With Takeover starting on Friday, April 5 here are my personal “educated” guesses on what the final outcome will be.
Fatal Four Way Match for NXT Women’s Championship
This match between current champion Shayna Baeszler, Io Shirai, Kairi Sane and Bianca Belair should be a barnburner if the last fatal four way to determine Asuka’s successor is any indication.
With a 25 percent chance of winning, Baeszler could theoretically lose her title without actually getting pinned or submitted. Should she lose the belt that way, she has a legitimate reason for a rematch.
The way the former MMA star has been booked has been so strong that it’s the only method of putting the title onto someone else. NXT is a more open platform for past Japanese talent to be booked better but I’m not feeling the sense that Shirai or Sane are getting the win.
Those two seemed destined for tag team success, so I’m guessing Belair will somehow beat either one of them to become NXT Women’s Champion if they don’t plan on having Baeszler retain.
NXT North American Championship
This is a hard pick since Matt Riddle and Velveteen Dream are both pretty hot down in Full Sail right now. If this was Dream facing Gargano or even Ricochet for the title, I would argue that Dream’s time has come.
But as that is not the case, since Dream is going into Takeover against a currently undefeated Riddle who is on a hot streak at this moment. Riddle’s mat game and submission style is a good contrast to Dream, who can be considered a high flyer.
Are they going to risk derailing Riddle’s momentum with risking Dream’s momentum? With the NA title having changed hands so quickly from Gargano to Dream, I’m willing to bet it will be another title change at Takeover with Riddle claiming the North American Championship.
NXT Tag Team Championships
Aleister Black and Ricochet have been surprisingly effective as a tag team, with the unique opportunity to compete not only on NXT, but RAW and Smackdown as well. They’ve also been getting title shots on those other brands in addition to facing the War Raiders at Takeover after winning the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic.
With the way things are going, I think this would be the match that steals the entire show, but my guess is that WWE has bigger plans for Black and Ricochet already after months of competing on the main roster. The War Raiders are the ideal team to carry the NXT Tag Team division for the time being until more teams in the brand can step forward and provide credible challenges.
Hanson and Rowe should retain.
WWE United Kingdom Championship
A rare treat from across the pond: Pete Dunne, into well over 680 days as champion, will be defending against WALTER, one of the most recent signings to NXT UK from Progress Wrestling.
WALTER made his debut on NXT UK Takeover: Blackpool staring down Dunne after his successful title defence against Joe Coffey. Dunne and WALTER have teamed with each other, but everyone knew eventually WALTER was here to challenge for the UK Championship.
Since the UK brand has recently launched, I think it makes more sense that an eventual title change would occur during a Takeover on NXT UK. I’m predicting Dunne should retain.
NXT Championship
Since it’s a two out of three falls match pitting two of the top guys in NXT, it’s hard to pick between Johnny Gargano and Undisputed Era leader Adam Cole; it’s going to be a long match.
Both men have been booked in such a way that putting the NXT championship on either of them would be satisfactory to the fans. Both are former North American champions and Cole had vowed in 2019 UE would be holding all the men’s titles, and Gargano could be in line to become a grand slam champion in NXT.
The one thing I would put against Cole is that he and UE may be due for a call up to WWE post Wrestlemania, so I’m predicting that Gargano will finally become NXT Champion at Takeover: New York.
An average professional doing the 9-5 grind who really loves wrestling across all platforms. Here's hoping wrestlers finally get some basic workers rights in 2021.
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