NXT TakeOver: New Orleans

NXT TakeOver: New Orleans was the 19th NXT TakeOver professional wrestling livestreaming event produced by WWE. It was held exclusively for wrestlers from the promotion's NXT brand division. The event aired exclusively on the WWE Network and took place on April 7, 2018, at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans, Louisiana as part of the WrestleMania 34 weekend festivities.

Five matches were contested at the event. In the main event, Johnny Gargano defeated Tommaso Ciampa in an Unsanctioned match and was reinstated to NXT. On the undercard, Aleister Black defeated Andrade Cien Almas to win the NXT Championship, Shayna Baszler defeated Ember Moon to capture the NXT Women's Championship, and Adam Cole won a six-man ladder match to become the inaugural NXT North American Champion.

The event received universal acclaim from wrestling fans and critics and both the NXT North American Championship match and the Unsanctioned match between Gargano and Ciampa both received five-star ratings by wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer. It was the first time Meltzer gave five stars to two matches on the same North American show. It has since been described as one of the greatest wrestling shows of all time.

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. TakeOver: New Orleans was scheduled as the 19th NXT TakeOver event and was held on April 7, 2018, as a support show for WrestleMania 34. It was held at the Smoothie King Center and was named after the venue's city of New Orleans, Louisiana.

This was also the first TakeOver event to feature Spanish play-by-play commentary live from ringside, as Spanish color commentator Marcelo Rodriguez announced via Twitter. Former Indianapolis Colts punter and Barstool Sports personality Pat McAfee was announced to join the Pre-Show panel.

The card comprised five matches. The matches resulted from scripted storylines, where wrestlers portrayed heroes, villains, or less distinguishable characters that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the NXT brand, while storylines were produced on their weekly television program, NXT.

On the February 28 episode of NXT, Andrade Cien Almas and Zelina Vega boasted about their victory over Johnny Gargano. Then Aleister Black and Killian Dain came out and the three brawled. The following week, Black defeated Dain to become the number one contender to the NXT Championship and would face Almas at TakeOver: New Orleans.

At TakeOver: Philadelphia, Ember Moon defeated Shayna Baszler to retain the NXT Women's Championship. After the match, Baszler attacked Moon. On the February 7 episode of NXT, Baszler stated that Moon was afraid of her. Later, a tweet from Moon was shown challenging Baszler to a rematch from TakeOver: Philadelphia for the title for the following week. The following week, the rematch ended in a disqualification when Kairi Sane attacked Baszler, thus allowing Moon to retain. Two weeks later, after defeating Sane, Baszler called out Moon. On the March 14 episode, after a match that saw Dakota Kai defeat Lacey Evans, Baszler came down and attacked Kai. Moon came out and then proceeded to brawl with Baszler, which saw Moon stand tall after an Eclipse. The following week after Moon defeated Aliyah, Baszler and Moon argued back and forth.