Tossing Salt Presents:
NXT Takeover: Philadelphia
Thoughts & Predictions
January 26, 2018
DougMaynard.com
Coming up on Saturday, from the mean streets of Philadelphia, the WWE presents NXT Takeover: Philadelphia. It’s the warm-up event, one night before the 25th Annual WWE Royal Rumble. It’s the NXT’s night to shine and the card is stacked and pumped and loaded from top to bottom. It’s time to do a few predictions and figure out the winners, the losers and everything in between. And I can’t think of anything else to say right now so I’ll just can the chit-chat and get to predicting. And away we go…
WWE NXT champion Andrade “Cien” Almas (with Zelina Vega) vs. Johnny Gargano.
Andrade has been amazing ever since being alligned with Zelina and I think it’s way too early to have him drop the title yet. I think we need to have at least one more go-around with Drew McIntyre trying to reclaim his NXT title and getting his rematch with Almas before we get a new champion. I’m not sure of the current status of Tommaso Ciampa, but the perfect ending for this match would be to have Gargano come just this close to winning, but the return of Ciampa and distraction would allow Almas to retain and keep his belt. The more I think about it, the more I like the idea.
Winner and STILL NXT Champion: Andrade “Cien” Almas
Aleister Black vs. Adam Cole: Extreme Rules match.
This match could really go either way and regardless of who wins at the final bell, neither man would be hurt all that much. Just a whim here, but I think I’ll go with Cole for this one. He really hasn’t had that big win yet while in NXT to establish himself among the top tier of the NXT superstars. Black has already proven himself and can afford, even more than Cole, to drop this one.
Winner: Adam Cole
WWE NXT Women’s champion Ember Moon vs. Shayna Baszler.
Moon is really growing into her role as the NXT Women’s Champion and I can’t see her dropping the belt this soon, at least not unless she’s moving to the main roster and the Women’s Royal Rumble match the next night. But even so, I think she’ll keep the title for a while longer. And Shanya, she’s just amazing to watch and is someone to keep an eye on. I think it would be a bad move to have her lose cleanly, so I’ll go with a DQ finish here. Look for Baszler to get carried away and get DQ’ed, thus giving Moon the win and allowing her to retain the title, but still allowing Baszler to be strong and not suffer a loss.
Winner and STILL NXT Women’s Champion: Ember Moon
WWE NXT Tag Team champions The Undisputed Era vs. The Authors of Pain (with Paul Ellering).
By all rights, this should be a squash and we should see the AOP regain the NXT Tag Team Championships in pretty quick fashion. But things don’t always go as they should and it’s too soon to take the belts off of O’Reilly and Fish. Look for the AOP to dominate, but the Undisputed Era will snatch a victory from the jaws of defeat and find a way to steal a pin and get the win.
Winners and STILL NXT Tag Team Champions: The Undisputed Era
Kassius Ohno vs. The Velveteen Dream.
The Dream is on the rise and looking great. I love Ohno,but there is no way that the former Chris Hero will walk out of this match with the win. Look for a great match and some great action, but at the end of the night, it’s time for some golden slumbers as we all experience the Velveteen Dream.
Winner: The Velveteen Dream
And that’s how I think it’s going to go come Saturday night. A night of great matches and hot action all night long as the stars of NXT try to steal the show and give the WWE something to compete against. Am I right? Am I wrong? Tell me what you think and how you think that the action at the NXT Takeover: Philadephia is going to go. Comments and all feedback is welcome and appreciated. I’ll be back later with my Royal Rumble predictions as well as lots of other great stuff. Thanks for reading. Until the next time, take care.
Ubuntu!
