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The general consensus is that All Elite Wrestling’s debut PPV, Double or Nothing, knocked it out of the park. From the tremendous pure in-ring action of The Young Bucks vs. The Lucha Bros. and Kenny Omega vs. Chris Jericho to the storytelling of Cody vs. Dustin Rhodes and to the surprise appearance by Dean Ambrose at the end of the show, AEW packed in about all fans could ask for.
Double or Nothing was very good, and quite possibly historically important, even, for the way it set up this new national wrestling promotion. But NXT TakeOver XXV may well be the better show. TakeOvers have a history of being excellent.
There’s never been a truly bad iteration of the NXT specials and quite a few have garnered rave reviews—not least of all including the most recent one, TakeOver: New York over WrestleMania weekend, which many consider among the five best TakeOvers to date. Just one week removed from Double or Nothing, this article considers five reasons why TakeOver XXV may be better than AEW’s first show.
#5 Johnny Wrestling
There are just a handful of active wrestlers today whom fans can trust to deliver in big match situations across the board. Johnny Gargano is one of them.
Gargano has been NXT’s MVP for the last year plus, particularly for his feud with Tommaso Ciampa, but also for inspired performance opposite the likes of Aleister Black, Ricochet, and most recently Adam Cole. Gargano and Cole tore the house down over WrestleMania weekend, and their rematch at TakeOver XXV has the potential be every bit as good.
Particularly with the extra fire under the bellies that come with having to hang with AEW in the eyes of the hardcore fans who are most passionate about NXT, we can expect Johnny Wrestling to pull out all the stops on his way to another match of the year contender.
#4 Velveteen Dream vs. Tyler Breeze
Velveteen Dream has been a revelation on NXT TakeOver specials, often stealing the show with everything from his theatricality to the quality of his in-ring performance. As North American Champion, he seems to have found a fine niche a notch below the main event but nonetheless in a consistently featured spot.
For TakeOver XXV, Dream finds himself defending his title against Tyler Breeze. Newer fans may find this to be an odd booking, given Breeze has spent the last three years on the main roster. However, before Breeze was underutilized in the tag team and lower mid-card picture on Raw and SmackDown, he was a star in developmental. This program with Dream functions as Prince Pretty’s homecoming.
Had the North American title been around when Breeze was originally in NXT, he would have been a lock to hold it, given he was quite similar to Dream as a brash guy who delivered the goods bell to bell and consistently found himself just beneath NXT Champion status. Given Dream’s TakeOver history and the extent to which Breeze will have something to prove based on his lackluster main roster run, we can expect this match to be lights out.
#3 The Tag Division Has Something To Prove
The NXT tag team division has been a consistent bright spot. Though The Ascension wasn’t necessarily a great team in the ring, they were successfully booked as monsters for their developmental run. After they stepped aside, tandems like The Revival, American Alpha, #DIY, The Authors of Pain, Moustache Mountain, The Undisputed Era, and The War Raiders have delivered classics with a particular penchant for opening up TakeOver shows in a hot way.
The current tag ranks have something to prove. The Viking Raiders moved up to the main roster and vacated the tag titles, leaving a void that the current crop of teams will be all too eager to fill, and prove that the division hasn’t lost a step. Moreover, after Double or Nothing featured such excellent showings from AEW’s fledgling tag division, we can expect for this four-way bout to offer something of a statement to reaffirm that NXT sets the bar for tag team wrestling today.
#2 Representing The Brand
The NXT brand has become synonymous with in-ring excellence and storytelling that services old school wrestling fans while featuring up and coming talents. Particularly as NXT has stockpiled top stars from smaller promotions and the international scene, it has been hard to compare much of any other promotions to NXT’s TakeOver specials.
AEW threatened NXT’s credibility with hardcore fans in delivering a show that genuinely challenged TakeOver quality. While not every match delivered, the quality of surprise appearances from the likes of veteran stars Jon Moxley and Awesome Kong and capitalizing on non-WWE talent like The Lucha Bros. and Kenny Omega made for a special happening in ways that TakeOver events can’t necessarily replicate.
TakeOver XXV will carry a subtext of WWE trying to one-up what AEW accomplished. Add in the potential for other NXT alumni like Finn Balor or Shinsuke Nakamura, or perhaps most intriguingly Sasha Banks to follow in Tyler Breeze’s footsteps in making their way back for this twenty-fifth special, we could be in for a very interesting night.
#1 The TakeOver Tradition
There has not yet been a bad NXT TakeOver special, and even if the stars of WWE’s developmental system have an off night this weekend, it’s hard to imagine this card delivering anything less than a very good show.
Good won’t cut it at this point, though. With the weight of a twenty-fifth special hanging over the brand, and with NXT’s godfather Triple H having weathered personal shots from Cody Rhodes at Double or Nothing, we can bet that his TakeOver will put out all of the stops. That’s a good thing for WWE, too, given that with the weight of WWE marketing behind them, and airing on the relatively inexpensive WWE Network, TakeOver is sure to have more eyes on it than Double or Nothing did.
Will TakeOver XXV be the best NXT show to date? It’s hard to imagine it exceeding the New Orleans or New York TakeOvers, just to name two. However, it does seem safe to assume that this show will be built, at least in part, to assert this brand’s dominance over the hardcore audience.
