NXT TakeOver: New York Match Predictions

War Raiders (Hanson and Rowe)(c) vs. Aleister Black and Ricochet- NXT Tag Team Championship Match

First of all, thank goodness that Aleister Black and Ricochet are in this match instead to the wrestling equivalent of melatonin: The Forgotten Sons.

Now that the obvious is out of the way, these teams may also become casualties of this stacked card — which could be a blessing in disguise considering that Black and Ricochet will work another tag match at WrestleMania —  but even if these guys get between 10-15 minutes to work with, they are skilled enough to put together a compelling match.

Even if Black and Ricochet hadn’t spent the past few months on RAW and SmackDown, the possibility of them winning the tag titles in Brooklyn seems far-fetched. Even though they’ve gelled as a team since partnering up in February, the Black/Ricochet tandem feels more like a short-term deal and that lack of permanence makes any substantial title run — at least in NXT — unlikely.

Meanwhile, the War Raiders are clearly being built up as the anchor of the NXT tag team division, so it would be surprising if they lost the belts in their first defense. So expect a good-to-great tag encounter that will almost certainly end with a clean win for Hanson and Rowe.

Prediction: War Raiders retain the NXT Tag Team Championships (Rowe pins Ricochet)