9 Things That Must Happen At NXT TakeOver: Philadelphia

2. Andrade Almas Retains

Zelina Vega Andrade Cien Almas
WWE.com

NXT TakeOver: Philadelphia will be headlined by an NXT Championship match between Andrade Almas and Johnny Gargano. Did anyone predict this match a year ago? 12 months back, Gargano was one half of the NXT Tag Team Champions alongside Tommaso Ciampa. Almas? Well, he was coming up short in Roderick Strong’s first TakeOver match.

January 2018 is very different to January 2017. Almas won the title from Drew McIntyre back at WarGames, and there is plenty left in the tank when it comes to Andrade’s championship run. The former IWGP Intercontinental Champion has been a revelation since the introduction of Zelina Vega, It is best to ride this wave, as opposed to abandoning it.

Almas has plenty of challengers lining up ahead of him. Aleister Black seems destined for a title shot at the next TakeOver, and there is an excellent symmetry in Black facing the man he defeated in his first TakeOver. Gargano vs. Black could be a lot of fun as well, but I dare say Johnny Wrestling will have his hands full with an old foe in New Orleans…

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Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.