Ranking Every NXT TakeOver From Worst To Best
NXT turns 10, but just how many TakeOver events were nearly perfect?
“Worst” is a bit of a misdirect in the title of this article. The ranking format is one used on this website to separate the awful from the awesome, but rarely has a TakeOver even tiptoed near the former.
Since 2014, WWE’s third brand has put on shows of such first rate excellence that the TakeOver label itself holds a qualitative value beyond even WrestleMania. In the modern era it stands as its polar opposite - the two/three hour format is a throwback to the days of the ‘Showcase Of The Immortals’ only having airtime for the absolute elite, with NXT wrestlers working all year to crack the exclusive club of stars given the brand’s brightest stage.
It’s a spot that comes with immense pressure, huge risk and even greater reward. Rebounding from a TakeOver misstep is a rough route, so high is the pedestal upon which the show is positioned. But the fruits of a wrestler’s hard labour are sweetest if savoured - iconic matches have forged even loftier reputations thanks to the furnace created by rapturous TakeOver crowds.
Rewatchable in a unique way the main roster simply isn’t in 2020 and loaded with bangers, EVERY show on this list has something of merit, even the very worst of the lot...
28. San Antonio
TakeOver: San Antonio was a night of good intentions and bad guys, but just about everything on the show felt so bloody rudimentary and functional that the sweat-soaked drama so entrenched in the legacy of the event was conspicuous by its absence.
Asuka plowed through the top names in the women’s division as it became increasingly apparent that she was bang right and absolutely nobody was ready for her. DIY did the honours for The Authors Of Pain in the worst match Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano would have against the big lads, whilst Eric Young and Roderick Strong’s victories over Tye Dillinger and Andrade Cien Almas respectively spoke to a show still in something of a transitional stage.
Nothing made that more apparent than a disappointing main event between Bobby Roode and Shinsuke Nakamura. They’d have more in them later that year but ‘The King Of Strong Style’ was nailed on for the main roster by WrestleMania weekend at the latest - this January title switch felt like a necessity, and the ‘Glorious’ one working the knee for the duration didn’t do much to increase a sense of unpredictability. A Seth Rollins run-in to call out Triple H provided that, but this mere spark wasn’t enough to light up the entire show.
Big changes were afoot for the black-and-gold brand as the year progressed, but they seemed quite the way off here.