Roddy too Strong for Eric Young
The opening contest of NXT TakeOver: Chicago saw “The Messiah of the Backbreaker,” Roderick Strong take on the leader of SAnitY, Eric Young. This was a deeply personal match as Strong’s Family was brought into this by Young who learned you don’t mess with a man’s family. The way this match started was clever on Strong’s part as he entered through the crowd to eliminate Killian Dain and Alexander Wolfe. This left it as a one on one to start the match and it was a case of kicks and chops for Young who was being beaten down.
That was until the man from Belfast stirred and hit a huge crossbody which (as JR would say) damn near broke him in half. Young then took control of the bout slowing the pace of the match and towards the end of the match Eric Young went for a Macho Man style elbow drop off the top which lead to a two count. Then Roddy rallied and hit a knee that will be felt by Young this morning that also took out the rest of SAnitY at ringside. We then saw the End of Heartache end the match and give Strong a huge win in Chicago.
The UK Talent Takeover All State Arena
Then we come to what was the match of the night in most people’s opinions as Tyler Bate defended the UK Championship against “Bruiserweight” Pete Dunne in a rematch of the UK Tournament Final from back in January. This was a wrestling purist’s dream as it was a mix of technical & high flying wrestling with a little brawling thrown in for good measure. The match began as you would expect with some nice back and forth mat action which is what you see all the time in the UK. Business picked up fairly rapidly as Dunne X-Plexed Bate onto the apron.
Bate would not let that end his title reign and he fought back. He utilized all his move set with a standing shooting star press and deadlift vertical suplex. Dunne fought back with a huge triangle choke only for the champion to lift his challenger one handed into a powerbomb. Tyler Bate then brought out his Airplane Spin which brought him a near fall. Pete Dunne then survived being spiked on his head, a moonsault on the outside and a corkscrew 450 on the inside. Then the end of this match came when Dunne planted Bate with The Bitter End and Dunne is now the main man in the UK.
413 and Counting
Next up was the woman’s match for the NXT Women’s Championship and in this one, it was truly every woman for themselves and it was hard to keep track of all the action in this one as it was a revolving door of action in the ring. All the woman in this had chances to win with Ruby Riot coming oh so close after a senton of the top-rope only for Asuka to keep her title run alive.
Asuka at one stage had Riot in the Asuka Lock only for Nikki Cross to dive in to continue the match, then came the end as Riot went for another senton she went to cover Cross when she kick out it looked as though she was put in the path of Asuka who hit a vicious knee and pinned both contenders making a statement that NO ONE IS READY FOR ASUKA!
NXT Remains GLORIOUS!
It was now time for TakeOver: Chicago’s NXT Championship match and it was simply GLORIOUS! Hideo Itami looked so focused on capturing the gold then Roode made a typical Roode entrance but once the bell rang it got real serious, real quick. As Booby Roode tried to showboat early he almost got hit with the Go to Sleep.
It was strikes galore for Itami as he tried to end the match quickly and Roode will wear the bruises of this battle for sure. Then came a turning point for Itami as he began to focus on the injured arm of the champion and he kept working the arm throughout the match.
Itami injured his leg when he went for a hesitation dropkick but Roode managed to get out of the way and Hideo hit the steel steps which meant he couldn’t hit the GTS the first time because of the injury. When he eventually did hit the GTS Roode rolled out of the ring and when the challenger got his opponent into the ring but as he went for another GTS hit got hit with the Glorious Impaler DDT twice and that was (As JBL would say) BALL GAME!
So Close Yet So Far for #DIY
Then for the first time ever, the NXT Tag Team Championships were defended in a ladder match as Authors of Pain took on DIY in what can be described as a tough match. DIY started like a house fire and took the fight to the champions. #DIY soon felt the wrath of the Authors of Pain and ladders began to come into play and with both teams giving it their all it looked like this match could go on forever.
However, as this bout neared its conclusion it looked as though DIY had the match in hand only for Paul Ellering to get involved and stop Gargano from claiming the gold. He was then super kicked for getting involved and this enraged AOP so when DIY looked to have the match in hand it leads to the Super Collider and AOP regained their titles.
#DIY are No More
This left DIY in the ring to consider what might have been and it looked like DIY was off into the Sunset… Until Ciampa took Gargano and smashed him into the set in a move which left the NXT Universe stunned. He then put Johnny Wrestling through two tables from the announcer's position and all this has left one question on the minds of the NXT Universe
Why Ciampa Why?