Background in
Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
TakeOver was a series of
professional wrestling shows that began in May 2014, as
WWE's then-
developmental league NXT held their second
WWE Network-exclusive event, billed as
TakeOver. In subsequent months, the "TakeOver" moniker became the brand used by WWE for all of their NXT live specials. In 2016, NXT held an event titled
NXT TakeOver: Toronto, which took place in
Toronto, Ontario, Canada at the
Air Canada Centre. On August 27, 2018, a second TakeOver: Toronto event was scheduled to be held on August 10, 2019, as the 26th NXT TakeOver event. It took place at the same venue, which had been renamed to Scotiabank Arena in 2018, and was a support show for that year's
SummerSlam pay-per-view.
Storylines The card included matches that resulted 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. At
TakeOver: XXV,
Adam Cole defeated
Johnny Gargano to win the
NXT Championship. On the July 17 episode of
NXT, Cole and Gargano confronted each other and a brawl ensued. NXT General Manager
William Regal then scheduled the two in a
two out of three falls match for the title at TakeOver: Toronto with Cole and Gargano respectively choosing the stipulations for the first two falls; however, Regal would decide the final stipulation if a tie occurred. On the July 24 episode of
NXT, Gargano and Cole chose their stipulations. Gargano chose a
street fight, while Cole chose a
singles match. At TakeOver: XXV,
The Street Profits (
Angelo Dawkins and
Montez Ford) and
The Undisputed Era (
Kyle O'Reilly and
Bobby Fish) competed in a
fatal four-way tag team ladder match for the
vacant NXT Tag Team Championship, which The Street Profits won. Since TakeOver: XXV,
Candice LeRae became involved in
Io Shirai's feud with
NXT Women's Champion Shayna Baszler. Shirai explained her actions on the July 10 episode, while debuting new entrance music, stating that she didn't need any friends. LeRae then interfered in Shirai's match on the July 24 episode, On the April 24 episode of
NXT,
Mia Yim talked about how dangerous NXT Women's Champion Shayna Baszler was, alongside
Jessamyn Duke and
Marina Shafir. After Yim won her match on the July 3 episode, she stated that she would be coming for the NXT Women's Championship. The following week, Baszler stated that Yim was not ready.
Jordan Myles and
Cameron Grimes won their respective semifinal matches on the July 24 and 31 episodes, respectively, However, on August 8, the match was rescheduled to the August 14 episode of
NXT. ==Event==