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NXT Takeover: Stand And Deliver Night 2 | A Coherent Review.

While I prefer night one of NXT Takeover: Stand And Deliver (check out the review here), night 2 did bring in some solid encounters from talented performers. 

Images via WWE.com

Santos Escobar vs Jordan Devlin For The Cruiserweight Championship In A Ladder Match. 


This opening encounter was pretty fun to witness. During the match, Devlin delivered a sick looking moonsault shades of Kurt Angle ala the early 2000s from the top of the ladder to Escobar. 

Speaking of moves from the ladder, Devlin nailed a Spanish fly. 

The match concluded with Escobar pushing Devlin that had the Irishmen land through a ladder to which Escobar grabbed both belts to crown himself the undisputed cruiserweight champion. 


I'm surprised that the folks over at the yellow made the decision to have Santos win this match given that he's too good to be in that division and he should be in the main event scene or even in the North American title picture at the very least. 

However, I ain't mad at the choice. Again, a fun ladder match. 

Shotzi Blackheart And Ember Moon vs The Way In Candice LeRae And Indi Hartwell. 


A solid tag team match although it wasn't anything notable about the match. 

The possibility of LeRae and Hartwell winning the tag belts were there but unfortunately for The Way, they lost the match with a senton from Blackheart on Hartwell.  

Johnny Gargano vs Bronson Reed For The North American Championship. 


Gargano was damaging Reed's injured ribs that were sustained by Gargano earlier in the match where he pushed the big man on the edge of the announce table. 

Bronson countered the one final beat finish from Gargano into a reverse piledriver of some sort. 

Johnny reversed a beautiful moonsault from Reed and immediately hit the one final beat not once but twice to retain the North American championship. 

I was hoping for a Bronson Reed victory, to be honest, but sadly, they didn't pull the trigger too soon for the Australian. 


This might lead to Johnny facing Dexter Lumis for the championship but given that Lumis' feud is probably LA Knight, I'm not so sure about that. 

I legit have no idea where Gargano's reign goes from here but like the cliche saying, "it should be interesting". 

The match was awesome though.

Finn Balor vs Karrion Kross For The NXT Championship. 


Before the match took place, the crowd were chanting "Kross is gonna kill you. Kross is gonna kill you" because get it? Karrion Kross was once known as Killer Kross? By the way, Kross' gear? Top-notch in my opinion. 

Like all of Finn's matches, they're all ground pound, slow and technical which I love. 

Karrion reversed Finn's coup de grace into a sleeper (a great follow up move from Kross). 

Kross became a two-time NXT champion after a series of brutal forearm strikes from Kross on Finn's back neck area. 


The thing I love about Finn Balor's matches is that he brings a sense of legitimacy. The dude makes moves like a simple knee strike look brutal as f**k. 

He not only did a complete makeover with his persona but as well as his matches too. 

Where does the prince go from here? Will have to find out this coming Tuesday. 

Adam Cole vs Kyle O'Reilly In An Unsanctioned Match. 


Both guys came out to brand new theme songs and they're aight but compared to the UE theme song, it doesn't come close. 

Chair shots after chair shots after chair shots were the main focus in this unsanctioned encounter between two former best friends. 

At one point, O'Reilly brought in a chain to the ring and Cole immediately delivered a neckbreaker on the Goddamn steel chain. 

Several minutes later, O'Reilly nailed a brainbuster to Adam Cole on the announce table. 


Cole was about to destroy O'Reilly's neck but the ref told Adam not to do this. Cole knocked the referee out, telling the official to shut up that led to the crowd chanting "shut the f**k up" to the ref which I thought was hilarious. 

These guys then went through the steel entrance ramp. 

After a brutal brainbuster on the steel steps from Adam Cole and a pin from the former NXT champion, O'Reilly barely kicked out. 

The match finally ended with a knee strike to Cole on the steel chair from the top rope by the striking Canadian himself, Kyle O'Reilly to win this brutal bout.


I'm not gonna lie, that match was decent but it wasn't great. The pacing was all over the place especially when there are so many slow movements. 

I respect both men for risking themselves like that but unfortunately, I wasn't wowed by the results. 

So, to recap for all of you slow mofos. 

Like: Karrion Kross vs Finn Balor, the cruiserweight championship unification ladder match, Johnny Gargano vs Bronson Reed. 

Didn't like: Nothing really. 

Let me know what do you think about NXT Takeover: Vengeance Day and follow me on the tweets @omartheplayaguy. Anyways, stay safe smarks.

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