NXT Hit It Out of the Park Again at TakeOver Brooklyn IV

Just 24 hours before WWE presents SummerSlam in the very same arena, NXT hit a home run on Saturday night with their TakeOver: Brooklyn IV event.

Since WWE started having NXT TakeOver hold their shows the night before the main roster PPVs in the same arena, the TakeOver events have grown to have a reputation as the better show. Although SummerSlam has yet to take place, once again the WWE roster will have quite the task ahead of them to equal or surpass what NXT presented at the Barclays Center on Saturday night.

Though SummerSlam is a stacked card in its own right, the main roster doesn’t have the luxury of presenting a tighter and more focused show with only five matches that have had three months of television build. The NXT events certainly benefit from a situation that focuses on quality over quantity, and all five matches on Saturday night were of extremely high quality.

So what went down at TakeOver: Brooklyn IV? Let’s get right to it.

The NXT Tag Team Title Match

The opening match of the evening pitted the NXT Tag Team Champions, The Undisputed Era (Kyle O’Reilly and Roderick Strong) taking on Mustache Mountain (Tyler Bate and Trent Seven). What resulted was an incredible contest that may be the best tag team match of the year so far in WWE or NXT.

While O’Reilly and Strong retained their titles, Bate stole the show here.

The Undisputed Era continues to be one of the most over acts in NXT, so keeping the tag titles on them here was the right call. But even in the loss, Bate came off as a big star to a group of fans that are still getting used to seeing him perform given his UK roots. 

It Was All A Dream

Velveteen Dream and EC3 had the unenviable task of having to follow the show stealing tag team match. Both men were polished in the match and showed that either of them could succeed on the main roster right now. Dream told us as much, as he wore an incredible pair of tights with the words “Call Me Up Vince” on the back.

The former Patrick Clark continues to prove that he is one of the most innovative stars in NXT, not just with his look and character, but with the moves he uses. Take a look at this twisting DDT on the stage. 

In the end, Dream finally put his TakeOver losing streak to an end by emerging victorious following a Dream Valley Driver on the ring apron followed up a flying elbow. 

Following this match, Matt Riddle was shown in the crowd, confirming his signing with WWE.

Ricochet’s First WWE Gold

Next out was one of the hottest new names in NXT, Ricochet, challenging Adam Cole for the NXT North American Championship. This bout equaled or surpassed the opening tag (I liked it slightly more than the tag team match, though I loved both) and resulted in our first title change of the evening.

Ricochet was absolutely out of this world, as per usual, with his high flying offense and Cole was also at the top of his game. The closing five minutes of the bout really put an exclamation point on what was an excellent contest up to that point that became a classic following the conclusion.

One of the biggest jaw-dropping moments of the match occurred when Cole superkicked a moonsaulting Ricochet. The replay showed his kick connecting to the neck of his opponent, bringing the fans out of their seats.

Moments later, Ricochet hit an insane running hurricanrana on Cole from the inside of the ring to the outside. Soon after, he followed that up with the 630 Splash to win his first WWE gold.

A Surprising Title Change

In the semi-main event, Shayna Baszler defended her NXT women’s title against Kairi Sane, the woman who defeated her in the finals of last year’s inaugural Mae Young Classic. Despite Baszler running over the entire women’s division since winning the belt, the story of Sane having defeated her in the past was a good one.

Ronda Rousey and the rest of her MMA Four Horsewomen were shown at ringside supporting Baszler as the match got started. 

The pair had a really good contest, with Baszler expertly working over Sane’s leg throughout the contest in some excruciating looking submission holds. Even so, Sane fought on and with some adrenaline and veteran knowledge, pulled off the stunning upset.

Baszler kicked out of more than one Sane elbow drop. When Sane went up for her third, Baszler caught her with a boot on her way down to the mat. She quickly turned Sane over into the Kirifuda Clutch, but Sane rolled through and turned it into a pinfall for the victory.

The story of Baszler being a dominating force but unable to defeat the veteran Sane is a good story that they should be able to continue moving forward.

The Story Continues

NXT Champion Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano are currently in the midst of the best feud in all of WWE, not just NXT. That feud had its latest chapter on Saturday night at TakeOver: Brooklyn IV. 

To recap, Gargano defeated Ciampa in an unsanctioned match at NXT TakeOver: New Orleans. That was followed up by a second match between the duo at NXT TakeOver: Chicago II. Ciampa won that match, billed as a Chicago Street Fight. 

Since that time, Ciampa captured the NXT title in a bout with Aleister Black that Gargano got involved in. It was supposed to evolve into a triple threat match at TakeOver: Brooklyn IV, but due to an untimely injury to Black, the bout was switched to another singles contest between Gargano and Ciampa. This time, a Last Man Standing Match.

The pair had another incredible match. While I would still rank New Orleans as the best match of their series, this one went toe to toe with their Chicago bout as the second best of the trio.

There were several memorable spots throughout, including Gargano hitting a DDT on Ciampa to the exposed boards of the ring and a superkick sending Ciampa through two stacked tables on the outside.

The story of the match was that Gargano had lost his nice guy attitude and had taken things to another level in the weeks prior to the match. That came out at the end when Gargano looked to have Ciampa beat. 

Ciampa was handcuffed on the stage and took several superkicks from Gargano. As Ciampa begged him off and told him he was sorry, Gargano pulled down his knee pad and ran in with a big knee to the face of Ciampa. The force sent Gargano through a pile of boxes on the next stage over.

As Gargano cringed in pain on the ground below with the referee doing his ten count, Ciampa dropped down to the ground from the stage he was on to have his feet touch the floor just as the referee reached ten, giving him the victory with Gargano still down.

The announcers declared that Gargano may have suffered a dislocated knee as Ciampa walked off still the NXT champion. He teased attacking Gargano further as he has done in the past following matches, but he instead held up the title slowly to celebrate his victory. 

We’ve definitely not seen the last match in this feud as Ciampa continues to reign as champion. The fans in Brooklyn really wanted to see Gargano win the title and whenever that day comes, it’s sure to be one of the more memorable moments in the history of NXT.