NXT TAKEOVER: WAR GAMES

Orlando

TEAM CANDICE (CANDICE LeRAE, DAKOTA KAI, RAQUEL GONZALEZ & TONI STORM) vs. TEAM SHOTZI (SHOTZI BLACKHEART, EMBER MOON, RHEA RIPLEY & IO SHIRAI) "WAR GAMES MATCH" (35:22): I thought this show was fantastic. But, then again, NXT Takeover shows usually are really good. It seems like every time I watch a Takeover show I think to myself: this is the same fucking company...so why isn't the main roster even half as good? I guess blame Vince McMahon...or just give HHH credit. Either way, this was a very entertaining show. This match was kind of a sloppy mess, but with the double cage and the hardcore action and the wrestlers entering one at a time in intervals...everything made this fun to watch. I don't even watch NXT on Wednesdays that often besides the main event every once in awhile if it's a title match or something...so I don't even know who half of these people are. I do know that Io Shirai is New Japan's Evil's girlfriend in real life...which baffles me because she's in Florida and he's in Japan which means during this Covid-19 year they haven't seen each other since maybe January. How does that work? And Evil is a total bore while Io is the opposite; she put a trashcan over her body and jumped off the top of the cage in this match. Maybe she should, like, give Evil some tips on how to be more entertaining. Io Shirai also got power bombed from the top rope through a ladder by Raquel Gonzalez. Candice and Dakota also beat each other with a Singapore Cane. The heels won. **1/2

TOMMASO CIAMPA vs. TIMOTHY THATCHER (16:46): This was the weakest match on the show and it was still halfway decent. Ciampa gave Thatcher a running knee to the side of the head and it busted open Thatcher's ear and he was bleeding everywhere. Ciampa then started punching the wound to make it bleed more. I wonder if he'll get reprimanded for that...because wasn't WWE supposed to be PG and all of that crap? It is kind of funny that Ciampa is still in NXT. I suppose he'll never go to the main roster. Which, these days, is actually a good thing. **

DEXTER LUMIS vs. CAMERON GRIMES "STRAP MATCH" (12:52): This show already had two War Games matches...but they still wanted more stipulations for some reason. The storyline here was that Dexter Lumis (which, let's face it, is the world's worst name...it sounds like the definition of a fake name...like if you were giving a fake name to the police and the name you said was obviously fake) is a tough, muscle, evil, serial killer looking dude and he wants to get his hands on Grimes, the jokester, but Grimes keeps running away. So now they're strapped together and there's no escaping! I've never even seen Lumis before, nor knew he existed. Where's Kushida, anyway? Random thought...but he's amazing and wasn't on this show. This match did turn out to be pretty entertaining. Grimes is kind of a comedy dude...but the kind of comedy dude not destroyed by Vince McMahon...at least not yet. Which means he's still pretty amusing and not cringe worthy. They kind of just did all the lame strap stuff but it worked. The funniest part was when Grimes put a bag over Lumis' head for some reason and the announcer shouted, "This isn't a blindfold match!" Um...don't give them any ideas. **1/2

JOHNNY GARGANO vs. DAMIAN PRIEST vs. LEON RUFF (17:28): This was the only title match on the show. The champ, Finn Balor, has a broken jaw, anyway. This match was for the coveted North American title. Okay. Is there a South American title? No? So why do they have a North American title then? Ruff was the champ but Gargano won here. This match was great. Triple threat matches are always great because there's usually no slow, boring parts. Plus...Gargano is one of the world's best wrestlers. He's also a great heel...even though he really shouldn't be. When Damian Priest slammed Ruff into one of those plexi-glass barriers at ringside and they had to take Ruff to the back...Gargano told no one in particular, "See? He can't hang with us." The story being that Ruff, the champ, isn't really worthy of being at the top. Ruff came back of course. He does a lot of high flying. Gargano also has an army of goons that wear Scream masks...so they came out and Priest had to do a bunch of over-the-top-rope dives on them. This was fast paced, action packed, and a hell of a lot of fun. ***

THE UNDISPUTED ERA (ADAM COLE, KYLE O'REILLY, RODERICK STRONG & BOBBY FISH) vs. TEAM McAFEE (PAT McAFEE, PETE DUNNE, DANNY BURCH & ONEY LORCAN) "WAR GAMES MATCH" (45:01): I still don't know who Pat McAfee is. An announcer? A former NFL player? Either way, he did a bunch of big moves in this match, like a Swanton Dive off of the top of the cage and a moonsault off the top rope through a table. They used chairs, wooden bats, and broke multiple tables. It was very entertaining, albeit probably a little too long. Whenever I see The Undisputed Era I always think...they should just call them The Ring of Honor Gang or something...seeing that they all came from there. I actually saw a great New Japan/ROH show where all of those guys wrestled. And the matches they were in were legendary. Kyle O'Reilly wrestled Naito. Hiroshi Tanahashi wrestled Roderick Strong. Bobby Fish wrestled Jay Briscoe for the title. And Adam Cole, Matt Taven, and Michael Bennett wrestled AJ Styles and The Young Bucks. Jesus Christ...that's like a who's who of popular wrestlers today...and that all happened at a fucking bingo hall on a Wednesday night in South Philly in 2015. Anyway, this match wasn't as legendary as that show...but it was brutal and a lot of fun. O'Reilly got the pin after doing a top rope knee on a chair on Burch's head. ***