NXT TakeOver: Orlando results: It’s a Glorious era in NXT

It was a huge night for NXT at TakeOver: Orlando, with five incredibly intense matches featuring a long-running grudge getting settled, a massive new debut, and three huge title matches. Even more, all three championships were given new title belts, with three massively and fearfully talented champions all retaining their championships on the night.

We’re entering a new era in NXT, and it’s hard to imagine a better way to kick it off than what we saw on Saturday night. The future is bright — so bright, in fact, you could say that it’s Glorious.

After SAnitY assaulted No Way Jose at an NXT event earlier in the day, Tye Dillinger and his allies were left a man short ahead of a brutal clash against their vicious rivals. That left them scrambling to find someone to even the odds, and in stepped Kassius Ohno to join Dillinger, Roderick Strong, and the debuting Ruby Riot as a big-time equalizer against the brutal force of SAnitY.

Ohno and Ruby were able to control the early stretch of the match against Alexander Wolfe and Nikki Cross. A brief distraction from Eric Young allowed Wolfe to blindside Ohno, though, and SAnitY took control of the match, punishing Ohno and then Roderick Strong. Killian Dane made his presence felt in a big way, showing shocking amounts of athleticism in addition to simple, mean viciousness to grind Strong down.

Finally, though, Dillinger was able to get the hot tag and absolutely cleaned house on SAnitY, clearing the ring before the inevitable skirmish outside of the ring, but once things came back inside the ring, Dillinger took full control again, unloading on Eric Young before things broke down again, with Ohno cleaned out by Young, Strong taken out of the equation by Young moments later, Riot hurting herself trying to deal with Cross, and finally Dane and Wolfe combining to utterly destroy Dillinger.

After everything Dillinger has been through with SAnitY and all the struggles he had before clashing with them, it’s hard to see where he goes from here — but for Eric Young and SAnitY, it all looks up from here. All four members could easily soon be involved in title battles, with Nikki Cross well positioned to challenge for the NXT Women’s Championship, Dane and Wolfe looking like an excellent tag team combination, and Young easily able to insert himself into the NXT Championship picture. The coming months could be very, very successful for NXT’s strangest faction.

This was a big-time match for a big-time debuting talent, with Aleister Black making his long-awaited NXT debut. A dark and powerful entrance heralded an incredibly intense affair against one of NXT’s most arrogant talents in “Cien” Almas. Black and El Idolo went toe-to-toe in the early stages of the match, but Cien’s cockiness was on full display, and very clearly brought out the ire or Black, who was utterly disinterested in dealing with his antics.

Black used a vicious series of strikes to take control of the match, putting Almas on the back foot to a degree that we’ve rarely seen during his time in NXT. The man once known as La Sombra had to pull out some of his dirtiest tricks to slow Aleister down, including a try at a cross armbreaker while hanging from the ropes that seemed to take a toll on the Dutch wrestler’s left arm.

Almas spent a lot of time working on that arm to try and wear Black down, but Black was able to turn a tiny opening into a brutal series of strikes that ended with Cien tumbling out of the ring, setting Black up for a big moonsault out of the ring that took a big toll on El Idolo. Almas was finally able to go back to work on Black’s arm, though, appearing for a short time to be about to ruin Aleister’s debut — but Black kept fighting out, leading to an incredible back-and-forth sequence that not only made Black look fantastic, but showed some of the best wrestling we’ve seen from Almas in a long, long time.

Finally, though, Black took full and final control of the match with a series of vicious strikes to Almas’ head, including one that looked like it knocked the Mexican wrestler out. Black wasn’t done yet, though, going so far as to toy with Cien, picking him up only to hit him with one more incredibly stiff spinning kick to the jaw that put the match to an end.

It’s clear that Black will quickly be positioned to be a major force in NXT, because his talent won’t allow anything else. One of these days, the NXT Championship will be won as the lights fade to black on whichever unfortunate soul is unlucky enough to face Aleister Black.

A chaotic tag-team triple threat elimination match match was as entertaining as it was potent, with the Authors of Pain using their brute strength as a weapon against #DIY’s entertaining, high-energy style and The Revival’s craft and guile.

The early stages of the match saw the enmity between #DIY’s Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa and The Revival’s Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder take center stage, with each team refusing to bail each other out against the Authors of Pain after the initial brawl. They finally wound up being able to take the Authors out of the picture for a few minutes and go toe-to-toe, but that was put to a halt when the Authors’ Rezar started literally using Gargano as a weapon to take out Ciampa and The Revival.

Finally, though, Gargano was able to get a hot tag to Ciampa, who came in and cleared the ring, nearly eliminating Akam and the Authors from the match with two shocking snap suplexes and a huge knee to the head. A momentary alliance between #DIY and The Revival saw them put Rezar through a table while Akam was reeling in the ring, with Gargano and Dawson combining a pair of submissions on Akam before Rezar bulled his way back into the ring, getting through Dash and Ciampa to break it up.

It looked like their temporary alliance was going to see the Authors’ reign end early, but the overwhelming power of the two giant wrestlers was just too much to take on. Ciampa and Gargano were beaten down hard while The Revival were too far too help, and Ciampa was finally put through the Authors’ Last Chapter finishing move to eliminate the former champs, much to the fans’ chagrin.

The Revival did their best to cheat and fight their way to a win, but they just didn’t have enough left in the tank to beat the Authors of Pain on their own. They came close several times, but all it took was one Super Collider to put The Revival away and claim the brand new, redesigned NXT Tag Team Championship belts as the lone dominant force of the tag team division.

A rivalry that had just been a passionate war of words until Saturday night did not disappoint once Asuka and Ember Moon got inside the ring. The NXT Women’s Championship has long been an incredibly important title to fight over, and Saturday’s championship match certainly emphasized that, in a back and forth battle that left fans all over the world absolutely dazzled by its quality.

Asuka started with the early advantage, overwhelming Ember Moon with powerful strikes, but she got too deliberate in an attempt to apply her trademark Asuka Lock and left Ember Moon an opening to get back into the match. That kicked off a long back-and-forth spell that saw both women on top of the momentum at different times, with both taking huge amounts of punishment in the process.

Ember Moon finally went up in the corner to try to hit her devastating and flashy Eclipse finishing move, but Asuka was able to slow her down for a moment before Ember fought her off. She went for the Eclipse a second time, but Asuka actually threw the referee into her to knock her off balance. After that, it was a simple task to finish off the stunned Ember Moon, and Asuka retained her title with ease.

This rivalry is far from finished, though — losing like that will almost certainly sit poorly with a wrestler like Ember Moon, who has always shown that honor is important to her, and she will be back very soon for a rematch. She showed Asuka that she can hang with her very evenly, and if she can figure out how to keep the playing field level, Ember Moon could very easily come back and win the title from the still-undefeated Asuka.

This is a match that was as good and as brutal as it had promised to be when Shinsuke Nakamura and Bobby Roode faced off in San Antonio, a match that was ultimately decided largely by a knee injury to the then-champion Nakamura. Roode exploited that injury en route to winning the NXT Championship, and he tried to work on that knee again early in their rematch in Orlando.

Nakamura was resilient, though, and they had a tense, back-and-forth opening to the match that was very, very even throughout, though Nakamura was able to find a burst of momentum that saw him get a good run on top of the match. He had Roode set up for a Kinshasa knee strike in the middle of the ring — but Roode was playing possum, rolling out of the way before taking Nakamura down with a chop block to his still-healing left knee, then going to work on his bad leg in vicious fashion, including a long-held Figure Four leglock in the middle of the ring that Nakamura struggled to fight out of.

Shinsuke was finally able to roll Roode over to break the hold, though, and quickly transitioned to a series of submissions of his own, going from a Cross Armbreaker to a triangle choke, then back to the armbreaker. The momentum was well and truly reversed, with Roode struggling just to keep up — until he was able to slide away from Nakamura’s top-rope knee strike, forcing Shinsuke’s injured knee into the turnbuckle instead of Roode’s chest.

Roode couldn’t take advantage, though, with Nakamura stealing the momentum again, finally getting Roode set up for another Kinshasa, only for Roode to roll out of the ring before he could strike. That gave Roode the time he needed to gather himself enough to hit a Glorious DDT, though that wasn’t enough to finish Nakamura off just yet.

Frustration set in for the champion then, leaving Nakamura prone in the ring while he went outside to retrieve the match bell, apparently willing to take a disqualification to keep his title. Nakamura took advantage to hit an exploder suplex before trying for another Kinshasa, but Roode countered it into a huge spinebuster. With his injured arm, though, Roode struggled to get Nakamura up for another Glorious DDT, giving Nakamura one last chance to fight back.

It wasn’t to be Shinsuke’s night, though — he looked like he tweaked his knee again as he forced Roode up into the corner, allowing Roode to get up onto the middle rope and add a tornado spin to the Glorious DDT before putting Nakamura away for good.

The match may have had a slower pace than fans were hoping for, but that doesn’t detract from the sheer quality of their battle. Roode beating Nakamura the way he did cemented the legitimacy of his championship pedigree, and he’s going to be the new leader of a new era of NXT. Now, TakeOver: Orlando will forever be known as the place where Bobby Roode cemented his legacy as the top talent of NXT.