NXT TakeOver: Chicago II was a professional wrestling show and WWE Network event that took place on June 16, 2018 at the Allstate Arena in the Chicago suburb of Rosemont, Illinois. The event was produced by WWE for the NXT brand that was streamed live on the WWE Network.
Five matches were contested at the event. In the main event, Tommaso Ciampa defeated Johnny Gargano in a Chicago Street Fight. On the undercard, Aleister Black defeated Lars Sullivan to retain the NXT Championship and Ricochet defeated Velveteen Dream.
Solid match to set the mood for this show. I dare say it was the best match of the night, even though there wasn't a second I bought into Undisputed Era dropping the Tag titles to Lorcan and Burch. I kept saying to myself that if any team currently on NXT deserve a "Dusty finish" it's those guys. We see Lorcan and Burch as the regular work horses week-in and week-out on their NXT, but never capture the big one. Tonight would have been a great spot for that tease that they won, only for the referee to reverse the decision on their mistake and keep the titles on Undisputed Era. Besides, the Chicago crowd wasn't going to have it anyway. Undisputed Era were over like Rover in that town.
Definitely not as good as Dream vs. Aleister Black last year, but nowhere as bad as Dream vs. Kassius Ohno from a few months ago. This match seemed to drag on and on at points where Dream was intent on doing Resthold City for the bulk of the first half, but things turned around for the better by the end of it. It just seemed like a mismatch of opponents here for both men. Ricochet needs someone who can keep up with his stamina as it seemed like Dream was gassed at points of this match while at the same time, Ricochet needs someone who can play off his strengths better.
I wanted to like this match, I really did, but honestly couldn't get into it. Between whatever what was going on in the crowd (I'm sure someone who was live at the show could detail what that was about...) and them struggling to get something going, I ultimately found this to be the weakest match on this card. I appreciated the callback to WCW-era Raven with the finish though as Cross was smiling as she passed out within the hold and went to sleep. Nice touch there in that regard.
Outside of that botch that I'm sure everyone has seen the video footage of at least a hundred times now, this wasn't a bad match. I honestly wouldn't have put Lars Sullivan into a title match this soon - at least not a title match for the NXT Championship, especially if he's going to lose. He just lost at the last TakeOver for the North American Championship. I thought him and Adam Cole could have had a real slobberknocker in that regard if Cole were to play up the chicken shit heel act.
Hear me out on this, but I honestly don't see these Ciampa vs. Gargano matches as Match of the Year candidates. I thought this was redundant as their match on the last TakeOver as it seemed like they did this match (along what felt like 2-3 more) better than this. The only things that I thought were really well done here was the reverse callback to the injury angle that sidelined Gargano when Ciampa first went heel (Ciampa spitting on Gargano's wedding ring was a nice touch) and the finish with the exposed floor boards.
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