NXT TakeOver XXV: Ranking the matches according to their buildup
NXT TakeOver XXV will take to the air on Saturday, June 1st. It will be one of the few TakeOver's to take place without the main roster WWE PPV following it. The card is filled with its usual five matches and it will start at 7 p.m. EST.
The match card is as follows below:
Matt Riddle vs. Roderick Strong
North American Championship Match: The Velveteen Dream (c) vs. Tyler Breeze
NXT Tag Team Title Ladder Match: Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch vs. The Undisputed Era (Bobby Fish & Kyle O'Reilly) vs. The Forgotten Sons vs. The Street Profits
NXT Women's Championship Match: Shayna Baszler (c) vs. Io Shirai
NXT Championship Match: Johnny Gargano (c) vs. Adam Cole
The card has a very Undisputed Era-centric flavor to it, so perhaps this is the night where some of the members start to win gold. Cole made the promise towards the beginning of the year, but every Superstar starts out a new year hoping to win a title.
Since they are so heavily featured on the card, the group might be draped in gold when everything is said and done. While Super Showdown is next Friday, this NXT TakeOver will have the weekend to itself.
Will that dwarf the fact that TakeOvers have been routinely better than the main-roster PPVs with which they share the weekend? They get the spotlight all to themselves this weekend so here are the matches ranked according to their buildup, from the worst to the best. They've all been done extremely well, but a few stand out more than the others.
#5 NXT North American Championship Match: The Velveteen Dream (c) vs. Tyler Breeze
Although NXT has plenty of Superstars under its banner, some main-roster stars like Breeze and Drew Gulak have showed up on the show recently. It gives them more exposure that they haven't been getting on the main roster. Their appearances also up the quality of the matches they take part in because they have already made their marks regarding NXT.
Breeze was extremely entertaining when he was a member of the Fashion Police with Fandango, but once the latter was injured, it left Breeze in limbo. He was primarily used as enhancement talent (when he did appear) and might have requested to go back to NXT.
He was a made man on the yellow brand and it's not a surprise that he not only targeted a title but also the man in NXT who is the most like him. Breeze always delivered in his TakeOver matches but usually in a losing effort.
Like Breeze, Dream has had more losses than wins at TakeOver events, but since he won the North American Title, he's been on a winning streak. The feud was basically built on an episode of NXT. So despite the potential for the match to be great, the buildup for it hasn't been done for nearly as much time as the other matches.