WWE NXT TakeOver: Chicago 2017 Review

WWE NXT TakeOver: Chicago 2017
May 20, 2017
Rosemont, Illinois

Hideo Itami gets the biggest match of his career when he challenges Bobby Roode for the NXT Championship. In the main event, The Authors of Pain defend their NXT Tag Team Championship against #DIY in a Ladder Match!

Match 1: Eric Young vs. Roderick Strong
Before the match, Roderick Strong takes out both Killian Dain and Alexander Wolfe from behind to try to and limit them as distractions. At this point, Strong is still on the rise to being one of the brand's top babyfaces while Eric Young was being booked as one of the stronger heels on the show. Solid and very physical match here, Young works really well as a heel with his slower and more methodical approach in the ring. This made it so whenever Strong was about to get the upper hand on things, you were almost anticipating a change of power happening. However, the help from both Dain and Wolfe at ringside overshadowed much of the action in the ring. Why didn't the referee kick them out for all the distractions they were creating? It almost became more of an annoyance to watch above anything. Strong was able to seal the win with his awesome suplex into a backbreaker finisher. Good match, just wish they didn't test our intelligence with the stupid interfering in front of the referee.
Winner: Roderick Strong
Rating: ***

Match 2: NXT United Kingdom Championship - Tyler Bate (c) vs. Pete Dunne
Cool to see them put on a match for the NXT UK brand here along with having Jim Ross on commentary for this one. Both Tyler Bate and Pete Dunne are the young stars of the brand and this is a great way for the two to get a rub. Crowd was seriously hot for this one here and they got even rowdier when the match progressed. Loved how they structured this match, slow and methodical in the beginning before ramping things up and hitting us with some spectacular spots and believable nearfalls spread out the match. One of the sweetest spots I've seen in a long time had Bate nail a corkscrew 450 splash off the top rope like it was nothing which led to a nearfall. Eventually, Dunne would nail his Bitter End finisher to score the win. Great match, loved how it didn't go over 30 minutes and hit us with an excessive amount of nearfalls to the point where it exhausted us. Would it benefit from a few more minutes? Sure, but there is a huge card still left to go and you don't wanna break out all the stops in the second match of the night. Either way, great way to put the spotlight on these guys and their brand.
Winner: Pete Dunne
Rating: ****1/4

Match 3: NXT Women's Championship - Asuka (c) vs. Ruby Riot vs. Nikki Cross
With Ember Moon being out of action, Asuka still has a tall task ahead of her in defending her gold and undefeated streak against both Ruby Riot and Nikki Cross. Match was very reminiscent of the match at TakeOver: San Antonio but almost at a lesser scale. You get your cool spots in the beginning of the match and the ladies in the ring were great in keeping the action flow throughout the entire thing. But despite that, this match just didn't seem to click like most of Asuka's great matches. Crowd wasn't so into the match and likely because the last match pooped them out a bit or possibly because they all just knew that Asuka wasn't going to be dropping that belt. They didn't help matters when the finish just saw Asuka hit a quick knee strike on Riot before pinning both opponents to score the win. A definitely underwhelming finish to a rather underwhelming match. But still a good match nonetheless, you're not always getting nor do you always need a ***** performance.
Winner: Asuka
Rating: ***1/4

Match 4: NXT Championship - Bobby Roode (c) vs. Hideo Itami
First off, how cool is it to see Hideo Itami get a chance at some NXT gold? Loved following him back in the day and to see him get a spot here is pretty darn cool. As usual with most Bobby Roode matches, a slower pace to start things off which is a nice change of scenery when it comes to NXT. His style allows to build for stronger and more dramatic finishing sequences. As expected, very physical action between the two here and while it was pretty evident that Itami wasn't going to be dethroning Roode, they did a great job of building some intense drama as the match progressed. Itami was able to hit a GTS but with Roode quickly rolling out of the ring soon after, he wasn't able to get the victory. Slick way to protect the GTS there. Roode was able to hit two Glorious DDTs in a row to score the big win. Again, nobody really expected Itami to win the match here but they did a great job of keeping the drama alive before delivering us a fantastic finish. Good match heading into the main event.
Winner: Bobby Roode
Rating: ***1/2

Match 5: NXT Tag Team Championship - Ladder Match - The Authors of Pain (c) vs. #DIY
Both Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano score another crack at the tag team gold against The Authors of Pain here in the main event of tonight's TakeOver. With these guys going on last, you just get the feeling that something's gotta give. At this point, I've seen way too many Ladder Matches to the point where I'm almost become tired of seeing them so coming into this, I was interested to see what unique things they were going to bring to the table. While the match had its slow points, there was certainly no shortage of drama here and like the last match, they did a great job of building towards an awesome finish. That build saw some nasty spots like Rezar being driven through a ladder set in the corner by Ciampa and a spot that saw both Ciampa and Gargano dive off ladders through both members of The Authors of Pain. However, a final blow with the Super Collider allowed AOP to gain an opening to win the match. Afterwards, Ciampa shockingly turned on Gargano by driving him off the stage. Good match and a solid way to end the show. You can never go wrong with a Ladder Match, especially when the guys in the ring are as good as these guys. However, you do run into the problem of repetitiveness, how many Ladder Matches can you have in a year span before they start getting old? Regardless, credit to the guys in the ring for some great closing action.
Winners: The Authors of Pain
Rating: ****

Overall Show Thoughts and Rating:
Another great TakeOver event that had a little bit of everything. You had your big singles title matches that all delivered on what they needed to and you had it topped off with a great main event along with a shocking turn to cap the show.
Rating: 8/10