Ranking every NXT Takeover: Brooklyn event from worst to best
NXT started off as a reality show third brand replacement for the defunct ECW, and nobody would have even thought how far it would come since 2010. NXT is now a staple in the WWE and it is impossible to imagine a scenario where NXT is not as big as it has become. It has changed the WWE system in an extremely positive way and has given us most of the entire current roster of prominent wrestlers. All it needed was a vision and a platform. It got both.
When Triple H took over NXT in 2012, he completely revamped the entire structure of the show and made it the developmental brand of the WWE. Since then, it has grown immensely as we saw the WWE Performance Center get built in Orlando. The future has been shaping up perfectly for the company. One of the biggest steps taken was the introduction of semi-regular WWE Network special events. They later became branded as Takeovers. These shows would be held at the home of NXT, Full Sail University, every once in three months or so.
But it kept on growing and growing that WWE decided to book a Takeover on the night before SummerSlam in 2015, at the Barclay's Center in Brooklyn. This was monumental as it would be the first-ever NXT Takeover event in an arena. The first edition was a resounding success, as have the following Brooklyn Takeovers. New York City is WWE's home, and the Barclay's Center has become the venue for NXT's very own WrestleMania. They have stolen SummerSlam weekend for three years in a row, along with other big four pay-per-view weekends.
As NXT are preparing for their fourth summer in Brooklyn (and the fifth one before WrestleMania 35) here are all three NXT Takeovers from the Big Apple, ranked from worst to best.
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#3 Takeover: Brooklyn 2016
In all honesty, being last on this list does not mean that the show is bad by any means. Every single one of these shows was excellent in many ways, but there are some small separations between the high quality of each of these three shows. In this case, the second time NXT took over New York falls in this unfortunate position. While we saw some incredible things on this show, there is a considerable difference between the first three matches and the last three matches of this show.
The first half of NXT Takeover: Back 2 Brooklyn focused on enhancing some of the talent that needed to get over. The likes of freshly turned heel Austin Aries, recent signing Bobby Roode, and debutante Ember Moon earned straightforward victories in some decent if unspectacular wrestling matches. We did get to see the return of Hideo Itami, after more than a year out, and his creation, the Go 2 Sleep.
However, the fun picked up immensely as we rolled onto an NXT Tag Team Championship match between The Revival and DIY. Johnny Gargano and Tomasso Ciampa fought the good fight, and some more, but they just could not topple the old-school tag team greatness of Dash Wilder and Scott Dawson.
The last two matches saw the torch of the NXT Women's Division being passed from Bayley to Asuka, in the former's NXT swansong. Bayley had a history with Brooklyn, as we will see, and this match was the perfect farewell for the Hugger as she made her way to the main roster of WWE.
The main event saw Shinsuke Nakamura, who made his grand entrance to the sweet violinistic stylings of Lee England Jr, dethroning Samoa Joe to become the NXT Champion in a great match. It came after a long and exhausting night of action, but the crowd in Brooklyn came unglued as their favorite Japanese hero reached the top of the NXT mountain.
However, the show was completely stolen by the exhilarating tag team title match. The 2016 edition of NXT's WrestleMania could not match its predecessor in any way, but still held it's own as a fabulous wrestling show.