10 Hidden Meanings Behind WWE NXT TakeOver: In Your House Attires
"And THAT...is what dressing to impress is all aboot!"
There was a sense at TakeOver: In Your House that wrestling actually mattered again, even if much of that was summoned from a time when it actually did.
The theme was clearly a gag before it was fully fleshed out, but the company's efforts to call back to the New Generation B-shows was so earnest that it over-delivered for drooling fans of the era - your writer included - dreading the disappointment of something half-baked.
WWE and AEW have considered themselves "essential" for the vast majority of the time the majority of the rest of us have been safely locked away, but rarely had either product actually felt like that, particularly if it was emanating out of Orlando. Whilst All Elite Wrestling's Jacksonville base has offered moments of magic and the undisputed peak of the genre in Stadium Stampede, NXT has fallen victim to the silence of the empty venues and some lousy main roster tropes invading Wednesday Nights.
Nothing on this show was as good as the Double Or Nothing main event, but much of the pay-per-view met the immense quality of the rest of that show. It looked and felt like an actual show, not a series of matches broken up over television with the TakeOver logo, or a desolate wasteland presenting a version of wrestling that missed the entire point of the premise.
NXT dusted itself down, dressed itself up, and delivered one of the sensory surprise packages of 2020. And these wrestlers got in on the act too...
10. Tegan Nox - Captain Marvel
Tegan Nox yet again chose Captain Marvel as inspiration for her TakeOver gear, having previously called on the comic book hero in the past.
Switching the colour palette slightly to include red, blue and orange (inspired by the glow around her when she powers up and perhaps a nod to Nox's LadyKane gimmick) but keeping her Hala symbol front and centre, the Welsh star was ready to end the war with Dakota Kai ahead of the six-woman tag.
She finally managed it by claiming victory over her former partner and new sidekick Raquel Gonzalez by the bout's end.