NXT TakeOver: Portland Results, Grades, and Analysis; Cole retains thanks to Gargano

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Undisputed Era (Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly)(c) vs. The Broserweights (Pete Dunne and Matt Riddle)- NXT Tag Team Championships

Fish and O’Reilly clearly had no interest in the tongue twister, as they attacked the challengers before the bell, which led to a brawl. Once some order was restored, Riddle and Fish started things out for their respective teams.

Riddle hit some kicks on O’Reilly before O’Reilly got his own shot in and tagged Fish. He didn’t fare much better, as he took several Riddle palm strikes. He landed some knees, but Riddle simply came back with an exploder. Riddle maintained the gutwrench and carried Fish to the corner, where Riddle tagged Dunne in and hit a Dunne-assisted corkscrew senton.

Dunne ran wild on Fish and O’Reilly for a bit — including stepping on O’Reilly’s elbow and hitting X-Plexes on both men into the apron — but when he went for his flip off the top rope, Fish kicked his leg out from under him to kickstart Undisputed Era’s heat segment.

Dunne tried to fight off both men several times, but on each occasion, Fish and O’Reilly would cut him off and continue to work him over. Later on, Fish held Dunne in the corner, but when O’Reilly came charging in, Dunne ducked and O’Reilly inadvertently hit Fish.

O’Reilly tried to cut Dunne off, but a Dunne kick to Fish broke KO’s concentration long enough for Riddle to get the tag. He almost literally got all his stuff in on the champions, ending his cool move flurry with a bridging German for a nearfall.

Blind tag from Dunne, and they hit a powerbomb/knee strike combo for another nearfall. They then went for dual dives, but while Dunne hit the moonsault on Fish, but O’Reilly got the knees up on the Riddle senton attempt.

On the outside, Dunne stomped on Fish’s fingers, but roundhouse kicked the post. Inside, Riddle traded strikes and suplexes with O’Reilly before hitting him with a spear. He went for a suplex, but Fish chop blocked him, which led to the Codebreaker/Wheelbarrow suplex combo from the champs.

Fish was then tagged in. He and O’Reilly tried some tandem offense, but Riddle hit double kneed and tagged Dunne back in. Dunne’s Kimura attempt was countered into a sleeper by O’Reilly. KO then hit Ax, but Dunne beat him to Smash and had answers to both of O’Reilly’s rebound lariat attempts.

The two teams then traded submission holds for a while before we got the “partner breaks up the hold and everyone falls into a heap” trope that has become commonplace in NXT tag matches. Dunne tagged Riddle back in and they went for another tandem move, but Fish shoved Dunne into Riddle to break that up.

O’Reilly hit Dunne with a running knee off the apron and Fish delivered an avalanche exploder. King Kong knee drop from O’Reilly to Riddle transitioned into a kneebar. Fish cut off Dunne initially, but Dunne got free by breaking Fish’s fingers and stomping O’Reilly’s open hand.

Dunne tagged back in and after some more strikes, O’Reilly pushed Dunne into Riddle, who fell off the apron. Regardless, Dunne did some more finger snapping to keep Fish from tagging in. Riddle reentered the ring and went for a spear on O’Reilly but he accidentally hit Dunne!

He got dumped outside and O’Reilly and Fish hit Chasing the Dragon for a good nearfall. They then went for Total Elimination, but Dunne got out. Blind tag to Riddle, and while the champs worked over Dunne, he broke up another Chasing the Dragon attempt.

He and Dunne then hit the X-Plex/Powerbomb combo to get rid of Fish and hit a combo GTS for the victory and the titles!

Winners: Pete Dunne and Matt Riddle via pinfall (Dunne pinned O’Reilly); win the NXT Tag Team Championships

Rating: ****1/2. Stellar work from these teams. Given what happened with Dunne and his last Dusty Classic partner, the miscommunication teases that led to a nearfall were well done. The fan-friendly title change was fine here, especially following all heel wins and Charlotte getting heat on Ripley. 

Following an Adam Cole/Tommaso Ciampa video package, Ciampa came out sporting slick new tights. The champion walked out to his usual reaction.