WWE NXT TakeOver: Toronto analysis and match grades

Steven Muehlhausen

WWE NXT TakeOver: Toronto analysis and match grades image

Summerslam weekend for WWE began with what appeared to be a slightly above average NXT Takeover show until Adam Cole and Johnny Gargano delivered the best WWE match of the year with Cole retaining the NXT heavyweight title in a two-out-three-falls match from the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.

Altogether, NXT Takeover was perfectly timed out, coming in slightly under three hours. The only bout that lagged was the women's title affair between Shayna Baszler and Mia Yim and every match ended right when it should have.

Here are match grades, courtesy of SN's Steven Muehlhausen and Andreas Hale.

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WWE NXT Takeover Toronto grades

Street Profits def. Bobby Fish & Kyle O'Reilly to retain NXT tag titles

Muehlhausen: The action started extremely slow, which took the air out of the crowd, who were chanting for both teams when it started slow. The last ten minutes were really good with Montez Ford standing out among the four participants. He’s got the potential down the line to be a star on his own. The air he got on the five-star frog splash to pin Kyle O’Reilly for the pinfall demonstrated how amazing of an athlete he is.

Surprised the Street Profits retained the titles. The Undisputed Era is the hottest faction in NXT, and them winning the belts looked to be the logical step.

Grade: B

Hale: We were all aware of the talent that Ford, Fish and O'Reilly possess. But Angelo Dawkins has become a revelation since teaming up with Ford after spending years toiling in relative obscurity in NXT. Dawkins had some excellent spots and showcased exceptional mat skills throughout. The match itself was well done with some creative spots and near falls. 

It's hard to say the right team won, but the Street Profits have really just arrived and are deserving of a solid run with the titles. That and the fact that Montez Ford is an undeniable star. 

Grade: B

Io Shirai def. Candice LeRae 

Muehlhausen: This match exceeded expectations as the women put on a spectacular showcase. Shirai exemplified why she’s perhaps the best in the world and LeRae showed she’s underrated talent inside the squared circle.

Shirai’s heel turn fits her to a tee. Having the cocky mannerisms when she performs a move only adds to the character and in turn, you want to see someone get the best of her. Don’t discount what LeRae did as well. Her selling of the neck from the brainbuster suplex was exceptional because selling is a lost art in this day of wrestling.

The finish was well done as it fits Shirai’s new persona and keeps LeRae strong even in defeat because she had to be put unconscious and never gave up.

Grade: A-

Hale: For the uninitiated, Candice LeRae is one of the more remarkable talents that has yet to truly shine in NXT. Her run on the indie scene -- especially her PWG tag team championship tenure with Joey Ryan, where she wrestled men -- saw the wife of Johnny Gargano showcase an uncanny ability to take bumps and seamlessly put together offense. As for Shirai, the heel turn has been nothing short of spectacular. She wrestles with a new attitude and her moveset has been altered to reflect her demeanor. 

The result was one of the finest women's matches in quite some time. Considering that there hasn't been a non-title women's match on an NXT TakeOver in years, the fact they had this spot meant that they absolutely needed to show up. And they did...in spades. This feud is far from over and it'll be interesting to see how high these two can go. 

Grade: A-

Velveteen Dream def. Roderick Strong and Pete Dunne to retain the NXT North American title 

Muehlhausen: Expectations were high, considering the talent of all three individuals. This was hampered by the fact the women’s bout was fantastic. Dream, Strong, and Dunne didn’t do anything wrong. The story was decent for it to be good, but they couldn’t get out of neutral and into another gear.

A surprising finish in Dunne taking the pin. He’s the better talent of three and a guy you can build a company around. If Dream is going to retain, Strong should’ve taken the loss.

Grade: B

Hale: For a match that was thrown together in less than two weeks, this was all about the wrestling with a side story of Roderick Strong and Pete Dunne revisiting their feud when Roddy turned on Dunne and joined The Undisputed Era. Dream is what NXT is all about as he continues to develop his in-ring ability to match his out of this world charisma. Strong and Dunne beat the hell out of each other and Dream managed to do more than enough to avoid being an afterthought. 

The finish was creative and the fans were engaged throughout. What more can you ask for with a match that had little momentum heading into it aside from the superstars involved?

Grade: B+

Shayna Baszler def. Mia Yim to retain the NXT Women's title 

Muehlhausen: You could have had the greatest reason for Yim to want the title match and the match still wouldn’t have been any good. Baszler and Yim were slow in a lot of spots, especially the running knees. More importantly, the crowd was dead because they knew Yim had no shot at becoming the champion. And when you don’t have the belief of the fans, then you have nothing.

Grade: D

Hale: Honestly, this is getting old. It's not that Baszler is a bad wrestler, it's more about the predictability of her matches. They follow the same beats and never hit another gear. I'm all for methodical catch/submission wrestling but we've seen this same match from Baszler for nearly two years. Mia Yim simply wasn't the one to force her to kick it up a notch. And if Io Shirai and Kairi Sane couldn't do it, I'm not sure who can. Maybe Candice LeRae? 

It also didn't help that this match came after a trio of high energy showdowns. It is what it is. 

Grade: D

Adam Cole def. Johnny Gargano to retain the NXT title

Muehlhausen: An instant classic between arguably the two best wrestlers on the WWE roster. You saw believable falls, fantastic wrestling a great story, which is what you the talent to do.
 
The first fall had great action, and after about 20 plus minutes, a disqualification happens just to get to the second fall, which was a street fight. Too cute of a finish. Could have been more creative and still had Cole win the fall.

Why Gargano didn’t immediately win the second fall is a head-scratcher. Gargano hits Cole with a couple of chair shots, and one to the face and yet, a match occurs like the beating Cole took meant nothing. Just like the first fall, the second fall was unnecessary when Gargano lawn darted Cole headfirst into a chair.

What a final fall inside a steel cage. Both guys used every imaginable weapon hanging on top or on the side of the cage that was surrounded by barbed wire all around the top of the cage. They executed Canadian Destroyer’s and every move under the sun to show how bad they wanted to be the NXT champion, highlighted by the end when both guys were on a table on top of the cage with the barbed wire in tow when Cole slammed Gargano threw two tables to win hold onto the belt.

By far the best match in WWE in 2019. The one that’s hurt WWE this year has been telling believable stories that fans can sink their teeth into. Cole and Gargano did just that for over 60 minutes to cap off their historic program.

Grade: A+++

Hale: This has been a spectacular rivalry between Cole and Gargano that culminated in a brutal slobberknocker that ended with a dangerous high spot after engaging fans with ridiculous spots and an excellent hour worth of storytelling between two guys familiar with how the other operates. 

I do have a qualm, however. The two out of three falls stipulation sucked the drama out of the first two falls because you absolutely knew that it would end up in the cage. Because of that, I was stuck waiting for the third fall because that's when things would really heat up. Also, we already did this two out of three falls thing, right? Maybe an Ironman match would have been a better stipulation, but these two are so good together that it really didn't matter all that much because their chemistry is absolutely stellar. .

This match fell short of their second match when Cole won the title and didn't quite have sprint that the first match had. And that's fine because the finish here was all about Gargano's hubris getting the better of him once again, as it did in his feud with Ciampa. 

Gargano wanted to exact punishment on his rival and ended up paying the price by being unable to regain the title. Where Gargano goes from here is anybody's guess, but he's undoubtedly had the greatest NXT run in the short history of the promotion. As for Cole, the Panama City Playboy continues his run and it's getting increasingly hard to keep him heel. He's just that damn good.

Grade: A-

Steven Muehlhausen

Steven Muehlhausen Photo

Steven Muehlhausen is a contributing writer for DAZN News. He writes features and news stories, and provides analysis relating to the world of boxing. Over the past five years, he has interviewed some of the biggest names in combat sports, including Conor McGregor, Daniel Cormier, Terence Crawford, Vasiliy Lomachenko and Bill Goldberg.