Finn Balor retained his NXT Championship with a victory over Samoa Joe in front of a sold out Wembley crowd of 10,079 at NXT Takeover: London.
The history making show, the first ever live worldwide broadcast from the UK in the history of WWE, sold out months in advance as a thunderous crowd packed the London venue with some of the most unique chants ever heard in wrestling.
The event concluded NXT’s first ever overseas tour, having made stops in Glasgow, Newcastle, Sheffield, Blackpool, Nottingham and Cardiff.
Opening the show, Asuka battled Emma in a tremendous back and forth contest that had the live crowd on their feet throughout, and a victory for the Japanese sensation set the tone for the rest of the night.
Dash Wilder and Scott Dawson retained their NXT Tag Team Championships in a hard fought victory over Big Cass and Enzo Amore, who had one of the loudest reactions they’ve ever had in their career, including a rendition of The Beatles’ classic “Hey Jude” with the lyrics replaced with “Big Cass”. Wilder & Dawson weren’t left out either, with chants of “Who are ya!?” and “THIS IS DAWSON” ringing throught Wembley.
The crowd were on the edge of their seat throughout this contest, and at times it looked like Cass and Enzo would walk out of London with the gold, but it wasn’t to be as the champions took the upper hand.
Up next we saw Baron Corbin take on Apollo Crews in a contest that would probably surprise some. The chants in this match were very non-PG, causing new SmackDown announcer Mauro Ranallo to take to twitter to express his displeasure at the disrespectful portion of the crowd. In somewhat of an ironic twist, a much improved Corbin hit Crews with the “End of Days”, and the Lone Wolf walked out with the victory.
As for the NXT Women’s Championship; the champion, Bayley, overcame the odds to retain the title in an extremely hard fought battle with the powerful Nia Jax in a match which Jax had almost complete control of. In the end though, Bayley persevered and thanks to a guillotine choke, continues her run as NXT Women’s Champion. What’s next for Bayley? Who knows, but following a post match backstage interview, it appears Nia is in Asuka’s crosshairs next.
And finally, Finn Balor defeated Samoa Joe in the main event to retain the NXT Championship. The crowd were red hot throughout this match, and Balor (who entered the ring with an awesome Jack the Ripper attire) was victorious with the coup de grace. Tensions were high and the story told in this match was absolutely brilliant. It was by far the match of the night and at one point, we even saw Samoa Joe fly out of the ring, reminiscent of his TNA & Ring of Honor days.
All in all, NXT Takeover: London was a roaring success for WWE, and no doubt they will be back with WWE COO Triple H taking to twitter immediately after the show to say that NXT will be doing more tours in 2016. Whether this includes the UK or not remains to be seen, however.
Match of the Night: Finn Balor vs. Samoa Joe
Photos: WWE