Ranking Every NXT TakeOver From Worst To Best
27. Toronto (2019)
The problem with TakeOver: Toronto was not the overthought and overwrought main event, nor the crushingly underwhelming Women’s Title Match or even the can’t-miss Triple Threat managing to do exactly what it supposedly couldn’t.
The problem was in all three happening on the same night, right as accusations crept in that the bloom was off the NXT rose.
The looming and impending presence of AEW drove many to wonder aloud if NXT’s well-versed philosophies weren’t as relevant or incisive, and this show offered too healthy an argument to the point. The criticisms were proven to be fundamentally baseless in time, but the main event in particular was a thanklessly boring brawl held in high regards only by those that were able to do as many logical cartwheels as the wrestlers were dangerous psychology-free spots.
The Undisputed Era entered an excellent performance against The Street Profits as they always do and Io Shirai’s brilliant brawl with Candice LeRae wasn’t so much as a desert rose as it was a f*cking cola machine. The best division in wrestling needed to show out, not least with a title match set to disappoint. The worst TakeOver of the year still contained within it one of 2019’s best matches.
Nothing was broken - it was merely bruised.