Kick-Off Show
The pre-show begins with the panel of Charly Caruso, Sam Roberts and Pat McAfee. The former NFL player, McAfee, says nothing compares to WrestleMania weekend. He says he had dinner and Sting was there, he shook hands with Vince, and he ate with Shawn Michaels before TakeOver. He says no Superbowl can compare to WrestleMania because it’s all about the fans and it’s a week-long event. The panel rundown the entire card for tonight’s TakeOver.
.@CharlyCarusoWWE wants to know: Would the #WWENXT #WomensDivision be PROUD to have @QoSBaszler as their #WomensChampion? #NXTTakeOver pic.twitter.com/3szsVCtcjv
— WWE NXT (@WWENXT) April 7, 2018
We see a video for the feud between Ember Moon and Shayna Baszler. The panel talk about the bitterness of the rivalry and how Shayna is a beast. Roberts says it may play a factor that Ember knows Baszler can seriously hurt her, to which McAfee agrees. Roberts says tonight is the night for Baszler to finally assert her dominance and win the title. McAfee says he likes Sam’s hair but he disagrees with him, saying that Ember will win because she’s a nice lady. Drew McIntyre will be on the panel at some point.
Next, we get a video hyping the North American Championship and tonight’s ladder match to crown the inaugural Champion. McAfee calls Ricochet a “stick of dynamite” and says he will light NXT on fire. Adam Cole joints the panel for a quick interview. Charly says he will be pulling double-duty tonight, to which he says tonight is a travesty, it may as well be called NXT: Screw The Undisputed Era. He says everyone knows he has a ladder match but he also has to defend the tag titles tonight. Adam Cole says Pat McAfee is a nobody and shouldn’t be here, to which McAfee gladly tells Cole that the ladder match will be the first match on the card. Cole is astounded that he has to have a ladder match before defending the tag titles. Cole says tonight is the biggest challenge to his group but they will come out on top as they always do. Roberts introduces himself to Cole and asks what he thought what was going to happen when they interrupted the Dusty Classic. Cole says they wanted to show that nobody is as good as them, nobody deserves a title shot or the Dusty Cup. McAfee says Cole is sounding like a whiner, to which Cole says that’s rich coming from a punter, “that’d be like you trying to give Peyton Manning advice”. Cole storms off and the panel move on.
Pre-show panelist @PatMcAfeeShow has some news for @AdamColePro...
...The 6-Man NXT #NorthAmericanChampionship #LadderMatch will KICK OFF #NXTTakeOver: New Orleans! pic.twitter.com/0weV18RyaS — WWE NXT (@WWENXT) April 7, 2018
We get a video for the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic tournament, which ended in a no contest, and therefore tonight we will get a Triple Threat match to determine the winners and the Tag Team Champions. Cathy Kelly interviews Roderick Strong and Pete Dunne backstage. She asks how they feel and Strong jokes “Pete looks thrilled”, then says he’s waited a long time to win a title in NXT and tonight is the night. Dunne says he can’t wait to put his foot in the mouth of the Undisputed Era. Strong says he isn’t worried about AOP because they will take the fight to them tonight. Back with the panel, McAfee says the AOP are incredible and they’ve “written many leather-bound books about pain”. He says the thing that hurts Strong and Dunne is their lack of chemistry as a team, whereas the other two teams have so much experience as teams. McAfee says he’s showered with a lot of big men but the AOP are the biggest guys he’s ever seen. Roberts says he thinks Adam Cole having already competed could really hurt their chances tonight.
The next match for discussion is the unsanctioned match between Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano. The video package for the match went all the way back to their tag team debut and chronicled the rise and fall of D.I.Y. We return to the panel and Candic LeRae has joined. Charly asks how she feels about this potentially ugly match. Candice says they lived with Tommaso and he was a part of their wedding, and now he’s a sociopath. She feels like she is living in The Twilight Zone. She says Ciampa has taken away their fairytale. Roberts asks what Gargano’s mentality is, since he gambled and lost his career. She says she wasn’t happy with the decision and Johnny has never been the same person since Tommaso turned on him. She says it’s unsettling how calm Johnny is, and she wants the man she married back. She says Tommaso has turned into a monster and now he needs to slay the dragon to move on in his life. They cut backstage for an interview with the referee for the unsanctioned match. Charly asks Drake Wuertz what his role in this match is, to which he says simply to count the pinfall or call submission. There are no rules. He gets asked how felt about counting the pin that ended Johnny’s NXT career, to which he says that was the hardest thing he’s ever had to do because he’s known Johnny a long time. He made the wrong call but he won’t make any mistakes tonight.
.@notsam wants to know... after knowing @JohnnyGargano for so long, what will @WWEDrakeWuertz do if he needs to count 1-2-3 in @ProjectCiampa's favor tonight? #NXTTakeOver pic.twitter.com/TXzQlR71Bo
— WWE NXT (@WWENXT) April 7, 2018
The final topic of discussion is the main event, the NXT Championship match between Andrade Almas and Aleister Black. Drew McIntrye has joined the panel and, since he got injured, says he’s been rehabbing constantly. He says he went to the same doctor as John Cena and told them to give him the John Cena treatment, so he’s been training like a mad man. They ask how he feels about Almas, to which he says the guy is cocky but gets the job done. He says Almas had to tear his bicep off and drop him on his head to take the title but he did it. McAfee asks who he thinks will win, to which McIntyre says he doesn’t care, he’s coming for Almas regardless. However if Black wins, they will set the world on fire with their feud. And with that, the TakeOver: New Orleans pre-show is over.
