15 Ups & 6 Downs For WWE NXT In 2019

10. TakeOver: Phoenix

Another TakeOver month, another awesome TakeOver.

Phoenix was a somewhat-forgotten but nonetheless noble addition to the TakeOver collection with four exceptional Championship matches and one explosive offering between a white hot new babyface and his perfect first heel.

Matt Riddle and Kassius Ohno left the often verbose-to-a-fault Mauro Ranallo speechless with their inventiveness, Bianca Belair almost pulled off the upset of the year in January with her achingly close run at Shayna Baszler, The War Raiders took up their rightful place as Tag Team Champions in a hard-fought decimation of the cagey Undisputed Era, whilst Tommaso Ciampa entered the God Tier of NXT Champions in a gritty defence of 'Goldie' against Aleister Black.

The show was stolen by a tweener Johnny Gargano somehow subverting his gutsy babyface persona as a heel against a Ricochet at his eye-popping jaw-dropping best. The two assembled a match that was an amalgamation of everything 'The One & Only' had achieved with Will Ospreay and Gargano's irrepressible TakeOver formula.

This special outing transitioned the North American title to 'Johnny Wrestling' to facilitate his loss to Velveteen Dream, but felt more like a grand main event payoff than just a functional midcard treat.

Michael Hamflett

Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett

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