Did NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn 4 live up to the hype of past Brooklyn events, did it fall short of expectations, or land somewhere in the middle?
Per usual, at the end of this post, you’ll see my latest Smack Talk Pay-Per-Viewpoint post-show podcast of my immediate thoughts reviewing the event that I recorded right after TakeOver ended, but for those who prefer a more general overview, here’s what I have to say about this pay-per-view:
In short, I loved it. As expected, this was a great event from top to bottom, and even the two matches that I wasn’t as interested in beforehand (Sane/Baszler and Moustache Mountain / The Undisputed Era) managed to surpass my predictions by being much better than I had anticipated.
The tag title match was a great opener that sold me even more on the tandem of Tyler Bate and Trent Seven, who I feel have to be either the favorites to win the NXT UK Tag Team Championship, or the team that has to lose to the Coffey brothers in order to give them the proper heat to go forward. Not throwing in the towel was a nice tease to play off their previous match and subvert doing the same thing again.
EC3 and The Velveteen Dream admittedly didn’t put on as good of a show as I was hoping, but that’s not to say I disliked it—I just wanted a 10/10 and they gave me a 7.5 or something along those lines. I still feel like they are two of the most noteworthy people NXT has to offer and guys that will have huge futures in WWE once they go to the main roster.
The same goes for Adam Cole and Ricochet, who did put on what I felt was the best match of the night. Start to finish, these guys killed it, and they not only had some of the best spots in general, but managed to fold in some psychology as well so it wasn’t just a contest of showing off who is more athletic or showcasing Ricochet’s flips. Good call putting the title on him, and I’m excited to see what’s next.
As far as not knowing what’s next, that’s even more applicable to Kairi Sane, now that she’s managed to upset Shayna Baszler and win the NXT Women’s Championship. I did not, under any circumstances, see that one coming. Major shock to me. However, just because I was surprised, doesn’t mean I was taken aback and I’m concerned about the direction going forward. Instead, I’m super curious how this will all play out with Baszler and if she’s coming up to the main roster, having a rematch at Evolution, etc. Just putting it out there right now that Bianca Belair is my pick for the next champion, though. Very good match—much, much better than I thought it would be, as I mentioned before—and I tip my hat.
When it comes to Johnny Gargano vs. Tommaso Ciampa, I expected it to be good and I got just that. I do feel like a bit of it was undercut by having the two babyfaces win ahead of time, which immediately made me think that it was guaranteed that Ciampa would retain, which took away from the ending, but I still do like the way the finish went down. I’d love to know if this was what would have happened if the Triple Threat would have been able to stay on this card, or if the plans changed somewhere along the line, but at least if this was the sendoff, they gave us a third great match to finish it.
All in all, a great event that put a big smile on my face and will hopefully make it much easier to digest what I’m sure is going to be a rough SummerSlam tomorrow night.
As I mentioned before, if you want more opinions on the show in more detail, check out the latest edition of the Smark Out Moment wrestling podcast SMACK TALK as the panel reviews NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn IV with our immediate reactions following the event before the dust has fully settled.
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