NXT TakeOver XXV live results: Johnny Gargano vs. Adam Cole
NXT celebrates a milestone tonight as the brand’s 25th TakeOver special takes place at the Webster Bank Arena in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
There will be four title matches on the show. In a rematch from TakeOver: New York, Johnny Gargano defends his NXT Championship against Adam Cole. Gargano won the vacant NXT title in a two-out-of-three falls match in New York. Cole won the first fall and has been saying that he should be champion.
The NXT Women’s Championship will be on the line as Shayna Baszler defends against Io Shirai. With Baszler having the help of Marina Shafir and Jessamyn Duke and Kairi Sane having been called up to the main roster, Candice LeRae has said she’ll have Shirai’s back tonight.
New NXT Tag Team Champions will be crowned when Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish, The Street Profits, Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch, and Wesley Blake & Steve Cutler face off in a ladder match. The titles were vacated by The Viking Raiders when they were called up to Raw in the Superstar Shake-up.
Plus, Velveteen Dream defends the NXT North American Championship against the returning Tyler Breeze and Matt Riddle takes on Roderick Strong.
Tonight’s pre-show will begin at 6:30 p.m. Eastern time, with the main card starting at 7 p.m. Eastern.
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Let’s see if I remember how to do this!
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Matt Riddle submitted Roderick Strong
Riddle won with “Bro Derek”, which is a Cradle Tombstone after dropping multiple elbows to the face of Strong. A really good match to kick the show off and the crowd got into it as we got closer to the finish.
Riddle started the match by kicking his flip-flops at Strong and then did three rolling Gut Wrench Suplexes to Roderick. Outside the ring Riddle used a stair-assisted forearm smash, but eventually Strong dropped his foe with a back breaker on the ring apron, which IS the hardest part of the ring. Strong got the first near-fall of the match with a uranage into a back breaker. Riddle continually tried to counter with roll-ups and attempts at the Bromission, but Strong would cut him off.
Riddle came back with a series of kicks and the Broton (running senton). Strong ducked a Penalty Kick, Riddle ducked an Elbow and hit a Go To Sleep and a German Suplex for a 2 count. Strong used a top rope superplex. Both reversed and ducked strikes and attempted strikes from each other. Strong set Riddle up against the ropes and did a series of running elbow strikes where he bounced off the opposing ropes. Riddle with a V-Trigger, a Powerbomb and The Final Flash, but Strong kicked out. Strong got his knees up on a Swanton, hit a Gut Check and slapped on The Strong Hold, but Riddle got out. Riddle got on the Bromission, but couldn’t keep it on due to his back.
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Shawn Michaels and Road Dogg were shown at ringside.
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The Street Profits defeated Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly, Steve Cutler & Wesley Blake and Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch in a Ladder Match to win the vacant NXT Tag Team Title
The Street Profts won their first titles in their first TakeOver in their first Ladder Match. The finish saw Fish, O’Reilly, Lorcan and Burch squaring off on top of the ladder, until they got pushed over by the Forgotten Sons. Cutler and Blake got thisclose to the belts before Dawkins speared Cutler under the ladder. Ford lept onto the ladder, knocked Blake off and took the belts. Fans hated The Forgotten Sons and really hated any time they came close to winning.
This match was the Kyle O’Reilly Must Die show as poor Kyle took one nasty bump or errant shot after another.
I know this will surprise you, but this was a wild 8-way free-for-all from the word go. Fish & O’Reilly did their best early to keep all the other teams out of the ring, but that didn’t work since Blake did a Suicide Dive essentially into the ladder that they were carrying. Dawkins hit a nice dive off the ring post onto the other 6 on the outside. Blake shoved over the ladder, which caused Fish & O’Reilly to fall off awkwardly and O’Reilly especially landed back-first on the side of the ladder. Cutler and Blake had the ladder on their heads and were ramming it into people until Lorcan and Burch gave them simultaneous German Suplexes, which caused them to throw their ladder, which almost dismembered O’Reilly. That guy should just roll under the ring at this point.
Undisputed Era used a double team Codebreaker/German Suplex to Ford, who crashed back-first on the ladder. Somewhere along here O’Reilly again accidentally smashed off the ladder. If that wasn’t enough for the poor guy, he tried to hold off Blake so Fish could climb, but Blake lifted him up and power bombed him into the ladder and Fish fell off onto him. O’Reilly tried to get some working revenge by using a kneebar to Cutler through the ladder, but Blake stomped on him. Cutler got the Doomsday Uppercut from Lorcan and Burch right before Blake got the Doomsday Blockbuster from the Street Profits.
Suddenly O’Reilly was in the ring all alone and realized there was a third Forgotten Son who hadn’t killed him yet. Jaxson Ryker took care of that by charging the ring, heaving O’Reilly into a ladder and then single-handedly laying out the other 6 men. Oney Lorcan took a back body drop onto another ladder. The fans chanted “We forgot you”, which was a nice touch.
Since Ryker moved at the speed of frozen molasses, the other six suddenly came alive and got their revenge on Ryker for the sins of Blake & Cutler. Ryker took a ladder shot to the face. Thankfully for him he got his hands up. Ryker wouldn’t stay down, so Montez Ford did a tope and landed 2 feet in front of Ryker, but his leg touched just enough. Lorcan then hit his own tope, which hit squarely. Lorcan and Burch gave Dawkins & Ford a Ladder Sandwich and then heaved it at Cutler and Blake.
The Street Profits celebrated in the crowd, who were thrilled with them winning.
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Velveteen Dream defeated Tyler Breeze to retain the North American Title
Dream retained with a Dream Valley Driver and Purple Rainmaker. The finish saw Dream try to use the title, but Breeze got it from him, which the referee snatched away, which distracted Breeze, leading to the finish. This was not the Breeze of 2014 and 2015, but was so much better than the Breeze of 2017-now. The fans were more into Dream, but did do the dueling chants of “Velveteen/Breeze Is Gorgeous”.
Charly on the pre-show and Mauro before the match called this a Dream Match. As someone who watched the entire Tyler Breeze NXT Era and reviewed around 400 episodes, I can confirm that that is a bit of a stretch.
Dream’s gold pants were a bit too loose and he spent the match having to pull them up. Breeze used a Rolling Half Crab, which Mauro used to shoutout Lance Storm. There were some rough spots as Dream bumped off a punch that missed by 5 feet, but they quickly regrouped. Outside the ring Dream nailed a Superkick, which teased a countout. Dream slammed him face first on the table and then did the most heinous thing you’ve ever seen. The ultimate heel moment. Dream took Breeze’s cell phone and the title belt and took a selfie of him and a fallen Breeze. Tyler nailed a Super Model Kick, but when they rolled in he got hit with a Dream Valley Driver for a near fall. Dream rolled through a flying crossbody for another 2. They reversed and side stepped each other’s moves until Tyler got a 2 off a Super Model Kick.
Dream reversed an Unprettier attempt into a DreamDT. Dream went to the corner for a Purple Rainmaker, but Breeze first grabbed his ankle to stop it and then crotched the champ when he did get to the top rope. They did a series of Tombstone Reversals and Dream went up top for Something, but Breeze threw a dropkick to stop him before Dream ever dove. They quickly moved on and Mauro was able to quickly make it sound like part of the match. Breeze hit another Super Model Kick and an Unprettier, which everyone bought as the finish, but Dream kicked out. Out of nowhere Breeze hit the Beauty Shot, but Dream quickly rolled outside the ring.
After the match Dream and Breeze made up and took a selfie together.
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A video package for Damian Priest aired.
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I apologize for any problems with the live updates. Please keep checking back and if suddenly blocks of text are missing, please tweet me @TheReallyRealAW so I can fix it.
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Shayna Baszler submitted Io Shirai to retain the NXT Women’s Title
Baszler won by tap out to guarantee Day 217 as NXT Women’s Champion
Shayna showed complete disrespect early, by not even bothering to go for full force strikes when she had the opportunity. That ended when Io, obviously, did not have a problem striking Shayna. Shayna did stomp down on Io’s elbow, which once upon a time was an injury angle on Dakota Kai and is now just a spot to get the heat. Baszler worked on the elbow of Shirai, which at least makes sense since Shirai now has difficulty using her throws, but doesn’t do a whole lot to set up the Kirifuda Clutch.
Shirai used a 619 and a Missile Dropkick for a near fall. Shirai locked on a Crossface, which never fails to be awkward to watch in a match, and Baszler got out of it and hit a back suplex. Baszler stood on the middle rope and did a hanging wristlock, which looked nasty. Shirai hit a picture perfect moonsault from the post to the floor, which got the crowd into it. Shirai hit the Running Double Knees in the corner and was about to go back up top when Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir stormed to ringside. Unfortunately for them, Candace LeRae followed with a kendo stick and laid them both out.
Shirai got out of an attempted Kirifuda Clutch and hit a Palm Strike, Baszler almost got it on a second time and Shirai got out, but got locked on on the third attempt and that was too much for Shirai, as she had to tap out.
After the match Shirai laid Baszler out with Kendo Stick shots, a normal Moonsault and a chair-assisted Moonsault. The fans chanted “You deserve it” at Shayna when they showed the welts on her back.
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Hey, isn’t there a big wrestling show on August 31? That’s right. NXT UK TakeOver: Cardiff, which will air at 3:00pm EST live on the WWE Network that day. It surely will end before any other live wrestling pay per view happening that day. I’m sure WALTER, Pete Dunne and the rest of the NXT UK crew will go All Out.
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Stephanie McMahon was shown at ringside.
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Adam Cole pinned Johnny Gargano to win the NXT Championship
Josiah Williams rapped Adam Cole to the ring. I thought it might be to discourage fans from screaming “ADAM COLE BABY”, but seconds later Cole led the crowd in that chant.
Another instant classic. I think the New York match was better (bias since I was there), but if you thought this was better, I won’t fight you.
While Gargano has his supporters, the majority of the crowd was behind Cole, with Gargano actually getting boos. Cole was going for big moves early, which Gargano kept just getting out of the way of. After that it slowed down a bit. They fought outside where each missed just about everything they tried until Gargano finally used a rolling senton off the apron. Minutes later Gargano used a double foot stomp to the arm of Cole, which was draped on the apron. Cole finally got the heat with a superkick to the knee, which caused Gargano to fall off the middle rope, which he had ascended to. Cole actually followed that up with a Missile Dropkick to the knee, which is different.
Gargano used a Tornado Twisting STO, but couldn’t get the full impact of it with his knee being the way it is. Cole kicked out of a Slingshot Spear. Not sure what on Earth he was going for, but Gargano leaped backwards off the middle rope and got caught with a Back Stabber. Cole used a Burning Hammer across his knee for a close near fall.
They went Superkick-for-Superkick, with Gargano hitting one when Cole came off the middle rope for the “win” in that spot. Or maybe not. Seconds later the two men, now outside the squared circle, hit simultaneous Superkicks. Gargano used a Slingshot DDT into the ring. Cole tried to kick Gargano’s leg outta his…leg, but Johnny moved. Seconds later Cole hit the ushigoroshi outside the ring and one inside the ring, which Gargano kicked out of.
Cole somehow turned a Gargano Escape into a Figure Four. It tortured Gargano’s already injured knee, but the champ was able to roll over and reverse the pressure for a few seconds until Cole ended up in the ropes. Cole pulled down Gargano’s knee pad to kick at it some more. Gargano came back and went for a Suicide Dive, but Gargano seemed to trip up on the ropes, plus Cole took his head off with a superkick.
Thankfully Gargano appears to be okay and Cole did a jumping Panama Sunrise (Canadian Destroyer) on the floor, which Gargano eventually kicked out of when they made it back in the ring. Gargano went for the Gargano Escape, but Cole reversed it into his own Gargano Escape. Gargano didn’t tap out and instead was able to hit Cole’s Last Shot, which Cole kicked out of. Gargano with a Reverse Rana. They threw a number of superkicks that the Young Bucks would be envious of and Cole took Gargano’s head off with a Last Shot. Thankfully for Johnny Wrestling he found his head, screwed it back on and kicked out just in the nick of time.
Cole got frustrated, so he went for a chair. Referee Drake Wuertz followed him outside and told him no go on the chair. Gargano went for a Suicide Dive, but Cole pulled Drake in front of Gargano. A quick exchange saw Gargano hit a Superkick into the chair into Cole’s face, but there was no referee. Cole seemed to signal for Undisputed Era, which may have just been to throw Gargano off, since no one arrived and Cole hit a piledriver for a 2 count. Cole went for the Last Shot again, but Gargano collapsed. Not ducked out of the way, but collapsed…but shades of Diesel vs Bret Hart, Gargano was playing possum and locked on the Gargano Escape! Cole got out of it by elbowing Gargano in the knee.
Cole then hit a Panama Sunrise and a Last Shot to cleanly pin Johnny Gargano and become the 16th NXT Champion. Seth Rollins, Big E, Bo Dallas, Adrian Neville, Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens, Finn Balor, Samoa Joe, Shinsuke Nakamura, Bobby Roode, Drew McIntyre, Andrade Cien Almas, Aleister Black, Tommaso Ciampa, Johnny Gargano and now, joining that illustrious list, is the only 3-time ROH World Champion, Adam Cole!
The King is dead, long live the new King!