NXT TakeOver: Portland was a professional wrestling show and WWE Network event produced by WWE for their NXT brand. It took place on February 16, 2020 at the Moda Center in Portland, Oregon.

Six matches were contested at the event. In the main event, Adam Cole defeated Tommaso Ciampa to retain the NXT Championship. On the undercard, Rhea Ripley retained the NXT Women's Championship against Bianca Belair, Keith Lee defeated Dominik Dijakovic to retain the NXT North American Championship, and The BroserWeights (Matt Riddle and Pete Dunne) defeated The Undisputed Era (Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly) to win the NXT Tag Team Championship.


NXT North American Championship Match
Kevin Lee (c) def. Donovan Dijakovic


I was shocked and delighted to see this match open the card. At the same time, this proved to be a tough act to follow for the rest of the show. I liked everything about this match, save for the anticlimatic ending where it just seemed like Dijakovic's back gave out (twice for that matter) and Lee just put him out of his misery to end it. It's insane what these two big guys can do in that ring together. Glad that they finally had a chance to do this on one of these TakeOver specials in front of a sizable crowd too.



Street Fight Match
Dakota Kai def. Tegan Nox


I was surprised that Tegan didn't break her tail bone from that nasty landing from the running senton in the corner to Kai. It looked like she was gun shy about using her legs for the Shiniest Wizard at the last second and just didn't commit to it.


What rock was Reina (now Raquel) Gonzales hiding underneath all of this time since the Mae Young Classic?


I'd be shocked if Tegan doesn't have a concussion from that table bump though. #NXTTakeOverPortland pic.twitter.com/owQC3LmMt5— Let's Talk Wrestling (@LetsTalkWrestle) February 17, 2020


If anyone to get as your heavy/bodyguard, I would've gotten that tall ass chick from The Great Khali's school. She wasn't bad at all during her appearance(s) in the Mae Young Classic, but I guess Gonzales is a decent consolation prize in that regard. I wonder who Tegan is going to get into her corner to back her up in the next match in this feud.

(Snaps fingers) Oh wait, it's going to be Candice LeRae... Ugh.

On a side note, I hope Tegan's alright after that table bump. That thing didn't give at all and smacked her on the head after her awkward landing behind it. Even Kai almost broke character for a second with a look of concern during that spot, despite the fact that those two were going all in on the spots here, knowing each of the others' history of injuries as of late.



Singles Match
Finn Balor def. Johnny Gargano


This started off slow and took it's time to build to a crescendo. This was easily two masters of their craft working together here. Lots of back and forth action and near-falls from what we've come to expect from these TakeOver performances from Gargano. At the end of the day, the right man won with Balor going over here. I don't know if this is the last time we're going to see them one-on-one (especially after how the main event ended), but I wouldn't mind seeing them do this again.



NXT Women's Championship Match
Rhea Ripley (c) def. Bianca Belair


From the way that the commentary team were talking up how Bianca's parents were in attendance to watch the match and how WWE loves their token title wins of color for Black History Month, I was convinced at one point that Rhea could potentially lose the title here. I'm glad to say that I was wrong in that prediction. NXT already shot themselves in the foot by getting ahead of themselves with already having Charlotte Flair starting to appear on the show, along with Rhea Ripley throwing down the gauntlet weeks in advance to this match. I felt that was a disservice to Bianca though, as it was essentially what Charlotte said - Rhea was overlooking her to look at the bigger threat to her title in the Queen. What's going to be interesting is where do they go from here. They could do a 1v1 match between Rhea and Charlotte at WrestleMania when they have clearly set the stage for a triple threat now. I'd be surprised if they go that route as it would be two back-to-back WrestleManias where Charlotte would be in one of those in some capacity.

In either case, it's going to make for some interesting television on NXT for the next couple of weeks.

As for this match as a whole, I can't say that this was the best outing for either of these women. As athletically talented that Bianca is, she's got some pretty sloppy looking Military Presses and Tosses going on in her arsenal. I wouldn't say that they are Ultimate Warrior level bad, but it's definitely noticeable.



NXT Tag Team Championship Match
Broserweights (Pete Dunne & Matt Riddle) def. The Undisputed Era (Bobby Fish & Kyle O'Reilly) (c)


In my predictions on Facebook earlier that day, I mentioned that the Broserweights would more likely get the tag titles since their act has been pretty entertaining for the last few weeks. I'm sure people would like to see them stick together for a bit longer. I wouldn't run this in the ground though as reDRagon (Fish & O'Reilly) could easily win the titles back to put over the next big team that climbs up the ranks. As it currently stands, they don't have many teams to work with in that regard unless you lump in the NXT UK folks into that conversation too.

This match wasn't bad at all. It just suffers from the same issue as a lot of modern tag team matches have - too much shit going on with little to no tags to build-up to the drama of the back and forth. It's like everyone has to be in the ring at all times to hit all of their best shit 24/7 in terms of double teams. To be fair, AEW has thrown most of the tag team book out of the window in comparison to NXT who keeps it up for the most part. I just have to point it out here too when I see it.



NXT Championship Match
Adam Cole (c) def. Tomasso Ciampa


This match was roughly 33 minutes total in length. My only complaint is that they could have had just of a great match with half of that time, especially with the run-ins before the finish. Ciampa has to be next level stupid to be taking bumps onto his neck/shoulder area like that, even if it's protected. The guy just came back from God knows how many neck surgeries total in his career. He's on borrowed time as is and he wants to continue playing his luck on that? That being said, Cole's relentless assault on that area added to the drama of the match to their benefit, so in that regard, I give them two thumbs up for psychology here. I just firmly think that they shouldn't make a habit out of it.

As for the finish, that took me completely by surprise that Gargano would screw Ciampa out of reuniting with "Goldy". Okay, they are even now, but we all know this isn't going to be the end of it. We're looking at another set of months of Gargano and Ciampa matches, whereas I was fed up with them doing everything underneath the sun and then some in every match. I personally saw Undisputed Era losing everything by the end of the night, but NXT definitely proved me wrong and that was a good thing. At the end of the day, this was an excellent show. I wouldn't go as far as saying Show Of The Year like Meltzer and so many others are already pegging it as, but it's definitely one worth checking out. At this point though, these TakeOver shows being good is a given, especially with the talents involved. They haven't shit the bed royally like the main roster since starting these events and I doubt they will anytime soon from the wealth of talent they have to showcase on this brand.

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