The matches should be great, but the announcements for TakeOver: Phoenix haven’t been too spectacular. Probably because, for the most part, they’ve been pretty obvious.
After beating Johnny Gargano at WarGames 2, of course Aleister Black was due a chance to reclaim the NXT title from Tommaso Ciampa. Likewise War Raiders getting a shot at Roderick Strong & Kyle O’Reilly’s tag belts after being on the winning team against Undipsuted ERA in the double cage main event last November.
We got a clear cut challenger for Shayna Baszler’s Women’s championship when Bianca Belair won a #1 contender’s Fatal 4Way. But that still left at least a couple openings on the card for Sat., Jan. 26 at Talking Stick Resort Arena.
One of those was officially filled on the episode of NXT which aired tonight (Jan. 16). Ciampa was the first to suggest his old tag partner deserved a shot at Ricochet’s North American title, after he helped Johnny Failure/Wrestling beat Black in a steel cage match. Gargano reiterated the request, and the One and Only said he was down. The spoilers from the taping seemed to leave some wiggle room here, but General Manager William Regal sealed the deal...
What’s left? There are some big names without a match lined up, but between the last round of main roster call-ups and regular TakeOver players like Adam Cole and Velveteen Dream booked in the Worlds Collide tournament taking place at Axxess all Royal Rumble weekend, there aren’t a ton of options left.
The ongoing issues between Matt Riddle & Kassius Ohno, possibly somehow involving Keith Lee (and possibly a fourth man like Dominik Dijakovic or Punishment Martinez?) appear to provide the most likely suspect for a fifth match.
Here’s what we know for sure. Let us know what you think of it below...
- Aleister Black vs. Tommaso Ciampa (c) for the NXT championship
- Shayna Baszler (c) vs. Bianca Belair for the Women’s title
- Johnny Gargano vs. Ricochet (c) for the North American championship
- War Raiders vs. Undisputed ERA (c) for the NXT Tag titles