Posted in: Sports, TV, WWE | Tagged: ember moon, NXT, nxt takeover 31, Takeover, toni storm, wrestling, wwe

NXT Takeover 31 Shocker: Toni Storm and Ember Moon Return to NXT

Published Sun, 04 Oct 2020 20:02:37 -0500

NXT Takeover 31 featured several unsurprising outcomes, with no titles changing hands as of this writing (though the main event is happening right now). But fans did get some nice surprises in other ways. For example, after fans demanded it for years, WWE announced they're bringing back the Halloween Havoc name. But the biggest surprises came right after the penultimate match of NXT Takeover 31.

Toni Storm returns (virtually) at NXT Takeover 31

That match saw Io Shirai defeat Candice LeRae to retain the NXT Women's Championship, but immediately afterward, Toni Storm appeared on the Titantron to announce her return, and presumably her intentions to challenge Shirai for the belt. But that wasn't all. While Shirai stood in the ring, a video played to pay off the teasers of a returning former champion that we've been seeing on NXT TV for weeks, with the person set to return tonight at NXT Takeover 31. Well, a lot of people were expecting Bo Dallas, but as it turns out, it was Ember Moon who made her big return from injury, and to the Black and Gold brand, tonight.

From our match report, which you can read here:

After the match, Toni Storm shows up on the Titantron. "As of right now, Toni Storm is back in NXT. And it goes without saying that I'll be turning this place upside down and inside out and I'll be showing the NXT Universe that indeed it always has been and always will be Toni Time."

Then we get one of those green-tinted videos for the returning NXT champion that WWE has been teasing for a few weeks. They arrive at the Performance Center on a motorcycle and enter the building. Then they come out on the stage with Shirai still in the ring. It's Ember Moon! Well, no one saw that coming… but thank freaking god, because this is so much better than Bo Dallas!

So while we may not have gotten any big title changes at NXT Takeover 31 — well, unless Kyle O'Reilly wins in the main event — we did get a few developments that provided a much-needed shakeup for the NXT landscape in the near future.

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