WWE NXT TakeOver: Stand and Deliver, Night 2 featured Finn Balor vs. Karrion Kross for the WWE NXT Championship, Santos Escobar vs. Jordan Devlin for the NXT Cruiserweight Championship, Shotzi Blackheart and Ember Moon vs. The Way for the NXT Women’s Tag Team Championships, Bronson Reed vs. Johnny Gargano for the NXT North American Championship and Adam Cole vs. Kyle O’Reilly in an unsanctioned match.

Last week’s broadcast of WWE NXT garnered 654,000 viewers against 700,000 viewers for WWE NXT.

• March 31, 2021—654,000
• March 24, 2021—678,000
• March 17, 2021—597,000
• March 10, 2021—691,000
• March 3, 2021—692,000

WWE NXT—Key Competition 

• Hell’s Kitchen
• Keeping up with the Kardashians

Pro Wrestling Bits—Soulja Boy’s WWE Twitter Beef With Randy Orton

WWE NXT Total YouTube Viewership Last Week: 1,858,475 (Down from 2,739,289 views)

• Most-Viewed: 12-Man Battle Royal to Qualify for Gauntlet Eliminator (350,243 views)
• Least-Viewed: The Difference Between WALTER and Tommaso Ciampa (58,219 views)
• Median Viewership: 132,738 views

WWE NXT TakeOver: Stand and Deliver Night 2 Results—Thursday, April 8, 2021

Santos Escobar def. Jordan Devlin—NXT Cruiserweight Championship

Santos Escobar was so intelligent working with ladders in this match. He moved them around to make sure Jordan Devlin was never under the belts, and he checked to make sure Devlin was out cold before scaling the ladder. If Devlin was coming to, he’d leave the ladder and attack Devlin.

Jordan Devlin’s moonsault off the ladder was so perfect.

Devlin was saved by the top rope while taking a scary bump to the outside off the ladder.

Ember Moon and Shotzi Blackheart def. The Way—NXT Tag Team Championships

Ember Moon’s poppin’ and lockin’ is 1,000 times better than Road Dogg, and he was actually pretty good at it.

WWE NXT needs to put a moratorium on Shotzi Blackheart dives. As much as I love her, she simply does not have the body control to keep doing these topés.

Johnny Gargano def. Bronson Reed—NXT North American Championship

I loved the continuity of working over Bronson Reed’s midsection after he took a nasty bump on the apron and a 450 splash.

Beth Phoenix used the term “intercostal muscles” and I had to check to see if it was Gorilla Monsoon’s birthday (it’’s June 4).

This won’t be remembered as an iconic Johnny TakeOver match, but it was so, so good. That’s how hight he bar is for Gargano, and Reed was also fantastic.

Karrion Kross def. Finn Balor—NXT Championship

The video package for this match made the link that both Finn Balor and Karrion Kross had to give up world titles because of shoulder injuries. I’m not sure that’s the most effective way to build up a match between two top stars.

During Finn Balor’s entrance, they showed all kinds of pictures of him that led to them showing The Demon, only for regular old Finn Balor to walk out.

Finn Balor was getting bludgeoned, face-down, and unable to protect himself (as was pointed out by Wade Barrett on commentary), and the referee did his best Herb Dean impression and just let it fly.

Kyle O’Reilly def. Adam Cole—Unsanctioned Match

Thank goodness for Peacock, because the entrances for this match began at 6:53 pm PST.

The Undisputed Era Theme Music is classic, sure, but Adam Cole’s new theme music didn’t even come close to matching it, and Kyle O’Reilly’s theme music was even more generic.

This match could have used a little editing as there was no weapon these two weren’t wiling to use.