WWE NXT News: Takeover Moved to June 1, New Announcer, Viking Raiders NXT Tag Team Titles Storyline (Spoilers)

There were NXT tapings last night at Full Sail University in Orlando and with it comes some news. I’m not going to post full spoilers for the next month of shows. What was taped last night is expected to air on May 15, May 22 and May 29. What’s not clear are the matches on the next Takeover card. Check out the spoilers on WrestlingObserver.com if you are interested.

The first bit of news is that the next NXT Takeover will take place on Saturday, June 1st. That is a change from the original Saturday, June 8th date that was announced for San Jose, California. The reason for the change is because there’s the WWE Saudi Arabia event was moved from early May to June 7th, so key people running NXT (like NXT boss Triple H) wouldn’t be able to make the Takeover show since they would be in Saudi Arabia. As a result, WWE decided to move Takeover ahead by one week.

Here’s a brief video from WWE:

In the video, they announced that we will learn more about the show including the venue and ticket info this coming Monday.

It was noted in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter this week that a possible location for Takeover on June 1 could be Bridgeport, CT or Atlanta, GA. That sucks for the fans in San Jose.

This means that that the upcoming WWE Network schedule, in terms of PPV specials, from late May through June looks like this:

Sunday. May 19 – WWE Money in the Bank in Hartford.
Saturday, June 1 – NXT Takeover (no venue announced yet)
Friday, June 7 – WWE Saudi Arabia Event (no name yet)
Sunday, June 23 – WWE Stomping Grounds in Tacoma

It’s weird that we don’t know some of the info for those shows. WWE needs to organize some of this stuff better.

* Beth Phoenix has joined the NXT announce team where she called last night’s action with Mauro Ranallo and Nigel McGuinness. Here’s a photo of the WWE Hall of Famer Beth Phoenix from JJ Williams of the Wrestling Observer.

Phoenix replaced Percy Watson. There’s no word on if he has been permanently removed from commentary or what this might mean for him. Perhaps he will have more of a role on main roster shows. I don’t know that right now.

* Tyler Breeze worked the tapings since he has barely been a part of Raw in recent months. It’s likely a short term move, but it hasn’t been specified. Breeze did an angle with NXT North American Champion Velveteen Dream where he laid him out. That could lead to a NXT North American Title match at the next Takeover or perhaps at a future NXT taping.

Thanks again to JJ Williams for the above photo.

* The Viking Raiders said farewell to NXT. The duo that was known in NXT as the War Raiders made the move to Raw’s main roster where they have looked dominant over the last few weeks. Rowe is now Erik and Hanson is now Ivar, so they had personal name changes too.

There was an angle taped at the show where The Viking Raiders said they wanted to forfeit the titles since no team could beat them. The Street Profits tried to beat them in a match, then other teams got involved and there are no new champions right now. From the way the tapings went down, it appears as though there will be a multi-team Ladder Match for the NXT Tag Team Titles at the next Takeover on June 1.

Here’s a photo of The Viking Raiders bowing to the audience to thank them for their time as part of NXT with thanks again to JJ Williams for the photo.

That’s a wrap up of the key notes from the NXT tapings last night. We still don’t know the June 1 Takeover card, but we’ll update that on the site as we know more and keep reading Kurt Zamora’s NXT Spotlight reviews here on the site as well.