NXT brought what should be their final set of tapings before their next PPV, Takeover: Phoenix on January 26th. With Aleister Black vs Tommaso Ciampa & Bianca Belair vs Shayna Baszler being their only confirmed matches, the Black & Gold brand had their work cut out for them.
I’m Parker Love, and here are your NXT Spoilers!
Spoilers ahead, friends - but you knew that already, didn’t you?
SPOILERS
- Stacey Ervin, Jr. over Shane Thorne in the night’s dark match.
- Johnny Gargano comes out for a promo. He says 2018 had its ups and downs, but 2019 will be better. He also says that he’s not working with Ciampa and that he still wants his title, but he does want the North American Championship. Ricochet comes out to disagree, and that also brings out Ciampa. Aleister Black appears on the titantron, the lights go out, and Black attacks Ciampa while Gargano attacks Ricochet.
- Bianca Belair over Nikki Cross. Crowd chants “overrated” at Belair in response to the EST Chants. This is likely Nikki Cross’ swan song.
- Fabian Aichner & Marcel Barthel are a team now, and they go over Hector Kunsman & Stanley Watts.
- Adam Cole over EC3. Post-match, Undisputed Era beat down EC3 until War Raiders make their return & the save. This is also probably EC3’s swan song in NXT.
- Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins & Montez Ford) over The Metro Brothers (Chris & JC Metro). After the match, The Forgotten Sons beat down the Evolve Tag Team Champs.
- Bianca Belair gets a promo segment. She brings up her beating Nikki Cross & that Shayna Baszler is next. Baszler comes out with her two cronies, says Bianca will go from undefeated to overrated. Bianca slaps Shayna to end the segment.
- Dominik Dijakovic over Adrian Jaoude. Jaoude got some early offence in, but all signs point to squash.
- Johnny Gargano over Humberto Carrillo.
- Kassius Ohno over Keith Lee via a ref bump and punch to the balls. Apparently a very solid match.
- Post-match, Matt Riddle comes out to run off Ohno.
- Velveteen Dream comes out and announces his intent to go after the North American Championship. This brings out Adam Cole & Bobby Fish. Cole says 2019 is UE’s year and that himself and Mr Fish want gold and go for a beatdown. Velveteen escapes said beatdown.
- Lacey Evans over Xia Li.
- Danny Burch & Oney Lorcan over Fabian Aichner & Marcel Barthel. Also a very good match. Aichner & Barthel could really work in my opinion.
- Io Shirai & Kairi Sane over Amber Nova & Tanea Brooks. Tanea is former TNA Knockout Rebel.
- Velveteen Dream over Bobby Fish.
- Ricochet comes out for a promo and calls out Johnny Gargano. Gargano comes out and says he won’t attack. Johnny tries to attack. Ricochet dodges it because he is quick. Tommaso Ciampa comes out to attack Ricochet, but Aleister Black makes the save temporarily before Johnny attacks Aleister.
- It looks like the former DIY is about to get back together, but out comes Candice LeRae to talk to Johnny Wrestling.
- Aleister Black, Heavy Machinery (Otis Dozovic & Tucker Knight), & Ricochet over Undisputed Era (Adam Cole, Roderick Strong, Kyle O’Reilly, Bobby Fish) in what’s likely to be a dark match as well.
Takeover: Phoenix Match Card & Predictions
CONFIRMED (at time of writing)
- NXT Women’s Championship Match - Bianca Belair vs Shayna Baszler©
- NXT Championship Match - Aleister Black vs Tommaso Ciampa©
Not Confirmed, but likely:
- NXT North American Championship Match - Johnny Gargano vs Ricochet
- NXT Tag Team Championship Match - War Raiders vs Undisputed Era
- Kassius Ohno vs Matt Riddle (vs Keith Lee?)
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