NXT TakeOver: Chicago -- Results & Afterthoughts

NXT TakeOver: Chicago was a professional wrestling show in the NXT TakeOver series that took place on May 20, 2017, at the Allstate Arena in Rosemont, Illinois.The event was produced by WWE for its NXT brand and streamed live on the WWE Network.

Roderick Strong def. Eric Young (w/ SAniTy)

Both of these guys are solid workers but I couldn't really invest into this match when it's apparent that they merely shoehorned Strong into the same position that Tye Dillinger was in before he got called up to the main roster. Both Sanity AND Strong deserve to move onto better feuds than this. This is getting neither of them nowhere. There were a few cool spots in this match and a brutal sequence by Strong to end it, but overall, it all felt very "meh" to me... After that stellar bout between Itami and Strong on NXT a few weeks back, you would think that they would have this guy in a better program elevated higher onto this card. And if Sanity isn't in the tag team division then what's the point of them just being a big faction when all of this ganging up on people isn't getting them nowhere. I'm just sayin'...

WWE United Kingdom Championship Match - Pete Dunne Def. Tyler Bate (c)

It kills me that the UK title is the coolest looking belt in the company right now. You would think that WWE would put a stronger effort into making the rest of their belts look legit like this.

I joked about it on Twitter during the UK title special last night, but Pete Dunne looks like Roger Klotz from Doug to me. I can't help but think that every time I see that guy.

That being said, this was easily the showstealer at this point. I felt sorry for anyone who has to follow this match. I thought this match would have been a showstealer even without the series of dives and flips towards the end by Tyler Bate. The sequence of counters, reversals, and pure mat/technical wrestling was more than enough to blow me away. These two guys are easily going to be the top stars of that UK show whenever WWE gets it off the ground. With the title on Pete Dunne, they easily elevate it more with a top heel putting babyfaces like Bate and Wolfgang into the chase.

If I had one complaint about this match it was the referee CLEARLY stopping at 2 during the pinfall to allow Pete Dunne to kick-out afterwards. That was facing directly towards the hard cam and I know I wasn't the only one who saw that. That was the only thing that was stopping this match from being flawless in my eyes.

Triple Threat Match for NXT Women's Championship - Asuka (c) def. Nikki Cross and Ruby Riot

I'll be blunt here, but this was was the weakest TakeOver bout that Asuka has defended the title to date. I thought that Fatal 4 Way was bad a few months go, but this took the cake for me. That being said, Ruby and Nikki put up a great effort as they carried Asuka throughout this bout instead of the other way around with a few interesting spots here and there, but the sloppy execution at times just made me keep shaking my head and took me out of the moment.

I just felt bad for the girls having to follow that stellar UK title bout in the shit stain/piss break spot here. The crowd tried to stay with them too but it was hard to stay hyped after the previous match blew everything they've done here out of the water.

I guess this is just filler until Ember Moon recovers from her injury to get her rematch at TakeOver: Brooklyn or maybe WWE are saving Asuka's first defeat for Io Shirai or Kairi Hojo's debuts later this year. (Shrugs) Who knows, but whatever they have in mind I hope they know that this women's division is dead in the water until Asuka is dethroned or called up.

NXT Championship Match - Bobby Roode (c) def. Hideo Itami

It was hard to care here and I don't feel sorry that they were robbed of the main event spot. This was the exactly the same as Roode's last few bouts with Nakamura, with him going for a redundant injury angle on a body part. Where does Itami go from here now that Roode beat him CLEAN in this match? The two DDTs for the finish was lame (and rather overkill)to say that Itami had him beat prior to that before he rolled out of the ring.

Much like everything else on this show after the UK title match, I felt like they just phoned it in here as they were under the impression that they weren't going to top that act.

Ladder Match for NXT Tag Team Championships - The Authors of Pain (c) w/ Paul Ellering def. DIY

I know I'm in the minority here, but I watched this match twice and didn't see too much here that blew me away. If I'm perfectly honest, I felt that DIY did a bit TOO much here to say Ciampa was allegedly injured. I think both him and Gargano injured themselves at multiple occasions here, but if they didn't, they have to consider themselves to be extremely lucky. That being said, this has to be the best AoP match they've had to date. I'm still not too fond of these guys, but I have to give them props here.

To say that they gave this main event spot to the tag team division was the clear signal that they were planning something post-match for me. Otherwise, NXT likes to end with the NXT title match, save for that one exception with the Ironwoman match between Sasha and Bayley. I was honestly more surprised that Ciampa stayed babyface this damn long as I was more accustomed to him being heel back in Ring of Honor prior to his WWE debut. I thought it was proven during the CWC series last year that DIY could make it as singles stars, but I think they are jumping the gun on splitting them up right now. What is even weirder to me is that if both of them are on the bench, then why do this angle now for people to forget about it in a few weeks/months while they are at home recovering?

With DIY on the shelf and split up, then who's next for AoP to feud with? TM61 are still injured and everyone else other than Heavy Machinery are straight job squad filler, so I don't know what they are going to do. They could feud with Sanity but that would make AoP the babyfaces in that feud and I doubt that NXT is going to go that route. Much like the women's division, it seems like that NXT's booking has backed them into a wall.