Ladies and gentlemen, another TakeOver is upon us, this time it’s TakeOver: Toronto 2019. Yes, after a two year absence, the black and gold brand makes it’s return to Toronto. In spite of being pillaged with call-ups in recent months, in addition to key injuries already changing up plenty of longterm plans, NXT really hasn’t lost a step in my estimation.
With just days to go before the show, let’s not waste any time and dive right into this.
NXT TakeOver: Toronto 2019 Preview & Predictions
Candice LaRae vs. Io Shirai
Well first off… this will be a stellar match, provided you give it enough time. Honestly, even ten minutes as an opener in front of a presumably electric crowd sounds like it’d be amazing. Personally speaking, I think of these ladies as the best two women’s wrestlers in NXT… maybe under the entire WWE banner, frankly. I’m excited to see Candice finally get an opportunity like this, after seemingly years and years on the sidelines. Io’s never had a better opponent in NXT either, not by a long shot.
As for who has this… Io’s the one who just turned, got a big makeover. It seems safe to say whoever wins this will be in the immediate title picture, and if they really wanted to put Candice there, they’ve had plenty of time to actually build her toward it. I pick Io to win here, take the title soon after and setup a rematch between the two over the gold sometime early next year.
NXT North American Championship Triple Threat: Velveteen Dream (c) vs. Roderick Strong vs. Pete Dunne
This too oughta be a rockin’ match. Velveteen Dream is an otherworldly superstar in the truest sense in the word, as athletically gifted as he is psychologically sound. Pete Dunne is coming off an incredible run of over a year of awesome high profile bouts. And Roderick Strong may be the greatest hand in the history of great hands, quietly putting together an exceptional track record in his NXT tenure.
This one may be a bit bold, but I’ve felt for a time that Dream’s title reign would come to an end here. Even before I knew what match he’d be in, this just seemed right. He’ll already have the longest North American Title reign in the belt’s short history, which is fitting. And it’s always been a bit of a foregone conclusion that Dream will be NXT Champion some day, provided he stuck around long enough to get there. And yeah… now seems like a fine time.
Obviously he can’t do that while he still holds this gold. So I’m picking this to be the night he drops it… and as Dunne is likely just making a pit stop here before heading back to the UK, it’s only logical for Roderick Strong to pick up the win. For all he’s done for the brand, he has little in the way of singles glory to show for it. Even if it ends up being a brief reign, I’d feel pretty good about him getting this nod as a show of gratitude.
NXT Tag Team Championships: Street Profits (c) vs. The Undisputed Era
Could really see these two teams having fun together. Some very charismatic and talented tandems in their own ways. It’s unfortunate that the Street Profits are basically already called up, appearing constantly on Raw. It makes this seem like a bit of an obvious one, doesn’t it?
I’d love to be wrong, but I can’t really see the Street Profits lasting much longer past this show. And if not, then neither can their title reign obviously. The Undisputed Era become three time tag champs, the first in NXT’s history.
NXT Women’s Championship: Shayna Baszler (c) vs. Mia Yim
Right so, I’ve spoken before about my thoughts on Shayna Baszler and the NXT Women’s title situation as a whole. So it should be no surprise that I want Mia Yim to win here. And generally speaking it’s very very very hard to ever actually expect that anyone will take the Women’s title off of Shayna at any point. Frankly it feels like she’s held that title for my entire life, so I guess that’s natural.
But that said… Shayna has literally always won with atleast some form of help from her allies Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir. This angle has seen Mia, obviously well aware of this, systematically take out the both of them ahead of the show. Seemingly, we’ll actually see a title match without them this time around.
More importantly, with Io Shirai on the rise as a heel, we need a babyface champion… that’s right. I think tonight’s the night. Mia Yim to end the reign of Baszler. For the reasons described and plus, I’m picking a ton of heel wins here, gotta have one babyface go over at TakeOver: Toronto!*
*ᵀʰᵉ ᵁⁿᵈᶦˢᵖᵘᵗᵉᵈ ᴱʳᵃ ʷᶦˡˡ ᵇᵉ ᶜʰᵉᵉʳᵉᵈ ᵃˡˡ ⁿᶦᵍʰᵗ ᵗʰᶦˢ ˡᵒᵍᶦᶜ ᶦˢ ᶦⁿᵛᵃˡᶦᵈ
Three Stages Of Hell For The NXT Championship: Adam Cole (c) vs. Johnny Gargano
Why they aren’t labeling this a Three Stages of Hell match, I’ll never know. I mean that’s a Triple H match type, here on Triple H’s show… and there’s no denying that’s what the concept is. Calling it another 2 out of 3 falls match just makes it feel like you’ve already seen this before, even though in theory this should be a very, very different match.
Can only wonder what Regal’s mystery pick for the third fall will be… I’m assuming it’s not some form of cage match because you can’t exactly hide that. Maybe Last Man Standing, maybe it could turn into a Ladder or TLC… hard to say.
Either way, I suspect both men will win at each other’s chosen stips, and obviously we’ll find out just what Regal has in store. Although, now that I think about it, making it a mystery would be a solid way to do this 2-0 without feeling gipped on a big promised stip, hrm… nah, overthinking it, we’ll get to the third fall.
Anyway. Johnny Gargano will regain that title, no question… but it’s gonna be a longer road to get him there then a few months. Yep, I’m going with Adam Cole baybay, allowing every member of the Undisputed Era to be hoisting up a title to close TakeOver: Toronto. Draped in gold, just like Cole’s prophecy stated… completing their elevation to being the, for lack of a better term, undisputed top stable of the modern age.
