NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver - Nights 1 & 2 (April 7 - 8, 2021) -- Results & Afterthoughts

NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver was a professional wrestling television special, pay-per-view, and WWE Network event produced by WWE for their NXT brand division. It took place on April 7 and 8, 2021, and was broadcast from the Capitol Wrestling Center, hosted at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida.

It was the 34th NXT TakeOver event and was the first to take place over the span of two nights. Both nights aired on the WWE Network, thus marking the first WWE in-ring event to air on Peacock's WWE Network channel in the United States following the shutdown of the aforementioned service's standalone American version on April 4. The first night aired in NXT's weekly Wednesday night timeslot on the USA Network, making it the first TakeOver to air on television and the final NXT broadcast on Wednesdays before moving to Tuesdays on April 13. The second night aired on traditional pay-per-view in addition to the WWE Network.

Six matches were contested on Night 1 at the event, including one match on the pre-show. In the main event for Night 1, Raquel González defeated Io Shirai to win the NXT Women's Championship. Other prominent matches included Walter defeating Tommaso Ciampa to retain the NXT United Kingdom Championship and MSK (Wes Lee and Nash Carter) defeated Grizzled Young Veterans (James Drake and Zack Gibson) and Legado Del Fantasma (Raul Mendoza and Joaquin Wilde) to win the vacant NXT Tag Team Championship.

Six matches were also contested on Night 2 of the event, including one match on the pre-show. Two matches were promoted as main event matches for Night 2. In what was the final match on the card, Kyle O'Reilly defeated Adam Cole in an unsanctioned match. In the penultimate match that was promoted as the other main event match, Karrion Kross defeated Finn Bálor to win the NXT Championship. In another prominent match on the undercard which opened the event, Santos Escobar defeated Jordan Devlin in a ladder match to determine the undisputed NXT Cruiserweight Champion.

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Night 1 (April 7)

Match Results:

Kick-Off: Singles Match

Zoey Stark def. Toni Storm

While I think the world of Zoey Stark in terms of being an incredible worker and enhancement talent, I didn't think that she should have been beating Toni Storm without any build or storyline. It would have made more sense for her to beat Dakota Kai in this spot, given their last few matches on NXT programming. I have absolutely no idea what they were thinking with this decision. 

Despite that though? This was a fun match, so I can't complain too much about the ladies starting things off hot - in more ways than one. 

Singles Match

Pete Dunne def. Kushida

At this point, I'm convinced that NXT has absolutely no idea what to do with Kushida and I'm sure he has to be regretting his decision to leave New Japan to come to NXT. This company has done nothing but give him numerous start and stop pushes with little to no payoffs. That being said, this match was fine for what it was worth though, so I can't complain about this being a solid opener. 

Six-Man Gauntlet Eliminator match

Bronson Reed def. Isaiah "Swerve" Scott, Cameron Grimes, LA Knight, Dexter Lumis, and Leon Ruff

Winner received an NXT North American Championship match on Night 2

I honestly didn't care about majority of this, but was getting into the final moments between Swerve, Reed, and LA Knight. I was surprised that Dexter Lumis was eliminated though as I had him pegged to face Gargano in Night 2 to pick up where their feud from the last TakeOver event and the ongoing drama and angst within The Way. The MVP of that match was easily Bronson Reed by far. 

Singles Match for the NXT United Kingdom Championship

Walter (c) def. Tommaso Ciampa

This was easily the best match between both nights of TakeOver for WrestleMania week. If you don't watch anything else from Night 1 and 2, go out of your way to watch this match. That's the beauty of Walter's matches though. Only he can do these matches. If everyone else tried to work like this, it would come off fake and boring. With Walter you can buy into anything this MFer does could end a match. 

Excellent psychology in this match from bell to bell. The narrative for this match was that Walter was too reckless early on in his efforts to put Ciampa away and smashed his hand through the commentary table. That became the Achilles' heel that Ciampa sank his teeth into like a rabid animal for the duration of the match that gave the seemingly indestructible Walter a weak link in his armor. It ultimately wasn't enough to keep Walter down for good, but it made for a great recurring weak spot to target that gave Ciampa some convincing near-falls here. Ciampa definitely put up a great fight, but it ended just the way I figured it would. 

Triple Threat Tag Team Match for the vacant NXT Tag Team Championship

MSK (Wes Lee and Nash Carter) defeated Grizzled Young Veterans (James Drake and Zack Gibson) and Legado Del Fantasma (Raul Mendoza and Joaquin Wilde)

I'm so sick and tired of GYV and Legado Del Fantasma's boys that I was pulling for MSK from bell to bell. This was a surprisingly good match - something that this dying tag team division on NXT desperately needed in the wake of its lack of interesting teams, outside of MSK. The right team won too with MSK going over, which was something that should have happened when they won the Dusty Tag Team Classic in the first place. I thought the winners of the Classic got a title shot in previous years or am I getting that mixed up with something else?

Singles Match for the NXT Women's Championship

Raquel González (with Dakota Kai) defeated Io Shirai (c)

Maybe it was just me, but Io Shirai got in far too much offense here and forced Raquel to work from underneath as if she was the babyface in this match, which came off pretty damn odd to me. There were a lot of great spots and moments in this match, but when Raquel finally hit that powerbomb on Io, there was no doubt in my mind that the title was changing hands tonight. 

Raquel was the right one to dethrone Io and at the right time too. Io's had a great run as champion for over 300+ days, but I could easily see her sticking around on NXT for another year to work with the debuting Sarray (who was in the crowd with Stephanie McMahon) and few other noteworthy women in the NXT women's division. As much as I want to see Asuka versus Io Shirai in a WWE ring, I'm willing to wait a bit longer before Vince McMahon gets his hands on her and muddle up her character in the same capacity as so many joshi women before her.

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Night 2 (April 8)

Match Results:

Kick-Off: Tag Team Match

Killian Dain and Drake Maverick defeated Breezango (Tyler Breeze and Fandango)

Winner receives a future NXT Tag Team Championship match.

You guys and gals know how I feel about both of these tag teams and I really didn't care about this match at all. I went and did everything else but watch this match while it was airing on the kick-off show. 

As of NXT on April 13, 2021, Dain and Drake got their match against the NXT Tag Team champs and came up short, only to get laid out by Imperium shortly thereafter. I personally think it's beneath Imperium to even entertain the thought of feuding with them, but it's whatever at this point if they want to feed Drake to the slaughterhouse that is Walter next. Now him against Dain could make for decent hoss fight though... 

Ladder Match to determine the undisputed NXT Cruiserweight Champion

Santos Escobar (Interim NXT Cruiserweight Champion) defeated Jordan Devlin (NXT Cruiserweight Champion)

Despite liking Escobar during his days as King Cuerno in Lucha Underground, I can't say that I have been overly thrilled at his run in NXT so far. With the wealth of sexual allegations against him, I'm surprised that Jordan Devlin is even allowed on NXT programming period, especially when the Velveteen Dream has been completely removed off of the brand over the past year. I said it on Twitter during the show and I feel the same after the fact - it was going to be very telling for WWE with all of the media attention on them for WrestleMania week in terms of whether or not they were going to "award" Devlin in this match and continue parading him around as the Cruiserweight Champion. 

For their sakes, they made the wise decision and went with Escobar defeating him to unify the two titles. As for this match itself, they had a lot of wild spots that took me by surprise involving the two ladders and really went above and beyond to punish their bodies in this match. Not all of this was very good and not all of it was all bad either. I was pretty indifferent to majority of this match until they started turning the dial to eleven with crazy bumps.

The finish looked like Escobar killed Devlin off of that bump. Jesus F'N Christ, man. 

EDIT: I'm adding this after watching NXT (April 13, 2021) and I'm shocked that Kushida answered Escobar's open challenge and actually won. What was the point of having him lose on TakeOver then if he was going to get the title a few days later? I thought it would have made more sense that Pete Dunne answered the challenge instead in that case and Kushida got his win back down the road. 

Tag Team Match for the NXT Women's Tag Team Championship

Ember Moon and Shotzi Blackheart (c) def. The Way (Candice LeRae and Indi Hartwell)

I honestly didn't care for anyone in this match save for Indi Hartwell, who was doing well for her TakeOver debut. This match could have EASILY been on a typical NXT episode before or after this event. I don't know why they wasted a spot with this. 

I dare say that the Eclipse Ember Moon did on Candice and Indi for the finish was one of the worst I have ever seen her execute in NXT though. I hate to say it, but the more I see Ember Moon back on NXT, the more I am losing interest in her character. It's a darn shame too because I was initially excited to see her back to the brand when they weren't doing absolutely nothing with her on the main roster before she got injured, only to see her comeback to the NXT brand and just seems to be going through the motions. Where is that fire she had when she was first part of this brand? 

Singles Match for the NXT North American Championship

Johnny Gargano (c) (with Austin Theory) def. Bronson Reed

I'm not going to lie, but I was downright disgusted with this show after Gargano retained here. After all of these start and stop pushes with Bronson Reed and he really had a standout performance on Night 2, you would think that it was going to be a given that he would pick up the win here. Nope, Gargano retains, only to continue hogging air time on the weekly NXT shows with his bland heel gimmick and eye-rolling antics with his faction. God, I hope they split The Way up for we can see less of this fool every week after someone beats the tar out of him and takes that title from him. 

Y'know... Common sense booking would have had Reed win here and have him start a program with LA Knight in the weeks that followed. I'm just sayin'. Knight has lost clean to Reed since his debut and hasn't gotten any retaliation. 

Singles Match for the NXT Championship

Karrion Kross (with Scarlett) def. Finn Bálor (c)

In hindsight, I think this match should have closed out the show. Much like the Walter/Ciampa match on Night 1, this match played out from bell to bell with great psychology and sheer brutality. Balor got his shots in Kross, but Kross wasn't taking that punishment laying down. He dished it back out tenfold and reclaimed the title that he never lost to begin with. This was easily the best match on Night 2 in my eyes. 

I still have my fingers crossed that this loss frees Balor up to challenge Walter next for the NXT UK Championship. C'mon, we've been denied that match for over a year thanks to the pandemic. Everyone else may have forgotten, but I sure as hell haven't. 

Unsanctioned Match

Kyle O'Reilly defeated Adam Cole

As much as I love Kyle O'Reilly's in-ring work and the wars that him and Adam Cole have had outside of this company, it's with a heavy heart that I have to admit to myself that they did a bit too much here. There were some insanely creative spots with the chains and chairs that I won't think I have seen anywhere else (at least not mainstream), but ultimately, the 45+  minute runtime killed this match - along with the crowd too. You could tell the fans live in attendance at the CWC were completely burnt out at this point. By the time they even got to the 20-30 minute mark, I was constantly asking myself when is this going to be over? This is the same issue I had with the Cole vs. Gargano or Gargano vs. Ciampa matches that a lot of people fawn and rave over as the best TakeOver matches in history, they do too much stuff to the point that they are having the entire series of a feud in a single match and by the end of it, I honestly don't care anymore. For the record, I don't want to discredit the pure athleticism and in-ring ability of these two men, but my personal issue with matches like this is that you start doing so much in a single match for an excessive amount of time that you start to desensitize your audience of anything and everything you do before it's all said and done. 

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Closing Thoughts

NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver was a fine show, but I didn't think this needed to be stretched out over two nights. Both nights were great, but Night 2 could have shaved off at least 2-3 matches, with a main event that went FAR too long for it's own good. At the same time, I feel that the talents involved all worked hard and didn't embarrass themselves. They put on some WrestleMania weekend worthy matches that I'm sure that will be the talk of the town, even when people start compiling their best matches of 2021 lists.