20 Greatest Matches In WWE's Empty Arena Era
12. North American Championship Ladder Match - NXT TakeOver XXX
Putting your body on the line in a wild, high impact match is one thing when a baying crowd is spurring you on, but to do the same in front of just a few performance centre chumps providing a bit of noise is quite another. Johnny Gargano, Cameron Grimes, Damian Priest, Velveteen Dream and Bronson Reed battered and bruised themselves and each other beyond anything we could expect in testing conditions, and put on a spectacle.
WWE generally gets ladder matches right, and this one had all the good stuff we’ve come to expect. One wince inducing spot saw one superstar after another get flung into the same corner, each subsequent wrestler adding to the pressure in the pile of bodies and steel. Gargano’s wife Candice LeRae got involved, first hitting Grimes with a huricanrana, later being used by Reed as extra weight for a ladder splash on her husband.
It was top quality carnage, and saw the right winner in Priest, who made hay with the division’s secondary strap. Deliciously crafted chaos made all the more commendable by the testing conditions.