NXT TakeOver: Vengeance Day: Top three moments from the show

While every NXT TakeOver is generally good-to-great, but this past Sunday’s NXT TakeOver: Vengeance Day represented a return to the peaks that made such a can’t-miss event for fans yearning to see WWE present a more sports-centric product.

Since moving the weekly NXT show to USA Network and expanding the runtime to two hours in August 2019, the show has slightly moved away from that reliable format, but Vengeance Day was a return to form for the brand overall. From the opening match to the main event, everything delivered from an in-ring standpoint, and we also got an intriguing angle to hook fans for this coming Wednesday’s TV show.

But which moments stood out above the others? On a show like this, making that distinction is like parsing out the three best NBA players; it often comes down to personal preference at a certain point.

So, since picking “everything” is a bit of a cop-out, these are the three things that will get some shine.

NXT delivered another stellar supercard with NXT TakeOver: Vengeance Day, and here are the three moments that stood above the rest.

3. Finn Balor and Pete Dunne’s gorgeous muckfight

Heading into NXT TakeOver: Vengeance Day, everyone knew that Pete Dunne and NXT Champion Finn Balor could put together a legitimate Match of the Year contender if given the chance, and in the main event of this show, they didn’t disappoint.

As those two classics with Kyle O’Reilly showed, Balor can more than hold up his end in matches that are laid out as gritty fight more so than an elegant performance. Yes, we got plenty of great counters and chain wrestling here, but we also saw plenty of strikes and blows that reflected the exemplary psychology these two possess — for example, I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone use their opponent’s arm to execute a low blow the way Dunne did (though, how is that not a disqualification?).

From the opening bell to Balor’s match-clinching 1916, this is one you should go out of your way to see.