NXT TakeOver Toronto live results: Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Samoa Joe

Welcome to our live coverage of NXT TakeOver: Toronto! Tonight, for the first time ever, NXT invades Canada as Survivor Series weekend begins with a TakeOver special.

All three championships are on the line, with Samoa Joe challenging Shinsuke Nakamura for the NXT Championship in the main event. They first squared off at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn II, with Nakamura ending Joe’s four-month title reign. Joe laid out Nakamura in September and Nakamura is back not just to defend his championship, but to also look for revenge.

The returning Mickie James has a shot against the undefeated, undisputed, reigning, defending NXT Women’s Champion, Asuka. Can James do what no other woman on the NXT roster has been able to do and end the winning streak and title reign of The Empress of Tomorrow?

The show will also feature two big tag team matches, with The Revival defending against Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa in a two-out-of-three falls match and the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic concluding with TM-61 facing The Authors of Pain with Paul Ellering suspended above the ring in a shark cage.

Also on the card, Tye Dillinger goes for revenge against Bobby Roode after Roode abandoned him in their Dusty Classic match against SAnitY.

Our live coverage kicks off at 8 p.m. ET.

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12,649 is the announced attendance.

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Bobby Roode defeated Tye Dillinger

Roode won with the Implant DDT after running Dillinger shoulder-first into the ring post in what was a really good opener.

Roode has a choir singing his theme. Hot crowd from the bell, chanting “This is awesome” before they even locked up. The match started with Dillinger destroying Roode on the arena floor for three minutes, but Roode took over back in the ring by back dropping Dillinger over the top rope.

Roode’s major league presence made this match even better, even when it got slow at times. Roode used a schoolboy with his feet on the ropes for a near fall and Dillinger used a Sharpshooter near the end. Dillinger got a standing ovation after the match.

Jim Ross was seen at ringside.

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The Authors of Pain defeated TM61 to win the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic

Authors of Pain won the second annual tournament with The Last Chapter in a match that was better than expected, but still not very good.

Paul Ellering was being held up in the air by a giant contraption that looked like the TNA Ultimate X structure. The match started with a four way brawl outside the ring, highlighted by Rezer carrying Nick Miller up the structure, but then Miller got loose and did a dive off of it, onto the AOP.

The crowd was in and out of this match, making noise for big moves, but sitting quietly the rest of the time. TM61 did Thunder Valley near the finish. Paul Ellering dropped a chain into the ring at the end, but it ended up in the third row by accident. One of the AOP tried to hit Nick Miller, but Miller blocked it and the chain flew.

Triple H, William Regal and Dustin Rhodes congratulated the winners and presented them with the trophy.

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DIY defeated NXT Tag Team Champions The Revival in a 2/3 falls match to win the titles

DIY won the tag team titles 2 falls to 1, with the final fall happening with a double submission where Gargano used a version of the crossface, while Ciampa used the armbreaker. DIY becomes the 11th NXT Tag Team Champions.

First Fall: A quick first fall. Both teams looked good. Dash was moving well coming off his knee injury. Ciampa got cut off, made the big tag to Gargano. Gargano ran wild until being blocked when going for the Slingshot Spear and it was turned into the Shatter Machine, giving Revival the first fall.

Second Fall: DIY won with the superkick/knee strike combo to Dawson. The champs spent the entire fall working over Gargano. They went for another Shatter Machine, but Gargano turned it into a Tornado DDT on Dawson where he kicked Dash on the way over. The fans exploded for Ciampa’s eventual hot tag.

A lot of hot near falls, including Gargano kicking out of a Hart Attack. Ciampa used a Rough Ryder to the back of Dawson and hit a high crossbody when Dawson went for a piledriver on Gargano.

Third Fall: DIY hit one hot move after another to start, with Revival doing everything possible to hold them off. They cut off Gargano yet again, this time with a European Uppercut/German suplex.

Behind the referee’s back, Dash threw Dawson a title belt and Dawson smashed Gargano’s knee with it when Gargano went for a superkick. Dawson put on the Inverted Figure Four that won them the match in Brooklyn, but Gargano barely made the ropes.

Dawson accidentally superkicked Dash before the finish when they tried to use DIY’s finish and DIY got a near fall with a Shatter Machine on Dawson. Dawson then used a schoolboy and got a handful of tights, but he wasn’t the legal man, so the ref didn’t count.

This was an excellent tag team match, just as good as their bout in Brooklyn, in my opinion.

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NXT Women’s Champion Asuka defeated Mickie James to retain

Asuka retained with the Asuka Lock. The finish saw Asuka fight for it and fight for it and Mickie tried to get out of it, but she got caught. This was an excellent match as well.

Every fan in the first row, all the way up the aisle, was wearing an Asuka mask. Do you believe in coincidences? A different type of Asuka match, as Mickie had such an advantage that Asuka had to roll to the outside. Mickie held the ropes open for Asuka, which led to the fans chanting “Asuka’s gonna kill you” before Asuka got back in under the bottom rope. Later Asuka knocked Mickie to the floor and held the ropes open for her, but when Mickie tried to get back in Asuka gave her a hip attack to the face.

Outside the ring, Mickie went for a Mick Kick, but Asuka caught it and dropped Mickie with a German suplex on the floor, which was sold big. Mickie kept making comebacks, which would constantly make Asuka angrier. All of Asuka’s offense kept getting reversed before the finish.

After the match, Mickie reached out for a handshake, but Asuka just raised the title belt over her head and walked off.

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Samoa Joe defeated NXT Champion Shinsuke Nakamura to win the title

Joe regained the title with a Muscle Buster after a low kick and a uranage on the steps outside the ring. Joe becomes the first ever 2-time NXT Champion and the 10th champion, following Seth Rollins, Big E, Bo Dallas, Neville, Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens, Finn Balor, Joe and Nakamura.

Once again, they used live violinists to play Nakamura’s theme. It’s weird because they’re playing the violin, but Nakamura’s theme was playing so loud over the house mic you couldn’t hear them anyway. The match started with a series of leg kicks by both men, which culminated in a hard inner thigh kick by Joe. Joe worked on the knee the bulk of the match, with Nakamura trying to fend the challenger off with his other foot, including up-kicks to Joe’s face.

Nakamura seemed to forget that his knee hurt while on offense as he used hard knees to Joe’s ribs and face. Nakamura used a Kinshasa from the middle rope, but sold that he landed hard on his head and couldn’t make a cover. Nakamura knee’d the turnbuckle when Joe moved and Joe rolled into Nakamura’s knee to further injure it. Joe kicked out of a Kinshasa and got in the Coquina Clutch when Nakamura went for a second one.

Nakamura hit a second Kinshasa to the back of Joe’s head, which sent Joe outside the ring, which led to the finish. The fans were in shock and after the match, production accidentally played Joe’s first NXT theme before correcting their mistake.

Another excellent Takeover event, making it three great shows and one very good show this year. Thank you for reading!