NXT Takeover: Chicago Preview & Predictions
It is technically the third NXT Takeover of the year. However, it is the first one of a brand new era, the first one since Wrestlemania weekend. NXT, as a brand, shook off the cobwebs that had begun to cover it from the top of the card to the middle and lower rungs, last year, and has emerged with renewed vigour.
With fresh faces (and some familiar ones), a new attitude and several new matchups, this should be an exciting affair. While at first glance, NXT Takeover: Chicago is not the strongest card that NXT has stitched together, NXT has a track record of spinning gold from hay.
That being said, let’s analyse the card at Chicago, and make our predictions for the matches at hand.
#5 Hideo Itami’s big make-or-break moment
In the NXT media call before this event, Triple H made no bones about this match being Hideo Itami’s big opportunity to prove himself and about how, if this match did not go according to plan, Hunter had no idea about Hideo Itami’s future. A man plagued by injuries, Itami has not had the best time in the United States.
He has been awarded a chance to shine ahead of a lot of pretty amazing contenders for Bobby Roode’s crown, such as Drew McIntyre, Aleister Black, and even Kassius Ohno. We don’t see Roode dropping the title so soon, because of the same reason.
At the same time, Hideo Itami must give Roode the match of his career, because while the latter is a good worker, his matches haven't really been in the same league as some of the former NXT title matches. In any case, Itami needs a good match more than Roode does.
Oh, did we mention that this match is in CM Punk’s hometown of Chicago and that Itami ends his matches with a ‘GTS’?
Prediction: Bobby Roode wins