10 HUGE NXT TakeOver: Portland Predictions You Need To Know
TakeOver: Portland is NXT's biggest ever event. Can it possibly be the best?
For the second consecutive TakeOver, the best brand in WWE has been forced to contend with the parent company's worst habits.
Such is life for NXT since its move to USA Network in September 2019. A decision made to dilute and re-contextualise AEW's existence before their own show even launched might have worked to a degree (more than 1.5m people watch wrestling on Wednesdays but that's a number divided between both brands), but the black-and-gold brand has been put in something of a pickle ever since.
TakeOver: WarGames was an unfathomable triumph considering the Survivor Series lead-up that went on at exactly the time featuring feuding characters having to work together. The post-Christmas build to this very show was parked by a need to fill a Royal Rumble weekend Worlds Collide card with matches against NXT UK stars that actually had to mean something.
It all just about worked too - this brand is f*cking awesome and don't let anybody tell you otherwise - but as the company rationalised a civil war, it continued to lose a Wednesday Night one. AEW's ratings dominance in 2020 has added a rather unique pressure to Portland as the third brand prepares for its own Road To WrestleMania after the fact.
How will the largest ever TakeOver card perform under strange new circumstances?
10. A Kickoff Classic
As the first TakeOver of the NXT On USA era, WarGames had more pressure than some prior classics of the genre, but gently tweaked the formula to try and steer away from numerous natural comparisons.
The second WarGames stipulation match reshaped the event as a whole. Finn Bálor's TakeOver return underwhelmed on the night but felt as big as a title match in the build. Pat McAfee, no longer able to be contained by a desk, brought his short shorts into the crowd in a stirring fire-up right before the show went live proper. NXT, now more woven into the fabric of WWE than ever before even got its own Kickoff Match.
Angel Garza's victory over Isaiah 'Swerve' Scott was a seven minute ripper, flexing just some of the skills that had been rebuilt by NXT's reimagining of the Cruiserweight division and Portland could be promised the same.
Next Wednesday, Lio Rush will take on Jordan Devlin in an attempt to win back his recently-lost Cruiserweight Championship, but why not give him an exhibition here? Another go around with Angel Garza might feel like a retread, but there are sure to be others ready to look at the lights in a mini-banger rather than not get any exposure from them at all.