NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn III Results: Highlights, Analysis, and Grades
credit: wwe.com
NXT Tag Team Championship Match
The Authors of Pain (c) vs. SAnitY
Result: SAnitY defeats The Authors of Pain via pinfall to win the NXT Tag Team Championship.
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
An odd matchup here. The Authors of Pain and SAnitY are both heels, and neither one have strong followings at Full Sail University, unlike the fan-favorite heels that traveled through NXT (Kevin Owens, Samoa Joe, Sasha Banks). So, let’s see what we can get out of this.
Eric Young, at ringside, tried to get a table out before the match even began. It seemed like a way of making this match as hostile as possible, given the unique pairing here.
Just minutes into the match, Young tagged himself in, even though he wasn’t part of the match. I can’t remember ever seeing this on WWE programming. So, uh … why haven’t New Day, The Shield, Wyatt Family done this in the past?
Young only got dominated by The Authors of Pain, however. Size mattered here. Strangely, it set up a Alexander Wolfe hot tag. Nikki Cross tried to get the crowd hyped, too. Just weird and not something the crowd seemed ready for, until Wolfe broke out suplexes and the Barclays Center freaked out. It was by far the best he’s looked in his few years in NXT.
Suddenly, SAnitY looked like faces, which is an amazing turn and something that worked well. Young’s offense got the crowd interested, but it was about Wolfe’s moves.
Nikki Cross then became the star. Her attempted cross-body on Akam was bound to fail, but Killian Dain ran directly at them to put Akam (and Cross) through a table). Wolfe and Young then secured the pin in the ring for the win and huge pop, something you couldn’t have expected for them earlier in the night.
As SAnitY celebrated, Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish ran out to attack and take out both teams. They hushed the crowd and entered the NXT Tag Team Division, taking their ROH/NJPW team to NXT. Something that was badly needed for depth, but an outstanding moment to usher these two in.
Two matches in and it’s been a fantastic NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn II. What’s next?