NXT Takeover: New York recap — Be still, our Rebel Hearts

With five titles on the line and high expectations, NXT Takeover: New York kicked off WrestleMania weekend with a bang.

On Friday night, NXT hailed from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn for NXT Takeover: New York. The first show of the weekend for WWE delivered big time, putting on an absolutely fantastic show from top to bottom. The general consensus is that the black and yellow brand has already stolen the weekend before it even truly began. It may be the best NXT Takeover of all time.

If you are a fan of NXT and have followed this brand over the years, that’s quite high praise, but after a show like that it’s well deserved. Let’s run down the results and come up with some takeaways we’re left with following NXT’s biggest show of the year.

The War Raiders defeat Ricochet and Aleister Black to retain the NXT Tag Team titles

As mentioned in the Takeover preview, we speculated that the tag match would kick off the show and, indeed, it did. This match was the perfect way to start the show, and it helped the Brooklyn crowd was into it from the beginning.

The finish saw Ricochet take the pinfall after the War Raiders hit him with the Fallout. Black tried to make the save but just couldn’t get there in time.

Post-match, the War Raiders showed Ricochet and Black respect and left them alone in the ring to take in the applause from the WWE Universe. Ricochet clearly got emotional as the pair saluted the crowd, embraced one another and left the ring.

It’s clear after this matchup that this was Black and Ricochet’s final match in NXT. This Sunday, they will compete for the SmackDown Tag Team titles, and with their NXT careers behind them it would not be surprising these two secure tag team gold at MetLife Stadium on Sunday night.

What’s next for the War Raiders? The Undisputed Era will be looking for as much gold as they can post-Takeover and regaining the titles that were taken away from them by the War Raiders in the first place would be a good start. It shouldn’t be long before we find out the next top contenders for Hanson and Rowe’s titles.