Takeover: Vengeance Day took place last night and was the first NXT special of the year. It certainly lived up to expectations. The event was held at WWE’s Performance Centre in front of a limited number of fans.
Finn Balor retained his NXT Title in the main event of the evening, beating Pete Dunne in what many are saying is already a “match of the year” candidate.
The Irishman returned to NXT in 2019 after a three year stretch on WWE’s Main Roster and has held the top belt since September last year.
Karrion Kross had to vacate the belt after winning it from Keith Lee at Takeover: XXX back in August.
He defeated Adam Cole on Tuesday, 9th September to become only the third two-time NXT champion in history.
His challenger last night was Pete Dunne. The rivalry between the two had been brewing for a couple of months since Balor returned from a broken jaw at the end of last year.
The Birmingham native headed into last night’s main event having never held NXT’s top title.
Dunne’s offensive style revolves around body part manipulation, something he used to great effect against Balor. The defending champion was unable to wrap the belt around his waist after the final bell because of the damage inflicted upon his fingers by Dunne.
The finish of the match came after Balor hit his trademark basement missile drop-kick on Dunne He then climbed the turnbuckle and connected with the Coup de Grace. Not willing to leave anything to chance, Balor hit the “1916” which kept Dunne down for the three count.
This was a main event befitting of an NXT: Takeover show. It was fast, technically brilliant and involved a pretty compelling storyline.
It’ll be interesting to see where the two go next because of what happened after the bell. Adam Cole and the Undisputed Era came out to save Balor from being attacked by Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch.
They fought them off with Dunne retreating with his backup. It looked as though Balor was going to join the Undisputed Era before Adam Cole superkicked the champion in the jaw.
Kyle O’Reilly, a member of the faction, then starting arguing with Cole. The leader of the Undisputed Era then delivered another superkick, this time to O’Reilly.
Cole exited the ring with Roderick Strong looking unsure as to what he’d just seen as Takeover went off the air.
Last night could well have been the beginning of the end for the Undisputed Era but Balor’s championship reign is certainly going from strength to strength.
