WWE NXT Takeover Vengeance Day: Retro 3 Things We Hated & 3 Things We Loved

Welcome friends to another edition of Wrestling Inc.'s retro review, where we take an event from years gone by and break it down into individual pieces to see what we loved and hated in equal measure. For this edition, we are celebrating the fact that WWE NXT Vengeance Day 2026 is taking place this weekend and thought it would be a great idea to shine a spotlight on the inaugural Vengeance Day Premium Live Event, one that kind of bridges the gap between the "WWE NXT" of old and new.

On Valentine's Day 2021, "NXT" held its first TakeOver event of the year, NXT TakeOver: Vengeance Day. The Vengeance name is one of many retro event names that has brought back during the in "NXT" alongside the likes of In Your House, Halloween Havoc, and Heatwave, but with the show taking place on the most romantic day of the year, it needed a spin of some sorts and instead of Valentine's Day, we got Vengeance Day, despite WWE literally holding an event called St. Valentine's Day Massacre during the "Attitude Era."

By the time this event took place, the world was deep into the COVID-19 pandemic. The one year anniversary of when the entire planet went into lockdown was just over a month away, and while the wrestling business soldiered on in the state of Florida as wrestlers had been deemed "essential workers," it was tough for some people to watch. The lack of crowds meant a distinct lack of energy, the flaws in some people's work was on full display in a world of piped in crowd noise and fans being displayed on monitors, and for some people it was difficult to be as engaged as they were pre-COVID. 

It's because of the pandemic that a show like TakeOver: Vengeance Day doesn't get talked about as much as the shows that took place in front of a capacity crowd. At the time it took place, TakeOver: Vengeance Day was seen as one of the best WWE shows of the COVID era, but does it hold up over five years later? That's what we're going to talk about today. Here are three things we loved and hated about WWE NXT TakeOver: Vengeance Day!

The Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic, how we miss you. The annual tag team tournament was one of the main selling points when it came to the build up for NXT TakeOver: Vengeance Day, and in 2021 we had a double dose of two-on-two action. Not only did the men's tournament return for its sixth instalment, but we also got the first-ever women's tournament, with that final being the match to kick off the show.

The women's final saw the team of Ember Moon and Shotzi Blackheart face off with one of the only established duos in the entire field, Dakota Kai and Raquel Gonzalez, and with it being the first women's tournament final, all four ladies had a point to prove.

Kai and Gonzalez clearly had more chemistry as a team, finding a great balance where Kai could withstand a lot of punishment based on the fact that Gonzalez could come in with the hot tag and clean house. In the other corner you had Moon and Blackheart who just had natural chemistry based on how insane they both were at this time. Blackheart was flying around the ring like a lunatic while Moon, who was the MVP of the match for me personally, glued everything together very nicely. This opening match was full of life, full of color, full of energy, and while it did get a little sloppy towards the end due to fatigue, the fact that Blackheart had to have both Kai and Gonzalez pin her to put her away shows just how much both teams wanted to make history. A great opener.

Then you have the men's side of things. The Grizzled Young Veterans fell at the final hurdle in 2020 losing in the final to The BroserWeights, and they weren't going to rest until that defeat in the final was officially rectified. However, they had to deal with an unknown entity as MSK's Wes Lee and Nash Carter, formerly known as The Rascalz, made their debut in the Dusty Rhodes Classic and made it all the way to the final on their first attempt.

This was a classic clash of styles that worked brilliantly. The no-nonsense toughness of GYV doing everything in their power to keep the high-flying MSK grounded, with all four men working with a chemistry that "NXT" didn't really capitalize on in the months following this match. These two teams could have had a lengthy rivalry that sat alongside The Revival's battles with #DIY and American Alpha, but to this day this remains the only two-on-two encounter between these four men. With that said, if they never have another match after this, what a one-off match this was. 

I don't know how many times we have to say this in these reviews, but when done right, tag team wrestling is just awesome and these two tournament finals delivered in every respect. Someone tell Triple H or Shawn Michaels to bring back the Dusty Rhodes Classic because it rules.

I feel as if enough time has passed that we can finally all have an honest conversation about Johnny Gargano and his run of NXT TakeOver matches. "Johnny Wrestling" is one of the performers that in the moment, you can get lost in the hype of everything, especially in "WWE NXT." With that said, I can completely understand why Gargano falls into the category of wrestlers who have a match catalogue that haven't aged as well as you'd originally expect. A lot of them are way too long, a lot of them have so many finisher kickouts that you reach the point of diminishing returns, and the whole presentation of some matches are so bloated that you see him rallying for a comeback and you're like "Please, would you stop doing that? I'm tired." 

So you can imagine my fear when I looked at the card for NXT TakeOver: Vengeance Day and noticed that his NXT North American Championship match with Kushida had a runtime of just under 25 minutes. Thankfully, this was not a slog to get through and is actually one of my favorite Gargano matches from his time in "NXT." 

The story going into this one was very simple. Gargano found a new lease on life with his new faction, The Way, and was ready to have a long title run which he had not been able to enjoy towards the end of the 2010s. Kushida on the other hand had a slow start to life in "NXT" but found his footing by the start of 2021 and wanted to become the first-ever Japanese born NXT North American Champion. Gargano would do everything in his power to avoid a one-on-one encounter with the NJPW star, but after the match was made official, Kushida would target Gargano's arm to give him an advantage heading into TakeOver.

The damaged arm was the driving force behind this match as Kushida, known for his Hoverboard Lock and being able to secure an arm submission from any possible angle, was like a moth to a flame when it came to Gargano's arm. I think that's what made this match so great and distinct from all of the other Gargano epics in "NXT," he was wrestling a Kushida match which forced him to change his style. He couldn't spam finisher kickouts and high spots, he had to work for them so that they actually meant something. The arm selling isn't always consistent, after all "Johnny Wrestling" has to escape at least one of Kushida's signature submissions, but he does a great job at keeping up with Kushida who is a firecracker in this match. Easily the best performance of Kushida's "NXT" career who is also fantastic at selling the fatigue of wrestling someone who just will not go down, and the whole thing is just a boatload of fun. Definitely worth checking out if you have never seen it.

Finn Balor's second run in "WWE NXT" was one where he could rejuvenate his image after his main roster run went off the rails almost immediately. After getting injured at WWE SummerSlam 2016 in the match where he became the first-ever WWE Universal Champion, the next two-and-a-half years ended up being a bit of a mess for Balor as he always looked like he could break back into the main event scene but was never given the chance, and had to settle for two reigns with the WWE Intercontinental Championship instead. 

Once he returned to "NXT" and tapped back into elements of the Prince Devitt character from this NJPW, it added an extra edge to his overall presentation that made you remember that he was the creator of the Bullet Club. Heading into TakeOver: Vengeance Day, Balor had held the NXT Championship for five months and showed no signs of slowing down. However, Pete Dunne was also showing no signs of slowing down either having become a main event player in "NXT" throughout the pandemic. He wanted to lead by example in "NXT," and after Balor had spent some time away recovering from a broken jaw he suffered against Kyle O'Reilly in October 2020, Dunne thought that "NXT" needed a champion that was tougher than someone like Balor.

With both guys being from Europe, Balor and Dunne leaned heavily into making this one a technical showcase where they each tried to target specific body parts in order to gain an advantage. Dunne was known for being very aggressive on the ground, and knowing that Balor wasn't at 100%, he would wrench the arm of the champion at grotesque angles, bending and snapping the fingers as he did so. Dunne also targeted the weakened jaw and chin of Balor, making it difficult for him to stay composed and focused. As for Balor, Dunne seemed to jam his knee early on and went to town on the injured leg, with both men keeping the selling up right until the very end of the match.

I'm being deadly serious when I say that this might be one of the best matches Balor has had in a WWE ring, and the same goes for Dunne. Keeping the match grounded in a setting where there was no crowd added to the intensity of things, think the first match between Ilja Dragunov and WALTER, a match that benefited from having no crowd on hand to witness it. Balor and Dunne worked their butts off in this one to create something different to what would have worked in a full arena, and it turned out to be one of the best matches on a card full of great stuff. 

As for The Undisputed Era angle to close out the show, I think the group had rans its course and it was the right time for Cole to turn heel again, it's just a shame that the eventual Cole/O'Reilly storyline didn't live up to the hype.

We can't always be positive around these parts, and one match that I had a lot of expectations for heading into NXT TakeOver: Vengeance Day was this one. Io Shirai defended the NXT Women's Championship in a Triple Threat Match against both Toni Storm and Mercedes Martinez, and it was fine. That's it, it was fine. I know a few people who love this match and don't get me wrong, I can understand the appeal especially when you have three women as talented as these getting to go at it, but I was kind of left wanting more from it knowing what they are all capable of.

Truth be told, I didn't hate this match so the "Hated" in the title seems a bit harsh, but what this match didn't benefit from is the fact that it was in the dreaded death spot. MSK and Grizzled Young Veterans was great, as was Johnny Gargano and Kushida, and the show's opener was full of energy as well, so when you get to the penultimate match of the night and you know the main event is next, one match has to be the one to give people a breather and this was it.

In hindsight, the one thing that this match could have really benefited from would be making it a straight singles match, and for my money, it would have been Martinez who didn't make the cut. That's not to say Martinez is bad in this match, far from it, but the money was in putting Storm and Shirai in a one-on-one contest given their history. The two women had a number of great matches against each other in STARDOM where they had a lot more time to work, so giving them 15 to 20 minutes on a TakeOver to prove why so many people called Shirai and Storm two of the best in the world at that time would have been a much better solution. Instead, Martinez was inserted to fit another body on the card and the match, for as fine as it was, ended up falling short of the mark for me. 

It was a shame that whatever planned announce table spot they had went wrong because Storm was a bit too heavy handed getting everything cleared, but Shirai salvaged it by climbing one of the trusts and hitting a huge crossbody in what was the most memorable spot of the match by some distance. Overall, it was a match that would have stood out a lot more had it been on any other show, and if it was just a match between Shirai and Storm. Funnily enough, Shirai and Storm did have a singles match on TV a month later, but that was handcuffed by the fact it was just a TV match, so if you want to see these two wrestle, just go and watch their STARDOM stuff.

Due to the restrictions in place due to COVID-19, there weren't a lot of people in the Capitol Wrestling Center to witness NXT TakeOver: Vengeance Day. There were some extras, trainees, wrestlers who didn't make the card, and some select fans, but it wasn't exactly a packed house especially when everyone had to keep their distance. With that said, the crowd did its best to generate an atmosphere, and I honestly think that it would have been good enough to act as the overall sound of the evening, as opposed to what we actually got, which was the piped in crowd noise, which was horrendous.

Oh my days it was bad. I get why WWE did it during this time, especially in the Thunderdome because that was still set up to look like a standard WWE arena so it doesn't take you out of it too much, but on "NXT" it is truly unbearable. You have the audio track of what is probably a crowd from an episode of "WWE Raw" or "WWE SmackDown" layered over the top of the actual audio, so your ears are hearing thousands of screaming fans, but your eyes see the real people in the crowd not moving and it's like why even bother? Like, we know there aren't thousands of people in this building, just turn off the crowd noise because it'll make it a much more pleasant experience.

There was honestly a point during the opening stages of Kushida's match with Johnny Gargano where I had to mute the audio. I couldn't do it guys, it was too much. The "boos," if you could call them that, directed at Gargano sounded like the crowd track that was playing was running out of battery. It sounded like a bunch of ghosts in pain. It sounded like the crowd was melting and I'm not even sure how that's possible but that's the best way to describe it. Just a chorus of grief that was all over this show.

The cheers weren't much better as they were just bland, and the piped in "This is awesome" chants were hilarious because for one, no one in attendance is even remotely in time with the track, and two, you can't even tell if they were chanting because they've all got facemasks on. You could hear the actual crowd chanting for the babyfaces, chanting "NXT," pounding on the steel fencing and plexiglass to separate them from the action, just boost the volume on those guys! Give the audience a voice, this is one of the only escapes they have from the 21st century hellscape that was the pandemic, let them be heard! But no. Instead you have this constant wave of drab noise which includes some noises I don't even think real people can actually make it's so weird. I know it sounds nit-picky to hate the audio of a wrestling show, but watch it for yourself and you'll understand it instantly.

Overall, NXT TakeOver: Vengeance Day is one of the most underrated "NXT" events from the "Black and Gold" era. There really isn't a bad match on the show despite a few gripes with certain things, and everyone who was on the card gave it their all for the minimal crowd that was on hand to see it live. Which brings me on to the biggest hate of all, one that I think we can all agree with especially with a card like this, I wish this show didn't take place during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The problem that we've had a lot when covering TakeOver shows for this Loved and Hated series is that it's genuinely difficult to find things to complain about. The cards are so tight and concise that you aren't feeling burnt out by the end of them, the five match structure actually works because the shows are short and not filled with at least two weeks worth of commercials like we have today, and because it was the style at the time, the in-ring action was the focus which meant that it had to be great and most of the time it was. Vengeance Day follows that same formula, but the only thing missing is the rabid TakeOver audience we used to get at every show.

Props have to be given to those in attendance as they made their own noise, but you can just tell that a match like Kushida vs. Johnny Gargano was made to be wrestled in front of a molten hot capacity crowd. A moment like MSK winning the Dusty Rhodes Classic would have been one of the feel good moments of the "Black and Gold" era had Nash Carter and Wes Lee had people to celebrate with other than each other, and the Adam Cole heel turn at the end of the show would have probably helped him become more detestable than what he ended up being in his feud with Kyle O'Reilly. A lot of wrestlers make the claim of being the heart and soul of "NXT," but its when the brand lost its voice that the decline really started to be noticeable.

Some people like to say that it was AEW that killed the original incarnation of the "NXT" brand, but while that company's success didn't necessarily help, it was far from the biggest reason why "Black and Gold" didn't make it to the end of 2021, it was the pandemic. Forcing a brand that had such a loyal and vocal audience behind closed doors was the move that needed to be made at that time, but it was the death blow for "NXT" as a brand. "NXT" during the 2010s was the show that the fans would rant and rave about, the crowd took characters into their arms and made them superstars, and had this show happened in front of thousands it would be heralded as an all-time classic. But instead, it's just a lot of great wrestling happening in a near-empty building.

If you're one of the people who dipped out on wrestling during the pandemic, go and watch this show, because even a global pandemic couldn't stop professional wrestling from being great on this night.