NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn 4 was a professional wrestling show and WWE Network event that took place on August 18, 2018, at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. 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 Last Man Standing match to retain the NXT Championship. In the penultimate match, Kairi Sane defeated Shayna Baszler to win the NXT Women's Championship and Ricochet defeated Adam Cole to win the NXT North American Championship.
The Undisputed Era (Kyle O'Reilly & Roderick Strong) def. Mustache Mountain (Tyler Bate & Trent Seven) to retain the NXT Tag Team Championships
This was arguably the best match of the show. Even though I expressed my distaste with the finish to their match on the NXT tapings a few weeks ago, I can't take away anything against these two teams' natural chemistry to perform well with each other and bring out their best in each outing. I don't think we've had tag team matches this good on NXT since American Alpha and The Revival were still down there.
I really hope that Triple H and the rest of the higher ups in WWE realize the diamond in the rough that they have in Tyler Bate. The kid is still young and performs like the best of the best, while he looks like something out of Greek mythology. I can't wait to see him throw down against someone like Cesaro in the future. That kid is just going to be money, no matter what he does in the business in terms of match quality. I hate to say it but Trent Seven is just there to ride off his coat tails. I can't see Mustache Mountain getting the tag team titles back until the NXT UK show debuts and they went those set of tag titles anyway. I saw this match as just a means to keep those guys on the radar before that show debuts whenever. I don't know what the hold up is when they've already filmed a few episodes for that brand about a month or two ago.
I wasn't too crazy about the War Raids laying out the Undisputed Era after the win when they are supposed to be the babyfaces. It just came off odd that they had to do something "cheap" here when Undisputed Era was already spent from wrestling Mustache Mountain. Great, they wanted to show that they are up next to get a shot for the tag titles, but there was a better way to do that instead of trying to blow their load for the Brooklyn crowd. I mean seriously, you can't get more Ring of Honor comparisons here from Undisputed Era feuding with War Raiders when this is going to be reDRagon versus War Machine all over again from about 2-3 years ago in that company.
The Velveteen Dream def. EC3
The first half of this match was a snoozefest until both men found their legs, somewhere around that first big neck bump EC3 took in this match. I can't say I was crazy about this match as much as Dream's other matches or what EC3 has been capable of prior to debuting in NXT. I busted out laughing at the "CALL ME UP VINCE" sign printed on Dream's gear as there's guys on the main roster who should be wearing "CALL ME DOWN TO NXT" on their gear. Someone needs to tell Dream that a main roster call-up isn't something he should be begging for, especially after Vince's track record with these call-ups as of late.
Ricochet def. Adam Cole (c) to win the NXT North American Championship
My best friend and I were talking about this during RAW last night and we both agreed that we could have sworn that we've seen Fenix do the same Super Kick out of the air during the Moonsault spot that everyone freaked out/marked out on during this match back in Lucha Underground. While it was VERY impressive, it irked the hell out of me that Ricochet didn't sell that a bit longer. They definitely had me fooled with the near-fall when that wasn't the finish of the match. If Ricochet could learn anything from his time in NXT at the Performance Center, he needs to learn selling and how to slow down. That's the only thing in my eyes that holds him back from being truly flawless in WWE's system and one thing that both Seth Rollins and AJ Styles - arguably WWE's two best workers in the company up on the main roster - have over him in terms of the overall in-ring package.
Kairi Sane def. Shayna Baszler (c) to win the NXT Women's Championship
Very creative finish here that allowed Kairi Sane to capture the gold. It simultaneously made it look like Kairi outwit Shayna instead of flat out beating her, while making both women look strong. I think this was arguably the best NXT women's match in quite some time from bell to bell, especially from the reversals and submission/grapple chains. I wouldn't be surprised to see them call up Shayna to the main roster before Evolution or build to another match between her and Kairi Sane at that event.
Tommaso Ciampa (c) def. Johnny Gargano in a Last Man Standing Match to retain the NXT Championship
I'll give them props on the creativity of the finish story-wise but at the same time, I thought it was stupid that Gargano beat himself in this match instead of the other way around. They left the door open for more Gargano/Ciampa matches, whereas I felt that they are beating a dead horse at this point. Move onto something else before people turn onto this feud much like the Randy Orton/John Cena feuds from days of old. As far as I'm concerned, Johnny Gargano has had MULTIPLE opportunities at the NXT Championship. While those matches have been good (or rather VERY good depending on who you ask), they have all be losing efforts for the guy. I would like to think that NXT has better booking logic than the main roster when Roman Reigns did the same thing, challenging for title despite multiple losses until he finally got lucky and sneaked out a win.
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