Matt Riddle and Roderick Strong come out swinging at historic NXT TakeOver: XXV at the sold-out Webster Bank Arena: Courtesy of WWE Network.

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — A true brawl of the mighty launched the 25th edition of NXT TakeOver, and given the sterling wrecking crews involved, there was no better way to crack the pavement.

In a painful blitz between pure strength and spine-tingling backbreakers, Matt Riddle and Roderick Strong slugged it out in a perilous back-and-forth contest. It was a physical trade-off from the get-go, with Riddle flinging his opponent across the canvas with a deadlift trifecta of gut-wrench suplexes. Not one to be outdone, The Messiah of the Backbreaker delivered a visual composite of his namesake by dropping Riddle into the ring apron with a vertebrae-shattering backdrop.

But that was just a sample of the full force these two locksmiths unloaded on each other, as Strong catapulted Riddle across the ring with a highlight reel superplex. Failing to secure a pin-count, Strong unloaded on his rival with a flurry of forearms before connecting with a belly-to-back facebuster that Riddle once again escaped. The Original Bro struck back and sent a shock to Strong’s system by sneaking out of a grueling Boston Crab submission hold to pull out an amazing execution of the Bromission. Despite powering out of the hold, Strong soon learned that his perseverance further fueled the brutal side of Riddle. After Strong slithered out of the move, Riddle responded with his own flurry of forearm attacks before taking a page out of his opponent’s playbook with a spine-stinging driver to secure the win.