Five matches were contested during the main broadcast and one match prior to the televised portion of the show. The main event was the first high-profile NXT Championship defense in Adrian Neville's title reign after winning the championship at NXT Arrival as he wrestled Tyson Kidd. In another prominent match, the tournament finals for the vacant NXT Women's Championship was contested as Charlotte defeated Natalya to win the title.
Production
Background
In 2012, WWE restructured their NXTbrand from being a reality-based competition television show to a developmental territory for their main roster. In February 2014, the promotion held its first live special for NXT that was uniquely titled Arrival, which was also the very first event to air live on WWE's online streaming service, the WWE Network, which launched three days earlier.[1] The promotion scheduled their next WWE Network event for NXT as an event called TakeOver. It was scheduled to be held on May 29, 2014, at NXT's home arena, Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida.[2]
Storylines
The event comprised five matches that from scripted storylines. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the NXT brand, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television program, NXT.[3][4]
With the scheduling of NXT TakeOver: Fatal 4-Way in September 2014, the "TakeOver" name would subsequently be used as the brand name for NXT's live shows. The TakeOver events were held several times a year, often as support shows for one of WWE's main shows, such as WrestleMania or SummerSlam.[2] The events were originally exclusive to the WWE Network until TakeOver 31 in October 2020 when they also became available on traditional pay-per-view (PPV),[6] and then also on Peacock after the American version of the WWE Network merged under Peacock in March 2021.[7] The TakeOver series came to an end in 2021 with the final TakeOver held as TakeOver 36 in August that year. In September 2021, the NXT brand went through a restructuring, being rebranded as "NXT 2.0", reverting, in part, to a developmental territory for WWE.[8] It was speculated that with this rebranding, the TakeOver series would be discontinued.[9][10] On November 9, 2021, NXT's next PPV and livestreaming event was announced as WarGames. While WarGames had been held as a TakeOver event from 2017 to 2020, the announcement confirmed that the 2021 event would not be a TakeOver event, thus ending the TakeOver series.[11][12][13] However, the Mat Man Podcast reported that WWE may use the TakeOver name again if an NXT event is held in a large venue, such as sharing the same venue with one of WWE's major events, and held as a support show for one of those events, like several previous TakeOvers have done.[14]
It was also the last WWE appearance of Camacho before he was released until he resigned with the WWE in 2023 under the ringname Tonga Loa