NXT TakeOver: Phoenix Match Card Predictions

Tommaso Ciampa (c) vs. Velveteen Dream vs. Aleister Black vs. Johnny Gargano – NXT Championship Match (Fatal Four Way)

After kicking Johnny Gargano’s teeth down his throat and absolving him of his sins at TakeOver: WarGames, Aleister Black seems like the practical choice as NXT Champion

Satan’s

Tommaso Ciampa’s next challenger. After all, he never received his championship rematch due to Gargano assaulting him before TakeOver: Brooklyn IV, so from that perspective, it makes sense.

However, I’m not 100 percent sure the NXT writers want to rush to a Black vs Ciampa rematch so soon. If they want to hold off on that bout, booking a multi-person match with Velveteen Dream and Gargano is the smart direction to take.

All four of these men are intertwined in some way, especially when it comes to the “Who Attacked Aleister Black” story. Ciampa and Dream only began feuding in the first place because Dream decided to implicate Ciampa as Black’s attacker. Additionally, Gargano’s descent into the darkness was accelerated by Dream calling him “Johnny Failure”.

We all know about the brutal history between Gargano and Ciampa. We also know how hard Dream worked to get Black to “say his name” and that Ciampa took the title from Black thanks to Gargano. There is more than enough animus between this quartet of world-class wrestlers, which would serve as a further incentive for one man to ensure that the other three don’t leave the Talking Stick Arena with NXT’s richest prize.

Of course, Triple H and the crew could also split this off into two matches and push the Lee vs Ohno match back a week. Either way, these four have far too much momentum to miss this card in January, so expect them to be there, either in a match like this or in respective singles matches.