NXT TakeOver XXV -- Results & Afterthoughts

NXT TakeOver: XXV was a professional wrestling show and WWE Network event produced by WWE for their NXT brand. It took place on June 1, 2019, at the Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport, Connecticut. It was the twenty-fifth event under the NXT TakeOver chronology.

Seven matches were contested at the event, incuding two taped for the following week's episode of NXT. In the main event, Adam Cole defeated Johnny Gargano to win the NXT Championship. The undercard saw NXT Women's Champion Shayna Baszler and NXT North American Champion Velveteen Dream defeating Io Shirai and Tyler Breeze respectively to retain their titles, and Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford) won the vacant NXT Tag Team Championship in a Fatal Four-Way Ladder match.

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Match Results: 

Matt Riddle defeated Roderick Strong

I felt that Riddle/Strong was a strong (no pun intended) opener for this show. I was completely fine with Riddle going over here. That one sequence of tons of strikes to the near-fall was what me and my best friend used to call Roddy's "ROH Special" to end matches back there on his comeback. I had little to no issues with this match, even though it got a little spot-fest heavily towards the end.

Ladder match for the vacant NXT Tag Team Championship

Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford) defeated Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch, The Undisputed Era (Kyle O'Reilly and Bobby Fish), and The Forgotten Sons (Wesley Blake and Steve Cutler)

This tag team ladder match was good but over the the course of the match, I was getting more pissed off than being entertained by it from the sheer number of moronic spots. I get these guys have something to prove here, but it seemed like they were intentionally trying to injuring each other at one point. Kyle O'Reilly was dying for our sins in this match from the sheer amount of punishment that he was putting his body through here. I hope Bobby Fish is alright too because his arm was in a sling when he came back out later in the night to celebrate with Cole after his title win. 

I think everyone, including Ray Charles, could have seen that the Street Profits were going to win here (even though I would not have been opposed to putting the straps back on Undisputed Era). In terms of booking, they could have done that when the Street Profits "almost" beat the War Raiders/Viking Experience/Viking Raiders (or whatever the fuck Hanson and Rowe are calling themselves) a few weeks ago on NXT programming in the first place instead of vacating the titles and still did the tag team ladder match. 

NXT North American Championship

Velveteen Dream (c) defeated Tyler Breeze

I thought that Dream/Breeze wasn't anywhere as good as Dream's last few TakeOver matches, but it was a great reminder of how good Breeze is. I'm glad to hear that he's sticking around on the brand and not sticking around being wasted sitting in catering every week on the main roster. Dream being so extra got a ton of laughs from me here too. I guess they could do more with this feud, but I'm fine with it being a one and done. No need to drag this out further.

Prince Pretty was Velveteen Dream back when Patrick Clark was sitting in hot tubs on Tough Enough 😏

— Walmart (@Walmart) May 30, 2019

Shoutout to Jason Solomon (@solomonster) for pointing this out on his podcast and bringing it to my attention. That definitely got one hell of a laugh from me.

NXT Women's Championship

Shayna Baszler (c) defeated Io Shirai by submission

I definitely didn't care for Shayna going over Io here but it's obvious they are setting up another rematch. This was okay overall - I'm being generous here - but the same ol' shit from Shayna in terms of her title matches. It's starting to get stale really fast. Shayna does the same song and dance in almost all of these title defenses, only for her entourage to come out and save her ass in the end. You cannot tell me that they don't have other women in developmental that they can't be building this division around instead of Shayna and the rest of Ronda Rousey's friends. 

As much as I would hate to see the main roster misuse and mismanage Shayna, I think it would have been a good idea to call her up post-WrestleMania to feud with Becky Lynch since Ronda Rousey was going to be on the bench for a while with a broken hand. I mean really, anything is better than her feuding with Lacey Evans at this point. Like why the hell did they call up Lacey Evans of all people over Shayna anyway? Lacey was just getting into the groove of this Southern Belle character and they called her up to the main roster, yet people are surprised that she's under-performing in that position? C'mon, it's Dana Brooke all over again. 

Another travesty? Calling up Kairi Sane, teaming her up with Asuka with Paige as their manager, and not doing jackshit with them while the IIconics somehow still hold those Women's Tag Team titles. Seriously, who are those girls banging in the back to keep those titles without doing absolutely nothing of merit?

NXT Championship

Adam Cole defeated Johnny Gargano (c)

At one point in this match, I was beyond rolling my eyes at all of the near-falls and kickouts. I kept saying, "C'mon end this already. You've done enough spots for 3 matches." Gargano's awesome without a shadow of a doubt but that's what I cannot stand about his TakeOver matches. Dude does FAR too much.

For the main event, y'all saw my earlier tweet. I have nothing against Gargano's in-ring ability nor ability to tell a story with his matches but I just can't stand how he does a million and one things in these TakeOver matches. I didn't care for it when the Young Bucks & Kenny Omega did it last weekend either. I didn't care for it when Lucha Underground did that one main event where Pentagon Jr. "broke" both of Brian Cage's arms, performed a curb stomp through a stack of cinder blocks, did that Piledriver on top of 4 chairs spot, before ending it with a Pentagon Driver off the top rope or some shit. It's really getting to the point where people are doing far too much in these matches, not just in NXT but in modern wrestling as a whole. I truly think it's becoming a problem.

That being said, Gargano and Cole had a great match here. They could have done a FRACTION of what they did there and still it would have been a barn burner. All I'm saying is modern wrestling as a whole needs to be reminded that less is more in terms of matches

I want a screenshot of that disheveled look of Gargano looking sad at ringside during Cole's post-match celebration. Johnny FAILURE is back, BAYBAY.

Oh yeah, there's one more thing that I want to bring up. In my honest opinion, the biggest thing AEW needs to take notice of from NXT tonight is their presentation/production style. From the moment this show started, you knew it was NXT from the unique lightning & presentation. It instantly distinguishes itself from the rest of WWE's programming from it's mere presentation and lighting alone.

I love how they didn't have any of those random/rapid fire camera cuts like the main roster stuff. The lighting focused on the ring, NOT the goofs in the crowd. This makes what is going on in the ring much more special and intimate and plays a massive part of giving NXT their identity. That's what AEW needs - a visual identity.