Opening Segment: Street Profits vs. Metro Brothers

It’s Dawkins and Ford! We haven’t seen these guys in a TV tag match since Halloween. The Metro Brothers have a 50’s style greaser look going with the leather jackets, white t-shirts and black jeans.

Chris and Ford start it off, and Ford is showing off his agility with a beauty dropkick off the ropes and a kip-up afterwards on Chris. Tag into Dawkins and they are hyping each other up so hard that Dawkins pushes Ford to the mat!

Sharp slap to the face of JC brings that Metro Bro to the mat. Chris runs in and he gets the same business. Tag to Ford. From the top turnbuckle, high flying…FROG SPLASH. Pin and win.

Winners: Street Profits via pinfall in 2 minutes

Street Profits celebrate in the crowd for a bit and then return to ringside. Suddenly, it’s Blake, Cutler and Ryker attacking them from behind. The Forgotten Sons are here and they’re not messing around. Ryker slams Ford into the mat and the three of them pose over him, yelling “Forgotten no more”. Crowd boos, after having chanted, “We Forgot You”.

Dawkins crawls in to help his partner and he gets beaten up too.

1 cool point for the winners. Their energy in this return match was exciting and they continue to interact positively with the crowd, especially Ford. His reaction to his partner’s offense was fun, and he’s quite good at getting them to cheer the team. Rough ending, but the Forgotten Sons are the best opponent for them at present. Maybe the only other tag team that’s available to fight since they already feuded with The Mighty last fall.

The commentary team discuss what just happened and then turn it over to Cathy Kelley who’s with Matt Riddle and Keith Lee.
Riddle says he’d love to sit front row for Lee/Ohno. He hopes Keith leaves a little something for him though. That match is the main event.

“Holding My Breath” by Alien Weaponry is a theme song for Takeover: Phoenix.

Aleister Black talks about his upcoming match with nXt Champion Tommaso Ciampa. He says he’d like to start the fight a little early. Sounds like a confrontation will happen next week.

Second Segment: Belair & Baszler, Face To Face

Bianca Belair comes out and she has a mic! She says it’s her time, it’s her year and she’s got 20/20 vision when it comes to the nXt Women’s Championship.

When it comes to Takeover: Phoenix, the EST of nXt is walking out with the championship…

She can’t finish her line because here comes the champ, Shayna Baszler, with her Horsewomen friends, Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir.
Baszler enters the ring and says she just doesn’t see it with the EST. She may be strong, but she’s obviously not the smartest. If Belair had half a brain, she’d know it doesn’t matter how strong your arms are, Baszler will tear them off at Takeover: Phoenix.
Belair disagrees and says she’ll be holding the title. Crowd likes that.

Baszler has a lot of swagger and attitude tonight; she looks very comfortable with the mic. She says Belair is afraid of getting her arm broken, of having her hype silenced, of getting her vocabulary changed from “undefeated” to “overrated”.

The crowd picks up on this, and a battling chant of those two words breaks out.

Baszler motions to her two friends and says don’t worry about those two. Belair clocks Baszler and then escapes the ring. The girls continue to jaw at each other as the segment ends.

A promo for Dijakovic is shown. He wrestles next.

Third Segment: Dominik Dijakovic vs. Adrian Jauode

Watson says Jauode’s MMA expertise will lead him towards a ground-based strategy in this match. Dijakovic comes to the ring, poses and says, “Feast your eyes”.
Significant height difference between these two wrestlers.

Jaoude with the surprising takedown on Dijakovic. He tries to lock in a submission, but Dijakovic squirms free and disallows it. Another fireman’s carry takeover by Jaoude. Dijakovic escapes the facelock and wraps his arms around Jaoude. Reversal to the front. Both men into the turnbuckle.

Dijakovic breaks the grapple with a club to Jaoude’s back. Combination of kicks and chops by Dijakovic and he’s created some room. Running elbow into the corner. Suplex throw by Dijakovic. The pace has slowed in Dijakovic’s favour here.

Right hands on Jaoude and a clothesline takes him off of his feet. Stomps in the corner. Dijakovic firmly in control. But Jaoude traps the right leg and forces Dijakovic to his knees. Jaoude’s firing up in the corner…running and receives a BOOT to the face!
Feast your eyes on the nasty toss by Dijakovic, flipping Jaoude over his shoulder and swinging a knee up into Jaoude’s face. That’s the knockout blow. 1-2-3.

Winner: Dominik Dijakovic via pinfall in 4 minutes

1 cool point for Dijakovic. He mixed up the striking offense with his power moves pretty well. Although the end result was clear, this wasn’t a bad hype match for the newcomer.

A promo for War Raiders is shown. It shows Hanson and Rowe in a Celtic setting, burning a fire with the Undisputed Era logo shields in the middle. They say the Undisputed Era has taken pieces of them and even run nXt the past year. That ends at Takeover: Phoenix and that’s undisputed.

Fourth Segment: nXt UK Takeover

Highlights from the first ever nXt TakeOver UK are shown, including the match to crown the first nXt UK Tag Team Champions. All the matches were about as thrilling as you would expect, featuring some awesome sequences of wrestling. At the end, the debut of Walter is shown and he stands off with nXt UK Champion Pete Dunne to close the show.

Johnny Gargano vs. Humberto Carrillo

Early on, there are some arm twist reversals and some pretty slick evasion tactics by both men, using kip-ups and jumps. Beauty arm drag by Carrillo to send Gargano out of the ring. Carrillo goes back against the ropes and receives a slingshot spear for his efforts.

Dropkick to the back of the head by Gargano for a near fall. Back to the arm twists, but Gargano transitions to an abdominal stretch. Carillo breaks it. Gargano pushes him to the turnbuckle. Carrillo with strikes to the torso. Handspring back elbow off the ropes! Gargano slips to the outside, only to receive a pretty special flipping plancha from Carrillo.

Up to the top rope, missile dropkick, combined with a standing moonsault for a 2 count on Gargano. Carrillo tries to move back to the top rope. Gargano grabs his leg to slow him down. MOONSAU…NO! Carrillo gets two feet to the face. He’s superkicked, picked up by Gargano who then throws him head-first into the turnbuckle.

Slingshot DDT! 1-2-3.

Winner: Johnny Gargano via pinfall in 4 minutes

1 cool point for Gargano and Carrillo. Pretty exciting counters from both men, and Carrillo got to show off some of his high-flying moves. Ultimately, though, the outcome was never in doubt. Gargano’s got way too many options and a few more levels he can take his aggression to, if needed. They weren’t needed tonight. Still a good warmup for Phoenix though, since Carrillo wrestles a similar style to Ricochet.

Gargano talks to the cameraman on the ring apron, and he has a message for Ricochet. Show up next week.

Meanwhile, backstage, nXt Champion Tommaso Ciampa addresses Aleister Black. Ciampa is the puppetmaster and Black is a gullible puppet. He talks about Black’s words from earlier. The champ fights on the grandest stage so we are going to wait until Takeover: Phoenix. That’s what a main event player does.

Listen closely, Black. Be careful what you wish for. He adores his championship gold, and that’s all for him.

A promo for Velveteen Dream is shown, similar to the one from earlier this month.

Main Event: Kassius Ohno vs. Keith Lee

Highlights include:

Lee’s leapfrog, duck down and crossbody splash for a 2 count on Ohno.

Ohno wants none of that, retreating to ringside. Lee runs the ropes and makes like he’s going to jump the top rope, but Ohno moves away.

Ohno, in fact, baits Lee out of the ring. He slides in and waits for Lee, but can’t gather any offense on him. Lee lifts Ohno for a back body drop! Wow!

Big boot from Ohno, on Lee in the corner, and that’s his first true offense of the match. He hits Lee with another one. 3! 4! Senton splash! That’s a lot of weight on Lee’s mid-section, but he kicks out at 2.

Ohno attempts to run Lee off the ropes, but Lee resists. Finally, he gets him to move. Club to the back and another pin…Lee kicks out. Ohno goes for an arm submission, stretching both of Lee’s arms back towards him. Another big boot to the face and Lee is out. Senton splash…NO! Lee raises his knees. Ohno’s got to be hurting from that.

Lee with lefts and rights. Body avalanche in the corner! He tosses Ohno.

On the apron, Lee with a slingshot crossbody splash! Impressive! The match continues.

Lee shakes off a shove from Ohno. Off the ropes, huuuge tackle sends Ohno flying! Lee lifts Ohno on to his shoulders. Ohno grabs the top rope to escape the fireman’s carry.

Ohno pushes Lee into the referee. Lee checks on him, and gets low-blowed by Ohno, for his efforts. Rolling elbow. 1-2-3.

Winner: Kassius Ohno via pinfall in 8 minutes

Here comes Matt Riddle who is not medically cleared to wrestle. A few nXt referees surround him as he rushes into the ring to help his friend. Ohno looks on and threatens to attack Riddle, but he backs off.

1 cool point for Ohno. It’s been a while since he’s won a big match like this. Opportunistic to hurt Lee when the referee wasn’t looking, and I think he’s still gotta be top 3 for most strikes per match on the roster.

Have you tweeted your nXt award votes? I’m doing one a day and I invite you to do the same, or leave them below in the comments section. Also, happy to discuss the almost complete Takeover: Phoenix card, along with your own cool points for tonight’s match, below, in the comments section.

Takeover: Phoenix Card

nXt Championship: Tommaso Ciampa (c) vs. Aleister Black (#1c)
Women’s Championship: Shayna Baszler (c) vs. Bianca Belair (#1c)
Tag Team Championship: Undisputed Era (c) vs. War Raiders
North American Championship: Ricochet (c) vs. Johnny Gargano

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