BROOKLYN, N.Y — It’s truly incredible the amount of times we can be presented with an NXT TakeOver card and end up coming away more blown away than the last time we watched. Yet Friday night in Brooklyn, NXT TakeOver: New York simply wowed once again with the action-packed card we expected it to be coming in, and you couldn’t have asked for a better ending to one of the biggest cards of the year as WrestleMania 35 weekend gets into full swing.
The main event, which turned out to be an absolute classic, brought us one of the more memorable endings that we’ll ever see on the developmental brand as the long, emotional journey toward the top title in NXT finally came to its rightful conclusion for Johnny Gargano. “Johnny Wrestling,” overcoming all the odds, finally reached the mountaintop — and there was even a wonderful surprise thrown in at the end. But make no mistake about it, it wasn’t just the main event that delivered the goods. The matches beforehand brought enough heat to have this perched up there with some of the best NXT TakeOver events that we’ve seen.
Let’s now have a look at everything that went down on Friday at NXT TakeOver: New York as CBS Sports was with you the entire way, updating this story live with results, analysis, grades and highlights from the big show.
Keep on scrolling to see the full slate of matches along with the results and highlights from the event.
NXT TakeOver: New York recap, grades
NXT Tag Team Championship — War Raiders (c) def Ricochet & Aleister Black via pinfall to retain the titles: Talk about a fun way to kick off a TakeOver card. Both teams not only dialed up the expected amount of risk-taking athleticism and stiff striking, their collective comedic timing was also on point. Black and Ricochet teased multiple near falls until the champions were able to defend their crown when Hanson and Rowe hit Ricochet with a tandem leg drop off the top rope. Ricochet stayed down for a lengthy time after the match before all four hugged in what’s likely an NXT sendoff for Black and Ricochet before Sunday’s SmackDown title match at WrestleMania. Grade: B+
NXT North American Championship — Velveteen Dream (c) def. Matt Riddle via pinfall to retain the title: It took longer than expected for this one to heat up and the physical chemistry between them to begin to manifest. When it did, the final third of the match was hot fire. Dream creatively mixed in a number of well-known finishing move attempts from the Codebreaker to the Fameasser. He also Hulked up to pop the crowd in an extended sequence in which he mimicked Hulk Hogan. Riddle, meanwhile, in his biggest NXT match to date, lived up to the moment despite his first WWE defeat. Dramatic reversals became the norm down the stretch until Dream reversed a Bromission attempt to roll up Riddle for the 1-2-3. Both wrestlers, who will likely meet again for years to come on the main roster, embraced each other in a show of respect after the match. Grade: B+
WWE UK Championship — WALTER def. Pete Duke (c) via pinfsll to win the title: Dunne, who entered as the longest reigning champion of any kind currently in WWE, saw his brilliant run as U.K. champ come to an end in what can best be described as a war of attrition. The physical match was also a strong introduction to casual American fans as to just how unique the Austrian big man Walter truly is as a stiff striker and sneaky athlete, which meshed well at times opposite Dunne’s intensity and joint-manipulating style. The problem was the match was far too long and littered with a gratuitous amount of false finishes. While the big spots were well done, they failed to connect with the more mundane moments. Grade: C+
NXT Women’s Championship — Shayna Baszler (c) def. Bianca Belair (via submission), Kairi Sane and Io Shirai to retain the title: Fun spotfest here as all four competitors kept the pace moving and took turns dishing out memorable (and high-risk) moves. The athleticism of Shirai and Sane, who teamed up for the first half of the match before turning on each other, offset the power of Baszler and Belair perfectly. Belair turned in one of the best spots when she picked both Shirai and Belair onto her shoulders in a double fireman’s carry before slamming them. The finish came when Baszler snuck up from behind Belair to apply her kirifuda choke that slowly forced the tap. Baszler celebrated on the stage after the match with Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir by her side. Grade: B
NXT Championship — Johnny Gargano def. Adam Cole 2-1 to win the title (2-out-of-3 falls): Come hell, high-water or outside interference, Gargano’s storybook ending of finally climbing the NXT mountain was worth the wait, even if it happened without an injured Tomasso Ciampa on the business end. Cole, a late replacement after neck surgery forced Ciampa to vacate the title, provided the perfect dance partner for “Johnny TakeOver” to author yet another instant classic. From the insanely hard bumps that Gargano continually accrued to a trio of late near falls so dramatic — one more absurdly dramatic than the other — this match had it all.
The two opened with chain wrestling and evolved during the final fall to one wild sequence after another as Gargano refused to quit in kicking out of repeated finishing attempts and improbably fought off inference from Cole’s three Undisputed Era stablemates. The match also had a surprise happy ending as Ciampa snuck up on Gargano from behind on the stage and, donning a neck brace, hugged his former #DIY teammate and Gargano’s wife, fellow NXT superstar Candice LeRae. Ciampa even pump-faked an attack on Gargano after the broadcast went off the air. Cole scored an early first fall on a running knee to the back of the head to produce a pin. Gargano evened the bout shortly after by forcing a tap out via his Gargano Escape submission hold. The third fall saw Gargano produce yet another tap out via submission as the Barclays Center crowd exploded in celebration. Grade: A+
NXT TakeOver: New York highlights
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