Previously on NXT, TakeOver returned to Brooklyn. Every NXT live special is something exciting, but the two shows in Brooklyn have both been exceptionally good.
Two other championship matches featured no title changes. Bayley was unable to defeat Asuka and regain the NXT Women’s Championship, though she’ll probably end up okay. After all, she’s already been signed to a Raw contract!
The Revival also retained in their NXT Tag Team Championship match, defeating Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa in the possible Match of the Night. Near fall after near fall had everyone on the edge of their seats, until Dash and Dawson were able to utilize their chemistry and teamwork to isolate Gargano and force him to submit.
Bobby Roode and Ember Moon had successful debuts, but one of the more notable happenings came after the opening match. Austin Aries defeated No Way Jose, and continued his assault after the match. Hideo Itami came down to confront Aries, and finally hit a GTS in a WWE ring on television.
What about tonight? Two matches were taped ahead of the live special on Saturday, so those will be part of tonight’s broadcast. In addition, highlights of the special will most likely be a heavy focus of the episode.
1. Tye Dillinger vs Wesley Blake
Tye Dillinger is so over, it’s not even funny. He’s gotten nearly every crowd behind him, and in front of 15,000 people, the cheers for him were deafening.
Blake, meanwhile, is in the midst of a repackage, and I’m still not 100% convinced that it’s an improvement. The crowd seems to be of the same opinion, because there’s a pretty even mixture of deafening silence and apathetic murmurs when he’s making his entrance.
As far as the match itself, it was a pretty 
good opener for such a major event. Dillinger is perfect to get the crowd going, and he plays off the crowd response better than nearly everyone on the roster. Blake did enough to wear Dillinger down, but you can’t stop a Perfect 10. Winner – Tye Dillinger
2. TM61 vs Authors of Pain
The great thing about this match is that the Authors of Pain actually got to look vulnerable for a bit. That’s huge, since even in their match against American Alpha, they dominated the vast majority. But Miller and Thorne took it to the monsters both before the match and during the early part of the action. Watching the Authors actually make a comeback was fantastic, because it adds a new wrinkle to their personae – you can dish out whatever you want, but you still can’t keep us down.
The double rebound powerbomb is still a thing of beauty. I don’t know offhand of any other team who uses that move, so the originality and uniqueness helps it t
o stand out.
Not sure where this leaves TM61, who have now lost their debut match against Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa, a non-title match against The Revival, and here to the Authors of Pain. As potentially one of the top babyface teams in NXT, they really need to string together a few victories to establish themselves. International acclaim only gets you so far, even in NXT – you have to win where you are to seem like a big deal.
This may be the shortest review I have ever done but really it was just a recap show of TakeOver, from a story point of view the only things to take notice were the backstage promos but even at that they aren’t must see. A forgettable episode, however, it is not a bad thing considering we are just days after Brooklyn.