McLeod: Velveteen Dream Wins NXT Gold

Velveteen Dream wins the NXT North American Championship from Johnny Gargano, and Scott McLeod has some perspective for you!

A huge moment on this weeks episode of NXT (provided you didn’t look up spoilers for the tapings) as Velveteen Dream wins the NXT North American Championship. Taking advantage of the title shot he earned after winning the Worlds Collide Tournament.

All the trademarks of a great NXT main event with false finishes a plenty. Dream managed to catch Gargano in the Dream Valley Driver before rolling through into another and hitting the Purple Rainmaker to win his first piece of gold in WWE. A great moment if only for how elated he is after the 3.

It’s great to see the Dream finally win a championship. Some might say Dream is one of those characters who doesn’t need a title but I like to think him having a title opens more possibilities.

There’s a few reasons why I think this was the right time for Dream to win a title. Imagine at the next Takeover Dream makes one of his usual flamboyant entrances but now with the title around his waist. You know he can make anything look good.

While it might seem like a waste to give Gargano the title only for him to drop it here. However I think this frees him to have one more match with Ciampa at the next Takeover this time he wins the NXT title.

I can see the Dream defending the title in a triple threat against Adam Cole and Ricochet at Takeover. Cole is still trying to insure all of the Undisputed Era have gold and Ricochet hasn’t had his rematch. Dream used his title shot to skip ahead of him before he had a chance. If not Cole Strong could challenge Dream while Cole goes after the NXT title.

You could make the argument that this is a moment you wait until Takeover for but you can’t leave everything for Takeover. You have to have some big moments at the tapings to keep people coming back. Create the idea that anything can happen at these shows. Similar to what WWE do in the rare occasion they change a title at a house show.