Ranking every NXT Championship match on an NXT TakeOver (and Arrival)

Ranking every NXT Championship match on an NXT TakeOver (and Arrival).

Since the release of the WWE network in 2014, the NXT TakeOver series has become the best-received and most highly-anticipated shows under the WWE umbrella by a significant portion of WWE’s audience. And with a few exceptions (including the most recent Takeover, WarGames III/2019), the shows are usually main-event by a contest for the NXT Championship.

Over the course of the 27 TakeOvers, there have been 25 NXT Championship matches on TakeOver, with 20 main events. If you lump in NXT Arrival, a similar live show that preceded the first TakeOver, that brings the total to 26, with 21 main events. Across those matches, we’ve seen some of the best storytelling WWE has had in the 2010s, and maybe one of the best matches under the WWE umbrella ever, depending on who you talk to. We’ve also had mind-numbingly long and/or boring matches. For the most part, though, NXT Championship matches have been really good, which made the research for this list a lot easier.

With that in mind, this article is an exhaustive ranking of these matches, in terms of both in-ring action and storytelling. Let’s begin with a handful of matches I actually dislike.