demon tore his labrum at SummerSlam 2016 in a match with Seth Rollins to determine the first Universal Champion. Balor was able to finish the match but was forced to relinquish the title the following night on Monday Night Raw.
Similarly, Karrion Kross was forced to relinquish the NXT Championship in August 2020 immediately after winning it from Keith Lee due to a shoulder injury. Perhaps Mr. McMahon was determined to not make the same mistake twice by not letting Kross regain the title, so Mr. McMahon will most likely have the final call on making Kross NXT Champion (since Mr. McMahon makes all final decisions surrounding NXT as well despite the fact that Triple H and Shawn Michaels run the bulk of the brand).
Mr. McMahon lived and learned from the mistake of not booking Balor to regain the title in 2017. This takes a lot of humility – especially for a person with such a large ego.
It looks like Kross took Balor’s advice and tempered his emotions, using them in such a way that they would serve him. Maybe someone like Kyle O’Reilly could be the next person to challenge for the title. It will be interesting to see what The Prince does after losing the title. He could switch his focus to a rivalry with someone like Adam Cole or go a completely different route and return to the main roster. Maybe this time Mr. McMahon could put a world title (obviously not the Universal title since that firmly belongs to Roman Reigns) on Finn since he now has proof recently of that working extremely well.
Johnny Takeover defeats Bronson Reed, retaining his North American title
Johnny Gargano proved exactly why he is a Takeover legend. He is taking slow but steady steps to establish his character – which is similar to that of Seth Rollins on the main roster. Each of these men have the primary goal of putting over younger superstars, because they both recognize that they have established their own characters and are already major stars – so they want to use their own starpower to create new stars and preserve the legacy of their particular brand.
The NXT North American Championship is serving the same function on the black and yellow brand as the United States Championship does for Monday Night Raw or the Intercontinental Championship for SmackDown. Johnny Gargano and Big E (IC Champion) are similar in that they have both been in the game for a number of years and are currently trying to bring up younger superstars (E with Apollo Crews and Johnny with someone like Austin Theory).
Bronson Reed is working on establishing at this point the unique unspoken quality about his personality/character that the WWE universe can resonate with. Unfortunately it’s not enough to simply be physically dominant, as everyone can see by looking at him. What is the quality about Bronson’s personality that will reel everyone in and make them care about what he does or what happens to him? What will get fans emotionally invested in his character? Right now, he is making progress every week toward finding the answer, but he is not quite ready to carry a title. Just being in the ring with a Takeover legend will do wonders for his character development.
At their first Takeover, the NXT Women’s Tag Team Championships are successfully defended by Ember Moon and Shotzi Blackheart
Shotzi has already established a small connection with the NXT universe and is in the process of taking that next step of how much her character resonates, while Ember is beginning to experience exactly what she was brought back to NXT for six months ago. It didn’t work out so well for her in her first tenure on the main roster, but she is working very well once again in NXT (who knows? Maybe this is her niche). Some people work better in this environment – the black and yellow brand is no longer a developmental brand, but rather a separate entity under the WWE umbrella.
The two women who make up The Way – Candice LeRae and Indi Hartwell – function best as a team when they are pursuing the titles for right now. They need a few more months of establishing themselves before becoming champions. When they do, they will serve the women’s division very well. Candice has found the role that serves her best in NXT, and Hartwell is a major beneficiary.
Santos Escobar and Jordan Devlin usher in a new era of cruiserweight wrestling; Escobar wins the undisputed Cruiserweight title
Santos Escobar and Jordan Devlin have established the cruiserweight division. It used to be just another gimmick, but now Triple H has opted to revert back to what originally made the cruiserweight so fun to watch back in the early 2000’s. Escobar and Devlin both understand that and that they are the perfect men to be the faces of this movement.
The Irish Ace has proven himself in classic matches with superstars like Tyler Bate among many others. Escobar is relatively new and has only established himself as a presence in NXT over the last year. This was the NXT version of the SmackDown storyline where Sami Zayn returned from hiatus and claimed to be the Intercontinental Champion (drawing on the original from the mid-90s between Shawn Michaels and Razor Ramon).