Andrew’s NXT Takeover Toronto 2019 Ratings & Analysis

This NXT Takeover has had a mixed bag of interest from the IWC. Did the show produce quality regardless of hype?

As people who read the site frequently can tell, I’ve been covering the G1. So that doesn’t really allow a ton of time for other things and honestly NXT didn’t intrigue me with the stories.

I guess it’s time to find out how the show went!

Ratings:

• NXT Tag Team Titles: Street Profits(c) vs Undisputed Era: Montez Ford retains via Frog Splash @16:55 – ***
• Io Shirai vs Candice LaRae:  Io wins via Modified Koji Clutch @15:00 – **** ¼
• North American Championship: Velveteen Dream(c) vs Pete Dunne vs Roderick Strong: Dream retains via Purple Rainmaker @17:25 – **** ½
• NXT Women’s Championship: Mia Yim vs Shayna Baszler(c):  Baszler retains via Triangle Choke @14:35 – **
• NXT Championship 2 out 3 Falls: Johnny Gargano vs Adam Cole (c):  Cole retains via Laws of Gravity @46:30 – ****

Analysis:

NXT Tag Team Titles: Street Profits(c) vs Undisputed Era – Undisputed Era bumped their asses off in this match. Honestly though, not a lot of really good flow and nothing special. I haven’t watched the lead up since I’ve been covering G1, but I also don’t get why Ford does The Rock mannerisms. Nothing in this match was great, a couple alright spots and Ford’s ridiculous facial expressions make me want to slam my head in a car door. It wasn’t awful, but it was really just a shade above average thanks to Undisputed Era putting in the work.

Io Shirai vs Candice LaRae – Io’s evil transformation seems to suit her very well. She has very similar body language to that of Akira Hokuto, and Candice looking for a modicum of payback after the betrayal is a nice story. The match was hard hitting, paced well, Candice hit some solid moves and had great near falls. Candice kicking out of the Moonsault caused a lot of conflict and Io emotes these well. Her ring psychology transcends a language barrier.  Damn good match.

North American Championship: Velveteen Dream(c) vs Pete Dunne vs Roderick Strong – This was a great match. Dunne and Dream teamed up on Strong early, they had a little flair between the two when Dream did his Rick Rude hip swivel, and then it was more wide open. Everything about this match was hard hitting, interesting, built off of past events and the finish was a shock. After Strong hits End of Heartache, we get a 1 count, and then Dream crashes down and steals the 3. The initial camera angle made it look like a steal, but replays showed it to be the Purple Rainmaker. Everything was very well executed with this match.

NXT Women’s Championship: Mia Yim vs Shayna Baszler(c) – This was slow, plodding and hard to watch. Yes they tried to work over body parts, but nothing captured interest in this match. Spots were sloppy, weak, bad and even the crowd died at some point. This was probably the worst NXT Women’s Championship match I’ve ever seen. And to top it off, the finish being a submission with legs around the head is too damn close to the Io and Candice match. They tried, but this wasn’t close to even average.

NXT Championship 2 out 3 Falls: Johnny Gargano vs Adam Cole (c) – The first fall was where this match peaked. We had a great back and forth with some posturing, personality and teasing at big moves. The twist at the end where Gargano chose to use the steel chair to get an edge going into the second fall was fairly clever. The Street Fight was paint by numbers and unimpressive. The best thing to come from the street fight was when Gargano threw the chair at Cole and it bounced off and stood up by a stroke of shenanigans. The third fall was just…WHY? This was inane and overkill. Then we get the finish that was really just falling with style. They didn’t do a move, it looked like a Middle School dance and then they both fell over together. Completely stupid finish.

Overall Score: 6.5/10

This was a show that missed the mark by a bit. Io Shirai and Velveteen Dream’s matches saved the overall show, but the last few NXT shows have not been as impressive as in the past. Plus with the main event just being an overdone car crash of Indy garbage idiocy towards the end. If the main event ended after the first fall or was less idiotic, that would’ve easily elevated the overall show.

Hopefully we stop with these 3 in a row crappy gimmick feuds for the NXT Championship. Baszler also needs to drop it soon. Not because I dislike her, but because the matches have seemed to drop in quality and the crowd seems less and less invested.

Here’s to hoping something reignites the spark of NXT, because this has been disappointing compared to what we’ve grown to expect.