50 Ups & 50 Downs For WWE's Decade: The 2010s
2. NXT TakeOver
There are few sure things in professional wrestling, but in NXT TakeOver, Triple H's once-developmental brand has crafted an aura and mystique around a show that - perhaps more than any major pay-per-view brand ever - guarantees floor-to-ceiling excellence.
Too young to be held up against the standards set by monoliths such as WrestleMania and the Royal Rumble (but in the latter's case, just barely), TakeOver has otherwise surpassed ever other major company event in expectation, prestige and delivery.
Foundationally sound from the moment it launched, TakeOver's growth from Full Sail to arenas came with an increased quality that insisted upon every match being a potential showstealer. Carefully curating all the best bits of all the top independents sans bloat and indulgence, TakeOvers became festivals of everybody's favourite bits from all wrestling, smartly capturing the lost love of lapsed WWE fans or those prone to NJPW or alternative products.
In a decade of tremendous change and tumult, TakeOver has become a still point in a wrestling's turning world. Here's to more of the same in the 2020s.