Ranking Every NXT TakeOver From Worst To Best
3. New Orleans
In which Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano asked old weathered WWE fans if they'd finally seen their favourite ever match topped.
New Orleans was the setting for the first match between the pair following a turn that had taken place the prior summer and an edgy tag partners story crafted from the embers of a Cruiserweight Classic...classic a year earlier. And it was every bit as f*cking fantastic as it needed to be.
Fought at pace but with fittingly violent interludes, it should have been the end of their feud in how apocalyptic it felt, not least with the two Marvel fans playing the biggest hero and final boss villains of their own story. Ciampa was a wonderful, magnificent heel too - the synchronicity between his character and the audience's loathing of his actions was as pure as the starry-eyed expression on Gargano's face at his lowest ebb while fighting for his life.
Away from a once-great team, the newest group on the NXT block gained a fresh member as Roderick Strong joined the Undisputed Era in a shocking conclusion to a wicked triple threat tag match for both the Tag Team Titles and that year's Dusty cup. The turn concluded an amazing night for Adam Cole after he became the first North American Champion in a blistering and multi-man ladder opener.