Wrestling

NXT Takeover: Brooklyn 3: The full rundown and why you should care

NXT is hoping to steal the show once more on SummerSlam weekend.

Aug 19, 2017, 3:09 PM UTC

If you’re a fan of NXT, then you’re well aware of just what their now-annual Takeover: Brooklyn show the night before SummerSlam means. If you’re a fan of WWE and don’t pay a lot of attention to their developmental brand, though, this would be a fantastic night to start, because this is shaping up to be a very fun, very meaningful, and very watchable show.

There’s only five matches on the card — less than half of that of WWE’s SummerSlam extravaganza in the same building 24 hours later — but if the first two Takeover: Brooklyn shows that NXT put on the last two summers were any indication, NXT is going to be setting a very, very high bar of quality for the main roster to live up to.

Both events saw some absolutely monumental matches, like Bayley winning the NXT Women’s Championship from Sasha, the Finn Balor-Kevin Owens ladder match for the NXT Championship, the incredible NXT Tag Team Championship match between The Revival and DIY, and Shinsuke Nakamura winning the NXT Championship from Samoa Joe. Now most of those talents are on the main roster getting ready to put on a show of their own on Sunday, leaving a new batch of top-shelf NXT talent ready to make their mark on what’s become their brand’s version of WrestleMania.

Bobby Roode comes into Takeover as the dominant champion of NXT, but after months of being chased by Roderick Strong, now he has to deal with the focused lethality of Drew McIntyre. The hulking Scotsman is back in the WWE after several years away following his failed first stint with the company, and now he’s got a focus and intensity that we never saw from him the first time around. This might be the sternest challege that The Glorious One has faced to his title since seeing off Nakamura last year, and it’s going to be interesting to see how he deals with the sheer brute force of McIntyre.

Speaking of lethal intensity, those are the best words to describe the mood of Ember Moon of late as she’s methodically chased down long-reigning NXT Women’s Champion Asuka and her record-shattering undefeated streak. Moon still holds a grudge over Asuka turning to underhanded tactics to beat her at Takeover: Orlando earlier this year and then injuring her shortly after, and she’s cut a blazing path through the women’s division to get her hands on the champion again. Asuka hasn’t backed down from that challenge, and given their confrontations over the past couple of weeks, these two women look ready to tear the Barclays Center down to settle their grudge.

The NXT Tag Team Championship matches at the last two Takeover: Brooklyn shows have been major highlights both years, and this year looks like it will be no different, with the dominant, brute force of the Authors of Pain defending their titles against the unpredictable chaos of Sanity. Eric Young’s chaotic faction has set their sights on the tag team champions and manager Paul Ellering, and got the best of them in a surprising confrontation last week. These two teams will put body and soul on the line in this match, and there’s every reason to expect this match to be incredibly physical to a degree that no other fight in WWE this weekend can match.

There’s also two non-title matches on the card for Takeover, but they certainly don’t lack for importance. Johnny Gargano returns for just his second match since Takeover: Chicago, when he was betrayed and beaten down by his then-tag team partner Tommaso Ciampa after losing a tag titles ladder match to the Authors of Pain. He can’t get his hands on the injured Ciampa yet, but he accepted a challenge from Andrade “Cien” Almas, who is looking to resurrect his flagging career under the guidance of his new manager, Zelina Vega.

Then there’s the ambivalent-but-violent Aleister Black, who so far in his young NXT career has beaten every opponent put in front of him with his patented Black Mass spinning heel kick. A few weeks ago, Hideo Itami put himself in front of Black, interrupting what was supposed to be the start of a match, and Black knocked him out cold before going on to wrestle like nothing happened. That’s led to multiple confrontations, and now the Japanese star whose career is slipping by is set to confront the explosively talented and unbeaten Dutchman in a battle to see who has the more lethal striking ability — and don’t be surprised if the winner of this match has an NXT Championship title shot very soon.

All in all, this edition of NXT Takover: Brooklyn looks set to be every bit as big and spectacular as the last two times WWE’s developmental brand came to the Barclays Center. NXT stole the show in each of those two SummerSlam weekends — hopefully they can make it three in a row with another spectacular night of wrestling on Saturday.