WWE NXT TakeOver Philadelphia: Highlights, Grades, and Analysis

Credit: WWE NXT

Authors of Pain vs. The Undisputed Era For The Tag Team Championships

Result: The Undisputed Era Win Via Roll-Up

Rating: 3.5 Out Of 5.0 Stars

Many of us expected the Velveteen Dream and Kassius Ohno to kick off the show, but the crowd will get started hot with a championship match instead. The smart money is on the Undisputed Era to retain and the Authors of Pain to move on to the main roster, but let’s see what happens.

Before the bell rings, the Authors of Pain attack Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly to try to get themselves an early advantage.

Early on, the Undisputed Era were trying to find some way to counter the Authors of Pain’s size, and O’Reilly decided to lock in on the lower body before transitioning into different submission holds.

AOP then got to work, forcing Fish and O’Reilly to regroup outside the ring before driving Fish into the steel steps. They started manhandling both of them outside the ring, using the barricade, ring post, and just about everything else to inflict pain on their two overmatched opponents.

Early on Akam suffered a knee injury that Fish noticed and started to attack. This looks like the opening the Undisputed Era desperately needed. Fish and O’Reilly then started to team up to beat down Akam on their side of the ring.

O’Reilly used his submission skills on that knee to great effect, and Akam sold it well, even cursing under his breath to add to it all.

Akam gave Rezar the hot tag after a back-body drop on Fish to get himself out of trouble. Rezar cleaned house with a Gorilla Press and Spinebuster. For the next few minutes, we got a showcase of Rezar’s awe-inspiring strength.

Rezar tagged Akam back in, and the Undisputed Era put them in dual submissions until they were both broken up. As all four men started to get up, the crowd how dueling “Undisputed” and “AOP” chants. And then it was O’Reilly going back to Akam’s knee.

But Akam found his proverbial “second wind”, destroying both of them with brute force. AOP went for the Super Collider, but O’Reilly countered with a beautiful hurricanrana (Akam’s legs gave out due to the work on the injured knee!) and escaped with a roll-up win. Solid match, and it was everything we could have hoped for. Big ups to Akam for his selling and O’Reilly for being one of the most underrated wrestlers in the world.