WrestleMania 37 is right around the corner, which means NXT‘s biggest pay-per-view event of the year has arrived. NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver takes place on Wednesday and Thursday, and the card is filled with matches that have a chance to be very memorable. Night 1 of NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver will start tonight at 8 p.m. ET on USA Network. The event will also simulcast on Peacock with the kickoff show streaming a 7 p.m. ET.
The first night of Stand & Deliver features four big matches with the main event being Io Shirai facing Raquel Gonzalez for the NXT Women’s Championship. Shirai has been champion for nearly a year and has taken down every big challenger. The only one she hasn’t beaten is Gonzalez who is looked at as the favorite to win. CBS Sports believes that if Shirai loses tonight, she could be called up WWE‘s main roster after WrestleMania.
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“As a taller, bigger woman, I one hundred percent know I’m athletic and can do things that the other girls can do,” Gonzalez said to Wrestling Inc. in December. “But at the end of the day I don’t need to do [certain moves] because showing my athleticism I can show that by catching Ember Moon with a top rope Eclipse. I can do that by catching Rhea Ripley off the ring apron from a cannon ball and picking her backup and still running her in a barricade [for example].”
Another interesting match on the card is WALTER facing Tommaso Ciampa for the NXT United Kingdom Championship. WALTER has been the UK Champion for two years and is considered one of the best pro wrestlers in the world. With WATLER’s reign, it the longest for any WWE Superstar since 1988. Placing WALTER on USA Network will introduce him to a bigger audience.
The NXT Tag Team Championship is also on the line as three teams will battle in a triple threat match. MSK, Grizzled Young Veterans and Legado del Fantasma have been the top tag teams in the division this year and will battle to see who is the best. The match was made official after Danny Burch and Oney Lorcan had to vacate the titles due to an injury to Burch.
The fourth match is a gauntlet match for a shot at the NXT North American Championship. It will be Leon Ruff vs. Isaiah “Swerve” Scott vs. Bronson Reed vs. Cameron Grimes vs. Dexter Lumis vs. LA Knight. The winner of that match will face North American Champion Johnny Gargano on Thursday night.
