If nothing else, TakeOver: Dallas represented a changing of the guard for NXT, with two new champions and the departure of a promotion stalwart. It also introduced two new competitors (and possibly more). We saw American Alpha reach the mountaintop, capturing the NXT Tag Team Championships and Asuka win with Womens Championship, the latter of which ended fan favorite Bayleys storybook run with the title. She could end up on Raw in the very near future (she was actually rumored to be in the running to be part of the Total Divas team at WrestleMania before Eva Marie got the spot). Additionally, we likely saw Sami Zayns last match in NXT as a full-time competitor, as he lost to newcomer Shinsuke Nakamura. Austin Aries also won his debut match in NXT at TakeOver, beating Baron Corbin. And theres a strong possibility that after losing two straight NXT Championship matches (but looking extremely strong in both), Samoa Joe could be bound for the main roster. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CB7_3aEHlTU All of that represents a pretty notable shift in the makeup of NXT. With a Global Cruiserweight Series bringing wrestlers from around the world to the company, we could see a dramatically different NXT in the coming months.
Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.
