Andrew’s NXT TakeOver 31 Results & Match Ratings: 10.4.2020

NXT TakeOvers have a tendency to at least be somewhat consistent. With proven commodities like Johnny Gargano, Finn Balor and Io Shirai in the major matches, this has a chance to be a special night.

Does Io cement herself as one of the best Women’s champions, or fall prey to the “Gargano Way”? Will Kyle O’Reilly cause some questions and perhaps a power struggle in the Undisputed Era? And the biggest question mark; which Kushida is showing up against Velveteen Dream?

A number of stories can spiral out from here, so I guess let’s see what happens!

Ratings:

• North American Championship: Johnny Gargano vs Damian Priest (c): Priest retains via The Reckoning @18:39 – *** ¾
• Kushida vs Velveteen Dream: Kushida wins via Hoverboard Lock @13:00 – *** ½
• NXT Cruiserweight Championship: Santos Escobar (c) vs Isaiah Scott: Escobar retains via Double Underhook Shoulder Breaker @15:14 – *** ¼
• NXT Women’s Championship: Io Shirai (c) vs Candice LeRae: Io retains via Moonsault Press @16:45 – *** ½
• NXT Championship: Kyle O’Reilly vs Finn Balor (c): Balor retains via Coup de Grace @28:28 – **** ¼

Results:

North American Championship: Johnny Gargano vs Damian Priest (c)

The onset is quick and favors Gargano a bit. He uses his speed to get Priest off balance a little and takes him to the outside, a big Dive into the chain barriers, shoves him into the steps and brings him back in for some rope assisted offense. Ties him in the ropes for a big Dropkick, a Draping Swanton and then a Tequila Sunrise to make the match look like a perfect script for Gargano.

However, Gargano goes to the ankle and Priest is able to kick him off for space and build some momentum. A high angle Elevated Flatliner followed up by the Broken Arrow give Priest a near fall, but the momentum is strictly in his court. Priest aims for a Razor’s Edge, and early dodge gets paid with a Front Slam, then a second Razor’s Edge is countered with a Code Red and near fall for Gargano.

We get a fun strike exchange followed by a little familiarity. Priest tried to counter Gargano’s offense with a boot, but Gargano moves so he hits an Enzuigiri to get around the boot. But when Priest connects he goes to the ropes, stalls for a second to throw off Gargano’s Super Kick attempt and lays him out with a Diving Forearm. The cat and mouse game continues as Gargano knocks Priest to the outside, tries to Dive, but Priest catches him, tries South of Heaven, Gargano gets out of it, but then he gets tripped up with a Spin Kick and then eats the Razor’s Edge on the apron.

The back and forth is entertaining from here since it’s just a Kick, a Forearm and just a big struggle. But once Priest gets frustrated and does a huge Dive over the corner, Gargano grabs security into the move and takes advantage of the distraction to hit a Low Blow. Super Kick from Gargano, but only a two count!

A solid struggle from there where Gargano tries the Garga-NO Escape, but Priest won’t quit. Then Gargano tries to knock Priest back into the ring steps, but it backfires. A few close calls for both men, Gargano goes for One Final Beat, gets caught, hung in the ropes and Priest hits The Reckoning.

Kushida vs Velveteen Dream

Dream comes out looking like a combination of Doc Brown and Mr. Glass with the grey hair. Kushida takes exception to the Back to the Future jab and comes out hot. He attacks Dream before the bell, and when the bell does ring, he continues to just attack. Dream is rocked until he manages to use a little bit of a referee distraction to find him an opening to Boot Kushida and slowly come back.

Kushida doesn’t take long before he goes back on the attack. He viciously goes after the left arm the entire match; pulling Dream into the post, sandwiching his arm between the steps and post and drop kicking the steps, Cross Armbreaker and a plethora of kicks, Kushida is rabid going after the arm. Surprisingly Dream mounts a comeback without much cheating.

Dream Valley Driver and a Purple Rainmaker connect, but on the landing Dream’s damaged arm absorbs too much of the bump and he’s slow to pin. Kushida tries to fight back, but Dream knocks him down again, goes back up, but Kushida pops up and jumps to the top of the corner. Kushida brings him down with the Avalanche Hoverboard lock and we get close to the end. Dream fights to the ropes, Kushida repositions and keeps the Hoverboard Lock in, Dream manages to fight out, attempts the Dream Valley Driver again, but Kushida grabs the arm, takes the moves and holds on to the Hoverboard Lock, so Dream is forced to tap.

After the match, Kushida remains unhinged and beats the holy hell out of Dream.

Halloween Havoc is officially coming back to NXT. Somewhere Greg DeMarco is as giddy as a school girl.

NXT Cruiserweight Championship: Santos Escobar (c) vs Isaiah Scott

Scott came out looking to wrestle Lucha Libre, and he did a damn impressive job. Throughout this match though, there were slight miscues or little spot misses that made adjustments or sells look awkward at best. Most notably when the rest of Legado del Fantasma come to the ring, whatever Escobar supposedly did looked awful, the Frankensteiner into Wilde and Mendoza was slow and looked more like Scott took the brunt of it. The help for Scott looked mistimed.

So a fairly solid Lucha Libre match was hampered by weird timing and just sloppiness at a certain point. Not bad, but could’ve been a ton better.

NXT Women’s Championship: Io Shirai (c) vs Candice LeRae

Candice did a solid job at only really trying to buy time and no real cheating until towards the end. As decent as the back and forth in the match was, it did come off a little flat to me. Which amusingly, the cheating towards the end was entertaining, but not really for great reasons. Watching the referee take a Back Elbow, and then eat a careening Io off the Moonsault block.

Then Gargano pulls a Bayley and runs down with a referee’s shirt, but Io kicks out at fast count 2. Candice clocks her with the title while Johnny distracts the now conscious original ref, but Io kicks out again. Gargano and Candice are beside themselves, and this hokey dorky heel thing is funny…but kinda dumb.

Io then hits a Spanish Fly, followed by the Moonsault Press to retain! Then we get two returns! Toni Storm has a video promo saying she’s coming back to NXT and then we get someone ride in on a motorcycle; and when the helmet comes off…it’s Ember Moon!

So for a division that was a little shallow and I wasn’t sure where it was going, now suddenly became very interesting.

NXT Championship: Kyle O’Reilly vs Finn Balor (c)

Kyle and Finn start mat wrestling and it’s nice to see Balor try and keep up with O’Reilly’s game plan. This entire match was a beautiful display of both men proving their proficiency in all forms of wrestling. Balor gets a small advantage with a Fujiwara style armbar, and even strums a little guitar before O’Reilly starts to put his skills to work.

Uncalled for. #NXTTakeOver #NXTChampionship @FinnBalor @KORcombat pic.twitter.com/1cMfVz02N6

— WWE Universe (@WWEUniverse) October 5, 2020

After this playful disrespect, the match starts to turn up the heat. O’Reilly goes hunting for a few Knee Bar/Heel Hook combinations, and when not doing that, they are trading strikes. O’Reilly starts bleeding from the mouth fairly early, so the referee does do a solid job at creating distance between the two, but that gives O’Reilly the needed time to start going to work on Finn.

Running Knee Lifts, Butterfly Suplex Takedowns, German Suplexes, mixed between the submissions stylings really gave O’Reilly a lot of hope spots throughout this match. He countered a few John Woo attempts from Finn, even ate an Overhead Kick just to answer back with a Rewind Lariat. Everything fans enjoyed from their pre-WWE incarnations was on display here. Solid selling, great wrestling and competitive striking left this match up int he air to the very end.

The fact that Finn was bleeding from the mouth right before he hit the Coup de Grace added to just how hard of a fight this was. Then after we get Ridge Holland dumping Adam Cole’s lifeless body over the barrier, so now you have to wonder what’s happening there. Is Ridge just a messenger? Did he do it?

Overall Score: 7.75/10

While nothing was bad in the show, and it was capped off with a really great main event; the show felt…too similar throughout. Even the Dream/Kushida match turned into more of the workrate/counter hold style after the initial aggression. NXT has a tendency to do this and just not book a change of pace match.By that I don’t mean comedy or 27 gimmicks shoved in a bag; I mean just a match or two that bring a different tempo. Hardcore, Submission Only, two Powerhouses; something that doesn’t make the card look effectively the same just with different players and sometimes no title on the line.

With that said, Ember coming back in time for Halloween Havoc is perfect for the werewolf vibe she used to give off, Toni is a fan favorite and Io is a machine. So the women’s division is in great shape especially with Rhea, Shotzi and Xia looming in the main/upper mid picture (I don’t care for Raquel, so she has a lot to prove to me before I care about her card positioning).

Aside from that…the other matches do leave something to be desired with where the story is going. The Gargano’s are dorks and can’t get anything accomplished, so they might as well be faces again. UE is under attack, but that doesn’t really involve Finn unless they want it to for Survivor Series or something, the Cruiserweight Division is just kinda there (and I love Legado del Fantasma), but at least the North American is supposed to be more of the mid card belt, so that doesn’t always need a clear picture.

In a vacuum this was a fun show that just started to blend together too much. Big picture though, I’m left wondering where the direction is, but also not overly motivated to find out on Wednesday (though I do normally watch it anyway).