NXT TakeOver: Chicago II is out of the way and last night, the first set of tapings for the NXT episodes leading up to TakeOver: Brooklyn IV took place, giving us a window into some possible plans for the event.
As such, it’s time to give some super early predictions on how things may play out for that event, based off the most recent pay-per-view, the direction of these TV tapings and all other potential information we can gather. Per usual, I invite everyone else to take part in the predictions by giving their own guesses in the comments below.
What do I see in my crystal ball for NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn IV? Let’s take a look at some of the potential matches…
WARNING: SPOILERS BELOW
NXT Championship Triple Threat Match: Aleister Black (c) vs. Tommaso Ciampa vs. Johnny Gargano
Right out of the gates, this set of tapings started with Tommaso Ciampa putting Aleister Black on notice that he’s coming for the NXT Championship, and since a title match between the two was teased the last time around before Lars Sullivan was thrust into the spotlight instead, I can’t imagine WWE going in another direction this time.
However, I do think there will be a twist to it, in that Johnny Gargano will find a way to insert himself into the title picture, too.
He and Ciampa are certainly not done with each other, and while a regular match between Ciampa and Black would still work—especially with Gargano interfering and costing Ciampa the match—I don’t think they’ll want to keep Gargano entirely off the card and only put him in a distraction role.
Since there wasn’t an angle done that said he was too injured from Chicago and basically written off television, as he faces EC3 during this round of tapings, that rules out the idea of them sidelining him for a surprise run-in.
Instead, I imagine the next set of tapings will feature some kind of match where Gargano wins the opportunity to fight for the championship, or reiterate that he was given an okay from Black before Ciampa got in the way, leading to a Triple Threat match, where Black can retain the title by pinning either of his opponents, who will have one more singles match together in Los Angeles, while Black will move on to EC3.
NXT North American Championship Match: Adam Cole (c) vs. Ricochet
This one seems pretty self-explanatory. Adam Cole didn’t defend the North American Championship at the last TakeOver, so he likely will do that here, and there’s no better opponent lined up for him than Ricochet.
Not only has Ricochet proven himself someone to watch out for, he also teams up with Moustache Mountain against The Undisputed Era for a six-man tag team match.
That’s all you need to make this a pretty obvious direction to go, and the only question is whether or not Ricochet will win the championship in Brooklyn, or if he’ll come up short.
NXT Women’s Championship Match: Shayna Baszler (c) vs. Kairi Sane
This one’s already set in stone, and it was an easy one to predict even before Chicago happened.
Kairi Sane defeated Candice LeRae and Nikki Cross to earn the No. 1 contender’s spot. Sign the papers. She’s getting her championship match at this event.
This felt like a guarantee once Cross was pushed in Shayna Baszler’s direction, as she’d lose, and Baszler would need another contender for Brooklyn, as well as another one for Los Angeles, as Kairi Sane isn’t going to win this match.
She defeated Baszler in the Mae Young Classic, so this is the opportunity to make it even between the two and have Baszler come out on top instead, taking down a credible challenger in Sane, undoing her loss, and continuing her title reign another few months.
Then, the most likely candidates to face Baszler in Los Angeles are Candice LeRae and the winner of the Mae Young Classic, which is impossible to tell at this point, as not a single competitor has been announced.
NXT Tag Team Championship Match: The Undisputed Era (c) vs. Moustache Mountain or War Raiders
This one is a little tough, as it will entirely depend on what the second set of tapings revolves around.
I can see two scenarios being the case, for different reasons.
Moustache Mountain took the tag titles away from The Undisputed Era during the United Kingdom Championship Tournament, but lost them back during these tapings. Effectively, the status quo remains, but they’ll be feuding with them for a bit of time following that loss.
If WWE wants to keep this going, they can do some kind of 2-out-of-3 Falls Match or another type of gimmick between the two teams in Brooklyn, which will act as the obligatory rematch for Trent Seven and Tyler Bate.
Naturally, Roderick Strong and Kyle O’Reilly would retain the titles, because they’re likely going to drop them to War Raiders at some point.
If WWE is done with the UK stars having their chance with these belts, they may skip directly to War Raiders against The Undisputed Era as an alternative to that.
I’m of the camp that hopes for the former, as I don’t think War Raiders will be established enough by Brooklyn for me to get fully behind them as champions, even though they’re clearly dominant enough to take the titles believably.
EC3 vs. The Velveteen Dream
On the episode of NXT that was mostly a recap of TakeOver: Chicago, there was a quick interview segment where EC3 said he was not going to miss any future TakeOver events, and he’d bust down William Regal’s door to make sure he gets the top talent.
Apparently, during this set of tapings, EC3 somewhat confronts The Velveteen Dream about some kind of issue between the two from the European tour, but it’s mostly just teased.
Dream defeats Chris Dijak, while EC3 loses to Gargano, and the two do nothing else, but we can assume there will probably be some sort of backstage segments filmed and interspersed to help fill out this storyline quite a bit more.
Even though it’s heel vs. heel, they may be looking at turning The Velveteen Dream more of a babyface due to his reactions from the crowd, and pairing him up with EC3 here to kind of kill two birds with one stone.
They’ll have a great match, Dream will be cheered, he’ll make EC3 get booed more, and it will fulfill the idea of EC3 competing at TakeOver going forward.
CARD PREDICTION SUMMARY
NXT Championship Triple Threat Match: Aleister Black (c) vs. Tommaso Ciampa vs. Johnny Gargano
NXT North American Championship Match: Adam Cole (c) vs. Ricochet
NXT Women’s Championship Match: Shayna Baszler (c) vs. Kairi Sane
NXT Tag Team Championship Match: The Undisputed Era (c) vs. Moustache Mountain or War Raiders
EC3 vs. The Velveteen Dream
Those are my predictions, but what matches do YOU think will be on the card? Drop your guesses in the comments below!
