6 Biggest Takeaways From NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver

6. Raquel Gonzalez Wins NXT Women’s Championship

The main event of night one saw the women steal the show once again.

Io Shirai put her NXT Women’s Championship on the line against Raquel Gonzalez. She may not be the baddest challenge Shirai has faced during her reign but she is definitely her tallest… “HOW CAN A FEMALE BE SO TALL” screams Triple H whenever Gonzalez towers over her opponents.

They did an exceptional job at hyping this match up throughout the entire night. The editing team created another fantastic video package and the pre-show featured two intriguing sit-down interviews with Samoa Joe. They even showed the carnage from Gonzalez throwing Shirai through the wall from last week. These women were ready to decimate each other.

The match was highly intense with the structure focusing on how in the world Shirai could take the challenger off her feet. The ‘Genius of the Sky’ managed to do this with an epic leap from the Stand & Deliver skull at the top of the ramp.

However, nothing would work and Gonzalez finally slammed the champion into the mat with her deadly one-handed powerbomb. As a result, Raquel Gonzalez is now our new NXT Women’s Champion.

This felt like a very wholesome moment for the powerful Gonzalez. It’ll be exciting to see where they go with her reign when NXT moves to Tuesday nights.

It will also be interesting to see where Io Shirai goes next. WWE posted an exclusive video on their YouTube channel revealing a standing ovation for Shirai post-match. This often results in the emotional star in the ring being called up.

It is always a scary move seeing your favorite NXT stars being sent to the main roster as you never know what direction creative will take their character in. Regardless, Raw and SmackDown are definitely lacking in top-star talent in the women’s division and Shirai would certainly be a big deal on either show.

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5. MSK Win NXT Tag Team Championship

This match is slightly underrated compared to the rest of the card but it was an awesome clash nevertheless.

NXT proved to WWE how you book a tag team match properly, moreso a three-way tag team match. It is much more exciting when the three teams have a partner in the match rather than two competitors in the ring with an absent team lingering at the corner.

This is more effective as it allows for many options. Not only do you see a slugfest between two wrestlers but you can see mind-blowing moves created by three, four, five or even six talents. This match rocked.

MSK, Grizzled Young Veterans and Legado Del Fantasma were all very inventive. The flips we saw during this fight left us in awe at what we just witnessed.

The magic they created proved that the future of the NXT tag team division is in safe hands. We could easily watch a two-on-two tag team match between either team. They are all highly talented.

In the end, MSK managed to pull off a huge victory and in their short career on NXT, they have already solidified themselves as one of the brands top acts. We can’t wait for the future of this charismatic tag team.

We already have an idea of their first challenge as on the pre-show of night two, Killian Dain and Drake Maverick defeated Breezango to gain a future opportunity for the NXT Tag Team Championship.

• Raquel Gonzalez
• TakeOver: Stand & Deliver
• kyle o'reilly
• nxt

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