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A week from tomorrow, NXT will stage its latest TakeOver extravaganza, TakeOver: New York. Triple H is promoting it as the biggest TakeOver ever, and indeed, looking at the card, it does have a chance of making its way onto the Mount Rushmore of the NXT brand adjacent to the likes of the original TakeOver: Brooklyn, TakeOver: R-Evolution, and TakeOver: New Orleans as perhaps the best ever.
Either way, it's easily going to exceed WrestleMania 35 in quality, much like TakeOver does every year. Here are the reasons why.
#1 The two-hour format
Let's face it, WWE's shows are for the most part too damn long. Nowhere is this truer than WrestleMania, which has evolved into a seven-hour event over the years. That sounds like it should be an extravaganza, but it just leaves everyone exhausted by the show's end, and it has hurt the quality of the past few WrestleManias.
Some might say that it's a marathon, not a sprint, but it's difficult for the human mind to engage in watching a single event for that long without interruption. By the time WrestleMania ends, you're relieved that it's over, and it does the competitors in the main event dirty by having to engage with such an exhausted audience.
NXT takes the opposite approach. Its shows are short but go at 100 miles an hour, keeping viewers engaged on a wild ride from start to finish. It's true of the hour-long weekly shows and it's true of the TakeOver specials. So much is packed into those two hours that you're always left wanting more at the end, which is a good thing.
The format of the two shows means that WrestleMania will have to fight from behind before the curtain even gets raised.
#2 A heartfelt farewell
Aleister Black and Ricochet will open the show with a tag team title match against the War Raiders. Though the story between these two teams isn't well-developed (most attention has been paid to the Dusty Classic, which these two won), there is one thing that makes this match special. It's going to be Black and Ricochet's final bow on the black and yellow brand.
Black and Ricochet are two of the beloved members of the "NXT 6," and it will be bittersweet to see them go. Though we might rightly fear their careers on the main roster, their match with the War Raiders will be a great way for them to say goodbye to NXT. We can expect something explosive from the get-go, and their final curtain call is going to be something to remember.
This show-opener is guaranteed to be better than anything WrestleMania 35 can do.
#3 A midcard to remember
After the show-opener, you have perhaps the strongest midcard for any TakeOver ever.
Velveteen Dream will be defending his North American Championship against Matt Riddle and NXT has made the best use of its limited time to build the feud between the two men. Dream being carried on his sofa to watch Riddle's match last night did much to elevate the mind games between the two and it will be an interesting clash of personalities, to say the least.
Shayna Baszler will be defending the NXT Women's Championship in a fatal four-way, and at long last, her fall is imminent. The only question is who she will fall to? Former champion Kairi Sane has 18 months' worth of bones to pick with Baszler, but the up and coming Bianca Belair stands in her way with her own grudge. Meanwhile, Io Shirai has looked like the young lion all but guaranteed to overthrow the old one, but her feud is less personal, and her quest for the title is one of unmasked ambition. How will her friendship with Kairi Sane come into play with respect to her drive to the top? This match has everything in it. It will see the fall of the old regime and plant the seeds for the new wars in the NXT women's division for the coming year.
Finally, there's the highly-anticipated clash between Pete Dunne and WALTER for the UK Championship. The last time Pete Dunne was in a singles match at a TakeOver, he put on WWE's match of the year. He'll have a brutal, authentic dance partner in WALTER, and there's every chance that he'll repeat his previous feat. We can expect this match to be physical as hell, and added on to it is the very strong possibility that Dunne's two-year reign will come to an end, guaranteeing even more intrigue.
There's no way that WrestleMania's bloated, filler mid card will come anywhere close to this lineup.
#4 A cathartic main event
Unfortunately, Tommaso Ciampa's title reign ended in tragedy. Everything was set up for the most cathartic moment in NXT history, only for it to be yanked away a few feet from the finishing line. If this had happened as planned, it probably would have guaranteed the best TakeOver ever.
Nevertheless, NXT carried on and did a good job of setting up Adam Cole vs. Johnny Gargano last night. This looked like it was going to be NXT's next big feud anyway, so the yellow brand decided to get started on a strong foot. We can expect a thrilling match between these two, one that goes above the triple threat on April 7th. That's guaranteed between any interaction of the fabled "NXT 6." The shenanigans with the Undisputed Era guarantee more thrills.
Gargano will almost certainly win the title in a moment of pure triumph, even if it won't reach the high it would have had it been at Ciampa's expense.
In contrast, Becky Lynch's triumph at WrestleMania 35 will have been watered down even worse because of a disastrous build to a mess of a main event. It will be nice to see her with Ronda's title, but many fans will simply be relieved that this convoluted angle is over rather share in a great outpouring of euphoria over Becky's win.
You can always leave it to the main roster to torpedo a guaranteed thing. NXT takes the opposite approach and has done its best to salvage the culmination of Johnny Gargano's three-year journey.
