5 Surprising moments from NXT TakeOver Vengeance Day 2021

NXT TakeOver Vengeance Day was an underrated show going into Sunday night. It is pretty logical that having a TakeOver on the evening of Valentine’s Day would always cause this show to fly under the radar. But from the beginning of the show to the very end, it was filled with some truly entertaining and highly technical matches.

We had two exciting Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic finals, a technical masterpiece of a North American Championship, a painfully physical World title match and a shocking heel turn that should change the course of NXT for many months to come. NXT TakeOver shows always seem to find a way to thrive time and time again. NXT TakeOver Vengeance Day will be an early contender for show of the year.

As we try to figure out why Io Shirai feels the need to jump off high things on every TakeOver, we also present the list of the top five most surprising moments of NXT TakeOver Vengeance Day 2021.

#5 Lack of title changes at NXT TakeOver Vengeance Day 2021

Io Shirai is one of the many title holders who had a good night at NXT TakeOver Vengeance Day.

It is surprising to see a major NXT TakeOver without a title changing hands. It is a pretty rare event. But NXT TakeOver Vengeance Day was a show without a major title change. It seems the Black and Gold brand is building up the credibility of its reigning champions.

Johnny Gargano is a three-time NXT North American Champion but he hasn’t been able to successfully defend that title at any NXT TakeOver. He broke that curse at NXT TakeOver Vengeance Day. Meanwhile, Io Shirai has held NXT Women's Championship for an impressive 253 days. That did not change against two competitors on Sunday night. Finn Balor fought through another brutal NXT Championship match against Pete Dunne to continue his 160-day reign.

NXT is trying to establish their major titles after months of moving them around quickly. It will make the title changes all the more meaningful in the future.

#4 Dakota Kai and Raquel Gonzalez win the Dustin Rhodes Tag Team Classic at NXT TakeOver Vengeance Day 2021

Dakota and Raquel win the first ever Dustin Rhodes Women's Tag Team Classic at NXT TakeOver Vengeance Day.

Is anyone booked stronger in NXT than Raquel Gonzalez? At NXT TakeOver Vengeance Day, Gonzalez overcame multiple attempts by Shotzi Blackheart and Ember Moon during the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic final. It looks like Raquel Gonzalez has to be the next challenger for the NXT Women’s Championship. It just makes too much sense to not do so after NXT TakeOver Vengeance Day.

Shotzi Blackheart and Ember Moon controlled the majority of the match at NXT TakeOver Vengeance Day. Blackheart, in particular, did a lot of risky offense like a Suicide Dive on the floor where she came dangerously close to htting the announce table. But it didn’t matter in the end. Despite a variety of false finishes, Raquel Gonzalez kicked out of them all. She followed it up with a one-armed Powerbomb on Blackheart to win the first ever Dusty Cup.

It was certainly surprising to see a heel team win the Dusty Rhodes Classic. They will get a chance against another heel team in Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler for the WWE Women's Tag Team titles in the near future. Here is hoping that Kai and Gonzalez pick up the win. The NXT Women’s roster is stacked and could allow the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship to finally flourish.

#3 Johnny Gargano finally wins a North American Championship match clean at NXT TakeOver Vengeance Day 2021

Kushida working on Gargano's arm during their North American title match at NXT TakeOver Vengeance Day.

Going into NXT TakeOver Vengeance Day, it was already easy to say Johnny Gargano is arguably the greatest NXT Superstar of all time. Despite his huge success at many of his NXT TakeOver appearances, he had one glaring omission on his amazing career that he wanted to change at NXT TakeOver Vengeance Day — he has never successfully defended any NXT title at a TakeOver event.

At NXT TakeOver Vengeance Day, he faced a huge challenge against Kushida. It seemed like it would be difficult for Johnny Gargano to break the curse at NXT TakeOver Vengeance Day. In a surprising moment, he didn’t just retain his title, he won the match cleanly without any help from The Way.

The match was easily the best of Kushida’s NXT career. For 25 amazing minutes, these two talented wrestlers put on a classic match. It wasn’t a series of false finishes to build up the end of match, either. It was simply a wonderful counter-based wrestling encounter. Kushida did a good job of working on Johnny Gargano’s arm. Johnny was able to overcome these challenges and hit his One Final Beat DDT to pick up the clean victory. This match was clearly the highlight of NXT TakeOver Vengeance Day.

Johnny Gargano and The Way will have a lot to brag about on Wednesday night. Or, it will be most of The Way celebrating. Has anyone seen Austin Theory? Dexter Lumis apparently kidnapped him on Sunday. A far creepier challenge seems to await Johnny Gargano in the near future.

#2 Grizzled Young Veterans are runner-ups again in the Dustin Rhodes Tag Team Classic at NXT TakeOver Vengeance Day 2021

Wes Lee is flying again at NXT TakeOver Vengeance Day.

Poor Grizzled Young Veterans. They had reached their second straight finals in the Dustin Rhodes Tag Team Classic just last Wednesday night to fight at NXT TakeOver Vengeance Day. It seemed after all their great work they would be able to break through and get a future NXT Tag Team Championship match by winning the Cup. At NXT TakeOver Vengeance Day, they were facing the new tag team of MSK. What could possibly go wrong?

At NXT TakeOver Vengeance Day, Grizzled Young Veterans and MSK put on an incredibly fast paced final tournament match for over 18 minutes. These two teams put on quite a show of high-flying moves and near pinfalls for the entire match. Wes Lee, in particular, was quite incredible. He pulled off some unbelievable feats of athleticism in the tournament final.

With their great work throughout the Dustin Rhodes Tag Team Classic, it was easy to see why MSK won the match on Sunday night. But to watch Grizzled Young Veterans coming just short yet again was very surprising. One has to wonder where Zack Gibson and James Drake go from here. It will be interesting to see where the talented NXT Tag Team division goes as well.

#1 Adam Cole betrays the Undisputed Era at NXT TakeOver Vengeance Day 2021

Adam Cole shocks the world at the end of NXT TakeOver Vengeance Day.

At the end of a very painful-looking NXT Championship match, Pete Dunne and his friends played sore losers by attacking Finn Balor to end NXT TakeOver Vengeance Day. It was a bit of a surprise to see the Undisputed Era with the save to end NXT TakeOver. But this great show was in for another big surprise before it ended on Sunday night. And it's a moment that should provide NXT with some amazing storylines for the rest of 2021.

Kyle O’Reilly was once again showing some respect for Finn Balor as NXT Takeover Vengeance Day came to an end. Most wrestlers likely would have respect for each other after two brutal NXT Championship matches at NXT Takeover 31 and NXT New Year’s Evil. But these actions seemed to anger Adam Cole. He superkicked Finn Balor and then Kyle O’Reilly. Roderick Strong didn’t know what to do as NXT Takeover Vengeance Day came to a shocking end.

The ending of the show opens up so many storyline possibilities. The Undisputed Era has been together as a team since summer 2017. They have done just about everything they could do on NXT television. This could allow members of the Undisputed Era to feud with each other. It will allow Adam Cole to be a natural heel yet again. And it leads to the obvious question of where Finn Balor fits into all of this as well. It should be a fun storyline to help carry NXT for a majority of this calendar year. NXT fans will be the winners in the end.