{"id":11098,"date":"2019-01-31T14:00:52","date_gmt":"2019-01-31T19:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/?p=11098"},"modified":"2019-01-31T14:01:05","modified_gmt":"2019-01-31T19:01:05","slug":"nxt-takeover-phoenix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/2019\/01\/31\/nxt-takeover-phoenix\/","title":{"rendered":"NXT Takeover Phoenix"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

NXT\nTakeover: Phoenix 1\/26\/19<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yours truly is currently in Phoenix, Arizona\nfor Royal Rumble weekend, which of course includes the traditional NXT Takover!\nWhile the card only had five matches, it was a solid night with two title\nchanges. Along with the event itself was the sheer excitement of being at the\nevent live! Let\u2019s take a look at what went down at NXT Takeover: Phoenix!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was a video package before each of the\nmatches that showed the story that led to the match. I\u2019m gonna lump them all\nhere. One of NXT\u2019s greatest assets is definitely the production. These packages\nwere amazing and did a really good job detailing the stories. I feel that even\nif you had not watched the product for a while, you would still have a very\ngood sense of what was going on. A<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

War\nRaiders vs Undisputed Era-NXT Tag Team Championship<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The War Raiders had a very intense, awesome\nViking-themed entrance. Hanson and Rowe showed a lot of their agility,\nstrength, and teamwork in this match. They were able to toss Roderick Strong\nand Kyle O\u2019Reilly around like ragdolls while also able to avoid their moves.\nThere were quite a few nice dives to the outside and a few near falls.\nUltimately War Raiders prevailed and are the new NXT Tag Team Champions. I\nthink this was the perfect opening match. Just the War Raiders\u2019 entrance alone\nreally got the crowd into it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Winner: War Raiders<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grade: A<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matt\nRiddle vs Kassius Ohno<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Original Bro and the Knockout had their\nrematch. It was okay for the most part. Kassius actually took advantage of the\nfact that Matt wrestles barefoot and stomped and bit on his toes. It looked\nlike Kassius was going to win this one as he seemed to be doing more damage\nduring the bout. The ending sequence was a bit strange though. Matt started to\nget Kassius in a hold but was raining down blows and Kassius tapped out. Myself\nand a few other fans were confused as to how\/why Kassius tapped out when a hold\nwasn\u2019t even fully applied. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Winner: Matt Riddle<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grade: C-<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johnny\nGargano vs Ricochet-NXT North American Championship<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The opening sequences of this match was\ninsane! It was a display of pure athleticism as the two just repeatedly escaped\neach other\u2019s grasp. Both Johnny and Ricochet got some big moves in, including\ndives to the outside and rope-assisted DDTs. On two different occasions,\nRicochet trapped Johnny in his own Garga-No Escape. Johnny did a great job of\nshowing just how desperate he was getting as nothing seemed to be able to put\nRicochet away. The turning point of the match was when Johnny pulled up the mat\non the outside to expose the floor. He suplexed Ricochet on the exposed floor\nbefore hitting him with a DDT inside the ring to capture the NXT North American\nChampionship. I like this new Johnny Gargano who keeps tapping into that dark\nplace in his mind. I\u2019m looking forward to seeing where it goes now that he\u2019s\nchampion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Winner: Johnny Gargano<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grade: A+<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bianca\nBelair vs Shayna Baszler-NXT Women\u2019s Championship<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bianca actually let me down here. I wasn\u2019t\nexpecting her to beat Shayna, but I was expecting a better showing. For all of\nher undefeated booking, Bianca has shown her strength and power. Here she\nshowed none of it. Shayna was the clear favorite for most of the match. There\nwas a ref bump that allowed for Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir to interfere\nbut Bianca quickly put them away. Shayna got Bianca in her chokehold and while\nit seemed like the EST might be able to power out, she eventually succumbed.\nBianca has a lot of potential, but I think she needs a bit more polishing\nbefore she\u2019s ready to hold the belt. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Winner: Shayna Baszler<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grade: C+<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aleister\nBlack vs Tommaso Ciampa-NXT Championship<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main event match was a fairly good feud\nblow-off match. Aleister and Tommaso played a few mind games to start off.\nTommaso then managed to get the upper hand by messing with Aleister\u2019s knee. To\nhis credit, Aleister sold this knee injury like a champ. He went for several\nkicks but was unable to complete them due to the knee buckling. Tommaso used\nthe knee to really dominate the match and came away with Goldie intact. The\nmatch was a bit underwhelming, but I think the right person won.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Winner: Tommaso Ciampa<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grade: B+<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the main event, Johnny Gargano came out\non the ramp and he and Tommaso posed with their belts. This made the crowd\nbreak out into DIY chants. There was a post-match brawl afterwards and we saw\nTriple H breaking up the participants. And then Velveteen Dream, Ricochet, and\nAleister Black did their NXT farewells. We wish them all the best on the main\nroster. A-<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was definitely not the strongest of Takeover\nevents, especially not on on the heels of NXT UK Takeover: Blackpool. I had a\nlot of fun attending live and that will probably cloud the experience, but I\ncan definitely still see where it fell a little short. The two title changes\nwere the right call in my opinion and I can\u2019t wait to see what changes this\nwill bring to the NXT landscape<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall grade: B<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

                                                                                                -Wynter<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

NXT Takeover: Phoenix 1\/26\/19 Yours truly is currently in Phoenix, Arizona for Royal Rumble weekend, which of course includes the traditional NXT Takover! While the card only had five matches, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11006,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,849,22,35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-featured","category-nxt-takeover","category-reviews","category-wwe-reviews"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9jnWd-2T0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/NXT_Phoenix.0.jpg?fit=1200%2C800&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11098"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11098\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11099,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11098\/revisions\/11099"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}