7 Ups And 3 Downs For NXT TakeOver XXV
Another solid show from the black & gold brand with a barn-burner main event.
NXT’s track record when it comes to its TakeOver specials has been fairly consistent – they almost always deliver a hellacious, simply entertaining wrestling show. It’s everything WWE’s over-produced spectacles aren’t.
Saturday’s TakeOver XXV was billed as a landmark show, five years into the WWE Network era, the 25th NXT special, a phenomenon that has grown from small shows at Full Sail into these arena shows that often upstage the main roster’s PPVs several times a year. The matches become instant classics, and the shows generate so many of them that it’s hard to keep track of them all.
TakeOver XXV was a solid show, featuring the traditional five matches, three of which delivered as promised and two that fell a little short, but still were better than what you’d see on any typical B-show PPV these days. We saw new champions crowned, a returning NXT star, and just some generally really good wrestling. And all of it clocked in at less than three hours. What else could you want?
As with most TakeOvers, this is a pretty easy one to watch and enjoy, but NXT did manage to botch a couple things, most notably the Women’s Championship match. Someone is going to need to explain the logic there.
With that said, let’s get to it…