5 Surprising Moments from NXT Takeover: Phoenix

Ricochet isn’t human.

Ricochet and Johnny Gargano naturally put on a wrestling classic. But this is NXT Takeover and the card was solid throughout the entire night.

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We had another great tag team opener, the arrival of Bianca Belair as a future star and a reuniting of longtime rivals.

Are we really surprised when NXT gives us another fun night of pro wrestling? The bigger shock would be if an NXT wasn’t good. I hope I don’t live to see that really sad day.

With all of this in mind after another fun and a thrilling NXT night, I present my list of the top five most surprising moments of WWE Takeover: Phoenix.

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#5 War Raiders Win the NXT Tag Team Championship

Hanson shouldn't be able to do things like this.

I should have known the War Raiders were going to win the Championship. I mean how often do you get the cool entrance and lose? It just makes a lot of sense in hindsight.

As usual, the tag team match opened the show and Undisputed Era was once again in the wonderful opening match.

These four worked perfectly together as would be expected. It started really fast. The War Raiders are really good at double team moves.

The pace slowed down a bit with Undisputed Era cutting off the ring and keeping Rowe away from Hanson. This naturally didn’t last too long.

Hanson has unnatural agility for a man his size. I mean how can he do those hand springs? It just doesn’t make logical sense that he should be able to do that.

The biggest shock to me was seeing the War Raiders win the titles. I expected to see a longer chase before the War Raiders won the tag titles.

I was assuming that War Raiders would get the title at WrestleMania weekend. It will be interesting to see where the Undisputed Era goes from here. I love their work in NXT and hope it isn’t ending anytime soon.

#4 Bianca Belair Impresses In Defeat

It is history making: a female ref bump

Bianca Belair is a rarity in NXT today. In a roster full of veterans with so much experience, it seems that wrestlers that are developed by the Performance Center itself are often overshadowed on the Yellow brand.

Belair had no pro wrestling experience when she joined NXT in 2016. So a lot of wrestling fans were shocked when Belair got an NXT Women’s Championship match at NXT: Phoenix.

Was it too soon for the most inexperienced Superstar on the show? Much to my pleasant surprise, Belair proved she belongs on the big Takeover stage.

In a fun fifteen minute match, Belair showed her physical strength and athletic ability against the more experienced Shayna Baszler.

It took the first ever female ref bump, multiple cheating attempts from both of Shayna’s MMA buddies and a long period in a submission hold before Belair passed out.

Bianca might have lost her undefeated streak but she still looks strong going forward. It doesn’t look like a one-hit wonder for Belair. We will see more the “EST” in the future on the Takeover stage.

#3 Johnny Gargano Wins the North American Championship

I assume Richochet doesn't like to be on the ground.

I think the scary thing is we really haven’t seen the full arsenal of Ricochet’s offence just yet.

On Saturday night in Phoenix, Ricochet and Johnny Gargano stole the show. They had immense hype to live up to in their classic NXT North American Championship encounter.

Johnny has been putting on absolute wrestling clinics over the course of 2018. Ricochet does things that no human should be able to do. That mixture worked perfectly at Takeover.

The match has too many classic moments to count. Ricochet constantly landing on his feet, Ricochet’s leap over the top rope and Johnny Gargano’s move onto the cement.

It sold the story well. Johnny Wrestling was willing to go to the “dark side” to get the singles title he coveted. So it leads to the obvious question: when do we get a rematch with Gargano-Richochet?

#2 Tommaso Ciampa retains clean

Black was still unable to hit the move when he needed it most. Ciampa made sure he cheated as well.

The NXT Championship match was quite an interesting chance of pace. After the fast-paced matches of earlier in the show, it was interesting to see Ciampa spend a majority of the match working on Black’s leg.

It was an interesting choice for the NXT Championship match and lead to it taking a while for the crowd to get involved in the match. It was a long match with a slow start.

It set up the finish nicely where Black hit his finisher but he couldn’t get the win. When he tried it again he failed.

This allowed Ciampa to win the match and retain. It seems like we might be getting near the end of Aleister Black’s run in NXT. I mean what else does he need to do or prove in NXT?

#1 DIY Reunites

You should never say never in NXT. Are we happy to see these two together again?

Ciampa and Gargano created the single best feud of 2018. They had three amazing Takeover matches just in the last year.

Besides their immense wrestling skill, the reason the feud worked so well was the personal nature of their matches. It was two close friends whose friendship was destroyed by Ciampa’s betrayal.

After the horrible things they did to each other in 2018, we clearly couldn’t bring DIY together again right?

As the show was coming to an end, Johnny Gargano walked out to celebrate with Ciampa. Two former friends holding up their titles and celebrating the moment.

Putting them back together in 2019 would lead to a lot of amazing storyline possibilities. NXT is in great shape for 2019 and these two will play a big factor in whatever those plans are.